“We need to support the independents as much as possible,” said one station buyer. “Independents have been the engine that have pushed the industry forward.”
Independent studios — such as Debmar-Mercury and SPT — operate without an affiliate network or TV stations, which means they are free to work with the highest bidder or most interested party on any given project.
“What pushes the marketplace forward is the trust you get from groups who are more agile, smaller, more adept and more hungry,” that source said. “That’s where change comes from, the change doesn’t come from groups who are established and content with where they are.”
Other companies — such as Comcast-owned NBCUniversal or The Walt Disney Co. — tend to develop projects for their own stations
and then sell them to non-owned stations in other markets.
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