http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tribune-media-m-a-sinclair-idUSKBN1841HR
U.S. broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc said on Monday it would buy Tribune Media Co, one of the largest U.S. television station operators, for about $3.9 billion cash and stock, and assume about $2.7 billion in debt.
[...] The announcement of the deal comes weeks after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to reverse a 2016 decision that limits broadcasters owning stations serving no more than 39 percent of U.S. television households.
A combined Tribune and Sinclair could surpass this cap and face some regulatory challenges which could result in divestitures, analysts said.
Tribune Media. The newspaper assets were spun off years ago into Tribune Publishing, aka Tronc.
Related: Gannett Ends Pursuit of Rival Newspaper Publisher Tronc
Related Stories
A deal that would have expanded the U.S.'s largest newspaper publisher has fallen apart:
Gannett, owner of USA TODAY and more than 100 local news properties, said Tuesday it has ended its pursuit of Tronc, owner of The Los Angeles Times, an acquisition that would have created the country's largest newspaper publisher. In a statement, Gannett CEO Robert Dickey said the deal would no longer make financial sense to complete. Tronc said the talks fell through because Gannett couldn't secure financing.
The news has not helped Tronc's stock:
Gannett's stock rose 0.7% to $7.83 in morning trading as Tronc shares fell 19% to $9.75. The news that a deal is off comes after The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Gannett had privately sweetened its bid for Tronc, which in May rejected a boosted $15 a share offer. Gannett first made a bid for Tronc in April, when it was then called Tribune Publishing.
A transaction would have been the latest amid a flurry of newspaper deals. Gannett has been seeking to build scale in a newspaper industry suffering from steep declines in advertising revenue. A combined company would have joined titles such as Gannett's USA Today with the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Gannett's public offers were fiercely and publicly rebuked by Tronc Chairman Michael W. Ferro Jr., who repeatedly said the company is worth more than Gannett was willing to pay. Mr. Ferro and Chief Executive Justin C. Dearborn announced a rebranding effort amid Gannett's pursuit, and Mr. Ferro asked investors to believe in his course for Tronc as a stand-alone, more digitally-focused company.
[Tronc — Tribune Online Content, according to: Tribune Publishing Just Changed Its Name to ‘tronc’ - WSJ. -Ed.]
Broadcasting and Cable reports that the FCC has voted to eliminate "the almost eight-decade old requirement that broadcasters, radio and TV, maintain a main studio in or near their community of license." The National Association of Broadcasters expressed support for the change, saying the rule "has outlived its usefulness in an era of mobile news gathering and multiple content delivery platforms."
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn opposed the move, saying it signified "embracing a world in which automated national programming is the new normal." Other critics saw the vote as easing the way for a Sinclair–Tribune merger.
Further reading: statement of Ajit Pai (PDF)
The Hill reports that the FCC will take public comments on Sinclair-Tribune merger until July 12th of this year. Sinclair stations currently reach 40% of US households and with the merger that would increase to 72%.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will take new comments from the public on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s $3.9 billion bid for Tribune Media.
The agency is reopening its review of the merger for public comments after the two companies proposed to sell off some local stations in an effort to bring the deal in line with media ownership restrictions.
The public will have until July 12 to weigh in on the docket.
Also at Reuters: FCC seeks new comments on proposed Sinclair Tribune merger.
Earlier on SN: Sinclair Broadcast Group to Buy Indebted Tribune Media for $3.9 Billion (2017)
Tribune announced its withdrawal from the $3.9 billion transaction in a[n] emailed statement Thursday. Tribune said it has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court against Sinclair seeking compensation for losses incurred as a result of "Sinclair's material breaches" of the merger agreement.
[...] The FCC order asked whether Sinclair was in fact the hidden buyer in a proposal to sell Chicago's WGN-TV to a Maryland automobile executive with no prior broadcast experience, and ties to Sinclair management. The agency also questioned links between the Maryland-based broadcaster and a buyer proposed for stations in Dallas and Houston.
Tribune Media released details of its lawsuit against Sinclair Broadcast Group. saying it is seeking $1 billion from the local TV station owner due to its "belligerent and unnecessarily protracted negotiations" with regulators, which it says doomed the $3.9 billion deal.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday May 09 2017, @11:50AM (4 children)
The ultra-liberal FAIR [fair.org] says that the deal "would’ve been in violation of ownership restrictions just weeks ago."
A plan by the Blackstone Group and 21st Century Fox to jointly take over Tribune Media had been rumoured.
