2015 TV Predictions

Thundershock MN started a thread on tvnewstalk.net on media predictions for 2015 (especially TV). I thought I might share some of them here.

Univision Communications will follow through with an IPO after the various PE owners are unable to sell the company.

CBS Corporation will actually follow through on their plans to divest a chunk of their radio stations.

Disney will spin off ABC (and possibly the O&O's) either outright or as part of a joint venture.

Tribune Media will acquire one of the smaller cable programmers (ie: AMC Networks, SNI, etc.)

Starz, Inc. will be acquired by a large conglomerate. Likely 21st Century Fox (but, Disney could be a dark horse.)

Major acquisitions die down on the local broadcast front. Only 1 (or, 2) "major" acquisition(s) will take place.

Graham Holdings will be one of (or, the only) "major" acquisition(s) of 2015. With Meredith being the likely recipient of the five stations. (FYI - This is one of my two carry overs from 2014.)

With the M&A activity all but done station groups will look to rationalize their portfolios by "swapping" stations that no longer fit. (This is something I predicted/mentioned at the end of a post in 2013. But, 2015 will be the year it happens.)

Sinclair will re-organize and spin-off Chesapeake (and possibly fold Cunningham into it.) This will allow them to lower their ownership percentage and "shuffle" some debt around. The new "Chesapeake" entity will enter into an agreement whereby Sinclair manages back office/corporate level functions (see: LocalTV and Tribune and their creation of "The Other Company" as an example.)

HBO will focus mostly on selling HBOGO (or, their OTT offering) through broadband companies in 2015. In other words they will "sell" HBOGO (or, their OTT offering) as an "add-on" (or, as part of a bundle) with consumers broadband via Xfinity, TWC, etc. Depending on the success of that they will then offer a "slimmed down" HBOGO (or, their OTT offering) that they will sell and market themselves...but, I don't see that coming until 2016.

DirecTV will make the NFL Sunday Ticket.tv OTT service available to everyone nationally. Depending upon on when (or, if) the AT&T/DirecTV deal is approved; AT&T will include NFL Sunday Ticket.tv as an "add-on" or bundled with their high-end mobile packages.

ATSC 3.0 will be approved by years end. However, it still faces an uphill battle making it to the marketplace.

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http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14361-2015-media-predictions/#entry125487

jmkcool2002 also has some of his own.

Sinclair will launch NewsChannel8 nationally via cable or multicast

Syndicated television shows will make a move to smaller cable networks in need of original programming (Access Hollywood and TMZ have already moved two of their shows to ReelzChannel, we’ll see other syndicators make the decision)

Station groups will continue to produce original syndicated programming that serve as a local-national hybrid

NBC will debut a new graphics package for the Winter Classic and Super Bowl (NBCSN has already used new graphics for their college hockey and basketball coverage)

Universal Sports will shut down after NBC decides to leave the venture. IOC’s new OTT network will partner with NBC to broadcast Olympic sports on NBCSN and the OTT network. NBC will help IOC market the network just as they do with the NHL Network but will not take an ownership stake. The OTT network will live on NBCOlympics.com in the USA and NBC News or Peacock Productions will help IOC produce documentaries for the network.

Pivot Network will shut down their linear network and become an OTT network, partner with a conglomerate to market itself better.

Fusion will become a more powerful online news source but lose more clout on its linear service. Fusion will shift away from news and will be filled with hours of ABC News, Univision and ESPN documentary repeats, YouTube shows moved to television.

Vice will launch a 24/7 news network in conjunction with A&E

HLN’s social media rebrand will not work and the network will dabble into reality television.

CNN will venture into scripted programming about historical events; potentially acquire off-network rights to House of Cards.

MSNBC will invest in different types of programming including documentaries, concerts, lifestyle shows, advocacy shows, and entertainment. Ronan Farrow’s show will be cancelled with Farrow becoming an online reporter for MSNBC.com

Fox News will stay the same, might add some Christian values programming

Al Jazeera America will take more of a political stance, possibly add opinion hosts

A major media company invests in an online video satire news network to compete with Comedy Central (Funny or Die has launched a news division, they could heighten their video production in this department in 2015 or someone else may decide to jump in)

GMA will continue to dominate Today Show, NBC News will make some on-air personality changes to the show

ABC launches an extra hour of “GMA.” They could either move “Kelly and Michael” to 10am or ABC stations could choose to not renew Rachael Ray or they could re-brand “The View” at 11am or the extra hour of “GMA” could live on a cable network

The NFL will opt out of contract with CBS but will re-sign a longer deal with The Tiffany Network; the deal will include NFL games airing on CBS All Access app and an ownership stake in the app for the League.

