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

i can confirm that Dish dropped the channel from their national lineup but still has it on the lineup in the home market of MeritTV on KTXD 47 (which would assume will most likely drop the station off their primary 47.1 channel and move it down to one of the other subchannels).

also KDTX 58 (owned by TBN) is still airing MeritTV on 58.2 for now, but i wouldn't be surprised both KDTX and KTXD both drops MeritTV with TBN replacing it on 58.2 with something else they own while KTXD (owned by Cunningham Broadcasting a partner company of Sinclair Broadcasting) could drop it for either Sinclair's The Nest (which replaced Stadium on most stations owned by Sinclair) , Comet, Charge or Roar (FKA TBD) as the primary 47.1 station in the next few months, cause at this rate, MeritTV is so gonna shut down all the way soon.
 

KOFY-TV San Francisco still has Dr. Phil's bio on the front page as part of the affiliation deal with Merit for now until proven otherwise. Multiple stations around the country will have to think about changing affiliations or shutting down their subchannels given the situation they are in today such as the Merit Media Bankruptcy and Lawsuit.
 
Well, at least some of the appeal of Dr. Phil was that people like hearing about other people's problems and pontificating on social issues and social 'ills'.

I think that Dr. Phil's wane is at least partially due to the plethora of YT channels where various commentators and 'experts' do the exact same thing -- commenting on a Reddit or other social media post, TikTok post, or other social media threads where an individual will complain about their cheating BF or GF, or some other relationship or family related problem, and the video channel 'experts' or 'expert' will chime in.

Social media and YT have replaced Dr. Phil.

And yeah, I think when I saw him on TV it was at a friend's house in the 2000's, and a radio industry co-worker used to see Dr. Phil, probably on Oprah in the late 1990's, so the timeline fits.

That was long before the internet become the monster it has become today. Chewing up and spitting out one media personality, and platform, after another.....
 
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.
I have seen the network on DirecTV and on KTXD 47 here in D/FW. I tried to watch the news programming. It was not desirable.
 
He is too much into himself and I don't know why they don't have reruns of the Oprah Winfrey Show on the OWN network but they also air Dr. Phil so much in the day.

Did he think people would want to watch him on OWN and Merrit Street. I turned to it once in awhile in the begging for The Steve Harvy Show but didn't want to watch him at all.
 
He is too much into himself and I don't know why they don't have reruns of the Oprah Winfrey Show on the OWN network but they also air Dr. Phil so much in the day.

Did he think people would want to watch him on OWN and Merrit Street. I turned to it once in awhile in the begging for The Steve Harvy Show but didn't want to watch him at all.
Dr. Phil's episode archives are owned by two parties like Oprah's Harpo Productions own the rights to Dr. Phil when he was on the Oprah Winfrey Show to the Harpo/Paramount edition of the Dr Phil show from the early 2000's to 2022 when his show on Harpo and Paramount ended and his show moved to Merit which owns the 2023-Present episodes.

It's kind of like when Oprah's show archives are owned by three different companies like When Oprah had done the talk show "People are Talking" in Baltimore for WJZ-TV and those episodes are owned by Paramount. WLS-TV's AM Chicago with Oprah Winfrey when she was the local talk show host there and Disney has those archives. The Chicago one became Oprah Winfrey show nationwide and Harpo Productions own those directly.


 
Dr. Phil's episode archives are owned by two parties like Oprah's Harpo Productions own the rights to Dr. Phil when he was on the Oprah Winfrey Show to the Harpo/Paramount edition of the Dr Phil show from the early 2000's to 2022 when his show on Harpo and Paramount ended and his show moved to Merit which owns the 2023-Present episodes.

It's kind of like when Oprah's show archives are owned by three different companies like When Oprah had done the talk show "People are Talking" in Baltimore for WJZ-TV and those episodes are owned by Paramount. WLS-TV's AM Chicago with Oprah Winfrey when she was the local talk show host there and Disney has those archives. The Chicago one became Oprah Winfrey show nationwide and Harpo Productions own those directly.


