Tribune to buy Local TV

[FightingIrish]

From Robert Feder:

In one fell swoop, Tribune Broadcasting nearly doubled in size Monday, increasing the number of television stations it owns from 23 to 42.

With the acquisition of Local TV, the Cincinnati-based company once headed by former Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels, Tribune becomes the largest television station owner in the country. The $2.725 billion deal adds 19 stations in 16 markets.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=587927247896391&id=175146445841142

I was expecting Tribune to be the one to acquire the stations, and am kinda relieved.

 

[Markxxx]

That is a shock to me. I was 100% wrong on this. I never thought Tribune would be in a buying mood for even one station much less a group.

One thing that seems clearer is Tribune seems to be looking to dump it's newspapers and focus on TV. I wonder if they'll keep WGN-AM?

 

[Morgan Wick]

That is a shock to me. I was 100% wrong on this. I never thought Tribune would be in a buying mood for even one station much less a group.

One thing that seems clearer is Tribune seems to be looking to dump it's newspapers and focus on TV. I wonder if they'll keep WGN-AM?

Maybe this doesn't feel like an acquisition for Tribune since they're so close already. Or maybe Tribune is thinking of spinning off some of its other assets.

 

[dave73]

Looking at the list of markets where there might be an overlap, unless KFCT For Collins & KDVR simulcast, one of those has to be sold, as Tribune already owns KWGN with Local TV running an LMA on the station. Otherwise, they don't overlap. In markets where they'll enter, & a competing station has This TV; will Tribune take the affiliation away once it's up for the competing station? I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. Tribune will be taking it from WCIU in Chicago, after MGM ended their partnership with Weigel Broadcasting, after Weigel decided to partner with Fox for Movies. Tribune is mostly affiliated with CW & Fox, while it looks like Local TV is mostly affiliated with CBS & ABC in smaller markets, & Fox & CW in larger markets. A few markets like St Louis, they'll have a duopoly. At least one thing is certain, is that the markets that Tribune is entering, whether standalone, or duopoly, they'll have Antenna TV on their stations in those markets.

 

[radiotower40]

Looking at the list of markets where there might be an overlap, unless KFCT For Collins & KDVR simulcast, one of those has to be sold, as Tribune already owns KWGN with Local TV running an LMA on the station. Otherwise, they don't overlap. In markets where they'll enter, & a competing station has This TV; will Tribune take the affiliation away once it's up for the competing station? I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. Tribune will be taking it from WCIU in Chicago, after MGM ended their partnership with Weigel Broadcasting, after Weigel decided to partner with Fox for Movies. Tribune is mostly affiliated with CW & Fox, while it looks like Local TV is mostly affiliated with CBS & ABC in smaller markets, & Fox & CW in larger markets. A few markets like St Louis, they'll have a duopoly. At least one thing is certain, is that the markets that Tribune is entering, whether standalone, or duopoly, they'll have Antenna TV on their stations in those markets.

Is This leaving WCIU on 26.5? I had no idea, I thought that WCIU jointly owned it with MGM. Does this,mean it is moving to 9.3?

 

[Markxxx]

Is This leaving WCIU on 26.5? I had no idea, I thought that WCIU jointly owned it with MGM. Does this,mean it is moving to 9.3?

Correct, from Wikipedia

On May 13, 2013, Weigel Broadcasting announced that it would be leaving the This TV partnership in order to focus on its new network, Movies!; Tribune Broadcasting, owners of the Antenna TV network, will take over the network in late-2013, and the network will move in Chicago to a subchannel of WGN-TV

 

[Kent]

St. Louis is almost certainly a market where Tribune will need to do something.

Unless things have changed, Tribune won't have to divest or use an SSA in St. Louis. The market should have enough TV stations for duopoly, and KPLR hasn't been in the top-4 for a long time.

 

[e-dawg]

I wonder after the merger if they can fix these news station.

