Gray to acquire WSYM (Fox 47) in swap with Scripps

[SBaxley]

As the NFL referees would say "UNDER FURTHER REVIEW"
The FCC did scrap the 8 indy voices rule in November 2017 ,BUT the top 4 rule , [unless you get a waiver from the FCC, you cant own 2 of the top 4 stations] still remains . but I'm sure that Gray Media has already filed for the waiver.
So, barring any last-minute legal maneuvers by public interest groups and the usual suspects,, the deal should be blessed by the end of this year
I guess technically we can say that the TV station ownership frenzy has just begun?

[48125er]

Didn't gray have a similar problem back in 2016 which is why they shut down Fox 28 in South Bend.

[SBaxley]

not to mention GRAYLASKA..uh I mean Gray Alaska

[MWmetalhead]

Didn't gray have a similar problem back in 2016 which is why they shut down Fox 28 in South Bend.

Nope. Then-owner of WSJV, Quincy Broadcasting, gullibly believed the FCC's extremely over-inflated market value estimates for an upcoming spectrum auction. In anticipation of selling WSJV in the spectrum auction, Quincy traded the FOX affiliation in South Bend to Sinclair in exchange for acquiring a couple network affiliations in the Peoria market from Sinclair.

Once Quincy received little to no interest in WSJV's spectrum at auction, they abandoned their decision to sell WSJV's spectrum.

Fast forward several years, to about 2021, which is when Quincy decided to sell all or damn near all of its stations to Gray and to Allen Media. Gray purchased most of the stations. In South Bend, because WSJV's ratings had sunken to fifth (!!!) place among full power stations in the market, trailing even channel 46 WHME, Gray was able to acquire WSJV, even though it already owned WNDU.

Within the past couple years, I believe WSJV's spectrum was sold to Sinclair, and I want to say WSJV's RF signal now hosts the ATSC 3.0 stations in the South Bend market.

South Bend is one f*cked up TV market.

[SBaxley]

MW, a question.. with the recent moves by Gray [ notably the swapping of Some medium sized Scripps stations for Gray Stations, the recent purchases of some sagamoreHill stations , and now the purchase of the tv stations of Toledo, Ohio based Block Communications] is it or COULD it be safe to assume that Gray is wanting to take the #1 broadcast group crown from Nexstar Media Group ?, and also , could this be this start of the biggest tsunami of broadcast group roulette when it comes to the FCC's recent POSSIBLE relaxing of ownership rules ?

[FixIT]

MW, a question.. with the recent moves by Gray [ notably the swapping of Some medium sized Scripps stations for Gray Stations, the recent purchases of some sagamoreHill stations , and now the purchase of the tv stations of Toledo, Ohio based Block Communications] is it or COULD it be safe to assume that Gray is wanting to take the #1 broadcast group crown from Nexstar Media Group ?, and also , could this be this start of the biggest tsunami of broadcast group roulette when it comes to the FCC's recent POSSIBLE relaxing of ownership rules ?

Unsolicited thoughts, Gray has a studio “city” in Atlanta. Seriously on the level of a small Hollywood/Burbank vibe. Gray sees something in TV most operators are giving up, in no particular order:

•original content
•local content (they still understand the importance of serving the audience in a local area, as the technological habits evolve.)
•scale — has an impact on advertising revenue, of course.
•good reputation as an operator? That’s for others to note as I don’t work for the company.
•innovation - they keep looking forward. Despite the Nielsen BS TV, Radio and Digital (anything) pay for and deal with—they know delivering audience is not a problem. It’s just the measurement.

Does that mean they won’t rely on new technologies or evolve? No. But it does mean they have a clear operating mission in mind, and the right people make that happen with a real audience connection.

Politically, no idea how they’re influenced. They don’t seem scared like the GIANTS of the industry, though.

[MWmetalhead]

MW, a question.. with the recent moves by Gray [ notably the swapping of Some medium sized Scripps stations for Gray Stations, the recent purchases of some sagamoreHill stations , and now the purchase of the tv stations of Toledo, Ohio based Block Communications] is it or COULD it be safe to assume that Gray is wanting to take the #1 broadcast group crown from Nexstar Media Group ?, and also , could this be this start of the biggest tsunami of broadcast group roulette when it comes to the FCC's recent POSSIBLE relaxing of ownership rules ?

