Sinclair’s Sports Channels Prepare Bankruptcy, Putting Team Payments at Risk

[MasterB]

Sinclair is getting rid of Stadium on Oct 30 for The Nest since Sinclair sold their stake in Stadium to the White Sox owner a few months ago.

[Martin Stett]

Reality TV. Nothing homier than Dog the Bounty Hunter

Sinclair Broadcast Group will launch a new diginet that will replace the Stadium Sports Network on subchannels across the country.
Dubbed “The Nest” (doesn’t that sound “Cozi“?), the offering will be offered for free over the air, largely piggybacking off Sinclair station signals across the country using subchannels.
The network will offer “comfort food programming” covering the genres of home improvement, true-crime, factual reality series and celebrity family shows.
The network will start taking the place of the former Stadium channels Oct. 30, 2023.
For a logo, Sinclair is used a circle with a lowercase “N” in it next to the “est.” “The,” also in all lowercase, sits atop. The circle around the “N,” meanwhile, cuts into the “e” slightly and is obviously meant to convey the sense of the general shape of a bird’s nest as well as the concept of nesting in a tight, compact area.
Program titles include repeats of “Flipping Boston,” “Flipping San Diego,” “Sell This House,” “Cold Case Files,” “American Justice” and “Cold Case Files.” During primetime, programming will include “Growing Up Gotti,” “Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour,” “Steven Segal: Lawman,” “Ice Road Truckers,” “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and “Wahlburgers".
Sinclair already operates the nationally-available networks Comet, Charge! and TBD (that’s the actual name).
The Nest will be available in about half of U.S. over-the-air households, including major markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Boston, San Fransisco and Seattle.

https://www.newscaststudio.com/2023/10/ ... t-diginet/

[sinklair]

While Sinclair says no one wants to watch sports on broadcast tv and cable, Nielsen says hold on one sec…

https://thedesk.net/2023/10/nielsen-the ... broadcast/

The reality is no one wants to pay for sports. The audience will absolutely tune in to free over the air channels to watch their favorite team.

College and pro teams need to head this advice. Stop making deals to marginalize your audience with pay tv, cable and streaming services which limit your audience.

Former MSU basketball player, mortgage king, and now Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia has it right by selling broadcasting rights directly to local broadcasters who can reach 100 percent of the audience without any pay service.

[A1B1C1D1]

Bally just updated their app and so far it is leaps and bounds better than before. For me that has always been the weakest aspect of Bally.

Considering how shockingly fast the PAC collapsed, paying for sports isn't going away. If I were the WAC though, I would try to buy the name.

[A1B1C1D1]

Never mind...

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/ ... 387902007/

Just saw Bally Arizona closed earlier this month.

[sinklair]

Here’s a “solution” for BSD and “The Hammer”…

How about next time your new and improved app crashes, why don’t you just reroute the stream to a Facebook live or YouTube live channel? Or work with local TV stations to air the game?

How much do you wanna bet that everyone who paid to watch the Redwings and Pistons don’t get a dime for the outage?

It’s time for the NBA, NHL and MLB to drop Bally Sports and find a new broadcast partner.

[sinklair]

Sinclair — the same company who drove Bally Sports into the ground — is now asking a judge to buy it back for pennies.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/s ... rthp-feeds

There’s no way this should be legal.

But even if it is, why would MLB, the NBA or NHL ever enter into a deal with Sinclair ever again?

[jmeltonwx]

Looks like the fallout is hitting more Sinclair stations.
https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/sincl ... 26bfa.html

[SBaxley]

Hey Sinklair
check it from FTVLive, someone has cajones to speak out
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/ ... ys-license

oh and i think the end is close for Diamond Sports Group and Bally's Sports Net

[HD74]

And there it is, statement from a Sinclair lawyer...