The NFL will add two new wild card playoff games which will be sold separately between rightsholders. CBS/NFL Network will take one game, ESPN will take the other.

NBC renews rights to Premier League soccer

ESPN and Fox acquire Big Ten rights together, ESPN commits some marketing resources to BTN and BTN2Go

WatchESPN and Fox Sports Go create subscription portal for sports

ESPN launches an ACC Network; Raycom remains ACC’s digital partner. ACC Network affiliates turn to Sinclair’s American Sports Network for programming

World Cup will not change locations, Fox will be forced to sublicense games to ESPN

ABC Family will be re-branded

Ann Curry leaves NBC

American Idol goes on hiatus

Advertisers will begin to produce multiple television programs for cable networks

Television advertising will continue to take a downturn as online advertising emerges

Showtime and HBO partner up for Pacquiao/Mayweather PPV on May 2nd in Dallas, Texas, undercard simulcasted on CBS/TNT/TBS; major promotion during March Madness including a contentious interview between the two during Final Four pregame show

CBS talks to Viacom and Time Warner about merging, buys Lionsgate. Alibaba buys Sony.

Yahoo finds a way to air Katie Couric’s news programs on television through CNN, Fusion or HLN

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http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14361-2015-media-predictions/#entry125507

Of course, some of these may be crazy, but we'll see. What are your TV predictions for 2015?

I got my own predictions what will about to happen in 2015:

• Yahoo to resurrect the now defunct G4 network from NBC Universal and turn it into mostly all tech related programming, similar to C|NET.
• NBC announcing it will cancel Days of Our Lives and replace it with a talk show similar to ABC's The View and CBS's The Talk
• Fuse Network to shut down.
• GSN rebrands while it adds reality based competition programming in addition to adding new traditional game shows
• WGN America dropping the "WGN" identifier altogether and going by its new name.
• TV Land adding animated reruns such as Family Guy and other shows found on FOX.
• CBS and FOX alternating NFL conference playoffs every year. For example, in 2016, Fox will air the AFC Championship game while CBS airs the NFC Championship game. A year after, it is reversed.
• CBS and FOX airing doubleheader NFL games on a weekly basis throughout the entire season
• TNT to shift many of its top NBA matchups to ESPN2 and mostly air just Lakers games on Thursday nights, hence "TNT Lakers Thursdays Nights"
• American Idol will be cancelled after its upcoming 14th season.
• Daytona 500 moving to prime time
• Majority of Notre Dame games on NBC moving to mostly cable(specifically NBCSN)
• ABC to only air college football in Prime Time, with afternoon games over on ESPN and ESPN2.

CurtisNEPA said:

I got my own predictions what will about to happen in 2015:

• CBS and FOX alternating NFL conference playoffs every year. For example, in 2016, Fox will air the AFC Championship game while CBS airs the NFC Championship game. A year after, it is reversed.
• CBS and FOX airing doubleheader NFL games on a weekly basis throughout the entire season

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That won't happen unless it's already in the current tv contracts that run until 2021.

Disney shuts down ABC Family, and replaces it with legally new network with a new name and new carriage agreements (tied to ESPN or the ABC O8Os), freeing it from the stipulations put in place when Fox bought it from Pat Robertson

CurtisNEPA said:

GSN rebrands while it adds reality based competition programming in addition to adding new traditional game shows

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They already tried that (Kenny Vs. Spenny, Chuck Woolery's Naturally Stoned). Didn't work too well.

Ccook55 said:

They already tried that (Kenny Vs. Spenny, Chuck Woolery's Naturally Stoned). Didn't work too well.

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It still continues. GSN's Skin Wars and It Takes A Church are more reality based shows than they are game shows.

GSN has tried to put on original game shows such as Catch 21, The Pyramid and American Bible Challenge but all have failed.

CurtisNEPA said:

• Yahoo to resurrect the now defunct G4 network from NBC Universal and turn it into mostly all tech related programming, similar to C|NET.

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Once computers and the Internet started to lose their "gee whiz" factor and become everyday utilities, the audience for CNET/TechTV-type programming started to decline. The average computer user -- which is to say, the average middle-class American -- moved beyond any interest in that sort of "look at this cool website!" programming years ago. Might as well devote a channel to "inside baseball" talk about your house's plumbing system, or the mail.

