Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group is the latest station group and ATSC 3.0 proponent to join the Pearl TV consortium. Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley: “Since the rubber is really going to hit the road here this year, it just made sense to join Pearl and speak … with one industry voice. I think it will speed up the rollout and the ultimate adoption of NextGen TV.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group has settled the lawsuit stemming from its failed $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media. The merger was scuttled after the FCC referred it to an administrative law judge, making it untenable. Tribune responded by terminating the deal and filing suit against Sinclair in August 2018, alleging breach of contract.

The free streaming platform now exceeds 1.6 million downloads, offers 100 linear channels, including a new 2020 election live-feed channel, and rolls out local on demand viewing of hit broadcast syndication TV shows.

The new Cast.era joint venture plans to provide NextGen TV solutions for the television industry rollout, starting with Sinclair stations this year. It will focus on three main business areas: cloud infrastructure for broadcasting, ultra-low latency OTT broadcasting and personalized advertising.

The social media specialist’s primary responsibility is to work directly with Sinclair’s stations to define and enhance their social media strategy.

Next week’s CES in Las Vegas will once again take over the Strip with a sprawling, frenetic glimpse into tomorrow’s consumer technology. This time, NextGen TV will make its show floor debut, and hopes are high consumers will notice.

Beginning Dec. 29, the company will increase pay for employees whose minimum wage was previously tied to state and federal mandates.

Sinclair Broadcast Group will stop producing the must-run political commentary segments that have attracted the company a lot of criticism since former Trump White House staffer Boris Epshteyn began hosting them.

AT&T reached a renewal of its retransmission agreement with Nashville License Holdings, which owns the CW affiliate in Nashville, lifting a six-month blackout and ending a dispute that affected a dozen stations that operate under shared service agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Sinclair Broadcast Group appears to have skipped Tuesday’s impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. Stephanie Ruhle of NBC was happy to jump into its abandoned seat. She posted a picture of her press pass on the vacant Sinclair seat on Twitter. “Well–no risk of @WeAreSinclair popping up with comments,” she tweeted. “On this historic day, their decision not to come has resulted in me getting a seat.”

Rob Weisbord becomes president of local news and marketing services division on Jan. 1, while Steven Marks, EVP and chief operating officer of Sinclair’s TV Group will retire at year’s end.

The FCC today ordered nine TV station groups linked to Sinclair Broadcast Group to return to the negotiating table with AT&T’s DirectTV after some consumers have been without access to 20 stations for five months.

Retrans powers the group’s 3Q, passing ad dollars. While auto is still down, pharmaceuticals, attorneys and insurance are the driving ad categories.

The growth was fueled by increases in distribution and digital revenues.

Allen is chief executive of television conglomerate Entertainment Studios, which recently partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group, the TV station group owner that has drawn criticism for a perceived conservative bias. Asked whether Sinclair’s political bent concerns him, Allen says, “I don’t let that get in the way. There’s business and there’s politics. And we can put politics aside.”

Dan Mellon is upped from GM of WJLA Washington to the company’s VP of sales transformation and names Michael Miller to succeed him at the ABC affiliate.

Broadcasters have natural revenue opportunities in business lines like OTT, podcasting and ATSC 3.0, said executives from Sinclair, E.W. Scripps, Gray and Bonneville Salt Lake at TVNewsCheck’s TV2020 conference.

The new carriage contract covers Sinclairs O&Os plus the Tennis Channel, Marquee Sports Network, 21 regional sports networks and the YES Network.

Sinclair stations remained on AT&T’s U-Verse and DirecTV distribution platforms past the 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, deadline. A source said Sinclair, which ultimately controls the signals, had provided the extension. It was not clear for how long.

As a blackout looms with the current retransmission consent impasse between Sinclair and AT&T — Sinclair is warning DirecTV and U-Verse customers the stations (136 stations in 86 markets) could be off those AT&T-owned MVPDs by Sept. 27 — AT&T is framing the impasse for legislators concerned about their constituent/viewers as a still-ongoing negotiation with AT&T, not surprisingly, “on the side of the customer.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group is warning that millions of subscribers to AT&T’s pay TV services could be blacked out on Sept. 27 unless a new carriage agreement is reached. Sinclair said its agreement with AT&T was set to expire in August and that it gave AT&T a five-week extension.

Airing Sunday mornings, the investigative news program hosted by Sharyl Attkisson reaches nearly 700,000 households weekly.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized ABC and Sinclair for a GOP group’s ad that ran during last night’s Democratic debate in which her picture is shown set on fire. The ad, which ran in cities like New York and Washington, came from the New Faces GOP PAC, which is led by Elizabeth Heng, who last year sought to unseat Democrat Jim Costa in a California House district.

An inflammatory political attack ad targeting congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aired Thursday on WJLA Washington, an ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group during the third Democratic debate.

Advanced compression (SHVC), multiplexing and technicolor SL-HDR1 together demonstrate impressive improvements in delivering high-quality video to fixed, mobile devices.

Sinclair acquired a 20% interest in the New York-based regional sports network and is responsible for its distribution on cable, satellite and digital platforms. Amazon and the New York Yankees were also in the buying consortium. Sinclair’s interest is valued at $347 million, while the network is valued at $3.47 billion, according to Sinclair.

Aitken moves from VP to SVP of advanced technology, responsible for the company’s development and deployment of next-gen technologies. Shapiro goes from VP to SVP of corporate development, responsible for acquisitions and external investments.

Byron Allen is an equity and content partner in the RSN holding company that includes exclusive local rights to 42 professional teams consisting of 14 Major League Baseball teams, 16 National Basketball Association teams, and 12 National Hockey League  teams.

At least 20 Sinclair-owned stations posted “stories” on their website starting last Thursday hyping a new “Keep America Great” hat for sale on the Trump campaign’s website. All of the stories appear to have initially linked directly to the campaign’s online store, though that link has since been removed on some of the stories.