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Nexstar Media Group has reached an agreement to acquire to Tribune MediaCo for about $4.1 billion, a deal which would make it the largest regional U.S. TV station operator, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
Locally, Nexstar currently owns CBS affiliate KOIN 6 and Tribune owns CW affiliate KRCW 32.
Well, this certainly solves the problem in Seattle with Tribune and Sinclair not having to give up one of their major stations. (Trib owns KCQP Q-13) The move will allow KCPQ to perhaps offer some consolidation of reporting with KOIN. As in sister stations.
This is interesting indeed. If Nexstar buys Tribune, then I wonder if 32 will have more translators? We were hoping for a 32 translator out here on the North Coast for years.
So with a KOIN-KRCW duopoly here, I am assuming the Channel 32 facilities in Beaverton would eventually close and both stations would be consolidated at the KOIN Center downtown?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the result would be a KOIN/KRCW channel share agreement with all of both stations subchannels included. Would MyTV become a KRCW subchannel? Estrella is looking for a new home after recently being dropped by KGW. And other subchannels might use this as a way into the Portland market (Movies, for example). KOIN likely replaces KGW as producer of KRCW’s 10pm news.
“I am assuming the Channel 32 facilities in Beaverton would eventually close and both stations would be consolidated at the KOIN Center downtown?”
I wouldn’t assume that. The building in Beaverton is owned, the KOIN studios are on a long term lease. It depends on a lot of facts we just don’t know. The KOIN studios are now and have been for 10 -15 years way more space than KOIN is using, and the Beaverton building is barely utilized except by a local sales staff who have a weekly meeting there, one production guy and that’s it. All programming comes via fiber from Seattle KCQP and Tribune MCR is in Virginia (or N.C., somewhere in the Middle Atlantic region). Parking at the KOIN building is a bitch, Beaverton has a small lot in back and one in front. Beaverton has four C band earth stations sitting unused, a short tower with STLs, TSLs, some other microwave links and a cell phone tenant.
It will take some time for this deal to be approved and I wouldn’t even attempt to guess what will happen as to how they consolidate their assets.
At the Beaverton building, short term, they will drop the fiber from KGW and put one in to KOIN for the news feed once the contract with KGW expires (or maybe they’ll pay it off and do it sooner) but beyond that it is all a guess. They actually feed the news from KGW to Beaverton, then to Seattle to insert it in the Program chain and then feed it back to Beaverton and up to the hill for air. Engineering wise right now, Beaverton is just a big router. Eliminating that building would take a lot of work that would have to be done first before it could actually be taken out of the loop. Just sayin’
News of this proposed merger broke over the weekend and was confirmed today. Other sources including CNN report divestitures will be necessary (probably in other markets), and the details seem to get hammered out after the ‘we agree this’ is announced.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/03/media/tribune-nexstar-merger/index.html
And never would I have guessed that the 10 PM news from KGW went up to KCPQ-Seattle and back down again.
Also, let’s remember that when KPTV and KPDX gained common ownership, KPTV moved from what’s now the Portland Opera Building to the KPDX building on Greenbrier in Beaverton.
Remember that Fox Television. Is still looking to aqurring KCPQ. When it comes to the Seattle Seahawk football season. It should be noted that Nexstar. Has more stations that are affilated with CBS. In addition to the Tribune stations that carry the CW Network.
Once this deal is all said and done. Portland TV could have as many of four doplies. KATU/KUNP – KOIN/KRCW – KGW/KGWZ – KPTV/KPDX.
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