Who does Sinclair go after next?

[tmanokc]

My guess is that with what would be $3 billion dollars in debt that Sinclair has, the company's buying spree will catch up to them. Can you say Chapter 7 or Chapter 11?

As an attempt to curb Sinclair and Nexstar's acquisition tears, I created petitions on Change.org and WethePeople.gov to urge the FCC to take action against them and other station groups that sidestep or abuse the loopholes in the media ownership rules.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-media-ownership-rules-particularly-regarding-television-stations-better-protect-public/QKvlL8rx
http://www.change.org/petitions/federal-communications-commission-change-aspects-of-media-ownership-rules?utm_source=guides&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_created

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Sinclair Broadcast Group is wildly profitable -- more than 200 million last year. If they can bring that kind of efficiency to their new acquisitions, they will not be facing bankruptcy any time soon.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Sinclair Broadcast Group is wildly profitable -- more than 200 million last year. If they can bring that kind of efficiency to their new acquisitions, they will not be facing bankruptcy any time soon.

"efficiency" for Sinclair means stations like KDNL, no local news and cheap syndicated products

 

[fybush]

It's a cheap n' easy message-board fallacy to assume that the Sinclair of 2000 is exactly the same as what Sinclair is in 2013.

The company appears to have learned from the News Central debacle. They bought the top-rated station here in Rochester, WHAM-TV, last fall, and you know what they've done? They've kept the entire existing staff, including some of the highest-paid anchors in the market. (WHAM's Don Alhart is one of the deans of the industry, having been with the station since 1966.) They've added more staff in the newsroom. There's been no indication from any of my friends over there of any kind of push toward any ideological leanings in the news product. And they're still comfortably at the top of the ratings.

WHAM is far from alone in that respect; Sinclair has improved the product at WRGB down the road in the Albany market, for instance.

I've seen other stations in the region fare far less well, even though they're owned by companies with much better reputations.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Scott, correct me if I'm wrong, but is the competition to WHAM not a Nexstar/Mission duopoly?

Nomad, I assume your market has all the top flight syndication airing on other stations? (Ellen, Live with Kelly and Michael, ET, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, etc.) If so, does it really matter that Sinclair tends to pass on all these programs and air Divorce Court four times a day?

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Scott, correct me if I'm wrong, but is the competition to WHAM not a Nexstar/Mission duopoly?

Nomad, I assume your market has all the top flight syndication airing on other stations? (Ellen, Live with Kelly and Michael, ET, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, etc.) If so, does it really matter that Sinclair tends to pass on all these programs and air Divorce Court four times a day?

Sinclair doesn't care about running top rated or respected stations, just profitable stations. Other groups seem to care somewhat about the perception of their stations.

 

[tmanokc]

Sinclair Broadcast Group is wildly profitable -- more than 200 million last year. If they can bring that kind of efficiency to their new acquisitions, they will not be facing bankruptcy any time soon.

In point of fact, even companies with profitable operations can be succeptible to bankruptcy because of questionable, not thought out or simply bad management decisions. Tribune Company's combined portfolio of newspapers and TV stations are worth just north of $500 million (the stations are far more profitable than the papers, though), and they went through bankruptcy because of mismanagement from former owner Sam Zell. The company's privatization swamped them with much of the debt (which was $12 billion, double the debt that Sinclair has now), which is what caused them to file for Chapter 11 in the first place. Tribune is beginning its recovery now with a refocus on their broadcast unit over print, but it shows that even companies that have profitable can be subject to downfalls because of their management.

It is a strong question if Sinclair's management decisions to acquire stations left and right will create a similar situation that will saddle them with enough debt that they will buckle. They may be profitable now, but it doesn't mean that their debt won't catch up to them at some point.

 

[fybush]

Scott, correct me if I'm wrong, but is the competition to WHAM not a Nexstar/Mission duopoly?

The competition includes Nexstar's CBS affiliate, WROC, and Hubbard's NBC outlet, WHEC, as well as a fairly potent Time Warner Cable YNN news channel. Mission's not here - for the moment, Nexstar still operates Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WUHF, but WUHF will move over to WHAM in the next few months. (WHAM's license assets are actually owned by Deerfield, but operated by Sinclair.)

Point is - Sinclair's not bottom-feeding in this market. They bought the #1 station in town and, at least so far, are spending the money to keep it that way. My hunch is that they'll treat the Fisher stations that way, too.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Nexstar is actually improving their image a bit in my eyes.

With the Newport acquisition they picked up the WPTY-WLMT duopoly in Memphis. WPTY had been horribly mismanaged under Newport and is currently the bottom feeder in the market.

