Sinclair approaches Tribune Media about possible deal

[washnotore]

Sinclair approaches Tribune Media about possible deal

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tribunemedia-m-a-sinclairbroadcast-idUSKBN16843R

Interesting how this would affect television in Seattle and Portland. With some interesting twists.

* Sinclair owns two stations in Seattle and Portland.

* Tribune owns two stations in Seattle.

* Could KCPQ/13 get a new owner. Since they already hold the broadcast rights for the Seattle Seahawks. Sinclair is the most dominate owner with Fox affiliation. While the Fox Network would like to own KCPQ outright.

* KRCW/32 currently carries KGW/08 10 PM Newscast. If Sinclair were to take over KRCW. KGW would have no news outlet in that time slot.

[paulwalker]

I have been following this one, and a couple of things are certain. Sinclair is hoping that Trump will open up some regulations pertaining to audience share. They may get that at some point with the current POTUS, but right now all this is just a proposal. However, you are correct, Seattle is the largest market with major affiliates involved. WA DC and Portland are one major and one minor respectively. KCPQ only owns rights to the Seahawks in pre-season, the rest is by being affiliated with Fox. This one will play out.

[msndrspdx]

KCPQ also owns the local Seattle area rights to the Seattle Sounders MLS soccer team (KUNS/Univision Seattle owns the Spanish broadcasting rights).

Don’t forget that KGW still has KGWZ. Could they move their 10pm News there and build a schedule around it?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see some networks change stations as a result of this in Seattle and Portland. WGN America could get replaced by WGN Chicago (which, by the way, has flipped back to syndicated fare and is no longer carrying CW, so the reason for WGN-A’s existence (to black out CW’s East Coast feed to protect western stations like KRCW) might not be there anymore. And some of the subchannel networks might move in one or both cities to new locations. And maybe new call signs as well? Worth keeping an eye on this…

[paulwalker]

As much as I would like to see WGN Chicago back on cable around the country, I don’t hold out much hope there. The Cub’s and their local news don’t meet current standards for nationwide cable outlets. I think those days are done, unfortunately. So WGN will likely go down as the last local station available around the country. (Repeated requests to Tribune have been unanswered).

[superhet]

I was under the impression that WGN lost most or all of the Cub’s games a few years ago. Maybe I’m wrong though. Seems like they should have fired the guy who made the decision to scale back the Cubs on wgn a year before they won the series.

[mwdxer1]

This is very interesting. Tribune does not have a translator for 32 out here in the Astoria area. I wonder if this will change? I sure hope so as 32 would be nice and the addition of THIS and Antenna TV would be wonderful! I was told Tribune did not believe in translators. Oregon is unique compared to Western WA, where there are few OTA translators for the Seattle stations. The 5 main Portland stations have a lot of translators.

[paulwalker]

WGN split to two signals a few years ago. One was for the Chicago area only and had baseball and local news. WGN America became their national channel, minus the local programming.

[washnotore]

Sinclair is close to buying all of Tribune’s TV stations

http://nypost.com/2017/03/14/sinclair-tribune-merger-would-surpass-fcc-ownership-rules/

KATU and KRCW could become sister stations. And the KRCW 10 PM newscast would be from KATU instead of KGW.

[washnotore]

Now that the repack auction is over. Sinclair has more one thing that needs to be done.

FCC Reinstates UHF Discount toward Ownership Caps
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-344490A1.pdf

It look more and more like this merger is going to happen.

[washnotore]

Not exactly the sale/purchase we were looking for. Sinclair buys Bonten Media Group.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103465/sinclair-buying-bonten-stations-for-240m

Sinclair Agrees To Buy Bonten Media After FCC Eases TV Station Mergers

Sinclair is spreading there wings outside the Pacific Northwest.

Down South, Sinclair is in the Redding and Eureka Markets for ABC.

And in the Western half of Montana in the cities of Missoula, Kalispell, Butee and Bozeman Markets for NBC.

[washnotore]

Fox looking at buy Tribune’s 14 Fox affiliates.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103869/fox-enthralled-by-stations-again-but-why

It becoming clear that KCPQ 13/Tacoma. Will become an out right Fox O&O station soon.

[paulwalker]

Yep, and it can be summed up by three letters: N, F, & L.

[Jeffrey Kopp]

Sinclair Broadcast Group Monday announced the purchase of Tribune Media Company for about $3.9 billio

http://katu.com/news/nation-world/sinclair-broadcast-group-to-purchase-tribune-media-companyn

[msndrspdx]

Jeff, your link leads to a page on the KATU site which says “Oops.” You need to double check it.

By the way, has anyone noticed KRCW’s new logo? It now reads, “KRCW! Portland’s CW,” with a large exclamation point separating the other two elements. KRCW has never used their call letters this prominently for promotion purposes before. Don’t know if this is common to Trubune owned CW stations or not, but it’s now used on KRCW’s Facebook page and, I assume, on air.

[Jeffrey Kopp]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-07/sinclair-said-close-to-buying-tribune-for-about-45-a-share

[Author]

Posts