CurtisNEPA said:

I got my own predictions what will about to happen in 2015:

• American Idol will be cancelled after its upcoming 14th season.
  

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That's not going to happen anytime soon. Then where would we get fresh new singing talent?

Disney will spin off ABC (and possibly the O&O's) either outright or as part of a joint venture.

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Can't see Disney getting rid of ABC entirely. ABC Sports may have been completely decimated in the last decade, but it still serves an important purpose for ESPN.

Major acquisitions die down on the local broadcast front. Only 1 (or, 2) "major" acquisition(s) will take place.

Graham Holdings will be one of (or, the only) "major" acquisition(s) of 2015. With Meredith being the likely recipient of the five stations. (FYI - This is one of my two carry overs from 2014.)

With the M&A activity all but done station groups will look to rationalize their portfolios by "swapping" stations that no longer fit. (This is something I predicted/mentioned at the end of a post in 2013. But, 2015 will be the year it happens.)

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"Sure, I predict this every year, but this year is when it actually happens!" I predict M&A will continue at about the pace it's been going at until right before the incentive auction, unless something happens to make broadcast stations worth more than the value of their spectrum to the wireless companies, in which case spectrum speculators will begin unloading their stations to outfits that actually want to program them. And I honestly don't think station groups have a concept of whether or not stations "fit" at the moment.

Sinclair will re-organize and spin-off Chesapeake (and possibly fold Cunningham into it.) This will allow them to lower their ownership percentage and "shuffle" some debt around. The new "Chesapeake" entity will enter into an agreement whereby Sinclair manages back office/corporate level functions (see: LocalTV and Tribune and their creation of "The Other Company" as an example.)

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Only if the FCC shows it is serious about cracking down on circumventions of its ownership rules, including moving two major affiliations onto the same station, which seems to be Sinclair's new circumvention du jour. (Considering the incentive auction will expressly create a situation where two licensed "stations" could take up very different amounts of spectrum, I'm amazed the FCC let things get to a point where that strategy was even a possibility. Well, unless they're trying to kill broadcast television, which they could be.) Otherwise, Sinclair has shown no interest in anything other than gobbling up as many stations as they possibly can.

ATSC 3.0 will be approved by years end. However, it still faces an uphill battle making it to the marketplace.

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By "an uphill battle making it to the marketplace", do you mean getting approved by the FCC, getting included in televisions, or what? And is there a source for the claim that ATSC 3.0 is on track for the end of 2015? The most recent thing I read that wasn't a forum post seemed to suggest sometime in 2016...

HLN’s social media rebrand will not work and the network will dabble into reality television.

CNN will venture into scripted programming about historical events; potentially acquire off-network rights to House of Cards.

MSNBC will invest in different types of programming including documentaries, concerts, lifestyle shows, advocacy shows, and entertainment. Ronan Farrow’s show will be cancelled with Farrow becoming an online reporter for MSNBC.com

Fox News will stay the same, might add some Christian values programming

Al Jazeera America will take more of a political stance, possibly add opinion hosts

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Ouch, just when you thought the "news" networks couldn't sink any lower...

The NFL will opt out of contract with CBS but will re-sign a longer deal with The Tiffany Network; the deal will include NFL games airing on CBS All Access app and an ownership stake in the app for the League.

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By this, is this referring to the TNF contract?

The NFL will add two new wild card playoff games which will be sold separately between rightsholders. CBS/NFL Network will take one game, ESPN will take the other.

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ESPN is already airing a wild card game this year; I suspect the two new games would be aired by CBS and Fox, but one of the new timeslots could be on ESPN.

NBC renews rights to Premier League soccer

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ESPN and Fox will give them a heck of a battle, though.

World Cup will not change locations, Fox will be forced to sublicense games to ESPN

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Is this referring to the Women's World Cup in Canada, or one of the two upcoming Men's World Cups? Why would Fox be forced to sublicense games to ESPN?

Showtime and HBO partner up for Pacquiao/Mayweather PPV on May 2nd in Dallas, Texas, undercard simulcasted on CBS/TNT/TBS; major promotion during March Madness including a contentious interview between the two during Final Four pregame show

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What is the point of a simulcast between a broadcast network and two cable networks? (Of course, CBS already does something similar with TNF...)

CBS talks to Viacom and Time Warner about merging, buys Lionsgate. Alibaba buys Sony.

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The notion of a CBS-Time Warner merger has always existed more in the minds of fanboys (no matter their pay grade) than in reality. A CBS-Viacom merger would be an admission that the original split was a mistake, and certainly some elements of the split were (why didn't Showtime go with the Viacom half again?) but I'm not sure the underlying reasons for the split have gone away.

