NBC sells KWHY-TV Los Angeles to local businessman Alex Meruelo

[stationless listener]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ent...geles-to-local-businessman-alex-meruelo-.html

So Comcast/NBC is about to get rid of one of their broadcasting assets.

 

[TheBigA]

The first of many, I predict.

 

[Carmine5]

Sale price was 43 million. Several came out of the woodwork to make a bid for the station including Bert Ellis of KDOC.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2011/01/26/48658/nbcu-finds-minority-buyer-for-kwhy

 

[fybush]

The first of many, I predict.

I don't think the KWHY sale is very predictive of anything. It's a special case: NBC bought KWHY along with Telemundo O&O KVEA 52, and has been getting waiver after waiver of the ownership caps ever since to keep operating it as a Spanish-language independent alongside KVEA and KNBC. (With the huge number of players in the LA TV market, it probably wasn't a very hard case for NBC to make.)

I believe one of the conditions of the Comcast deal was the final divestiture of KWHY. I'm not sure I'd read much more into it than that, though.

 

[TheBigA]

We'll see. I don't see Comcast as much of a brick & mortar company. I think they like content, not transmitters and towers.

 

[fybush]

We'll see. I don't see Comcast as much of a brick & mortar company. I think they like content, not transmitters and towers.

I think you're right in general about that, but I think they may have themselves in a bit of a bind. Start selling off TV stations, and your remaining affiliates start wondering (with good reason) about Comcast's ongoing commitment to maintaining NBC as a terrestrial broadcast network. And how many buyers will pay premium prices for a WVIT or a WTVJ or a KNSD, knowing that they're being sold precisely because Comcast isn't all that committed to the broadcast model they represent?

So it may be in Comcast's best overall interest, at least in the short term, to hang on to most or all of those transmitters and towers, at least to keep the current network model alive until it can fully implement whatever plans it might (emphasis on "might") have to migrate NBC to a cable platform...if that's the plan at all.

 

[TheBigA]

The game to play is "splunge," as they said in Monty Python. Do both. Sell off real estate and physical assets while retaining control.

 

[azumanga]

how many buyers will pay premium prices for a WVIT or a WTVJ or a KNSD, knowing that they're being sold precisely because Comcast isn't all that committed to the broadcast model they represent?

Especially the case of WTVJ -- Post-Newsweek, which also owned WPLG in Miami, was cleared by the FCC to buy WTVJ (due to regulations regarding the station's ranking in the market), but backed off at the last minute.

The game to play is "splunge," as they said in Monty Python. Do both. Sell off real estate and physical assets while retaining control.

Of course, they could also do what Sinclair or Nexstar has done and sell them to "other broadcasters" that are loosely related to the seller.

 

[stationless listener]

It looks like the sale has closed. The Meruelo Group is taking over KWHY.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...-leadership-of-kwhy-channel-22-125114464.html

 

[justpassingthough]

We'll see. I don't see Comcast as much of a brick & mortar company. I think they like content, not transmitters and towers.

I think you're right in general about that, but I think they may have themselves in a bit of a bind. Start selling off TV stations, and your remaining affiliates start wondering (with good reason) about Comcast's ongoing commitment to maintaining NBC as a terrestrial broadcast network. And how many buyers will pay premium prices for a WVIT or a WTVJ or a KNSD, knowing that they're being sold precisely because Comcast isn't all that committed to the broadcast model they represent?

So it may be in Comcast's best overall interest, at least in the short term, to hang on to most or all of those transmitters and towers, at least to keep the current network model alive until it can fully implement whatever plans it might (emphasis on "might") have to migrate NBC to a cable platform...if that's the plan at all.

I think your emphasis of "in the short term" is spot on. Is it fair to say that, in the long run, Comcast, Fox, CBS, etc. all plan to migrate towards to a cable platform for the "broadcast" networks. They realize the economics favor a subscription model- and the days of giving away content are rapidly expiring.

At this point, I think they've shown their hand- and I would hope that any potential buyers of a television station know fully that within 5 or 10 years, they may end up as an independent station.