Sinclair Broadcast Group

ATSC 3.0 has hit a sludgy stretch of path toward its end goal of broad U.S. adoption and providing new content services. It will take many hands — a potential FCC task force, station group cooperation and an elongated pipeline for receivers included — to get the standard’s implementation flying again.

Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley said he expects the company’s CBS affiliates to be back on FuboTV in the next couple of months and said broadcasters want to take control of future negotiations with virtual multichannel video programming distributors.

EVP-CFO Lucy Rutishauser: “First quarter’s core advertising is expected to be dragged down a single-digit percent versus first quarter of last year.” And Broadcasting President Robert Weisbord said: “Local was strong in January and February. The weakness we’re seeing is really on the national side. We continue to think that we’ll see that.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group moves her from KTVL Medford, Ore., to oversee the California Fox-CW duopoly.

After Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports Group skipped about $140 million in interest payments due Wednesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Diamond has told MLB it intends to pay its baseball teams, but he called it an “unfolding story” that could change. “In the event that MLB stepped in, what we would do is we would produce the games, we would make use of our asset with the MLB Network to do that, we would go directly to distributors, Comcast, Charter, the big distributors, and make an agreement to have those games distributed on cable networks,” he added.

The missed payments by Diamond Sports Group started a 30-day grace period that could be the prelude to a bankruptcy filing, which could lead to changes in how televised games are made available to viewers. Diamond said: “The company intends to use the 30-day grace period to continue progressing its ongoing discussions with creditors and other key stakeholders regarding potential strategic alternatives and deleveraging transactions to best position Diamond Sports Group for the future.”

Diamond Sports Group, the division of Sinclair Broadcast Group that runs the troubled Bally Sports regional sports networks, has a deadline of Wednesday to make a $140 million interest payment. How the day plays out could have a big impact on the future of local sports on TV. While most reports have indicated that Diamond — which now operates independently from Sinclair — will decide not to make the payment, a source familiar with the situation maintains that Diamond making the payment remains in play.

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.

Executives from Sinclair, NBCUniversal Local, Cox Media Group, Nexstar’s The Hill, Samsung and Frequency will explore the programming opportunities presented by the rise of FAST channels in the streaming ecosystem at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere event at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 16. Register here.

Sinclair Broadcast Group said its free, over-the-air multicast networks Comet, Charge! and TBD have made deals that will add 2.4 million TV households to their distribution footprint by the end of the second quarter. The added distribution reflects new broadcast affiliation agreements with Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television and Entravision in markets including San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego and Hartford-New Haven, Conn.

Concerned about a possible bankruptcy for Diamond Sports Group, the subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group that operates networks under the name Bally Sports and owns local broadcasting rights to 14 of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, the league has formed a new economic study committee that will gather next week at the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.

Industry leaders from Fox Television Stations, Debmar-Mercury, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Sony Pictures Television will unpack business challenges and programming opportunities in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere event at the NAB Show on April 16. Register here.

Without political advertising and with, possibly, a recession on the horizon, station groups rely on their customer-focused approach to drive cross-platform businesses with omnichannel, client-focused campaigns. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Sinclair’s Ernie Ensign says while there are numerous long-term upshots to adopting cloud switching, the group is cautiously taking its time with multiple proofs-of-concept for at least another year. Meanwhile, at least one vendor is pursuing a dramatically different approach to cloud switching. Above, Vizrt hosted a day at a beach house to show local producers how easy live production in the cloud can be.

America’s largest owner of local sports channels is heading toward a complex $8.6 billion debt restructuring in bankruptcy court as it stakes its future on a new direct-to-consumer streaming service. After leveraging up to buy regional sports networks from Walt Disney Co. in 2019, Diamond Sports Group LLC is suffering from a decline in cable TV subscribers, spurring negotiations with creditors and major sports leagues about its viability as a going concern. The outcome will have serious implications for the $55 billion world of sports media rights

Last week, Fox Television Stations convened station groups and syndicators for a press- and deals-free ideas exchange in Los Angeles. Attendees said it could become an annual event. (Fox Television Stations photo)

Billy Chambers will start with Major League Baseball on Feb. 1 in the newly created position of executive vice president for local media, the commissioner’s office said Thursday.

