Gannett + Belo

[bpatrick]

When the deal closes, the ABC affiliates will be Cox, the NBC affiliates will be Gannett and the Fox affilates will be O&O in both Charlotte and Atlanta.

Not in Dallas. Can you really see WFAA going to Cox? Seriously?

And Fox already owns the Charlotte & Atlanta stations so why did you even bring them up?

Cheers & 73 ;D

He's referring only to Charlotte and Atlanta; he's not talking about a mass exodus of ABC affiliates to Cox. You are correct that Cox owns the ABC affiliates in Charlotte (WSOC) and Atlanta (WSB), but that's as far as he goes. I definitely see WFAA staying put; even though I think it would be attractive to ABC as a possible o&o (ABC is the only Big Four network without an o&o in Dallas), it is Belo's flagship. Methinks if ABC bought another station it would be WJLA from Allbritton.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

What if WFAA might end up being to sold to Disney?(Which also happens to own KTRK-ABC 13 in Houston)This one of many ABC stations that doesn't carry LIVE-With Kelly & Michael. And KMOV might be reunited with CBS-As its original station owner. There'll be some issues involving stations in Phoenix, Tucson, & St. Louis before the Proposed Belo-Gannett merger will soon become official.

ABC and CBS haven't been as aggressive into getting more O&Os like Fox has been

 

[arnoldevns]

Having lived in the DFW area all my life and understanding the importance of WFAA...I will put it this way: Gannett would not have bought Belo without WFAA and will not sell it for any price.

 

[michael hagerty]

You guys are amazing.

There are three places in this thread that explain exactly what will happen. One of them includes a link to the Gannett memo laying it all out.

Once more:

Gannett is only keeping the Belo stations that don't require additional waivers or rule changes.

No Gannett stations will be sold.

In five markets, including Phoenix and St.Louis, former Belo exec and onetime KTVK GM Jack Sander will buy the Belo stations. They'll keep their affiliations and be run by a guy who knows them and what's made them successful.

Those five markets are the only ones involving a sale. Jack Sander is the only buyer.

 

[secondchoice]

Why would they want it? St. Louis isn't a shrinking market that might lose its football team, and the Rams aren't even an AFC team

Why in the world would any network base it's O & O's on their NFL package! I love to watch football but it is less than 6 hours a week of programming for less than 30 weeks counting preseason and play off games for most stations. ABC let Monday Night Footfall got to ESPN because they felt they could make more $$ with regular programming. The NFL packages come up for bid every so often. Remember when Fox got the NFC package and CBS was without NFL football for years. The NFL someday could go all cable or even worse pay for view in 10 or 20 years.

Just a warning to the NFL: If I have to pay to watch I will not watch! As if they care.

 

[TheRob]

Someone asked earlier about hubbing, and I am not aware of the Belo stations having centralized master control, graphics or traffic. I don't think the exec buying KTVK and KMOV will have to rebuild anything from scratch.

 

[secondchoice]

Little off the subject but would being on the same tower and paying tower rent be considered "shared faculties"?

 

[michael hagerty]

Someone asked earlier about hubbing, and I am not aware of the Belo stations having centralized master control, graphics or traffic. I don't think the exec buying KTVK and KMOV will have to rebuild anything from scratch.

Belo was one of the first groups to centralize traffic operations. National sales for Belo on-air and online are also centralized in Dallas. That will become Gannett's property, and is a natural for a shared services agreement.

Tower space is more of a straightforward lease than an SSA.

 

[Morgan Wick]

You guys are amazing.

There are three places in this thread that explain exactly what will happen. One of them includes a link to the Gannett memo laying it all out.

Once more:

Gannett is only keeping the Belo stations that don't require additional waivers or rule changes.

No Gannett stations will be sold.

In five markets, including Phoenix and St.Louis, former Belo exec and onetime KTVK GM Jack Sander will buy the Belo stations. They'll keep their affiliations and be run by a guy who knows them and what's made them successful.

Those five markets are the only ones involving a sale. Jack Sander is the only buyer.

I think it's quite obvious at this point that no one who hasn't already been introduced to the thread is reading more than the OP, so you're just preaching to the choir at this point.

 

[arnoldevns]

You guys are amazing.

There are three places in this thread that explain exactly what will happen. One of them includes a link to the Gannett memo laying it all out.

Once more:

Gannett is only keeping the Belo stations that don't require additional waivers or rule changes.

No Gannett stations will be sold.

In five markets, including Phoenix and St.Louis, former Belo exec and onetime KTVK GM Jack Sander will buy the Belo stations. They'll keep their affiliations and be run by a guy who knows them and what's made them successful.

Those five markets are the only ones involving a sale. Jack Sander is the only buyer.

This thread is 7 pages long now. I don't expect everyone to have read every post here.

That said.. the assumption in the assorted articles that Mr. Sander will operate independently of Gannett is utterly laughable.
Gannett brought him in the buy those stations and set up JSAs so Gannett can get around the FCC ownership limits. Sinclair is the king of this tactic. The news departments at all those Belo stations will almost certainly be folded into the Gannett stations there as part of the JSA.

 

[Brother]

This thread is 7 pages long now. I don't expect everyone to have read every post here.