Yahoo finds a way to air Katie Couric’s news programs on television through CNN, Fusion or HLN

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Considering how much you torched the news networks earlier... (And yes, I know everything to this point was originally posted on another forum)

CurtisNEPA said:

*NBC announcing it will cancel Days of Our Lives and replace it with a talk show similar to ABC's The View and CBS's The Talk

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NBC programs daytimes so little I wouldn't be surprised if the affiliates said "If you cancel Days, you give us back the time; if you launch your own View/Talk wannabe, it's through syndication."

TV Land adding animated reruns such as Family Guy and other shows found on FOX.

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Do you really see those shows leaving or even being shared with TBS, Adult Swim, or FXX?

CBS and FOX alternating NFL conference playoffs every year. For example, in 2016, Fox will air the AFC Championship game while CBS airs the NFC Championship game. A year after, it is reversed.

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As mentioned earlier, this would need to be negotiated in the contracts already, and the two networks already swap which network gets the conference championship as a lead in to primetime.

• TNT to shift many of its top NBA matchups to ESPN2 and mostly air just Lakers games on Thursday nights, hence "TNT Lakers Thursdays Nights"
• Daytona 500 moving to prime time
• Majority of Notre Dame games on NBC moving to mostly cable(specifically NBCSN)
• ABC to only air college football in Prime Time, with afternoon games over on ESPN and ESPN2.

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Then again, these items show you have absolutely no idea how the sports TV industry works and you certainly don't pay that much attention to it. For TNT to air nothing but Lakers games would be suicidal (it does hurt the ratings when the Lakers stink), the days of a network airing just one team's games ended with WGN America getting away from Chicago sports (as much as TBS and Fox Sports 1 may make it seem otherwise with the Yankees), and TNT has not only re-upped its existing NBA package but added games on Tuesdays as well. Notre Dame games moving to cable would also have to be negotiated in the contract, and ABC may actually be more useful to ESPN in the afternoon, where it regularly regionalizes games with a "reverse mirror" on ESPN2, than in prime time. The ESPNs already air college football whenever they don't have some other sporting event in the way on Saturdays.

Here's my prediction: the FCC postpones the incentive auction at least one more time, if only so they can complete their ownership review and allow station owners to factor in the commission's decisions into their decisions whether or not to enter the auction, not to mention so that the FCC can make any requisite rules around ATSC 3.0 and factor that into the auction as well. The fact the most recent postponement didn't already do this despite coming as close as it did to the conclusion of the ownership review, of course, suggests the FCC is just trying to kill broadcasting while they can still get away with it, but I'm hoping by the end of 2015 it'll already be too late for that.

My own 2015 predictions:

Time Warner will merge with ABC

Viacom will remerge with CBS

ABC Family don't see being shut down but I do see them being sold to NBCUniversal and becoming NBC Family and becomes a backup network for Sports Programing on NBC and NBCSN if there's conflicts with the 2 networks.

ABC will return to showing NFL games by acquiring the Thursday Night Football package in 2015

ESPN on ABC and Turner Sports will merge and form 1 sports division for sporting events across ABC, TNT, and TBS (ABC Sports)

ABC will also acquire Univision communications (wouldn't be surprised if they do since how they do co-own Fusion)

Chesapeake Television will be formed and Cunningham Communications will be folded into Chesapeake TV and they will be separated from Sinclair and will own 15-25 stations

Meredith will be the biggest buyer when it comes to the TV stations they will merge with Graham Media Holdings and will buy some of the Sinclair stations (including KOKH/KOCB) as the company reorganizes.

Speaking of Sinclair they will relaunch NewsChannel 8 as a cable news channel directly competing with Fox News Channel, MSNBC and Al Jazzera America.

Disney will buy Starz, Inc.

The WatchESPN and Fox Sports Go apps will be available to cable and satellite providers such as DirecTV.

DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket will also become available to AT&T U-Verse TV customers

mvcg66b3r said:

Thundershock MN started a thread on tvnewstalk.net on media predictions for 2015 (especially TV). I thought I might share some of them here.



http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14361-2015-media-predictions/#entry125487

jmkcool2002 also has some of his own.



http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14361-2015-media-predictions/#entry125507

Of course, some of these may be crazy, but we'll see. What are your TV predictions for 2015?

