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

This sounds like what Sinclair did with Diamond Sports.
 
powergate92 said:
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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It does seem to point that way. The crazy thing is after this bankruptcy Merit Street Media is basically nothing. No distribution, no assets, little programming, etc.. Dr. Phil sunk over $33 million into Merit.

It wouldn't be as hard or as expensive to do as you said and just launch it as a streaming or FAST channel. As a FAST channel it will probably never make much, if any, money but at least Dr. Phil could kind of save face.
 
I’m somewhat confused by Merit Street’s notion that they could use TBN’s “must carry” status as a path to cable distribution. Doesn’t that only involve a main .1 signal and not any subchannels? Seems Merit Street was on the .2 subchannels of the local TBN outlets, so it wouldn’t get that clearance.

Now with retransmission consent, used by the big network affiliates, carriage of additional subchannels can be part of the contract terms with video providers.

We never got Merit Street OTA here in Houston as the local TBN station is one of those under the “Community Educational Television” division of TBN, as it operates on a non-comm allocation. Merit Street never showed up on any other station here AFAICT, either full power or LPTV.

Had Merit Street been OTA here in Houston it might have gotten some attention as Dominique Sachse, a longtime news anchor here, was one of the original hosts on Merit Street’s live morning show. She bailed after only eight months; probably saw where things were going.

Never saw Merit Street firsthand. Apparently they had a Roku app but I never felt motivated to install it.
 
inari said:
It does seem to point that way. The crazy thing is after this bankruptcy Merit Street Media is basically nothing. No distribution, no assets, little programming, etc.. Dr. Phil sunk over $33 million into Merit.

It wouldn't be as hard or as expensive to do as you said and just launch it as a streaming or FAST channel. As a FAST channel it will probably never make much, if any, money but at least Dr. Phil could kind of save face.
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Phil easily could have leveraged his clout into getting Merit on all sorts of FAST platforms (Pluto, Tubi) and hype first and foremost being on places like Roku right off the bat. It's ponderous why he thought a distro deal with TBN was even going to work.

Heck, Joel Cheatwood was one of the people who helped Glenn Beck launch TheBlaze 14 years ago, arguably one of the first successful FASTs of its kind. Wouldn't surprise me if Joel tried to force Phil to change course and Phil resisted.
 
boombox4 said:
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.
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True and Dr. Phil started out as an occasional segment on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show in the Late 1990’s to the early 2000’s before that became a spinoff as Dr Phil Show. Who knows about today given how they have been separated for some time. Oprah’s team and Paramount were associated when Dr. Phil Show was made in the 2000’s before the Merit Media and TBN team took over in 2023.

www.oprahdaily.com

“Dr. Phil” Is Ending After 21 Seasons

“This has been an incredible chapter of my life and career, but while I’m moving on from daytime, there is so much more I wish to do,” McGraw said in a statement.
www.oprahdaily.com www.oprahdaily.com

Dr. Phil McGraw—yes, that Dr. Phil, who got his start in television advising loyal audience members on The Oprah Winfrey Show starting in the late ’90s—is bringing his iconic talk show to a close after 21 years. But not to worry: New episodes will continue to air during the 2022-2023 season.

The pair first met in 1996, when Oprah hired him to advise her while she was on trial with the Texas beef industry. After McGraw’s time on The Oprah Winfrey Show came to an end, his program, Dr. Phil, kicked off in September 2002—and 31 Daytime Emmy nominations later, it’s become a television staple. McGraw has written countless books, won two Emmys, and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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powergate92 said:
Merit TV now appears to have drop all shows from it's lineup except Dr. Phil's shows. The Merit TV schedule now consist of Dr. Phil Wake Up in the morning, Dr. Phil True Crime in the afternoon, and Dr. Phil Primetime at night.
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Well, they philed up the whole day with one guy!
 
powergate92 said:
Merit TV now appears to have drop all shows from it's lineup except Dr. Phil's shows. The Merit TV schedule now consist of Dr. Phil Wake Up in the morning, Dr. Phil True Crime in the afternoon, and Dr. Phil Primetime at night.
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Yup, Merit TV's days are well & truly numbered & I'd think they'll be more cable/satellite providers dropping them ASAP & local affiliates scrapping away now that the schedule's pretty much that. They even went as far for their morning news show to have a Washington correspondent in Lyndsey Keith.
 
powergate92 said:
Merit TV now appears to have drop all shows from it's lineup except Dr. Phil's shows. The Merit TV schedule now consist of Dr. Phil Wake Up in the morning, Dr. Phil True Crime in the afternoon, and Dr. Phil Primetime at night.
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Merit Street is still on Samsung TV Plus. The live channels start at 1000 and go all the way to almost 5000. Merit is still at 1004, which means he paid them a large amount of money to have a spot on the first 10 channels. I doubt he'll hold that spot much longer.

I certainly have had my fill of Phil!
 
TheBigA said:
In the meantime, PBR has now signed a deal with Fox Nation:

barrettmedia.com

FOX Nation Signs First Live Sports Broadcast Partnership With PBR

"PBR is an incredibly unique sport with an unrivaled, passionate fan base, and it’s a great addition to the entire FOX Nation viewer experience"
barrettmedia.com barrettmedia.com
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One would think FS1, Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Sports would have approved PBR Rodeo. Apparently this is the first time we seen a sports deal that Fox Nation the group that Fox News is a part of get this sports deal. Yes I heard of Fox Nation gets played as the Hulu, Netflix for a certain audience as seen here. Also some of this is tied to this one where the Fox One App is going to be released to TV's in the fall.

FOX Unveils Name of New Streaming Service - FOX One - foxcorporation

Featuring all of FOX’s Premium News, Sports and Entertainment Programming in One Dynamic Platform New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA – May 12, 2025 – Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA, FOX) today introduced FOX One, its wholly-owned direct to consumer streaming service. FOX One will bring all of FOX’s...
www.foxcorporation.com www.foxcorporation.com

Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA, FOX) today introduced FOX One, its wholly-owned direct to consumer streaming service. FOX One will bring all of FOX’s leading News, Sports and Entertainment branded content together in one dynamic streaming platform.

For the first time, cord-cutters and cord-nevers will have live streaming and on-demand access to the full portfolio of FOX brands including FOX News, FOX Business, FOX Weather, FOX Sports, FS1, FS2, BTN, FOX Deportes, FOX Local Stations and the FOX network as well as the option to bundle FOX Nation within one platform.

“We know that FOX has the most loyal and engaged audiences in the industry, and FOX One is designed to reach outside of the pay-TV bundle and deliver all the best FOX branded content directly to viewers wherever they are,” said Pete Distad, CEO, FOX One. “We have built this platform from the ground up to allow consumers to enjoy and engage with our programming in new and exciting ways, leveraging cutting edge technology to enhance the user experience across the platform.”
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