Sinclair Broadcast Group

The agreement will bring the classic movie diginet to 33 new markets including Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, boosting its U.S. clearance to nearly 70%.

Former NAB CTO Kevin Gage has been named EVP of ONE Media, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s joint venture that is developing technology it hopes will become the ATSC 3.0 next-gen TV transmission standard.

Over the past few weeks, we have begun to see how the FCC’s decision in March to curtail the use of joint sales and shared services agreements is impacting the business.Three groups have proposal three different plans to come into compliance with the new rules. Of them, Nexstar’s arrangement with Pluria Marshall is the potential win-win.

An examination of the FCC’s 484 pages of incentive auction rules shows the commission has rejected a proposal to allow a blanket waiver for all a group’s stations if the group turned down federal reimbursement for moving. In addition, the FCC made clear that it believes it has wiggle room under Congress’ mandate that it make “all reasonable efforts” to preserve the coverage areas and populations served by stations required to move to new channels during the repacking.

The three stations — WCIV Charleston and WCFT-WJSU Birmingham — are now owned by Allbritton Communications, which Sinclair is buying, and were to be operated by sidecar companies. But those plans were dashed when the FCC earlier this year cracked down on the use of JSAs and SSAs. Today’s action, Sinclair said, is designed to win speedy approval of the Allbritton deal.

Any new broadcast TV technical standard must “harmonize” with the standards used by wireless mobile operator and the white space spectrum user communities, according to Sinclair’s tech guru Mark Aitken. That’s why Sinclair is working on an alternative to ATSC 3.0 along with Coherent Logix. Their joint venture, ONE Media, will create a platform that relies on software-defined radios in consumer devices ranging from LTE mobile phones to tomorrow’s TVs to make updates possible so TV stations don’t get locked into a standard that quickly becomes obsolete.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is forming a political action committee, according to paperwork recently filed with Federal Election Commission. Sinclair SVP of Policy and Strategy Rebecca Hanson said the company will use the PAC as it works on issues in front of Congress and the FCC. “There are a lot of challenges facing our industry, and we believe that engaging in the process through the PAC is one of a variety of ways to further our goals,” she said.

The Sinclair CEO says the uncertainty surrounding the regulatory environment is making it tough on broadcasters. Congress and the courts need to supply some answers to disputes over shared service agreements and the FCC’s ownership cap. Also on the top of his to-do list is creating a next-generation broadcast TV standard that will let stations “be everywhere 24 hours a day, 365 on every device.”

Excluding political, the station group reported local core broadcast revenue was up 49.3%, while national net broadcast revenues were down 32.6%, versus the first quarter of 2013, in part due to higher political and Super Bowl revenue.

The new joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Coherent Logix, ONE Media, plans to develop what it’s calling the Next Generation Broadcast Platform that it feels is needed to address issues that ATSC is not. Sinclair’s Mark Aitken said: “ATSC does not offer a place for how we, as an industry, can work to shape regulation and work with all of the government bodies to make a next-generation system happen.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Wednesday that it has engaged Moelis & Co. as its financial adviser in connection with the company’s potential sale of CBS affiliate WHP (CBS) in Harrisburg, Pa., together with the right to provide services to WLYH (CW) Harrisburg, WMMP (MNT) Charleston, S.C., and WABM (MNT) Birmingham, Ala. The potential sale of the stations had been previously proposed to the FCC in order to smooth the way for approval of its proposed $985 million purchase of Allbritton Communications’ television stations that it wants to close by July 27.

The GY-HM890, introduced earlier this month, features a built-in streaming engine that allows cellular-based live HD transmission directly from the camera. Deliveries of the new GY-HM890s are expected to begin next month, with several cameras slated for WOAI and KABB San Antonio, Texas, and WJAC Johnstown, Pa. The purchase is the first phase of the company’s planned standardization on the camera across its ENG operations.

Sinclair has proposed dropping the use of sidecars as part of its effort to push its acquisition of Allbritton through the FCC. Sinclair says it will sell three stations that it now owns — WHP Harrisburg-Lancaster, Pa.; WMMP Charleston, S.C.; and WABM Birmingham, Ala.– to independent third parties. The company assured the FCC it would not enter any operational or financial agreements with any of the buyers.

The broadcaster promotes David Amy to chief operating officer and names Christopher Ripley chief financial officer.

In its rise to the top, Sinclair Broadcast Group has encountered a few speed bumps. The biggest: A debt-fueled buying spree heading into the recession brought the company so close […]

Reaching nearly 39% of U.S. TV homes and operating two — or even three — stations in many of its 77 markets, Sinclair is a force in the syndication programming […]

He’s also been called brash, arrogant, Machiavellian, a maverick. He avoided joining the industry’s preeminent trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters, for decades but finally signed up a couple years back. He’s come under fire from media watchers for pushing consolidation and sometimes requiring Sinclair stations to run programming reflecting his conservative views. But one thing he’s never been accused of is being stupid.

