“There is no basis” for the story in The Street that says that Fox and Ion are forming a joint venture to own and operate their combined stations, the Wells Fargo analysts says in a note to clients. “This is a complete overreaction based on no underlying research, data or factual information, in our view.”
21st Century Fox stands to gain from an elevated offer from TV station owner Ion Media Networks for a joint venture that would combine the companies’ TV stations. According to two people familiar with the talks, the potential deal would give Fox as much as 90% of the retransmission fees for its affiliated stations collected by the JV from pay-TV operators. That’s a marked increase from where talks stood during the summer, the industry sources said.
2016 Revenue: $147.9 million Stations: 62 stations in 56 markets Coverage: 64.82% Ownership: Private Key Executives: Brandon Burgess, chairman-CEO; David Glenn, co-head of TV stations operations; Terri Santisi, co-head of TV stations operations. What’s Up: […]
22. ION MEDIA NETWORKS, West Palm Beach, Fla. 2015 Revenue: $91.3 million Stations: 60 stations in 55 markets Coverage: 65.2% Ownership: Private Key Executives: Brandon Burgess, chairman-CEO.
Douglas Holloway, president of Ion Media Networks and a former NBC honcho, was chastised by an appellate court panel for trying to hide financial assets and bailing on child support and alimony payments in his acrimonious divorce. The bad behavior could land Holloway, 60, in jail on weekends for 20 days, according to the Manhattan Appellate Division decision.
Ion Buying Three Roberts TVs For $7.75M
Three TV stations owned by Roberts Broadcasting Co., which filed for bankruptcy in 2011, are being sold as part of a settlement reached Wednesday. Ion Media Networks is paying $7.75 million for WRBU St. Louis; WZRB Columbia, S.C.; and WAZE Evansville, Ind.
Exclusives
Ion Media Networks today announced a new long-term agreement for Ion Television’s nationwide carriage on DirecTV. The agreement covers the distribution of Ion’s flagship network, Ion Television, on DirecTV’s broad […]
After three years, the FCC has summarily dismissed an applications proposing a “share-time” arrangement for a bunch of TV stations licensed to Ion Media Networks. Urban Television (49% owned by Ion and 51% by BET Founder Bob Johnson’s RLJ Companies), would acquire “share-time licenses” permitting Urban to broadcast on subchanels on the Ion channels. ION would continue to be the licensee of, and would continue to operate, its existing stations on the same channels.
The network names Robert Russo and William O’Shea vice presidents, political sales, effective Dec. 1.