/article.pl?sid=17/05/02/166202 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @10:52PM (3 children)
Sorry if this isn't directly related to your comment, but I thought it deserved to be up in the (meta)thread.
Actually, this is the kind of stuff that I think deserves to be noted in the summary.
(I have avoided Reuters as a primary source since they started[1] this nonsense about a month ago and will only link to them when an article's author has already included that link.)
[1] This kind of big change is typically the result of a site getting a new web guy and his need to put "his brand" on the site.
It almost never is an improvement and is invariably an unnecessary backwards movement.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday May 09 2017, @11:19PM (2 children)
> Sorry if this isn't directly related to your comment [...]
"Reply to Article" would have been better.
> I have avoided Reuters as a primary source since they started this nonsense about a month ago [...]
I don't know what you're experiencing. I have Javascript disabled and the Reuters article linked from this topic is perfectly readable for me; other Reuters pages have also been readable for me. I suggest you try disabling CSS in your browser. If that doesn't work, you could try the Lynx browser, which does not support Javascript. I just confirmed that the article displays properly in Lynx.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @11:58PM (1 child)
"Reply to Article" would have been better
Already covered with deserved to be up in the (meta)thread.
try disabling CSS
Way ahead of you (permanently, with few exceptions).
perfectly readable for me
Hmmm.
Maybe its because your browser made a better guess at what their coder produced.
My browser was looking for HTML and not gibberish. [w3.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:24AM
Since you have CSS disabled by default, perhaps enabling them would be worth a try.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by VLM on Tuesday May 09 2017, @01:04PM (5 children)
First of all some karma whoring links, no rickrolls I promise, list of affected stations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_Broadcasting#Television_stations [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group#Station_affiliations [wikipedia.org]
Secondly you'll note something interesting that all the stations are affiliated with different national networks. Fundamentally what we're talking about is a financial holding company that finances local network transmission hardware, not talking about content providers at all. This has nothing to do with FOX buying ABC or something. Local station ownership has nothing to do with station content ON TV. The FCC has legacy regulations based in the radio era where aside from talk radio and some syndicated programs, local ownership of RADIO stations is very important WRT control of content. But for TV, who financed the transmitter hardware is very abstract from who decides what some commie on a network TV program says. There is locally generated content most of which is awful and frankly as per viewership numbers, unwatched, so it doesn't matter. We are not talking about PBS where "Nova" only exists because the local Boston station funds it, it really doesn't matter who owns your local CBS affiliate.
Thirdly there is multiculturalism or diversity in radio but TV, especially journalism, is purely left wing democrat, 95%+ membership in the D party, nothing but DNC propaganda outlet in the last election cycle, etc. The FCC can LARP that they're enforcing diversity but if every journalist in the country is a commie, then its not really diverse and you're not losing any voices by allowing consolidation. NBC and ABC are mouthpieces of the Democratic National Committee and emit identical propaganda. Ditto SJW themes and issues in prime time programming (I was going to call it fictional programming, but that applies equally well to "journalism" so ...). If two products are generic and indistinguishable then a merger will not silence any voices. I can assure you that the merger does not mean gays are going to disappear from reality TV shows, for example. The amount of poz will be constant (or its rate of increase will not drop) due to the merger.
Fourthly (Forth Language-ly?) the list of stations is out of date, there was an auction like a week ago to sell off spectrum and close down legacy broadcasters. The days of putting up an antenna and getting 50 subcarrier stations are over, and you'll be lucky if you have 1/3 the number of OTA stations in about three years when the shutdowns are implemented. For example I live in an area where one of the local Sinclair stations is shutting down physical broadcast, then the remaining station is going to dump a subcarrier station (you know, the crappy secondary stations like "this tv") and the shut down station will appear as a subcarrier on the remaining station. Which will save some money, but realize that today is peak junk channel subcarriers... you'll never put up a OTA antenna and see as many extra junk channels as you see now. AND the trib owns a local station, so after the merge I think 2 of the 3 physical broadcast hardware stations will shut down, which means going from about 10 virtual channels to only about 4 or so, which is worse than it sounds because basically they have to dump all the junk channels except maybe one. My prediction would be they're ALL going except univision and the legacy main channels. So say good bye to all the crappy subcarrier channels that have sprung up, which is too bad. There were interesting channels developing. I actually watched something on COMET network just a couple months ago, and given how little TV I watch, that represents a lot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @01:31PM
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @05:00PM
Well, since Comet is already owned by Sinclair I don't see them dumping the channel immediately.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Tuesday May 09 2017, @08:12PM
I've been inside sinclair's offices they're more than just a holding company. They talked about developing content management systems and I walked by an open door that had a news desk studio inside. Who knows what else was going on but I saw lots of datacenters and operation centers behind glass.
