Sinclair Broadcast Group

Excluding political, local revenue rose 13.3%, while national dropped 7.4%. Automotive, grocery and medical were the leading ad categories.

The Freedom Communications sales exec becomes GM of the CBS affiliate in West Palm Beach operated and being purchased by Sinclair.

“Of the diversified media companies, CBS has the most TV and radio revenue exposure to the contentious political races of 2012,” says Wells Fargo’s Marci Ryvicker, who expects political advertising to reach $4.9 billion this year.

(RTTNews) — Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. announced that it has closed the asset acquisition of Four Points Media from affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. for $200 million. The company […]

Verizon and Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a retransmission consent agreement, according to Bill Fanshawe, general manager of Baltimore’s WBFF and WNUV. WBFF is owned and WNUV is managed by the Hunt Valley based broadcaster. The old deal expires on Dec. 31.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has deals pending to buy Four Points Media for $200 million and the TV stations of Freedom Communications for $385 million, so it recently announced negotiations with its bankers for additional borrowing. Now the deal is done.

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owner of WPGH (Fox) and WPMY (MNT), whose contract for carriage with Verizon’s FiOS expires on Dec. 31, says “based on the current status of negotiations we do not believe they will be carrying this stations after that date.”

The three-year contract that allows Insight Communications to carry Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Fox affiliate WDKY Lexington, Ky., as part of its cable packages is up at the end of the year, and Sinclair says it expects a new deal won’t be reached in time.

The eight-station deal will give Sinclair two more duopolies, one in West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce, Fla., another in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, N.Y. It also makes Sinclair the country’s largest group in number of stations. Next in line for acquisition is LIN’s WWHO Columbus, Ohio, with a deal to be announced very soon.

Excluding political revenues, local net broadcast revenues were up 3.2% and national net broadcast revenues were down 8.9%.

The broadcaster urges Congress to postpone any auction considerations until after a thorough spectrum audit is completed.

Sales Director Kent Crawford is now in charge of CBS affiliate KUTV and MNT affil KMYU as successor to Steve Carlston.

NBCU’s new daytime talk show with British host Trisha Goddard is a conflict talker in the mold of NBCU’s Maury. It’s being sold on a cash-plus-barter basis (four national minutes/11 local) for fall 2012.

The $212 million that Scripps agreed to pay McGraw-Hill for its station group justifies higher valuations for other stations groups like Belo and Sinclair, says Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker.

The Four Points group includes seven stations in four markets, including the CBS affiliates in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas. The seller is Cerberus, a private equity firm. Sinclair will operate the stations under an LMA prior to closing.

In the station group’s earnings call with analysts today, management says they’re in a prime position to take advantage of all the stations now on the block.Said David Amy, Sinclair EVP-CFO: “There’s nothing we have to go out and purchase.… We can be very selective. If the price make sense for us, we can deal.”

Local revenue, including advertising and retrans, was up 5%, while national was down 12.8%. Excluding political revenues, local net broadcast revenues were up 5.3% and national net broadcast revenues were down 7.8%.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has purchased Ross Video’s OverDrive for three facilities. Sinclair, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Md., will launch automated productions in Texas, Maine and Tennessee this summer. The adoption […]

They are the market’s final stations to convert their news operations to high def. Sinclair’s WZTV will feature an interactive set, while Young’s WKRN has HD capability from the field ready to go. And Nashville’s other news producers — WSMV and WTVF — aren’t resting on their laurels either, adding new sets, graphics, file-based editing systems and news automation to stay cutting edge.

The group owner locks in new five-year deals to carry CW programming on 10 of its stations through August 2016.

Available for the first time in TrueHD, the series is now sold in more than 50% of the country for its third off-net cycle.

CEO Jack Perry says in addition to developing the platform that stations will be able to use to deliver their programming via broadband to interconnected TV sets, tablets and smart phones in their markets, his company is also lining up national programming to supplement whatever programming the participating stations choose to put on the platform. Preliminary testing on stations is slotted for next month, with the goal of a commercial rollout by January’s CES.

Panelists say the state of the station groups this year is positive, with Sinclair’s David Amy summing up: “The business isn’t going in the wrong direction. It’s going in the right direction.”

The franchise will air on the group’s 22 TV stations beginning in September and will also be streamed on the Internet.

Excluding political revenues, local net broadcast revenues were up 7.6% and national net broadcast revenues were up 1.2%. Strong performances came from the automotive, schools, pharmaceuticals, and furniture ad categories.

The GM of WTNZ Knoxville, Tenn., is tapped to lead Sinclair’s ABC-MNT duopoly in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, N.C.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has selected Panasonic’s P2 HD camcorder for all 12 of its news producing stations. The order comes on the heels of other investments in Panasonic solutions.

John Hummel is tapped to run the Raleigh, N.C., duopoly of WLFL-WRDC. He’s succeeded at WSMH Flint, Mich., by Chad Conklin.

Two more stations are ready to transmit mobile DTV. Sinclair-operated WSYX (ABC) and WTTE (Fox) Columbus, Ohio, are now outfitted to transmit up to four channels of mobile DTV service.

Ron Inman is no longer the general manager at Sinclair’s duopoly in Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, N.C., confirms an operator at the station, who said he left last week. WXLV is an ABC affiliate and WMYX is an MNT affiliate.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that it has reached an agreement-in-principle with Comcast Corp. for a multiyear agreement for the continued carriage of 36 stations in 22 markets owned and/or operated by Sinclair or to which Sinclair provides sales services.

Del Parks, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s engineering VP, has a full plate of projects — and spending— this year at his 58 stations. His company is well along on upgrading operations to HD news and overhauling master controls. At the upcoming NAB Show, he and his team will be looking for content management solutions and he’s very curious about exploring digital fingerprinting technology and ways that broadcasters can deliver content directly to the new generation of Internet-connected TVs.

An improving economy has resulted in robust cash flow growth and margins and has led to the group owner considering buying stations again in addition to reinstating quarterly dividends.

Local revenue (including retrans) was up 19%, national rose 35%. It is reinstating quarterly dividends beginning in March.

Wells Fargo Securities analyst Marci Ryvicker has officially upgraded the television sector to “overweight” (buy) from “market weight” (neutral). She also upgraded Sinclair Broadcast Group to “outperform” ahead of the company’s 4Q earnings report this morning.

U.S. TV broadcastersface a competitive situation similar to a prizefighter who’s forced to wear a straitjacket when facing the World Heavy Weight Champion.That’s the view of Mark Aitken, director of advanced technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group. On the one hand, they are required by law to transmit DTV using the ATSC A/53 standard, and on the other, they are being pushed into a knockdown, drag-out battle with wireless providers that covet their spectrum and are being cheered on by the FCC.

The new agreement covers 28 stations in 17 markets. In addition, TWC will produce three half-hour local news program, Monday through Friday, on Sinclair’s ABC affiliate, WXLV Greensboro/Winston-Salem, N.C., beginning in January 2012.

The station group will now use Rentrak’s TV database currency measurement system at 21 stations in 12 markets.

The new multi-year retransmission consent agreement covers WTTA Tampa, Fla.; WEAR and WFGX Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla.; WTWC Tallahassee, Fla.; and WABM and WTTO Birmingham, Ala.

Time Warner Cable reached an agreement in principle with Sinclair Broadcasting Saturday evening for continued carriage of its 28 TV stations in TWC markets, and said it expects to work toward a final agreement in the next seven days. “We’re pleased to reach an agreement with Sinclair Broadcasting without any interruption in service for our customers,” said Rob Marcus, TWC president-COO.