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I could see Disney spinning off ABC but as an independent company? I don't think so I think Time Warner will buy ABC, and will sell ABC Family to either NBC or CBS will relaunch as either NBC Family or CBS Family. Local media M&A the only station group I see making any big time acquisitions is Meredith I see them going from I think 17 or 18 stations to 25 stations with them buying Graham Media Holdings and few Sinclair/Chesapeake stations (including KOKH and KOCB) as that company reorganizes.

Oh and one other thing Time Warner/ABC will keep WPCH buy will end the LMA with WPCH and will trade KFSN and WTVD to Cox in exchange Time Warner will buy WSB-TV forming a duopoly with WPCH should the company buy ABC (can't foresee Disney spinning off ABC).

davidgheller47 said:

ESPN on ABC and Turner Sports will merge and form 1 sports division for sporting events across ABC, TNT, and TBS (ABC Sports)

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There's a lot of out-there stuff in this post, but this might be the stupidest. "ESPN on ABC" is more than a brand; ALL of ABC's sports contracts, with the possible exception of IndyCar, are tightly related to ESPN. If Time Warner takes just ABC off of Disney's hands, as I suggested earlier ESPN would lose ABC as an outlet for college football and other things, and depending on how it's laid out legally ABC might lose everything except the NBA, greatly diluting its sports value to Time Warner. And if Time Warner and Disney merge entirely (which is what I thought upon originally reading your post), I can pretty much guarantee you that not only would all of the merged company's sports remain under the ESPN banner, but all the sports currently on TNT and TBS would probably move to ESPN channels. And I really don't think either is going to happen; there seems to be a lot less pressure on Time Warner since Murdoch dropped his pursuit of the company, and unless something drastic changes to fix the industry's broken economics the only reason anyone is still running broadcast TV stations and networks is because they always have.

Morgan Wick said:

There's a lot of out-there stuff in this post, but this might be the stupidest. "ESPN on ABC" is more than a brand; ALL of ABC's sports contracts, with the possible exception of IndyCar, are tightly related to ESPN. If Time Warner takes just ABC off of Disney's hands, as I suggested earlier ESPN would lose ABC as an outlet for college football and other things, and depending on how it's laid out legally ABC might lose everything except the NBA, greatly diluting its sports value to Time Warner. And if Time Warner and Disney merge entirely (which is what I thought upon originally reading your post), I can pretty much guarantee you that not only would all of the merged company's sports remain under the ESPN banner, but all the sports currently on TNT and TBS would probably move to ESPN channels. And I really don't think either is going to happen; there seems to be a lot less pressure on Time Warner since Murdoch dropped his pursuit of the company, and unless something drastic changes to fix the industry's broken economics the only reason anyone is still running broadcast TV stations and networks is because they always have.

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Yeah, it's completely "out there"...if ANYTHING, you'll see CBS and Turner Sports continue to find ways to strengthen their relationship, including figuring out what the hell they could with CBS Sports Network (for example). A Turner-ESPN union just won't ever, EVER happen.

nomadcowatbk said:

Disney shuts down ABC Family, and replaces it with legally new network with a new name and new carriage agreements (tied to ESPN or the ABC O8Os), freeing it from the stipulations put in place when Fox bought it from Pat Robertson

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I think ABC had a chance to do this already perhaps with SoapNet. It could have converted SoapNet into a general entertainment channel while closing out ABC Family, and later tying in Disney Junior as a higher tier/specialty channel.

ShawnHill1 said:

Yeah, it's completely "out there"...if ANYTHING, you'll see CBS and Turner Sports continue to find ways to strengthen their relationship, including figuring out what the hell they could with CBS Sports Network (for example). A Turner-ESPN union just won't ever, EVER happen.

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How about just merging CBS and Turner's sports divisions? That'll give CBS Sports Network much better content than what they got right now

davidgheller47 said:

Chesapeake Television will be formed and Cunningham Communications will be folded into Chesapeake TV and they will be separated from Sinclair and will own 15-25 stations

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If that comes true, it would explain why Sinclair has seemingly done virtually nothing with the former Barrington stations (with maybe a couple of management personnel changes here and there). I would have thought Sinclair would have at least migrated the stations off those hideous Barrington-era websites by now.

SteveRichards said:

If that comes true, it would explain why Sinclair has seemingly done virtually nothing with the former Barrington stations (with maybe a couple of management personnel changes here and there). I would have thought Sinclair would have at least migrated the stations off those hideous Barrington-era websites by now.

