HBO's John Oliver on Sinclair and Tribune Media Merge

landtuna · Jul 3, 2017

I am not a regular viewer of the John Oliver Show but I did catch last week's episode and became very interested in this particular segment. John went on to explain that the yet-to-be-approved merger of these two TV media giants would result in the largest concentration of TV ownership in the country and he is deeply concerned that your local news would be compromised. Summary from the show:

Right now virtually all local TV media news programming is originated locally - as it should be (except what they pick up from national sources). Sinclair already produces several segments it sends to its owned stations marked "must show" - meaning it must be shown during the local news. These tend to be hard core right wing wacko opinions ("Terror Watch List" is one which is not much more than a Muslim bashing statement). Some local stations are pushing back on this dictate by running the segments at low viewer times. KOMO in Seattle was one mentioned.

For those of you interested or employed in the local news business you might want to obtain this episode and watch it. It is quite disturbing even though presented with maximum hilarity by Oliver. This Week Now is an HBO production and this particular episode is S04E18.

There was also a sub-segment devoted to the closure of a museum of wax presidents and what may happen to some of them. Although unrelated to the news story it is very funny and worth staying tuned in.

Oliver uses very salty wording on his show and it is definitely not for children (even though virtually all of them probably know all the words).

TheBigA · Jul 3, 2017

landtuna said:
I am not a regular viewer of the John Oliver Show but I did catch last week's episode and became very interested in this particular segment. John went on to explain that the yet-to-be-approved merger of these two TV media giants would result in the largest concentration of TV ownership in the country and he is deeply concerned that your local news would be compromised.

The FCC ownership rules and DOJ monopoly rules are pretty straightforward. If this merger exceeds the limits set in those rules, it will be rejected. Otherwise it will be approved. A lot of media watchdog groups have used the "concentration of ownership" argument for 20 years, and it hasn't had much effect.

Y2kTheNewOldies · Jul 3, 2017

TheBigA said:
The FCC ownership rules and DOJ monopoly rules are pretty straightforward. If this merger exceeds the limits set in those rules, it will be rejected. Otherwise it will be approved. A lot of media watchdog groups have used the "concentration of ownership" argument for 20 years, and it hasn't had much effect.

Wait the UHF Discount and the ownership caps increased recently and that gave way for most notably Sinclair and Nexstar to merge and take over smaller companies like Media General, Bonten Media, Tribune and Note Nexstar proposed deal with Tegna is pending at this time of post.

Will_H_69_9 · Jul 4, 2017

basically what's happening to local TV is the same thing that happened to radio in the late 1990s, and that's pretty much is smaller companies merged into much bigger companies like iHeartMedia (aka Clear Channel), Cumulus, Entercom (which is in the process of finishing the CBS Radio buyout).

now we may see Sinclair become the Clear Channel of TV and the irony is, Clear Channel was once in the TV business too.

i wouldn't be surprise if Sinclair buy out iHeartMedia for a cheap price since IHM is on the brink of bankruptcy anyway.

so pretty much it's 1996 all over again, but this time, it's TV's turn to see it go corporate and lose all shred of local feel to it.

and same could be said about Cumulus being bought out by a major TV media company.

Y2kTheNewOldies · Jul 4, 2017

Will_H_69_9 said:
basically what's happening to local TV is the same thing that happened to radio in the late 1990s, and that's pretty much is smaller companies merged into much bigger companies like iHeartMedia (aka Clear Channel), Cumulus, Entercom (which is in the process of finishing the CBS Radio buyout).

now we may see Sinclair become the Clear Channel of TV and the irony is, Clear Channel was once in the TV business too.

i wouldn't be surprise if Sinclair buy out iHeartMedia for a cheap price since IHM is on the brink of bankruptcy anyway.

so pretty much it's 1996 all over again, but this time, it's TV's turn to see it go corporate and lose all shred of local feel to it.

and same could be said about Cumulus being bought out by a major TV media company.

You mean Nexstar buying Cumulus? But then again regulations from the FCC and the SEC will make the final decision if that deal is even viable.

nickp · Jul 4, 2017

John Oliver doesn't own entire news channels, you dolt. Whereas, Sinclair owns tons of local news stations. The whole point of the news is for it to be unbiased. Now, John Olive is a political opinion show. It is NOT a news outlet and therefore has no need to be unbiased.

TheBigA · Jul 4, 2017

Will_H_69_9 said:
i wouldn't be surprise if Sinclair buy out iHeartMedia for a cheap price since IHM is on the brink of bankruptcy anyway.

Any purchase of iHeart or Cumulus would have to settle their debt. In the case of iHeart, the debt is $20 Billion. If they bankrupt before selling, any buyer would have to satisfy a judge and creditors.

The real story though is that big media companies have been SELLERS, not buyers of radio. Example: CBS. They owned a very successful radio division, but it wasn't making money fast enough for corporate, so it was sold. I see nothing on the horizon that indicates any TV company is interested in owning radio.

