Tribune sale--Texas impact

[Mediafrog+]

With The Tribune television group apparently going up for piecemeal sale, any thoughts on who might wind up with KDAF in DFW and KHCW in Houston?

The KDAF situation is interesting. There are already market duopolies with KXAS/KXTX, KDFW/KDFI, KTVT/KTXA, and KUVN/KSTR. WFAA is prohibited from a duopoly because they own the Morning News, hence the operations agreement (but not ownership) of KFWD. With the Democrats now in control of Congress, the current newspaper crossownership rules aren't changing anytime soon. So would KDAF continue as a stand-alone under different ownership? Who might buy them?

Lots of possibilities with KHCW in Houston, though. The ABC/NBC/CBS stations (KTRK/KPRC/KHOU) are all stand-alones that could be on the prowl for a duopoly partner. However a sale to any of those stations will almost certainly mean the end of the news operation at KHCW, presumably replaced by a 9pm show produced by the sister station, as has happened in many other markets. CW39 news staffers need to have the resumes and demo reels ready to go. KHCW will almost certainly wind up as part of a duopoly, but to whom? The bidding war might be pretty fierce. Thoughts?

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that one of the other Houston stations would buy KHCW.

The only station group I think would be interested is Belo. Though their most recent attempt at an acquisition, WUPL-New Orleans, was cancelled after the surprise annoucement about the WB and UPN merger.

ABC has no other duopolies with any of their stations (the only one they had a stab at, KCAL-9-LA, was sold off by Disney when the studio bought the network 10 years ago. It's now owned by CBS).

Same with the Post-Newsweek Stations, no other duopolies. PNS has also made no other purchases in the last 10 years (WKMG-Orlando was thier last in 1997). They seem to be content with their small cluster of stations in Texas and Florida and the one station they own in Detroit.

Sadly, I think a station group like Sinclair would be more likely to snap the station up than one of the big station groups in town.

Either way, I fear you right: KHCW stations should start polishing off the resume tapes.

 

[TexasTom]

With The Tribune television group apparently going up for piecemeal sale, any thoughts on who might wind up with KDAF in DFW and KHCW in Houston?

The KDAF situation is interesting. There are already market duopolies with KXAS/KXTX, KDFW/KDFI, KTVT/KTXA, and KUVN/KSTR. WFAA is prohibited from a duopoly because they own the Morning News, hence the operations agreement (but not ownership) of KFWD. With the Democrats now in control of Congress, the current newspaper crossownership rules aren't changing anytime soon. So would KDAF continue as a stand-alone under different ownership? Who might buy them?

That's an interesting question, with no real obvious answers. There are several mid-sized to large national broadcast groups that could be prospective suitors for this station, but I can't think of any reason to guess one as being more interested than any of the others. Obviously, they would end up with a stand alone station...and one that has seen better days. If it absolutely must be part of a duopoly, a buyer for KDAF could also make a bid for KLDT (which has long been believed to be for sale) and create a new duopoly -- but I think it might be more profitable to just run KDAF as a standalone, versus building the second station in a duopoly from scratch.

 

[arnoldevns]

I wouldn't count on Sinclair buying any stations. They are strapped for cash and barely afloat as it is.

If you look at the markets where Tribune operates, it would actually make sense for Belo to buy the whole lot of Tribune stations. I think they could get a waiver for WFAA and KDAF for several years. I wouldn't count on the new congress doing much to stop it either.

 

[TexasTom]

I don't agree that Belo would easily be able to get a waiver to hold on to WFAA, KDAF, and the Dallas Morning News. One of the reasons that is probably driving Tribune's interest in selling off some of their stations is the perception that it is going to be harder to get and keep these waivers in the future...and that the newspaper/TV crossownership rule isn't going away anytime soon. In any event, if Belo thought that they could easily obtain such a waiver, they would have already bought KFWD instead of just running it through that joint sale agreement that went into effect two years ago.

 

[TXNews]

I don't agree that Belo would easily be able to get a waiver to hold on to WFAA, KDAF, and the Dallas Morning News. One of the reasons that is probably driving Tribune's interest in selling off some of their stations is the perception that it is going to be harder to get and keep these waivers in the future...and that the newspaper/TV crossownership rule isn't going away anytime soon. In any event, if Belo thought that they could easily obtain such a waiver, they would have already bought KFWD instead of just running it through that joint sale agreement that went into effect two years ago.

Don't look for Belo to make a bid to buy KDAF anytime soon, if at all. They have made it very clear they are focusing on internet and future newspaper properties (the reason why they just manage and not own KFWD) for the foreseeable future.

Getting a waiver from the FCC is fairly easy and common if Belo really wanted to. Take Hartford, Connecticut for example. There Tribune own WTIC-TV, WTXX-TV and newspaper The Hartford Courant!