I see how you get this impression but it's simply not true.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Tuesday May 09 2017, @10:50PM
> But for TV, who financed the transmitter hardware is very abstract from who decides what some commie on a network TV program says.
The owner of a television station decides what programmes are broadcast from it. It is unlikely that Sinclair will give air-time to communists:
Opponents of the deal have cited examples like Sinclair’s hiring of Boris Epshteyn, a former spokesman for President Trump, as its chief political analyst and the on-air commentary of Mark Hyman, a former Sinclair executive who provides reliably conservative arguments on dozens of Sinclair stations.
-- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/business/media/sinclair-tribune-media-sale.html [nytimes.com]
Mark Hyman — a Sinclair executive and conservative commentator who appears on Sinclair stations — regularly criticized Clinton or highlighted positions favorable to Trump in his on-air commentaries.
--
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-that-nations-largest-owner-of-tv-stations-helped-donald-trumps-campaign/2016/12/22/02924864-c7af-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.d0310fc726fc [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @11:39PM
there is multiculturalism or diversity in radio
Around here, the FM band is mostly music with the occasional send-me-money preacher.
The AM band is generally referred to as Right Wing Hate Radio.
A station that hasn't yet surrendered its 3-letter callsign (as so many others have due to acquisitions/rebranding) is commonly called KKKFI for its spew.
Now, if you go back a bunch of years, there was Air America.
That's the -only- thing I can think of that was Liberal[1] in recent memory.
...with the exception of Pacifica, which has been Anti-Reactionary from its start in 1949.
[1] Do make an attempt to use correct terminology.
TV, especially journalism, is purely left wing democrat, 95%+ membership in the D party
Doesn't matter. As butthurt (6141) has already noted in this (sub)thread, it's who OWNS the media outlets that counts.
...and let's be quite clear here: Liberals are Right Wingers; they are NOT Anti-Capitalist.
If those talking heads start talking about collective ownership of the means of production by the workers -then- you can start talking about "Left/Right" without looking like a fool.
nothing but DNC propaganda outlet in the last election cycle
Wow. Just WOW.
How could you possibly have missed Donnie Tiny Hands getting $5B of airtime, gratis?
How could you possibly have missed CBS's CEO saying, "It [Trump's candidacy] may not be good for America, but it's damn[ed] good for CBS."
Lamestream Media will put on whatever will make it the most profit.
To think that they have deep political roots--especially of the non-Right/non-Authoritarian sort--is simply naive.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2017, @01:45PM
Old media is dying. Worth less than a startup. Lame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:24AM
"A Scandal": After FCC Bent Rules, Right-Wing Sinclair Network to Grow Even Bigger [commondreams.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday May 10 2017, @01:29AM (2 children)
In December, Politico reported [politico.com] that the two sides had reached an agreement wherein the Trump campaign would give Sinclair greater access to the candidate if they agreed to air his interviews without any commentary. (Sinclair said there was nothing abnormal about the deal: "Our promise was to give all candidates an opportunity to voice their position and share their position with our viewers," Scott Livingston, vice president of news, said at the time [cnn.com].)
-- http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/09/media/sinclair-trump-growth/ [cnn.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @04:17AM (1 child)
How outrageous. Why next thing you know, they'll be secretly handing Trump the answers to the next debate!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday May 10 2017, @05:18AM
You mean to imply, I assume, that CNN is hypocritical for suggesting a quid pro quo because this happened:
In a statement, CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said that on Oct. 14, the network accepted Brazile’s resignation.
“On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile’s resignation as a CNN contributor. [Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.] CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor,” Pratapas said.
-- http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/10/cnn-severs-ties-with-donna-brazile-230534 [politico.com]
Sometimes an employer will invite an unwanted employee to resign. The phrase "completely uncomfortable" suggests to me that that happened with CNN and Ms. Brazile. Feel free to assume otherwise: the CNN story cites Politico. Perhaps you'll recall something Politico did to discredit itself in your eyes? From the Politico story:
Kushner highlighted that Sinclair, in states like Ohio, reaches a much wider audience — around 250,000 listeners — than networks like CNN, which reach somewhere around 30,000.
This deal is setting up Sinclair to reach an even bigger audience.