No 66-2 & NBC for Several Places

[SBaxley]

From The Desk.net
The FCC on Friday approved an application by Sinclair, Inc. to acquire four local television stations that it already operates through shared services agreements.
The application involves the transfer of local TV station broadcast licenses from partner companies like Deerfield Media, Cunningham Broadcasting and Howard Stirk Holdings.
The four TV stations at the center of the request are in three regional markets where Sinclair already owns another TV station, so the application does not circumvent the FCC’s currently-debated media ownership rule.
Sinclair will acquire WEYI (Channel 25), which is currently affiliated with Sinclair-owned multicast network Roar. The station served as the Flint market’s NBC affiliate until last year, with the NBC affiliation moving to a digital sub-channel of Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WSMH (Channel 66) shortly after the FCC application was filed,[ they also own WBSF CW46 ]
Sinclair will also acquire WGTU (Channel 29) and WGTQ (Channel 8 ), which operate as the Cadillac market’s ABC affiliates. The stations provide ABC programming to different parts of the market due to geography and terrain. Sinclair currently owns WPBN (Channel 7) and WTOM (Channel 4), each offering NBC programming in the same area.

In New York, Sinclair is acquiring WHAM (Channel 13), the ABC affiliate in Rochester. WHAM has shared news programming and sales opportunities with WUHF (Channel 31, Fox) for several years through a shared services agreement with Sinclair.

[organman95]

I don't see any good coming from this. However, Sinclair was never going to sell off any of the stations, so might as well allow the company to own the stations outright.

[Seenitall]

Do 25.1 and 25.1 use the same amount of transmission power? I ask because I can always receive 25.1 but 25.2 is hit and miss for viewing.

[MWmetalhead]

25.1 (ROAR) and 25.2 (The Nest) both broadcast from the same Clio area transmitter on RF channel 18.

The hit-or-miss issues must be a technical fault on WEYI's end of things.

[Harvey]

This still hasn't been fixed. I was told MeTV Toons is viewed significantly more than 25.

[hb2]

Wouldn't surprise me if Me-TV Toons has more viewership. Albeit locally in this region it is on WJRT's subchannel network, not all people want to see endless rerun comedy shows 24/7, there is more heritage with the rerun classic cartoons than on 'Roar'. Edit: Roar isn't all that kid friendly unlike the toons. Yes Roar airs old AFV reruns but most of their lineup is adult content.

On the news side, Sinclair has so severly stripped the local news organization down in the region and then made it politically polarized (largely via their syndicated newscast), it is a wonder if their local( or national)news gets any viewership at all, if not the politics, the quality, due to the lack of staff. I haven't watched a newscast from them but I can imagine based on what I've heard it either would likely lack quality and/or be politically charged.

[tommatinmichigan]

That could really work