But yes, TV is consolidating the way radio did 20 years ago.

Y2kTheNewOldies · Jul 4, 2017

TheBigA said:
The FCC ownership rules and DOJ monopoly rules are pretty straightforward. If this merger exceeds the limits set in those rules, it will be rejected. Otherwise it will be approved. A lot of media watchdog groups have used the "concentration of ownership" argument for 20 years, and it hasn't had much effect.

Wow its incredible when somebody worries about media concentration of ownership it's usually fear that the 6 major media outlets and their CEO's like 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC/Comcast, Time Warner, Viacom and ABC/Disney would abuse their power type arguments at play. Also I noticed the media watchdogs tend to focus on 6 companies but the problem here is that like everyone else on this board nobody considered that Cumulus, Entercom, Salem, Iheart and Alpha would be the most powerful Radio station owners in the nation. Likewise on the TV side nobody considered Sinclair, Nexstar, Raycom, Gray, would be the most powerful TV station owners in the country.

TheBigA · Jul 4, 2017

RadioPatrol said:
Wow its incredible when somebody worries about media concentration of ownership it's usually fear that the 6 major media outlets and their CEO's like 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC/Comcast, Time Warner, Viacom and ABC/Disney would abuse their power type arguments at play.

That's really the concern: That those companies would abuse their power. But the monopoly laws keep them in check, and there's only so much a traditional media company can do against the real media monopolies: Twitter, Facebook, and Google. In the end, this isn't a "concentration of ownership" issue, but rather a political issue, where a commentator doesn't happen to like the politics of a particular owner.

Y2kTheNewOldies · Jul 4, 2017

TheBigA said:
That's really the concern: That those companies would abuse their power. But the monopoly laws keep them in check, and there's only so much a traditional media company can do against the real media monopolies: Twitter, Facebook, and Google. In the end, this isn't a "concentration of ownership" issue, but rather a political issue, where a commentator doesn't happen to like the politics of a particular owner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc

Here is the video the OP is talking about.

I remember scare stories in the San Francisco area when Fox Television stations division was planning to trade WFXT Boston and WHBQ Memphis for KTVU Fox 2 and KTVU+ Oakland/San Francisco back in 2014-2015 TV season. There were plenty of scare stories that Roger Ailes was going to force Fox2 San Francisco staff members to act like Sean Hannity and other Fox Talk show hosts. But it turned out that KTVU had changed talent and news director at the time and not for political reasons due to the fact that Jack Abernethy was the leader of the Fox O&O division and that the real reason for Fox to take over KTVU Fox 2 from Cox media was about Fox O&O's wanting to get revenue from NFC games. This is one example of when people worry about media concentration is when its the fear of big 6 media companies abusing their powers.

Also I remember when Sinclair owned KOVR 13 Sacramento and sold that station to CBS. I also remember the fear that CBS was going to abuse their power and at the time of the deal nobody even considered that Sinclair was going to be more powerful than even the Network Owned stations.

landtuna · Jul 4, 2017

RadioPatrol said:
Here is the video the OP is talking about.

As I said I am not a regular follower of John Oliver nor do I follow the details of radio or TV mergers or their backstories. I posted it simply for the benefit of those who do.

If you listen carefully to his subject you will notice he is not forecasting what might happen but giving examples of what is already happening. This should light an entirely different fire under those who are sensitive to this sort of thing.

In any event, should you disagree with this subject, your ire should be directed at either Sinclair or the FCC or perhaps even Oliver but don't kill the messenger.

TheBigA · Jul 4, 2017

landtuna said:
If you listen carefully to his subject you will notice he is not forecasting what might happen but giving examples of what is already happening.

He's right. And yet, we constantly hear about the "liberal media" feeding "fake news." Who should one believe?

These folks feel they're simply offering an alternative.

Y2kTheNewOldies · Jul 4, 2017

landtuna said:
As I said I am not a regular follower of John Oliver nor do I follow the details of radio or TV mergers or their backstories. I posted it simply for the benefit of those who do.

If you listen carefully to his subject you will notice he is not forecasting what might happen but giving examples of what is already happening. This should light an entirely different fire under those who are sensitive to this sort of thing.

In any event, should you disagree with this subject, your ire should be directed at either Sinclair or the FCC or perhaps even Oliver but don't kill the messenger.

Your right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Xnz9QMzMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QnQy24fry0

Your right though I get what Sinclair is doing though they are trying to attract Trump Audiences to their venue. They are trying to please conservatives the target demo that no longer like Fox News because in their eyes because Fox specifically refuse to talk about "Alternative facts" from the president.
But at the same time though Sinclair does things that even Network O&O's do not do and its create subcontractors like Howard Stirk, Cunningham, Deerfield , DreamCatcher to create loopholes to the Duopoly rule that the O&Os are required to follow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...sing-sunday-annotated/?utm_term=.278845a7a7c1