“To Sinclair folks who originally acquired Diamond, they’re kind of bummed … they’re bummed that this business that they put in a billion and a half of equity value in, is now going to be shut down,” Seligman said Wednesday in testimony delivered in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Houston overseeing Diamond’s vastly complicated restructuring. “There’s going to be people losing their jobs … Diamond’s business is going to go away.” (Daniel Kaplan, now writing for Awful Announcing, once again covered the proceedings from beginning to end.)

[MasterB]

Hey Sinklair
check it from FTVLive, someone has cajones to speak out
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/ ... ys-license

oh and i think the end is close for Diamond Sports Group and Bally's Sports Net

I wonder if it was Sinklair that wrote that letter to the FCC . I doubt that the FCC will take action.

[sinklair]

MasterB: that would assume that I am the only person in America that is upset with World’s Worst Company, Sinclair — which clearly I am not alone in despising friend of prostitutes David Smith, Chris the Ripper, Vice President of “News” Scotty Livingston, Group News Director Lame Michaelsen, the General Manager of the Day, the “ASS”istant GM/Promo Director, the non-existent News Director, the World’s Worst HR Director/Grilled Cheese Party Planner, Bill’s Kid, sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, and the rest of the Sinclair minions.

However, I do agree with this suggestion from FTV Live that everyone pissed at Sinclair should write their Congressman and the FCC, demanding that Sinclair lose its licenses:
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/ ... t-sinclair

“Let's cut to the chase about this Sinclair business. Protest notes, petitions, outdoor signs on businesses.. all basically noise.

The ONLY way to hurt Sinclair is for EVERY single person who
is affected by this pirate company to INDIVIDUALLY file a Violation of License complaint with the FCC regarding the station icense in the affected person's market. The basic complaint should center around Sinclair, as the license holder, no longer fulfilling its obligation to serve that market by eliminating local news (and programming).

If all of those affected at KTUL (and the rest of the stations) EACH sent an e-mail (or letter, even better) of complaint to the FCC, it will take notice. And so will Sinclair. The letter you displayed with all the legit complaints is a good basic outline for approaching this. But while the FCC might investigate those issues, they must respond to specific complaints against a specific broadcast license. If they want to make a difference, all of those affected (and folks like you) need to give up an hour of (anti-) social media time and write the e-mail or letter.

Important: the letter should NOT be a form letter. Make it up yourself.
That's how you get back at Sinclair and maybe, get some justice.
Also.. a copy of the letter of complaint should be sent to the local Congressperson and to both US Senators representing the
affected cities. That will shine another spotlight on the Sinclair pirates.
Action gets action.”

Here are the addresses where you can send letters:

Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
November 15, 2023

Congressman Dan Kildee
200 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Congressman John Moolenaar
246 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Congresswoman Lisa McLain
444 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin
2245 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515

Senator Debbie Stabenow
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2204

Senator Gary Peters
Hart Senate Office Building
Suite 724
Washington, D.C. 20510

[sinklair]

You can also sign a new Change.org petition urging the FCC to look into Sinclair’s recent closure of newsrooms and layoffs:
https://chng.it/Jp84LRdc7k

[MasterB]

I doubt the FCC will take action even for those that write to the local congress person or US Senator which I doubt Debbie Stabenow cares about Sinclair's license and she is retiring from one year from now. Debbie wasn't a good US Senator she did nothing for Michigan why I never voted for her. Politicians have tried to get WWOR license revoked for like 15 years and that has gone nowhere what will happen with the Fox O&O in Philly as well. Plus it would take years because it would go to the courts in my opinion. A lot of this stuff is going to be an epic fail to begin with and a change .org petition does nothing like most online petitions.

Sinclair is wrong what there doing just like Scripps as well which I think the ax is about to swing at WXMI Fox17 in West Michigan from FTVLive.

[sinklair]

The Scripps firing bus has pulled into Grand Rapids:
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2023/ ... ps-layoffs

This move is so incredibly stupid. It has/is failing in Lansing. See if the changes work in a small market before applying them to its larger markets..