I agree. I believe this was his desired strategy for Merit, but Trinity forced him to use distribution methods like Comcast, which had a cost. Merit is available via an app and I suspect the new network will be as well.
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Dr. Phil's Merit Street Media company files for bankruptcy
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
Yes, that happened several weeks ago. These paid sources of distribution likely drained cash and didn't provide a lot of viewers. I did, however, discover the network on Comcast and was glad that I did.
Things in the Merit Street Bankruptcy Docket are starting to heat up. Professional Bull Riders (PBR) filed an Objection to Merit Street's DIP Financing plan. The filing reveals PBR current legal action against Merit Street and Dr. Phil is for $181,427,483 and stayed due to the bankruptcy. Because of this PBR has filed a claim for the same amount as an Unsecured Creditor making PBR now Merit Street's largest Unsecured Creditor.
Also mentioned in the filing, PBR suggest Dr. Phil shouldn't be allowed to provide the DIP Financing as he is the majority owner and appears to be using the bankruptcy and DIP Financing to wipe out all other claims including PBR's. PBR also says Merit Street "has laid off almost all its employees and is not operating." (Although technically the network is still operating on auto pilot with reruns of Dr. Phil's show produced for it).
Additionally, PBR accuses Dr. Phil of either misrepresenting the assets of Merit Street or misrepresenting the assets of his new company Envoy, which was incorporated 1 day before Merit Street filed for bankruptcy. PBR suggests that if Envoy does have "including library
programming and original shows from Dr. Phil and Steve Harvey" as it claims in its Press Release, then Dr. Phil must have transferred those assets from Merit Street to Envoy the day before Bankruptcy was filed. If so, then the assets are being misrepresented in the filing to set up the auction of Merit Street's assets which includes "an extensive video library developed and maintained by the Debtor.”
Also mentioned in the filing, PBR suggest Dr. Phil shouldn't be allowed to provide the DIP Financing as he is the majority owner and appears to be using the bankruptcy and DIP Financing to wipe out all other claims including PBR's. PBR also says Merit Street "has laid off almost all its employees and is not operating." (Although technically the network is still operating on auto pilot with reruns of Dr. Phil's show produced for it).
Additionally, PBR accuses Dr. Phil of either misrepresenting the assets of Merit Street or misrepresenting the assets of his new company Envoy, which was incorporated 1 day before Merit Street filed for bankruptcy. PBR suggests that if Envoy does have "including library
programming and original shows from Dr. Phil and Steve Harvey" as it claims in its Press Release, then Dr. Phil must have transferred those assets from Merit Street to Envoy the day before Bankruptcy was filed. If so, then the assets are being misrepresented in the filing to set up the auction of Merit Street's assets which includes "an extensive video library developed and maintained by the Debtor.”
TBN has now filed an Emergency Motion to have the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case either dismissed, Converted into a Chapter 7, or have a Chapter 11 Trustee appointed. In the motion TBN opens "This Chapter 11 Case is a sham proceeding orchestrated by one man—McGraw— to benefit himself at the expense of all others." In the motion TBN suggested Dr. Phil is using the bankruptcy to "only to borrow money (from McGraw/Peteski) to fund litigation and run a sale process designed to allow McGraw to make off like a thief in the night with assets created through the investment of tens of millions of dollars by Trinity, while leaving nothing behind for creditors or other parties in interest." There also a lot more details about the Merit Street relationship between TBN and Dr. Phil. There's a lot in the motion, so here's the link to the motion and screenshots below from the Preliminary Statement for those who want to read it.
This whole thing looked like a mess from day 1.
Merit and TBN built a beautiful studio and production facility for the channel. But at a time when people are cutting the cord and going to streaming, this outfit decided to launch on subchannels of a low-rated religious broadcaster and hope cable and satellite systems would also pick them up. The clearest sign of trouble was in the several week delay of the launch due to distribution problems. There was very little advertising of the channel from what I recall. I did find a Roku channel for it after a while and that was okay. The "news" shows looked nice, but ultimately seemed a little thin on actual news. Then Dr. Phil latched on to Trump and that just seemed like a prescription to chase off some viewers. The PBR deal was fine, I guess, but just weird compared to all the other shows on the channel. What I still haven't figured out it what TBN supposedly did wrong. Merit got distribution from them and TBN paid for those fancy studios. Seems like they lived up to their end of the deal, and then some. Viewers just didn't care for Merit and therefore there was not enough ad revenue to support it. Dr. Phil seems like he's trying to leave the trouble behind and get money to continue under a new name. That's not going to work. It's all such a sad spectacle that's caused a lot of upheaval for people who took jobs there.
Merit and TBN built a beautiful studio and production facility for the channel. But at a time when people are cutting the cord and going to streaming, this outfit decided to launch on subchannels of a low-rated religious broadcaster and hope cable and satellite systems would also pick them up. The clearest sign of trouble was in the several week delay of the launch due to distribution problems. There was very little advertising of the channel from what I recall. I did find a Roku channel for it after a while and that was okay. The "news" shows looked nice, but ultimately seemed a little thin on actual news. Then Dr. Phil latched on to Trump and that just seemed like a prescription to chase off some viewers. The PBR deal was fine, I guess, but just weird compared to all the other shows on the channel. What I still haven't figured out it what TBN supposedly did wrong. Merit got distribution from them and TBN paid for those fancy studios. Seems like they lived up to their end of the deal, and then some. Viewers just didn't care for Merit and therefore there was not enough ad revenue to support it. Dr. Phil seems like he's trying to leave the trouble behind and get money to continue under a new name. That's not going to work. It's all such a sad spectacle that's caused a lot of upheaval for people who took jobs there.