WPIX CW 11 New York
WGNO ABC 26 New Orleans
KDAF CW 33 Dallas
KIAH CW 39 Houston

There news or so-called news are terrible.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

That is a shock to me. I was 100% wrong on this. I never thought Tribune would be in a buying mood for even one station much less a group.

One thing that seems clearer is Tribune seems to be looking to dump it's newspapers and focus on TV. I wonder if they'll keep WGN-AM?

Will they even keep WGN America?

 

[nomadcowatbk]

St. Louis is almost certainly a market where Tribune will need to do something.

Unless things have changed, Tribune won't have to divest or use an SSA in St. Louis. The market should have enough TV stations for duopoly, and KPLR hasn't been in the top-4 for a long time.

was it a top 4 during the WB years?

 

[e-dawg]

Maybe Tribune/Local TV can make a deal with FOX by selling KCPQ - Seatle, KSWB - San Diego, KTVI - St. Louis, KDVR - Denver to FOX Broadcasting.

 

[dgendvil]

Also maybe Tribune & Media General can swap KRON (4, San Francisco) to Tribune for those stations:

KFOR (NBC)/KAUT (ind.) Oklahoma City (#41)
WREG (CBS) Memphis (#49)
WNEP (ABC) Scranton-Wilkes Barre (#54)
WTVR (CBS) Richmond (57), they were owned by Media General in 1996-97 after the purchase of Park Broadcasting, but they were barred by the FCC cross-ownership rules, because they owned the Richmond Times Dispatch there)
WHO-TV (NBC) Des Moines (#72)
WQAD-TV (ABC) Moline/Davenport (#99)
KFSM-TV (CBS)/KNKV (My) Fort Smith (#101)

Seems like Media General would be a perfect fit for those stations, then Tribune will likely own KRON-TV in San Francisco or maybe KTVK (Ind./KASW-CW) in Phoenix from Belo, but Gannett & Tribune would likely swap either KFOR/KAUT, WREG, WNEP, WTVR, WQAD & KFSM/KNKV for KTVK/KASW. So who knows.

 

[ercjncpr]

So KWGN returns to the Tribune lineup

 

[Brother]

St. Louis is almost certainly a market where Tribune will need to do something.

Unless things have changed, Tribune won't have to divest or use an SSA in St. Louis. The market should have enough TV stations for duopoly, and KPLR hasn't been in the top-4 for a long time.

The following is a little tl;dr to be sure, but just for the sake of completion:

While I can't speak for the ratings, everything I've read indicates KPLR has indeed fallen into fifth place behind KDNL. So, that won't be any obstacle.

As for TV station totals: according to the coverage maps presented on the FCC website during the analog-to-digital transition, the FCC considered St. Louis to be a nine-station market: KTVI 2, KMOV 4, KSDK 5, KETC 9, KPLR 11, WPXS 13, KNLC 24, KDNL 30, and WRBU 46. Although WPXS is licensed to Mount Vernon, IL in the Paducah market, its digital signal is almost entirely within the St. Louis DMA. Nine stations serving St. Louis = one duopoly opportunity. Regardless, Tribune will certainly be allowed to control both KTVI and KPLR if not own them outright.

So KWGN returns to the Tribune lineup

KWGN never left the Tribune lineup. They've been in an LMA with KDVR/Local TV for a few years, but Tribune has retained ownership of KWGN.

 

[michael hagerty]

Maybe Tribune/Local TV can make a deal with FOX by selling KCPQ - Seatle, KSWB - San Diego, KTVI - St. Louis, KDVR - Denver to FOX Broadcasting.

Trib's doing this deal because in one move it makes them the #4 station group in America and the biggest that's not a network owned stations group. They're not going to dilute that by dumping stations.

Nor is Gannett going to sell KTVK/KASW after setting Jack Sander's sidecar company up.

There are reasons TV deals get done. Sentiment and "wouldn't it be cool if we only owned (blank)" don't even enter their minds.

 

[1069_KIFR]

That is a shock to me. I was 100% wrong on this. I never thought Tribune would be in a buying mood for even one station much less a group.

