Triolopoly or Quadrolopy or more stations?

[e-dawg]

Are there (UNOFFICIAL) triolopoly stations out there? I know FCC rules prohibit more than 2 stations per market, but some stations can get away with controlling more than 2 TV stations by local market agreement or share service agreement. Also, LPTV stations counts.

For example:

Los Angeles; KNBC 4 (NBC) KWHY 22 (IND SPAN) and KVEA 52 (TEL)

Honolulu: KGMB 5 (CBS) KFVE 9 (MNT) KHNL 13 (NBC)

Austin: KBVO 14 (MNT) KXAN 36 (NBC) KNVA 54 (CW)

Palm Springs: KCWQ-LP 2 (CW) KUNA-LP 15 (TEL) KDFX-CA 33 (FOX) KESQ 42 (ABC) and soon to be KPSP-CD 38 (CBS)

Any others?

 

[Stitch]

KWHY was sold off to the Meruelo Group. The deal was closed in June of 2011.

Though another market you could add is Nashville. Sinclair owns WZTV (Fox) and WUXP (My Network TV), but controls WNAB (CW), which is owned by "Tennessee Broadcasting".

 

[MarcB]

NYC Market: Univision owns WXTV/41 licensed to Patterson, NJ which is the Unvision affiliate for NYC. They also own Channel 68 licensed to Newark, NJ which is the Telefutura station for NYC. Plus out on Long Island they own Channel 67 licensed to Smithtown. Channel 67 and 68 have simulcast each other for years dating back to long before they were owned by Unvision. So that's 3 TV stations in One Market.

Plus they also own 3 radio stations in the NYC area - WXNY 96.3 (Spanish Tropical CHR) and WADO 1280 (Spanish News-Talk) both licensed to NYC plus 92.7 WQBU Garden City, Long Island which covers part of the NYC market.

 

[nathannah]

Don't forget the technical Fort Wayne "quintopoly" of WPTA and WISE from Granite, with ABC and NBC on their main streams, and CW, Fox, and MyNetworkTV on their DT2. They use subchannels, but still, it's one the competitors in that town are trying to sue to break up.

 

[RadioDaze]

Charlottesville, Virginia: Gray Television owns full-power CBS affiliate WCAV, channel 19, as well as low power ABC affiliate WVAW-LD, channel 16, and class A station WAHU-CD, channel 27, which is "Fox 27" on 27.1 and "My C'Ville" on 27.2.

Down Interstate 64 East, Richmond has an interesting case study that, while not a triopoly in ownership, certainly constitutes one in terms of a sphere of influence: Raycom NBC affiliate WWBT, channel 12, controls CW affiliate WUPV, channel 65, through Southeast Medial Holdings, and NBC 12 produces news shows for WUPV. However, WWBT also produces news content for Sinclair's WRLH, channel 35, which is Fox on 35.1 and MyNetwork on 35.2, though the news content is solely for the Fox side.

 

[fybush]

Don't forget the technical Fort Wayne "quintopoly" of WPTA and WISE from Granite, with ABC and NBC on their main streams, and CW, Fox, and MyNetworkTV on their DT2. They use subchannels, but still, it's one the competitors in that town are trying to sue to break up.

Start getting into subchannels and there are a lot of potential examples around the country these days, including a big one just to the east in Lima, Ohio, where WLIO-DT and WOHL-CD carry all of the Big Four on their two RF channels, with NBC and Fox on WLIO and ABC and CBS on WOHL.

One example with three full-power signals is in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA market, where a combination of duopoly and shared-services agreements allows New Age Media to own Fox affiliate WOLF-TV (Channel 56) and My affiliate WQMY (Channel 53, licensed to Williamsport, 70 miles away but in the market and relayed over WOLF's 56.3 subchannel) and to operate CW affiliate WSWB (Channel 38, also seen on WOLF's 56.2).

 

[EricStein]

It's more common in the smaller markets, like Casper, Wyoming, where one company runs the ABC (KTWO-TV), CBS (KGWC), and FOX (KFNB) affiliates. They're all under different ownership structures, but some argue they're one in the same company.

Don't forget Tucson, where KOLD (CBS) now practically runs KMSB (FOX) and KTTU (MNTV).

 

[Markxxx]

Isn't LA big enough to actually allow a legal triopoly?

 

[TheRob]

Topeka: KSNT and KTMJ-CA are owned by New Vision, and KTKA is owned by PBC Broadcasting, which turns operational control over to New Vision. All three stations share the same newsroom and newscast.

 

[TheRob]

By the way, we were interviewing someone from KPSP/Palm Springs last week for a job here. He learned of his station's pending merger while having lunch with our news director.

 

[KeithE4]

Are there (UNOFFICIAL) triolopoly stations out there? I know FCC rules prohibit more than 2 stations per market, but some stations can get away with controlling more than 2 TV stations by local market agreement or share service agreement. Also, LPTV stations counts.
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Any others?

Indianapolis has Tribune-owned WTTV/4 (Licensed to Bloomington but part of the Indy market), satellite WTTK/29 (Licensed to Kokomo, also part of the Indy market) and WXIN/59. No LMAs here.

 

[dave73]

Indianapolis has Tribune-owned WTTV/4 (Licensed to Bloomington but part of the Indy market), satellite WTTK/29 (Licensed to Kokomo, also part of the Indy market) and WXIN/59. No LMAs here.