True, but all the pertinent information and links can be found on the first page. If someone wants to be informed, it's best to begin at the beginning.

That said.. the assumption in the assorted articles that Mr. Sander will operate independently of Gannett is utterly laughable.
Gannett brought him in the buy those stations and set up JSAs so Gannett can get around the FCC ownership limits. Sinclair is the king of this tactic. The news departments at all those Belo stations will almost certainly be folded into the Gannett stations there as part of the JSA.

I had the same concerns you did several pages back. Michael Hagerty has worked with or around some of the players involved, and without knowing him or anyone else here personally, I'll still say he knows more about the ins and outs better than the rest of us.

Anyway, it doesn't matter if these shared service agreements seem a bit shady. The Gannett and Belo people have certainly done their homework beforehand. The FCC may look the other way on plenty of matters, but they'll certainly still take notice when there's merger rumors between the #1 and #2-rated stations in a top-25 market like St. Louis. The way this deal is structured, the FCC will probably allow this to happen, the Average Viewer won't notice or care, the Average Poster's pipe dreams of CBS buying KMOV fizzle out, and that's that.

If it means several stations pool video resources or share a helicopter, then consolidation isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[JeeperOne]

You guys are amazing.

There are three places in this thread that explain exactly what will happen. One of them includes a link to the Gannett memo laying it all out.

Once more:

Gannett is only keeping the Belo stations that don't require additional waivers or rule changes.

No Gannett stations will be sold.

In five markets, including Phoenix and St.Louis, former Belo exec and onetime KTVK GM Jack Sander will buy the Belo stations. They'll keep their affiliations and be run by a guy who knows them and what's made them successful.

Those five markets are the only ones involving a sale. Jack Sander is the only buyer.

I still see (And think) CBS will buy KMOV 4 in St. Louis (Even if it's by way of Sander)

It only makes sense

Also, it should also be oointed out that St. Louis is the only city (At least that I can think of) outside of Hartford where CBS owns an All-News outlet on radio but NOT a TV station (Not even the CW or MyNetwork affiliate)

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[bpatrick]

Two questions:

1. What are the other three stations Jack Sander intends to buy?

2. The name sounds vaguely familiar. Was he ever g.m. of WAGA
after Paul Raymon?

 

[TheRob]

Two questions:

1. What are the other three stations Jack Sander intends to buy?

2. The name sounds vaguely familiar. Was he ever g.m. of WAGA
after Paul Raymon?

Sander was the GM at WAGA for about ten years, from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. He worked at Taft Broadcasting before that, and KTSP in Phoenix prior to that.

 

[JeeperOne]

I see NO ONE has brought up the the regional cable news nets that Belo owned (Like NWCN & TXCN for example). Are they part of the deal (I would assume so)

If so, Gannett could EASILY use them as the infrastructure to build other regional news cable and/or diginets like NWCN & TXCN elsewhere around the country & put them under the USA Today umbrella

I mean why not?

Thoughts?

Cheers & 73 ;D

 

[michael hagerty]

Two questions:

1. What are the other three stations Jack Sander intends to buy?

It's Belo's stations in five markets, which because of duopolies, ends up being more than 7 stations:

KTVK, Phoenix
KASW, Phoenix
KMOV, St. Louis
KGW, Portland
WHAS, Louisville
KMSB, Tucson
KTTU, Tucson

 

[michael hagerty]

You guys are amazing.

There are three places in this thread that explain exactly what will happen. One of them includes a link to the Gannett memo laying it all out.

Once more:

Gannett is only keeping the Belo stations that don't require additional waivers or rule changes.

No Gannett stations will be sold.

In five markets, including Phoenix and St.Louis, former Belo exec and onetime KTVK GM Jack Sander will buy the Belo stations. They'll keep their affiliations and be run by a guy who knows them and what's made them successful.

Those five markets are the only ones involving a sale. Jack Sander is the only buyer.

I still see (And think) CBS will buy KMOV 4 in St. Louis (Even if it's by way of Sander)

It only makes sense

Also, it should also be oointed out that St. Louis is the only city (At least that I can think of) outside of Hartford where CBS owns an All-News outlet on radio but NOT a TV station (Not even the CW or MyNetwork affiliate)

Cheers & 73 ;D

Why do you think CBS wants KMOV back?

The radio/TV pairings are the remnants of decisions CBS made between 45 and 70 years ago (except for San Francisco, which occurred during the Westinghouse/CBS merger).

 

[mightynine]

Someone asked earlier about hubbing, and I am not aware of the Belo stations having centralized master control, graphics or traffic. I don't think the exec buying KTVK and KMOV will have to rebuild anything from scratch.

Someone else touched on what hubs Belo had in place. For graphics, I don't know if it was hubbed per se, but they did recently unveil a shared graphics package for the Texas stations and WWL, with some stuff coming from Texas, I believe.

The plan was to roll the GFX out to other Belo stations, I wouldn't expect that to happen now.

 

[Ultimajock]

CBS has AFC cities in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Denver, New York, Boston, San Francisco

...and Miami...

 

[TroyG]

I was wondering if KLAS-TV is still on the selling block after its parent sold its station in Nashville, WTVF to Journal Broadcasting, Inc. of Milwaukee?