But since Nexstar acquired them, they've made baby steps to big time improvement. Most notably, Nexstar bought a building for $814,000 back in February (the building was appraised at $2 million) and has permits to add a 185-foot TV tower, satellite dishes and other broadcast equipment which are expected to be approved at the city council meeting next week. They haven't officially said what they're going to do, but it's obvious that Nexstar wants to move WPTY to new facilities. They've also just hired away the executive producer from rival WHBQ.

Personally, with a station like WPTY in a market like Memphis, your best example for turning around a struggling station is what happened in Birmingham with WBMG/WIAT. I think a call sign change would be a good idea, too.

 

[tmanokc]

Nexstar is actually improving their image a bit in my eyes.

With the Newport acquisition they picked up the WPTY-WLMT duopoly in Memphis. WPTY had been horribly mismanaged under Newport and is currently the bottom feeder in the market.

But since Nexstar acquired them, they've made baby steps to big time improvement. Most notably, Nexstar bought a building for $814,000 back in February (the building was appraised at $2 million) and has permits to add a 185-foot TV tower, satellite dishes and other broadcast equipment which are expected to be approved at the city council meeting next week. They haven't officially said what they're going to do, but it's obvious that Nexstar wants to move WPTY to new facilities. They've also just hired away the executive producer from rival WHBQ.

Personally, with a station like WPTY in a market like Memphis, your best example for turning around a struggling station is what happened in Birmingham with WBMG/WIAT. I think a call sign change would be a good idea, too.

That is a good thing, but Nexstar's buying spree has resulted in shutdowns/consolidations of a few news departments such as with WTVW and KLRT, and they still abuse loopholes in the FCC's media ownership rules. For me, it would take Nexstar and Sinclair to sell off stations they already own once they purchase another station(s) in the same market as an existing station property where they can't own more than one or two stations and avoiding consolidating news operations at all costs in order to change my mind about them. Though, that will take FCC action to cause that to happen. Ideally, Nexstar and Sinclair should limit the number of stations they get to adhere to FCC rules, like a lot of groups do, but they don't. WPTY is a different situation as it is part of a duopoly already.

A good thing for a station owner to do is to invest in their properties, Nexstar is doing the right thing (this time around) by getting WPTY's news department in gear. Part of the reason why it has suffered in the ratings is because it was the newer news operation in Memphis, since it was an independent without a news department before WHBQ dropped ABC for Fox. I find it interesting that a change in WPTY's callsign was mentioned (unless the interpretation of the letters meaning "pity" is the problem)?

 

[taylorjsdad]

WKTV in Utica, NY comes to mind.... They are Smith Media's lone station left after their stations in Burlington, VT just closed to Nexstar. Utica/Rome is right in between Albany (Sinclair owns WRGB) and Syracuse (they own WSYT and the JSA/SSA for WNYS and are buying WSTM and its JSA/SSO for WTVH). Nexstar already owns in the market so they are out unless they want to sell one of their existing stations (either WFXV or WUTR).

I was thinking of this today actually. On paper, it makes sense given geography even though WKTV isn't the kind of station Sinclair usually goes after as it is insanely market dominant which even the Barrington stations aren't. I'd have them in the hunt with Hubbard (WHEC and WNYT/soon WNYA) too.

Also, I have a feeling that the FCC is not going to let Sinclair own WSTM and WNYS plus JSA/SSA WSYT plus JSA/SSO WTVH. Having their hands in 2/3 of the full power stations in one market is dangerous.

I agree.... I heard somewhere (probably on Fybush.com) that WSYT and the JSA/SSA for WNYS would be sold to on of their 'front' companies.... Cunningham, Glencarn etc...

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

Sinclair has struck again...as some of you speculated, they have indeed bought the Titan Television group of stations (the successor to Pappas Telecasting) for $115.35 million.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-sinclair-titan-acquisition-20130604,0,3657537.story
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/67978/sinclair-buys-6-titan-television-stations

 

[wrsg915fm]

"Sinclair doesn't care about running top rated or respected stations, just profitable stations. Other groups seem to care somewhat about the perception of their stations."

WTRF-TV in Wheeling, West Virginia is PRAYING that this is correct, as Sinclair just purchased newsratng juggernaut WTOV9 in Steubenville, Ohio.

Another poster intimated that anyone currently working at a Sinclair station should e ready to hit the happy highway. Longtime anchor Eric Minor will be leaving WTOV in a few days and will work at WVU teaching in their broadcasting program.