Merit Street has filed a Response Opposed to TBN's Emergency Motion. In their filing Merit Street argues they need the DIP Financing to continue operating past August 1st: "the Debtor: (1) would be unable to make its next payroll on August 8, 2025 and (2) would be unable to pay certain vendors, including vendors responsible for (i) scheduling and l tracking MeritTV’s advertising revenue; (ii) the satellite technology necessary for MeritTV’s broadcast; and (iii) software editing and management of the control and trafficking of service fees. Collectively, these three vendors form the core operational infrastructure of MeritTV. Payments to these vendors are due on August 1, 2025. If payment to these vendors is not made, these vendors could shut off services, leaving MeritTV unable to continue its operations."
Merit Street also seems to admit that the TBN lawsuit is really to settle the TCT debt: "Further, without additional DIP financing, the Debtor
will be unable to prosecute its claims against Trinity, including the preference action against TCT (already scheduled for July 29, 2025 against Trinity’s objections at the first day hearing), which, if successful, will eliminate $25 million of purportedly secured debt, providing a massive benefit to the estate’s unsecured creditors."
A Status Conference hearing is now scheduled for the TBN Motions for tomorrow, July 22, at 2:30 PM CT.
Merit Street also seems to admit that the TBN lawsuit is really to settle the TCT debt: "Further, without additional DIP financing, the Debtor
will be unable to prosecute its claims against Trinity, including the preference action against TCT (already scheduled for July 29, 2025 against Trinity’s objections at the first day hearing), which, if successful, will eliminate $25 million of purportedly secured debt, providing a massive benefit to the estate’s unsecured creditors."
A Status Conference hearing is now scheduled for the TBN Motions for tomorrow, July 22, at 2:30 PM CT.
True and also that puts Envoy in the same situation as Merit given that they owe TBN money to use their space and PBP Rodeo given how Merits contract was written.
So if I had millions of extra dollars sitting around going unused I could outbid his stalking horse bidder and buy the Merit Street assets and all that programming, leaving his new "Envoy" venture to start up with no assets and no library of programming to draw from?
I don't care enough to do this nor do I have the money but it would be fun to lock all those Dr. Phil shows up and never let them out again.
I don't care enough to do this nor do I have the money but it would be fun to lock all those Dr. Phil shows up and never let them out again.
Envoy won't owe the money, they'll be buying assets. The debt will remain attached to the corporate shell that is Merit. This would give Dr. Phil a clean slate.
Dr. Phil's Peteski Productions pays $925K to Merit Street Media workers following Chapter 11 filing
Peteski Productions loans cash to bankrupt Merit Street Media to pay 150+ former employees as the joint venture with Trinity Broadcasting fails.
Classy move on Dr. Phil's part.
Professional Bull Riders Accuses Dr. Phil of ‘Orchestrating’ Merit Street Bankruptcy and Forming New Company to Avoid Paying Creditors
PBR wants to know whether Dr. Phil McGraw led his Merit Street Media to file for bankruptcy in a "bad faith" move -- while shifting assets into a newly created company, Envoy Media Co. -- in order to avoid repaying PBR monies owed.
variety.com
Merit Street has filed a Stipulation Agreement with CNZ Communications, Stryker Media, Caballero, Mountain Broadcasting, and Cunningham Broadcasting to continue broadcasting Merit TV in exchange for 42.5% of ad revenue until at least September 30th unless assets are auction off sooner. Up until Bankruptcy Merit Street was paying these station groups a monthly lease.
Additionally, Merit Street just filed to reject a few more contacts including its broadcast agreement with KAZT here in Phoenix. The KAZT agreement was kind of redundant since they are also on TBN's KPAZ, but I guess KAZT did give them additional coverage in Northern Arizona.
Additionally, Merit Street just filed to reject a few more contacts including its broadcast agreement with KAZT here in Phoenix. The KAZT agreement was kind of redundant since they are also on TBN's KPAZ, but I guess KAZT did give them additional coverage in Northern Arizona.
Been a lot of back and forth in the Bankruptcy Docket the past few days. I haven't even read it all. Here's a Variety article that summarizes it.
variety.com
Dr. Phil Fires Back at His Bankrupt Company’s Legal Foes, Accusing TBN and PBR of ‘Inflammatory and Damaging’ Attacks Aimed at Depressing Value of Merit Street
Dr. Phil says he and his bankrupt company Merit Street Media are being smeared in "incendiary" legal filings by former business partner Christian broadcaster Trinity Broadcasting Network and creditor Professional Bull Riders -- and that they are trying to drive down Merit Street's value.
variety.com
Big update on the Merit Street Bankruptcy today. This morning the Judge granted a motion by TBN and PBR to move the hearings on the dismissing or converting the Bankruptcy and on Merit Street DIP Financing to September 2. The judge found that delays in discovery that is necessary to rule on the motion to dismiss caused by Merit Street and Peteski justified postponing the hearings. The Judge also suggested that a decision need to be made on whether or not to dismiss the Bankruptcy first before making a decision on DIP Financing. In response to this, Merit Street filed a Motion to Dismiss the Bankruptcy this afternoon because they say they can't continue the Bankruptcy without getting the DIP Financing tomorrow and that the Bankruptcy is becoming too expensive because of discovery to continue. Also, "the Debtor has determined it is in the best interest of creditors to eliminate the ongoing significant costs of administration, while preserving flexibility for future recovery to estate creditors through an alternative channel (to be determined), by consenting to the dismissal of its Chapter 11 Case."
Agenda for tomorrow's big hearing in the Marit Street Bankruptcy. Main thing to be addressed is their Motion to Dismiss the Bankruptcy.