Paramount was on the Viacom side of things, not the CBS.
 
Paramount was on the Viacom side of things, not the CBS.

True if you include years 2005-2019 then the argument of Paramount not being involved with Dr. Phil show would be legit given that Paramount went to Viacom at that time and CBS at that time owned the rights of the Dr. Phil show until they merged with Viacom again to be Paramount Inc.


 
Well, at least some of the appeal of Dr. Phil was that people like hearing about other people's problems and pontificating on social issues and social 'ills'.

I think that Dr. Phil's wane is at least partially due to the plethora of YT channels where various commentators and 'experts' do the exact same thing -- commenting on a Reddit or other social media post, TikTok post, or other social media threads where an individual will complain about their cheating BF or GF, or some other relationship or family related problem, and the video channel 'experts' or 'expert' will chime in.

Social media and YT have replaced Dr. Phil.
I didn't watch any Dr. Phil episodes after I got a standard 9-5 job, but in the early years the Dr. Phil show was often about solving marital or child-rearing problems in a "tough love" way.

The thing is, when he started doing this on TV, he was in his 40s and was probably relatable to lots of parents of children under 18. He's 75 now, so he's more likely to be seen by today's 30-something parent as "old man shaking fist at cloud."

So, I agree with you that social media has replaced Dr. Phil, but it was going to happen anyway because parents are always about the same age, and Phil keeps getting older.
 
Update: Dr. Phil is starting a new company for a Streaming Service and TV Network with Steve Harvey called Envoy Media. I'm going to guess this is the company he will use as the Stalking Horse Bidder at the Bankruptcy Auction for Merit Street's assets.
Dr. Phil McGraw launching Envoy Media from the ashes of Merit TV
 
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Update: Dr. Phil is starting a new company for a Streaming Service and TV Network with Steve Harvey called Envoy Media. I'm going to guess this is the company he will use as the Stalking Horse Bidder at the Bankruptcy Auction for Merit Street's assets.
Dr. Phil McGraw launching Envoy Media from the ashes of Merit TV
Will this be a traditional linear channel on broadcast/cable or just streaming?
 
McGraw claimed Merit Street Media’s television channel reached more than 300 million Americans through broadcast TV, cable platforms and free, ad-supported streaming TV services. Nielsen ratings for Merit TV’s most-popular programming showed it pulled in an average audience of just a few thousand viewers per day, even as the channel made national headlines for interviewing polarizing political figures like former Representative George Santos, New York Mayor Eric Adams and President Donald Trump, and for going on ride-alongs with officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement during law enforcement raids.
Hmm that 300 Million number sounds too high for reach. It's actual audience size under Merit Media was at 50k. Not sure who is he bragging his stuff to. Also people have moved on from him when the Dr. Phil show left Harpo and Paramount to Merit and to Envoy if this new company is approved.

McGraw’s Merit Street filed for Chapter 11 and sued Trinity earlier this month, alleging that the Christian broadcasting company breached its contract with his firm. Merit TV’s linear channel struggled in the year-plus it was producing original programming, averaging under 50,000 viewers in primetime for most of that time. The channel currently is populated by reruns of McGraw’s various shows.
 
Update: Dr. Phil is starting a new company for a Streaming Service and TV Network with Steve Harvey called Envoy Media. I'm going to guess this is the company he will use as the Stalking Horse Bidder at the Bankruptcy Auction for Merit Street's assets.
Dr. Phil McGraw launching Envoy Media from the ashes of Merit TV
If it enables him to recreate Merit and be able to operate it financially, I'm all for it. I liked their news product.
 
Would your OTA station host whatever Dr. Fraud comes up with? I wouldn't unless he paid for a year in advance and the "Coming Soon" slide stays up until the check cashes.

Val

If he doesn't mind LPTV stations and gives them a few minutes per hour for spots he probably could sign up many markets. If he does those things plus pays the station a modest carriage fee he likely could reach 65%+ of the US OTA within a year. What Merit Street Media was paying for just 2 or 3 full powers could pay for a vast network of LPTV stations.
 


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