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Dr. Phil's Merit Street Media company files for bankruptcy

valvashon said:
Wait a minute- TBN was paying Dr. Phil to distribute the show? Is that correct? I thought it was a "Dr. Phil rent-a-channel" sort of deal where he would rent a subchannel from TBN and buying "national" distribution. Did TBN think enough of the Merit Street TV channel where they paid him thinking, "A 24 hour channel programmed by Dr. Phil- that will be just the thing to get people to un-hide our channels and start watching at least something that is coming from our transmitters."
If this is the case TBN and Dr. Phil deserve each other. In case you didn't know, TBN, they pay you to carry their programming on one of your subchannels, not the other way around.

As of 2200 PDT Merit Street TV is still on our local TBN affiliate, KTBW 20.2. I predict when the suits get in tomorrow at TBN Dr. Phil will be yanked off of the air.

Val
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Not quite. Sounds like TBN was supposed to pay the Pay TV Providers (distributors). I'm guessing this is because when Merit TV replaced one of TBN's networks (I can't remember which one it replaced) and as part of Merit TV lease agreement, TBN continues the distribution agreements already in place with the Pay TV Providers and is responsible for making the payments.
variety.com

Dr. Phil’s Cable TV Network Files for Bankruptcy and Sues Christian Broadcaster TBN, Its Former Partner

Dr. Phil McGraw's Merit Street Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and sued former partner Trinity Broadcasting Network.
variety.com variety.com
The “most egregious impact is TBN’s conscious and knowing choice to cause Merit Street to lose its national distribution by withholding distribution payments despite repeatedly acknowledging those distribution payments were 100% TBN’s sole responsibility,” Merit Street said in the lawsuit. “Simply put, as a result of TBN’s conduct, Merit Street has nowhere to send its broadcast signal and nowhere to air its programming no matter how great it may be.”
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Also, TBN can't just pull Merit TV off the air due to the bankruptcy putting automatic Stays on agreements. For TBN to terminate it's agreement to broadcast Merit TV, it will have to go through the Bankruptcy Court and get approval which can take months.
 
Just read through the actual lawsuit that was linked on that Variety article. According to the lawsuit, TBN owned 70% of Merit Street and as part of the Joint Venture agreement that gave it majority ownership, TBN was supposed to give up it's Main Channel and Must-Carry rights on it's TV stations to Merit TV. Which, I don't know why TBN would agree to that. Anyway instead of broadcasting Merit TV on it's main Channel and giving up its Must-Carry rights, TBN broadcast Merit TV on a Subchannel, had Merit Street enter into agreements with other stations groups to lease Channel space, and had Merit Street Pay for Pay TV Providers to carry the network. Then in July 2024, the Joint Venture agreement was amended to make Dr. Phil's Peteski 70% and TBN 30% owner.

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Thanks for clarifying that, powergate92. I had no idea that TBN was doing anything regarding cable/satellite providers other than opting for "must carry" status which is what the vast majority of non-big 4 affiliated stations do. Reading part of an Xfinity forum it seems as if Merit (Dead End) Street was recently dropped from many if not all Xfinity served areas.
I still maintain that TBN and Dr. Phil deserve each other. This will probably tank both of these companies; look for a fire sale of underpowered rimshot satellite pass-through TV stations soon!

Val
 
So I found the bankruptcy docket. It looks like the plan is for Merit Street assets to be sold at auction with final sale to be completed by the end of September.

Epiq 11

Epiq11.com builds on a library of cases spanning two decades - the largest repository of such data in the industry outside of the federal court system.
dm.epiq11.com dm.epiq11.com
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Did some more digging into the bankruptcy filing. Here is the actual current ownership structure including Stave Harvey's 5%.
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Here's what going on with PBR.
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Firebird61 said:
AT&T U-Verse pulled the channel (168/1168) from their lineup today.
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Apparently on July 2, Merit Street filed with the bankruptcy court to reject (terminate) a ton of agreements including it's carriage deals with DirecTV and Dish TV.
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Dr. Phil was the man back in the 1990's. Everybody knew about him. He was on the cover of tabloid and other magazines. Popular show. I never watched it, but people I worked with would talk about things that happened on his show. I think I did see it once or twice at someone's house in the 1990's or 2000's. Wasn't as wild as Jerry Springer.

In the 2020's, Dr. Phil's day seems to have waned. Everybody moved on. I didn't read all the legal documents posted on this thread, but considering what little I know about cable TV today (mainly that it appears to be aging out), it all looks like people suing each other while rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
 
TheBigA said:
My take is he's really damaged his brand these past few years.
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He was on an Adam Ray Netflix comedy special last year where Adam Ray dressed up as him and made fun of him for an hour, that was the last time I willingly watched him.

Adam Ray does entire live sets playing Dr. Phil, a bunch of them are on Youtube:
 
Cool_guy81 said:
Officially off tv stations
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That's just Dish Network not TV Stations. As I mentioned above, Merit TV rejected (terminated) a ton of agreements including carriage agreements with Dish Network and DirecTV. I just checked and it's still on the air here in Phoenix on KPAZ 21.2 (TBN Station) and KAZT 7.3 (Nexstar station).
powergate92 said:
Apparently on July 2, Merit Street filed with the bankruptcy court to reject (terminate) a ton of agreements including it's carriage deals with DirecTV and Dish TV.
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It sounds like Merit TV may continue to operate until the sale of assets is done.

Honestly, I think Dr. Phil going to be the Stalking Horse Bidder to buy Merit Street's assets at the bankruptcy auction. I think this bankruptcy is really so Dr. Phil can terminate unprofitable agreements early, sue TBN, take over the Merit Street assets 100%, and continue Merit as Streaming Service without the OTA/Pay TV Network.
In addition, Merit Street believes that the relief requested in the various First Day Motions appropriately balances the need for the Debtor to swiftly proceed towards an orderly wind-down while also allowing for a centralized resolution of all Merit Street’s open disputes in a coordinated fashion.
Merit Street currently intends to maintain ongoing operations throughout the duration of this Chapter 11 Case, with certain employees remaining in their respective roles to support both the sale process and the effective administration of the bankruptcy proceeding. Peteski will also explore alternative platforms for the distribution of go-forward content, as such efforts are likely to further optimize the relevance, and thus value, of Merit Street’s assets.
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Four of Radiant Life Ministries, Inc.’s directors (Matthew Crouch, Frank Amedia, Bunker Sessions and Colby M. May) are also board members of the following entities associated with Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), and therefore have attributable interests in the broadcast stations held by the following TBN associated broadcast station licensee entities:

Much more details on TBN joining the ownership of TCT/Radiant Life Ministries.
 
powergate92 said:
It sounds like Merit TV may continue to operate until the sale of assets is done.

Honestly, I think Dr. Phil going to be the Stalking Horse Bidder to buy Merit Street's assets at the bankruptcy auction. I think this bankruptcy is really so Dr. Phil can terminate unprofitable agreements early, sue TBN, take over the Merit Street assets 100%, and continue Merit as Streaming Service without the OTA/Pay TV Network.

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I'm going guess when the bid is going to involve forgiveness of the loans Dr. Phil made to Merit Street, and they will probably come to a settlement with TBN to forgive the loan TCT made to Merit. Dr. Phil and TCT are Merits two main creditors. This really just looks a divorce between Dr. Phil and TBN to be honest.
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