With a judge approving the company’s disclosure agreement and setting up a June confirmation hearing, Diamond lawyer says the company is poised to exit Chapter 11, while insisting a just-approved November deadline extension is merely a “prophylactic motion.”
Audacy, the second-largest radio company in the country, announced Sunday that it is filing for bankruptcy protection. The news comes as radio continues to be challenged in the streaming era, with radio listenership dropping precipitously since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and advertising declining across platforms. The radio and streaming network plans an official reorganization. In an agreement approved by a supermajority of its creditors, the company’s debt will be reduced from $1.9 billion to approximately $350 million, according to a release from the company. In exchange, those holding Audacy’s debt will receive equity in the revamped Audacy. Pictured: Audacy CEO David J. Field.
The Santa Barbara News-Press, once an illustrious and revered publication that was essential to Southern California readers for decades, has filed for bankruptcy and laid off what remains of its current staff. The paper, which began publishing more than 150 years ago, filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy last week following years of newsroom turmoil, declining readership and an evolving industry. The bankruptcy filing is a liquidation, not a reorganization, meaning the historic publication has seen its last days.
The digital media company Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, and new documents disclosed in the proceedings offer a rare glimpse into the financial maneuvering that led the privately held company to insolvency.
A reporter for Vice Media Group blasted the company for dishing out massive salaries to executives as the once-high-flying firm staggered toward bankruptcy — yet can’t spare a dime for him to pay for court records. Joseph Cox, a senior staff writer for Vice-owned tech site Motherboard, tweeted screenshots from from documents filed by Vice in its bankruptcy proceedings listing its payments and transfers to top brass for the year before the media company filed for Chapter 11 protection in May.
Exclusives
Judge Christopher Lopez made the ruling on Thursday in Houston. Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed in March. Diamond said in a financial filing last fall it had debt of $8.67 billion.
Vice Media Group, popular for websites such as Vice and Motherboard, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday to engineer its sale to a group of lenders, capping years of financial difficulties and top-executive departures. Vice said that the lender consortium, which includes Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, will provide about $225 million in the form of a credit bid for substantially all of the company’s assets and also assume significant liabilities at closing.
The media business is in talks to sell itself to top lenders Fortress Investment and Soros Fund Management through a reorganization that would wipe out other investors.
Vice Media Group, the swashbuckling, youth-skewing digital media brand, is preparing to file for bankruptcy. The company, which was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017, is considering the move after struggling to find a buyer, according to reports.
A group of three creditors have filed a petition in the United States for Mexico’s TV Azteca to enter bankruptcy involuntarily, alleging the broadcaster is not paying the $63.32 million it owes them. The bondholders, Luxembourg-based Plenisfer Investments SICAV, New York-based Cyrus Capital Partners and Sandpiper Ltd, registered in the Cayman Islands, filed the Chapter 11 petition in a federal court in New York.
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports networks division, Diamond Sports Group, has officially missed the deadline for a $30.8 million TV rights payment to Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, signaling that the restructuring plan Diamond entered into bankruptcy with earlier this week has more than a few outs to get before it retires the side. For now, with the Diamondbacks set to open their 2023 regular season on the road against the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 30, it appears there will be no disruption to Diamond’s Bally Sports Arizona channel carrying the games.
The move came after it missed a $140 million interest payment last month. Diamond owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner. Those networks have the rights to 42 professional teams — 14 baseball, 16 NBA and 12 NHL. The company said in a release Tuesday night that it expects to continue to operate during the bankruptcy process and that coverage of games should not be affected.
Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of U.S. regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, toppled by a more than $8 billion debt load. The company, which is an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas. Diamond said it was still finalizing the restructuring support agreement with creditors. The plan could see Diamond separate from Sinclair to become a standalone operation, Diamond said.
Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair Broadcast Group unit that runs the Bally Sports regional sports networks, is planning to file for bankruptcy next week when a big interest payment is due. Sinclair borrowed about $9 billion when it bought the 19 Fox regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. in 2019. Sinclair rebranded the networks after making a deal with Bally’s Corp.
