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GE might sell NBC: could Gannett be a buyer?

B

bpatrick

I've seen rumors that GE is considering selling
NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC, among other properties.
Now let me make clear that I don't know if this
is true, or who might be a potential buyer of NBC.
But I remember a few years ago hearing rumors
that Gannett was a likely candidate if GE ever did
sell NBC. Does anyone think that might happen,
making Channel 11 an NBC affiliate?
 
bpatrick said:
Does anyone think that might happen,
making Channel 11 an NBC affiliate?
Click to expand...

Umm that already happened back in 1980 it has been just over 26 years since channel 11 became NBC. Do happen to mean Channel 11 would be an NBC O&O if GE sold to Gannett?
 
bpatrick said:
I've seen rumors that GE is considering selling
NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC, among other properties.
Now let me make clear that I don't know if this
is true, or who might be a potential buyer of NBC.
But I remember a few years ago hearing rumors
that Gannett was a likely candidate if GE ever did
sell NBC. Does anyone think that might happen,
making Channel 11 an NBC affiliate?
Click to expand...

NBC Universal (80% GE, 20% Vivendi) would most likely be spun off into a seperate publicly-traded company. The assets are huge, and I am sure the price for all or part of anything is out of Gannett's range.

Speaking of which, Channel 2 almost became an NBC O&O. GE and Cox planned a merger in the 1970's which would have ended the WSB-AM/FM/TV/AJC empire. (A company, MetroMedia, which later was acquired by News Corp., would have had WSB-AM under the WSB calls, a local businessman would have had WSB-FM under new calls (WEZA), and GE would have had WSB-TV under new calls. I don't know who would have had the AJC. Cox Cable's Atlanta operations (yes, Cox owned the cable system in Atlanta as well) was sold before the approvals were granted. After the approvals, Cox called off the merger. While RCA owned NBC wholy at the time (RCA was orignally a joint venture of RCA, GE, and another company that slips my mind right now), RCA and GE merged in 1985.
 
My goof. I meant "might Channel 11 become an
NBC o&o"; I remember the switch of 1980 very well
and never have learned to like it. I also remember
the Cox/GE merger that never came off, which might
have made Channel 2 an NBC o&o, assuming that GE
did what it did--buy out RCA--which would, of course,
have been an unknown in the late '70s.
 
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