Tribune has 3 stations in the Indianapolis market, & the triopoly used to be justified until the digital transition. They have Fox affiliate WXIN & the WTTV/WTTK simulcast (CW). WTTV being licensed to Bloomington & WTTK licensed to Kokomo, used to need WTTK to cover the northern part of the market, while WTTV covers the southern part. Since WTTK located their transmitter & antenna to the main Indianapolis antenna farm, WTTK has coverage that matches that of most Indianapolis stations, & the WTTV/WTTK simulcast is no longer needed. Since Bloomington is that far SW of Indianapolis, no TV station licensed to Bloomington is able to locate their antenna to Indianapolis, & be able to provide Grade A coverage over the COL. 3 of the 4 Bloomington licensed stations transmit from Trafalgar (including WTTV). I wonder if the FCC might make Tribune sell off WTTV down the line.

If we look at Milwaukee, Weigel Broadcasting has 4 stations, including 2 full power stations. They have CBS affiliate WDJT & WBME (licensed to Racine), along with low power stations WMLW-LD & WYTU-LD (both licensed to Milwaukee). WBME has MeTV on the main channel with simulcast of Telemundo affiliate WYTU-LD on 49.4. WDJT has their independent station WMLW-LD on 58.3. Then there's their low power stations WYTU 63.1 being the Telemundo affiliate, & WMLW-LD being an independent station.

Weigel also owns 3 low power TV stations in South Bend, IN, since South Bend was only allocated 5 full power UHF channels. They have ABC affiliate WBND-LD, CW affiliate WCWW-LD, & MNT affiliate WMYS-LD. They picked up ABC after WSJV decided to drop them for Fox. So ABC either at the time go on a low power station, or the network not be available at all. Weigel originally wanted to sell off their stations to Schurz (owner of WSBT-AM & TV, WNSN on the FM, & the South Bend Tribune) in order to focus on Chicago & Milwaukee. The FCC refused to rule on the sale in the timeframe that Weigel & Schurz were looking for, & the sale was cancelled.

Now someone mentioned about Granite owning Malara in order to have a duopoly in the Fort Wayne Indiana market, Nextstar is just as guilty owning Mission Broadcasting in order to have a duopoly in many smaller market. The worst one being Nexstar controlling 2 of 3 commercial licenses in the Terre Haute Indiana market (WTWO for NBC & WAWV for ABC), while LIN Broadcasting has WTHI and has CBS on the main channel & Fox on the .2.

 

[Markxxx]

I am not sure, I don't think the FCC counts satellite stations as extra station. I know they don't count them in terms of ownership caps. And I don't think since the DTV transition they have A-Grade and B-Grade coverage. They merged them both into just one.

 

[taylorjsdad]

Isn't LA big enough to actually allow a legal triopoly?

Someone correct me if I am incorrect but if there are more than 18 full power signals in your market than one company can own three as long as two of them are not among the top five in revenue.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Isn't LA big enough to actually allow a legal triopoly?

Someone correct me if I am incorrect but if there are more than 18 full power signals in your market than one company can own three as long as two of them are not among the top five in revenue.

There's somewhat of a triopoly of sorts in Los Angeles; the Ulloa brothers owns three stations--Walter owns KJLA (the flagship station of the LATV network), Ronald owns KXLA and KVMD. KXLA and KVMD simucasts each other's main sub on one of the other's subchannels, while KJLA until last year used to also simulcast one of the two on their subchannel lineup.

 

[azumanga]

Taking the prize is the Victoria, Texas television market, where Saga Communications (and its subsidiaries) dominate the market:

KMOL-LP 17 (NBC)
KVCT 19 (Fox)
KXTS-LP 21 (Univision)
KAVU 25 (ABC)
KUNU-LP 41 (CBS)
KVTX-LP 45 (Telemundo)

The only stations in Victoria not associated with Saga is K39HB channel 39 (The CW), owned by Howard Mintz; and KTJA-CA channel 51 (Azteca América), owned by Una Vez Mas as a repeater of KYAZ Houston.

 

[TexasTom]

Isn't LA big enough to actually allow a legal triopoly?

Someone correct me if I am incorrect but if there are more than 18 full power signals in your market than one company can own three as long as two of them are not among the top five in revenue.

No.

The FCC had proposed rules back in 2004 that would have allowed TV triopolies under certain circumstances, but due to legal challenges those rules never went into effect.

 

[compubit]

Can't forget Sherman/Denison/Ada/Durant/Ardmore (as I heard the market called at one time...)

KTEN: NBC in 1080i, ABC in 720p and CW in 480i
KXII: CBS in 1080i, Fox in 720p and My in 480i

Two full power stations, 6 networks (so to speak), with newscasts on 5 of the (none on My).

J

 

[dave73]

Isn't LA big enough to actually allow a legal triopoly?

Someone correct me if I am incorrect but if there are more than 18 full power signals in your market than one company can own three as long as two of them are not among the top five in revenue.

No.

The FCC had proposed rules back in 2004 that would have allowed TV triopolies under certain circumstances, but due to legal challenges those rules never went into effect.

The current rules for a duopoly in the larger markets allow for 2 full power stations by the same owner, as long as 1 of them isn't affiliated with a top 4 network on the main channels. There are exceptions, like in the case of LIN Broadcasting owning NBC affiliate WOOD-TV Grand Rapids, while also owning ABC affiliate WOTV licensed to Battle Creek. The only reason this duopoly is allowed is because WOTV only covers the southern part of the market, while Gannett's ABC station, WZZM cover's the northern part of the market.

That's why in many larger markets with a lot of stations, you usually see duopolies where one station is a top 4 network (whether an affiliate or a network O&O) & the other is affiliated with CW, MNT, a Spanish language network, or independent.

 

[Markxxx]

Well what happens if you buy a fifth ranked station and it moves to #3 or #2 or #1? Do you have to sell it or are you grandfathered in?