The association says the pandemic-related show cancellations are behind the need to reorganize. It says it plans to go ahead with its two events planned for next year in the Bahamas and Hungary.
Far-right wing website InfoWars on Sunday filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in the face of multiple defamation lawsuits. Alex Jones, founder of InfoWars, was found liable for damages in a trio of lawsuits last year filed after he falsely claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
Black News Channel — which shut down operations on Friday, just two years after making a splashy debut — has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida. In its Monday filing, the Tallahassee-based network listed $10 million-$50 million in liabilities, and estimated between 200 and 999 creditors are owed money.
MobiTV has refuted an earlier report that suggested the company was poised to cease operations on May 2 and terminate its 86 employees, saying company-issued warnings to that effect were merely requirements of its ongoing bankruptcy process.
VidAngel, which provides edited versions — no nudity, “unwanted” language, violence — of video content streamed on Netflix and Amazon Prime, said its trustee in bankruptcy has filed a reorganization plan.
Burdened with $530 million in debt, LBI Media Inc. and 17 of its affiliates and subsidiaries have filed for Chapter 11 relief in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, announcing plans for a company reorganization. The privately owned Spanish-language media company operates EstrellaTV network, 10 television and 17 radio stations across the U.S.
The bankruptcy auction for the sale of The Weinstein Co. has been moved to May 4 from an original date of May 2, and creditors want stalking horse bidder Lantern Capital to explain how it values separate pieces of the company’s assets in its $425 million bid.
The scandal-ridden Weinstein Co. said Monday it has filed for bankruptcy protection and entered into a “stalking horse” agreement with an affiliate of Dallas-based Lantern Capital Partners, meaning the equity firm has agreed to buy the company, subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The largest U.S. radio company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it struggles to deal with its $20 billion debt pile.
Embattled iHeartMedia Inc. is circulating documents for a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this weekend for the biggest U.S. radio broadcaster. Advisers to some of iHeart’s senior creditors have been shown bankruptcy papers that would be used on the first day of court proceedings, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Weinstein Co. appears headed for bankruptcy four months after larger-than-life film mogul Harvey Weinstein was brought down by multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. Dropping a Sunday night bombshell, the board of TWC said it has no choice but to pursue bankruptcy in a sharply worded letter rebuking potential buyers Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle, who were part of a group of investors looking to redeem the film and production company.
There are some hurdles ahead as the radio group seeks to restructure its $2.3 billion in debt.
Just ahead of debt default, the nation’s second-largest radio group yesterday filed for bankruptcy while offering a restructuring plan to reduce debt by more than $1 billion. “Our existing secured lenders will become our new majority shareholders.”
The New York company says in the filing that it has as much as $500 million in debt and up to $100 million in assets.
Sinclair Buys Six Pappas Stations In Neb.
The broadcast group pays $31.25 million to add to its portfolio the Nebraska stations KFXL Lincoln, KHGI Kearney, KHGI-LD O’Neill, KWNB-LD Hayes Center, KWNB-LD McCook and KHGI-CD North Platte.
Bids for the stations, all in Nebraska, are due by 5 p.m. on Oct. 19, with the auction set for Oct. 27
Aereo, the defunct streaming-TV service shuttered last year over copyright violations, raised less than $2 million from the sale of its assets in a bankruptcy auction this week. An attorney for Aereo calls the results disappointing. The company had expected to bring in anywhere from $4 million to $31.2 million.
On Friday, a jury in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Ark., found that the transfer of Equity Media Holdings Corp.’s Retro Television Network to Equity’s Chairman-CEO, Henry Luken, for $18.5 million “was a constructively fraudulent transfer,” as alleged by Equity’s bankruptcy trustee. The jury awarded $47.4 million to the bankruptcy trustee. Luken Communications LLC turned around and on Sunday filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chattanooga.