The Baltimore super group grows dramatically in size and industry influence. With the great expansion, Sinclair has moved to the top ranks of TV broadcasting and earned its recognition as TVNewsCheck’s Station Group of the Year for 2014. This story originally appeared in TVNewsCheck’s Executive Outlook magazine in January. (Photo by Jonathan Hanson)

The owner of Toledo, Ohio, NBC affiliate WNWO tells the cable operator’s subscribers the station is gone for the foreseeable future and encourages them to switch to Dish Network, DirecTV or AT&T U-verse.

On a same-station basis, excluding political, the acquisitive station group reported local core broadcast revenue was up 10.8%, while national net broadcast revenues were down 3.1%, versus the fourth quarter of 2012, in part due to account shifts from national to local.

A former Portland television news reporter is seeking class action status for a federal lawsuit that accuses the Sinclair Broadcasting Group of failing to pay overtime to news reporters at its Oregon television stations. The stations formerly were owned by Fisher Communications but were acquired by Sinclair in a $373 million deal announced in April. The suit also names Fisher as a defendant.

Is there bad blood brewing between The Seattle Times and the company that recently purchased the city’s ABC affiliate KOMO, the Sinclair Broadcast Group? Judging by a recent piece that aired on KOMO, it would certainly seem that way. Attributed to co-anchor Russ Bowen and “news services,” the Jan. 23 segment comes under the header “Is the newspaper industry dying?”

While Sinclair is working on its own next-gen transmission standard because it doesn’t like where ATSC 3.0 is headed, there’s another option. The station groups should become fully involved in ATSC — that’s the best way to insure that the standard that finally emerges in 2016 will jibe with their business strategy and give them a fighting chance.

Spearheaded by Mark Aitken, Sinclair’s VP of advanced technology, the new “broadcast-centric”  transmission standard is being designed to address an issue Sinclair feels is being left out of ATSC’s efforts: the ability to reach viewers on their mobile devices. “ATSC 3.0 ought to be whatever broadcasters want it to be,” Aitken says. “This process should be about bringing broadcasters to the table for a solution, rather than having it dictated to them by TV set manufacturers.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group has purchased office space for two of its newly-acquired KFOX (Fox) and KDBC (CBS) in El Paso, Texas. The building, which used to be a theater, will undergo significant renovations before KFOX and KDBC move in. Sinclair plans to build news sets, satellite farms and sales and administration facilities for the stations.

Buckeye CableSystem will give its Toledo-area customers a small credit each month until the cable television company and Sinclair Broadcast Group agree on a new contract that allows Buckeye to resume carrying Sinclair’s NBC affiliate WNWO.

Lucy Rutishauser, David Bochenek, Del Parks and Don Thompson all add senior vice president to their business cards.

WNWO, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s NBC affiliate in Toledo Ohio, ordered Buckeye CableSystem to remove its signal from Buckeye’s carriage after the existing retransmission consent contract between the two expired.

In a move that could be trouble for Sinclair’s previously announced purchase of Allbritton Communications, the Media Bureau says Sinclair’s plans to spin off stations in Charleston, Birmingham and Harrisburg to sidecar operators would violate commission rules.

The sale puts the Craig Ferguson-hosted syndicated show to 58 more markets for a fall 2014 debut.

The former FCC senior adviser will head the broadcast group’s new Washington office as senior vice president, strategy and policy. At the FCC, she served on the Incentive Auction Task Force and has been active in encouraging broadcasters to participate in the auction, a position somewhat at odds with her new employer.

The 24 stations in 15 markets cover 3.4% of the U.S. and range from DMAs 68 to 201.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it closed on the acquisition of the non-license assets of NBC affiliate KRNV Reno, Nev. (DMA 107), from Intermountain West for $26 million, giving it a triopoly in the market. It already owns the Fox affiliate and operates the MNT outlet.

The former Acme Communications exec will oversee Sinclair’s stations in Washington, Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va.

The award from TVNewsCheck recognizes the company’s deep faith in broadcasting and its status as a technology leader through its championing a new broadcast standard and new uses for TV spectrum.

On a same-station basis, excluding political, the acquisitive station group reported local core broadcast revenue was up 14% in the quarter, year over year, while national core revenue was basically flat.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has handed down a round of layoffs at its newly-acquired KOMO Seattle and KATU Portland, Ore.

Gray Television and Sinclair Broadcast Group are willing to give up channel repacking funds following the spectrum auction if that means it will let them continue innovating with other technologies outside the approved generation of ATSC, according to a letter filed with the FCC today.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., America’s biggest TV station group, is drawing fire for how it skirts media ownership limits by using “sidecar” agreements to run stations it doesn’t own. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.