One thing that seems clearer is Tribune seems to be looking to dump it's newspapers and focus on TV. I wonder if they'll keep WGN-AM?

Will they even keep WGN America?

I don't know.

 

[Morgan Wick]

Maybe Tribune/Local TV can make a deal with FOX by selling KCPQ - Seatle, KSWB - San Diego, KTVI - St. Louis, KDVR - Denver to FOX Broadcasting.

Trib's doing this deal because in one move it makes them the #4 station group in America and the biggest that's not a network owned stations group. They're not going to dilute that by dumping stations.

Assuming they actually want to be #4. Remember, the second post in this thread was surprised because they thought Tribune was in a selling mood. That said, I don't think they'll dump their Fox stations onto Fox, especially since Fox sold KDVR and KTVI to Local TV to begin with, and KZJO has really buried MyNet programming, something Fox would want to change.

 

[michael hagerty]

Maybe Tribune/Local TV can make a deal with FOX by selling KCPQ - Seatle, KSWB - San Diego, KTVI - St. Louis, KDVR - Denver to FOX Broadcasting.

Trib's doing this deal because in one move it makes them the #4 station group in America and the biggest that's not a network owned stations group. They're not going to dilute that by dumping stations.

Assuming they actually want to be #4. Remember, the second post in this thread was surprised because they thought Tribune was in a selling mood.

The surprise of a poster has no bearing on what a company is up to. On the Scripps thread last week, I said Tribune had to be considered in this merger climate.

Assuming they want to be #4?

Morgan, it's all about scale. That and adding stations that perform well so the cash they throw off goes straight to your bottom line.

Wanna know how these guys think...what motivates these deals? Here are three paragraphs from the Tribune news release about the deal. "Liguori" is Trib President Peter Liguori:

Because most of Local TV’s stations are ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in revenue in their markets, the transaction will generate significant free cash flow and be immediately accretive to Tribune’s earnings, Tribune said.

“Since joining Tribune in early 2013, we have been setting the strategic foundation to transform Tribune and help chart the path forward — building our multimedia capabilities and asset portfolio to become the country’s leading independent content creator and distributor,” Liguori said in a statement.

“This is a transformational acquisition for Tribune. It makes us the No. 1 local TV affiliate group in America, expands the distribution platform for our high-quality video content, and extends the reach of our digital products to new audiences across the country," he added.

 

[Morgan Wick]

I'm not talking about one poster; Tribune was more often talked about as a company on the block than anything else, and while I personally considered them the front-runner to pick up Local TV very few people here seemed to agree. That the current TV station landscape seems to favor Sinclair-esque megagroups doesn't necessarily have much bearing on the mindset of any particular group; keep in mind, none of the Big 4 seem to be in an acquisitive mood, Fox picking up WJZY notwithstanding, and the Gannett/Belo merger was actually a bit of a surprise.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'm not talking about one poster; Tribune was more often talked about as a company on the block than anything else, and while I personally considered them the front-runner to pick up Local TV very few people here seemed to agree. That the current TV station landscape seems to favor Sinclair-esque megagroups doesn't necessarily have much bearing on the mindset of any particular group; keep in mind, none of the Big 4 seem to be in an acquisitive mood, Fox picking up WJZY notwithstanding, and the Gannett/Belo merger was actually a bit of a surprise.

Gannett/Belo was a surprise...the starting gun in this episode that is going to see Tribune and Gannett as the biggest owners of TV stations apart from the big 4, and a handful of similarly-sized companies merging to either slot in ahead of them or be very competitive.

ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC are going to sit all this out, I think. They don't see the advantage in spending billions to gobble up OTA signals, and will happily collect the reverse compensation dollars from the groups for as long as there are OTA affiliates.

I think when it's all over, Sinclair will have spent a lot of money to get a lot of signals that don't have the value of a Tribune or Gannett portfolio. They'll be the biggest of the second-tier operators.