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If Sinclair isn't willing to invest in the TV stations Sinclair bought from Barrington, Sinclair would be better off selling the Barrington TV stations piecemail:

Sinclair in a trade and swap deal with Scripps-Journal with Journal owned FOX stations WFTX and WSYM being traded to Sinclair with the ex-former Barrington stations: WPBN-WTOM, WEYI/WBSF, WNWO, WSTM/WSTQ LD and stations from other acquisitions: WKEF, WSYX, and WJAR being traded to Scripps-Journal.

Sinclair in a trade and swap deal with Gray Television with WSWG being traded to Sinclair by folding WSWG onto WFXL to becomes the new WSWG on Channel 31:

The new WSWG digital multicast consists of: CBS in 1080 HDTV on 31.1, FOX in 720 HDTV on 31.2, CW Plus in 480 SDTV widescreen on 31.3, My Network in 480 SDTV widescreen on 31.4

The ex-former Barrington stations: KVII-KVHI, KGBT, KRCG, KTVO, KHQA, WHOI, WLUC, WGTU-WGTQ, WPDE, and WACH and stations from other acquisitions: WLUK/WCWF being traded to Gray.

Sinclair in a trade and swap deal with Lin Media-Media General with KTKA and WYTV being traded to Sinclair with Lin Media-Media General already operating the ex-former Barrington station KXRM/KXTU LD and picks up operational control of WTVH while Granite continues to own WTVH.

Raycom and Gray would trade and swap with WALB going back to Gray and WITN going back to Raycom if Gray would ever sell off WSWG in the future.

Sinclair would retrained WMMB for Howard Stirk/Armstrong Williams and WFXL.

Always enjoy reading Mr. Jimcie's posts of convoluted fantasy logic, even though it often makes me dizzy.

As usual, there isn't a single transaction proposed that would ever happen.

jamesjimcie said:

If Sinclair isn't willing to invest in the TV stations Sinclair bought from Barrington, Sinclair would be better off selling the Barrington TV stations piecemail:

Sinclair in a trade and swap deal with Scripps-Journal with Journal owned FOX stations WFTX and WSYM being traded to Sinclair with the ex-former Barrington stations: WPBN-WTOM, WEYI/WBSF, WNWO, WSTM/WSTQ LD and stations from other acquisitions: WKEF, WSYX, and WJAR being traded to Scripps-Journal.

Sinclair in a trade and swap deal with Gray Television with WSWG being traded to Sinclair by folding WSWG onto WFXL to becomes the new WSWG on Channel 31:

The new WSWG digital multicast consists of: CBS in 1080 HDTV on 31.1, FOX in 720 HDTV on 31.2, CW Plus in 480 SDTV widescreen on 31.3, My Network in 480 SDTV widescreen on 31.4

The ex-former Barrington stations: KVII-KVHI, KGBT, KRCG, KTVO, KHQA, WHOI, WLUC, WGTU-WGTQ, WPDE, and WACH and stations from other acquisitions: WLUK/WCWF being traded to Gray.

Sinclair in a trade and swap deal with Lin Media-Media General with KTKA and WYTV being traded to Sinclair with Lin Media-Media General already operating the ex-former Barrington station KXRM/KXTU LD and picks up operational control of WTVH while Granite continues to own WTVH.

Raycom and Gray would trade and swap with WALB going back to Gray and WITN going back to Raycom if Gray would ever sell off WSWG in the future.

Sinclair would retrained WMMB for Howard Stirk/Armstrong Williams and WFXL.

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I would also take it one step further, Sinclair will also trade WTTE, KOKH and KOCB to Meredith as part of all of those trades, those would be the biggest acquisitions of 2015 here's what I think the companies will be involved and what station will they get from Sinclair:

Gray Television: KVII/KVHI, KGBT, KRCG, KTVO, KHQA, WHOI, WLUC, WGTU/WGTQ, WPDE and WACH.

Scripps: WKEF, WSYX, and WJAR

Meredith: KOKH/KOCB and WTTE (with Meredith ending the joint news operation between WSYX and WTTE and launching an in-house news operation, known as Fox 28 News). Additionally KOCB will also swap with KAUT and KSBI (with KOCB getting the MyNetworkTV affiliation, KAUT will get The CW affiliation but under a separate affiliation agreement with The CW from the other stations owned by Tribune much like KCPQ/Seattle and KSBI will return to being an Indie in 2015)

As far as KXRM/KXTU, WALB, WITN, WMMB and WFXL goes those will remain the same.

One other note, I see Hearst acquire WTTV/WTTK from Tribune in exchange for WREG and Hearst will buy land next door to WXIN's studios and will start construction on that.