Fox In Talks To Buy Sinclair-Tribune Spinoffs
21st Century Fox wants to buy 10 TV stations from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, presumably the 10 that Sinclair has to sell to win regulatory approval of its acquisition of Tribune Media.
This article was originally posted on variety.com
Me thinks it would be safe to assume that Sinclair will keep the larger and more profitable of the stations in markets that overlap, and if they are FOX stations, they would keep the more ad-revenue station and just change its network affiliation. That would happen in two markets. Sinclair keeping Tribunes’s KTVI, St. Louis, and changing it back to its original ABC affiliation while giving up KDNL which would change to FOX and become a FOX O & O (this one is complicated by KPLR-TV, also owned by Tribune–who does that one go to in the deal?
I’m guess Sinclair, but FOX may make a strong play for it)…… and elsewhere, keeping Tribune’s WGHP, High Point-Greensboro-Winston Salem and also changing it back to its original ABC affiliation, while giving up WXLV which would change to FOX and also become a FOX O & O….. I would also assume Sinclair would keep KWGN and spin off KDVR, already a FOX station to become a FOX O & O. In the other markets like Seattle, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Grand Rapids, Richmond, Des Moines, and Harrisburg, one might assume that Sinclair would merely keep the older, larger network affiliates that are not FOX affiliates, and merely spin off the lesser stations that it already owns in those markets to FOX. I’m not an expert, but economies of scale would seem to work in Sinclair’s favor here.
Why would Fox want either KDNL or WXLV, both of which have been massively unsuccessful as ABC affiliates? I seriously doubt that Fox is anxious to emulates CBS’ experience with WGPR (now WWJ) in Detroit.
FOX is getting its hands on KCPQTacoma-Seattle, end of discussion. They wanted that one before Sinclair ever did but the buyout deal with Tribune didn’t work out. The Official TV of the Seattle Seahawks will be FOX’s before long. As to KOMO-the ABC plant Sinclair already has here, they’ll have to put up with Boris’ “Bottom Line,” like him or don’t (and they don’t seem to, understandably)..
Yeah, that’s what I figure, too — Fox has wanted KCPQ for years. It would be interesting to see how much value is assigned to that station — back in 1975, it sold in bankruptcy for $378,000. I think that when Tribune bought it in 1998, the price was over $300 million… Oh, and another bit of trivia — KCPQ is one of two Fox affiliates that were once PBS affiliates. The other (that I know of) is KOKH in Oklahoma City.
Looks like WXMI Fox17 may become a Fox O&O it will be interesting to see how Fox will run Fox17. Although may have a hard time getting the Fox Syndie shows like in major markets like The Real, Wendy Williams which both come on Nexstar WOTV. They could get Page Six TV since it doesn’t have a very good timeslot 10:30AM on WZZM maybe could get TMZ & TMZ Live which comes on WXSP for TMZ Live would get a better timeslot in the afternoons as it comes on at 3AM TMZ comes on at 10:30PM. But I also wouldn’t count out Meredith being a buyer if Fox doesn’t buy WXMI.