He now has oversight of the Raleigh, N.C.; Pensacola, Fla./Mobile, Ala.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Gainesville, Fla., markets. He will also continue in his role as vice president and general manager of WEAR-WFGX Pensacola and will continue to have oversight of providing services to WPMI-WJTC Mobile.

The live demo highlighted the enhanced geo-targeting capabilities, infotainment and real-time emergency information capabilities of ATSC 3.0.

Executives from Nexstar, Graham Media and Gray Television will share strategies for creating and expanding on opportunities to reach consumers on streaming and other digital platforms in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on Jan. 26. Register here.

Connectivity, security and cloud-based applications top newsroom tech wishlists, technology executives from Sinclair, Gray Television, WCBS New York and Avid said at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum event. Above (l-r): WCBS New York’s Rich Paleski, Avid’s Craig Wilson, Gray Television’s David Burke and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Mike Palmer (Alyssa Wesley photo). Read a full report here and/or watch the video above.

Talks for MLB, the NBA and NHL to acquire the nation’s dominant owner of regional sports networks are faltering — raising the likelihood of a bankruptcy filing that could hasten a nationwide migration of sports fans away from cable TV.

TV stations are amping up their news sharing, collaboration and archive-mining to fill the ever-growing need for more content, and executives from Scripps, Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Fox Television Stations and Dalet shared their most effective methods for doing so in a NewsTECHForum panel on Tuesday. Above, l-r: FTS’ Emily Stone, Dalet’s Stephane Guez, Scripps’ Vanessa Strouse-Kenney, Gray’s Lisa Allen and Sinclair’s Ernie Ensign (Alyssa Wesley photo). Read a full report here and/or watch the video above.

Executives from Sinclair, Fox Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, TAG Video Systems and Imagine Communications told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that live production at volume in the public cloud may finally come to pass next year, noting the growing adoption of enabling technologies like low-latency JPEG-XS compression.

The former NBC Sports exec will oversee the troubled Bally Sports regional sports networks.

Struggling regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group is set to name a CEO Monday, making it more independent from Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has been running the chain of Bally Sports Networks. Sinclair bought the RSNs from The Walt Disney Co., taking on about $9 billion in debit. Since the acquisition, the RSN have lost subscribers and the cost of sports rights has climbed, putting Sinclair in a financial bind. Earlier this year, Sinclair refinanced Diamond’s debt and separated its financials from Diamond’s.

Technology executives from Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, WCBS New York and Avid share how they’re rethinking approaches to reporting, editing, production and multimedia distribution in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum event at the New York Hilton on Dec. 13. Register here.

Most of ATSC 3.0’s audio delay in the U.S. is attributable to the same factors that have held back the rollout of UHD content: there is still a small base of NextGen TV-capable sets; the distribution chain from networks to stations is not fully ready for new formats; and broadcasters are somewhat hamstrung in experimenting with their 3.0 content because of FCC rules that require them to effectively simulcast their 1.0 programming. But despite that, progress is being made.

Third quarter media revenues were down 10% to $684 million. Distribution revenues dropped 11% to $565 million and advertising revenues declined 5% to $112 million. However, Sinclair COO Robert Weisbord had some good news: “On a per-game basis, ad revenues were up by a mid-teens percent, driven by healthy demand in many categories — with the largest gains in service, retail, food and entertainment,” he reported. “Looking forward, we see some positive signs for advertising demand.”

The companies sign a memorandum of understanding to highlight geo-targeting capabilities, enhanced GPS, software updates, in-vehicle entertainment, real-time emergency information and more.

Executives from Gray Television, Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair and Dalet will discuss how hubbing, news sharing and collaboration, AI, the cloud and cutting-edge video acquisition strategies are enhancing the ability of content creation teams to expand their productivity in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum event at the New York Hilton on Dec. 13. Register here.

Sinclair chooses the Kansas stations’ general sales manager to take over leadership.