Sinclair buying ratings (just like radio)

[Realist]

Happened to see a promo on NBC25 this morning prior to the Today show where starting next week, watch their 6pm newscast, look for the QR code, scan it and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card and then be entered to win a weekly prize of $5,000!

Did a little digging for and giggles and found a few interesting things. It’s a national contest being ran in Sinclair’s 55+ TV markets nationwide and is supposed to be ran during their morning newscasts (which NBC25 no longer has local). While they are giving away $100 daily in each local market, the $5,000 is given away nationally. My God - this sort of sounds like Cumulus and IHM!

BTW - what happened to Mike Woolfolk? Last I checked the bios, he was still on there but I haven’t seen him on mornings in more than a month. Did his contract expire and he bail?

[Taco]

Happened to see a promo on NBC25 this morning prior to the Today show where starting next week, watch their 6pm newscast, look for the QR code, scan it and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card and then be entered to win a weekly prize of $5,000!

Did a little digging for and giggles and found a few interesting things. It’s a national contest being ran in Sinclair’s 55+ TV markets nationwide and is supposed to be ran during their morning newscasts (which NBC25 no longer has local). While they are giving away $100 daily in each local market, the $5,000 is given away nationally. My God - this sort of sounds like Cumulus and IHM!

BTW - what happened to Mike Woolfolk? Last I checked the bios, he was still on there but I haven’t seen him on mornings in more than a month. Did his contract expire and he bail?

Mike was on the 6pm newscast.

As for the QR code thing, they been pushing it. They say it loads up their webpage.

[sinklair]

The former GM/egomaniac who is now running KOMO in Seattle into the ground used to joke that if you can’t win over viewers with real news, we could always bribe them with contesting. Looks like his vision of a news-free newscast filled with advertising, promos, and sales contesting has finally been realized. Great job to the new temporary GM Kevin Done-Away… you’re fitting well into the Sinclair mode.

[Realist]

Funniest thing is that it’s not going to work like they want it to, as I’ll be a viewer who will record it and watch it later, fast forwarding until I see the code and will enter the contest then

[sinklair]

Realist: you’re not alone. The fact is even those viewers who might tune in for the contest will be exposed to a third- rate newscast (sorry to my former colleagues— it’s not their fault that Sinclair killed the good work that was being done). Viewers absolutely won’t return after seeing how little local news is being covered. It’s a rating ploy that is doomed to failure — just don’t tell that to the “Promo Director” who has not had one single good idea in years… yet seems to fool every GM into believing her poop doesn’t stink.

[jmeltonwx]

Never mind the fact that we now have someone from Ohio remotely providing the weather for Mid-Michigan. At what point does Sinclair completely throw in the towel and just either go full TND or sign the outsourcing agreement with 5 or 12. https://twitter.com/BrianIveyWX/status/ ... 1592388845

[sinklair]

JMelton: You’re right on point with The National Desk. WEYI will go the way of Toledo, where they recently fired the entire newsroom and put on TND.

It’s crap. It’s also the reason why there needs to be a challenge to Sinclair’s licenses when there’s a renewal… like what’s happening with Fox in Philly.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/landmark- ... ction-lies

That may be the only way to get Sinclair’s attention about their responsibility to civer local communities.

[KeenerGold]

Never mind the fact that we now have someone from Ohio remotely providing the weather for Mid-Michigan. At what point does Sinclair completely throw in the towel and just either go full TND or sign the outsourcing agreement with 5 or 12. https://twitter.com/BrianIveyWX/status/ ... 1592388845

This guy was doing weather during the storm outbreak last week. You could tell he had little to no idea of the locales he was speaking about.

[rugratsonline]

At what point does Sinclair completely throw in the towel and just either go full TND or sign the outsourcing agreement with 5 or 12.

Personally, Sinclair would rather replace news with TND, than to outsource to one of their competitors.

[sinklair]

There is zero chance of Sinclair outsourcing news production to WNEM or WJRT. It would rather run The National Desk than have to pay a competitor.

WNEM used to produce WSMH’s 10pm news for years. Sinclair paid a million dollars a year for what essentially was a repeat of old WNEM news.

Plus, in its bankruptcy of Diamond Sports, WNEM’s parent company (Gray Television) sports division Raycom Sports is already owed $8.5-million for producing ACC football and basketball games. I’d doubt they would ever enter into a Sinclair agreement without cash upfront.

https://www.sportico.com/business/finan ... 15944/amp/

[MasterB]

I doubt that Fox losses it's licenses in the big markets since that was on the cable side and not on broadcast side plus the FCC doesn't really get into news editorial of TV station groups. 25-66 will air The National Desk for news someone outside of Flint will do the weather when an outbreak happens, I think most watch Gray's WNEM & WJRT which Byron Allen is running channel 12 into the ground. For weather than 25-66.