Good questions.

If & when the FCC removes or greatly relaxes the 40% national HH penetration limit, yes, I do believe we will see multiple significant transactions.

The broadcast conglomerates will argue (and they're not wrong) that they are having to compete with streaming services for content, and that in many cases, they are losing out on content exclusivity for a given TV network. This, in turn, places downward pressure on ratings, which in turn places downward pressure on ad revenue. On top of this, cord cutting is harming retransmission revenue.

They will therefore argue that scalability is essential for long-term survival. That means fewer owners serving a given metro region, and I predict with time we will see fewer OTA signals broadcasting mainstream programming. Very long term, there will be a rise in instances where one RF signal hosts two or more of the four major networks. We will see more cases of what just occurred in MIami, for instance.

Indeed, I think one reason Nexstar might be so interested in Tegna is they want to make sure someone such as Gray does not acquire it first. Nexstar enjoys a much more significant major market presence than Gray. The vast majority of Gray's stations are located in small & medium markets; WANF is an outlier for them. If Gray were to grab Tegna, they'd suddenly become a more significant player than Nexstar.

By the way, Gray's acquisition of Block might be considered by Gray to be a noteworthy transaction, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean much. Only a small percentage of national TV households will be affected by that transaction. The prize of that acquisition is Louisville's Fox-affiliated WDRB, which has used solely its call letters in branding for many years now. WDRB is the most watched news station in Louisville.

Per FCC rules, the collective reach of Nexstar's current station portfolio is 39% of U.S. households, but that calculation is based on an absurdly outdated rule (dating back to the analog-only era) whereby UHF station reach is artificially discounted by one-half. When removing the artificial discount, Nexstar's true reach is 70% of U.S. television households.

Tegna, just like Nexstar, sits at 39% using the FCC rule based calculation. I do not know the "true" percentage after removal of the so-called UHF discount, but it's probably not near 70%, since the vast majority of Tegna licenses pertain to stations that were on VHF pre-transition. I cannot even think of a Tegna UHF station off the top of my head, apart from KVUE in Austin, TX.

I suspect Nexstar is committed, rightly or wrongly, to the CW and wants to rely on OTA stations it owns (or hopes to soon own) as the primary means for distribution.

Might we even see News Nation appear on .2 or .3 multi-cast channels in the not too distant future? It is an interesting possibility, but I do not know what type of stipulations exist in the agreements Nexstar has in place with the major cable, satellite & streaming services with regard to News Nation.

https://www.newscaststudio.com/2025/08/ ... s-preview/

[48125er]

Didn't gray have a similar problem back in 2016 which is why they shut down Fox 28 in South Bend.

Nope. Then-owner of WSJV, Quincy Broadcasting, gullibly believed the FCC's extremely over-inflated market value estimates for an upcoming spectrum auction. In anticipation of selling WSJV in the spectrum auction, Quincy traded the FOX affiliation in South Bend to Sinclair in exchange for acquiring a couple network affiliations in the Peoria market from Sinclair.

Once Quincy received little to no interest in WSJV's spectrum at auction, they abandoned their decision to sell WSJV's spectrum.

Fast forward several years, to about 2021, which is when Quincy decided to sell all or damn near all of its stations to Gray and to Allen Media. Gray purchased most of the stations. In South Bend, because WSJV's ratings had sunken to fifth (!!!) place among full power stations in the market, trailing even channel 46 WHME, Gray was able to acquire WSJV, even though it already owned WNDU.

Within the past couple years, I believe WSJV's spectrum was sold to Sinclair, and I want to say WSJV's RF signal now hosts the ATSC 3.0 stations in the South Bend market.

South Bend is one f*cked up TV market.

My mistake, I got the names mixed up. South bend is just as messed up as flint

[GrahamWellington]

Discussion on the GR board regarding WZZM/WOOD/WOTV got me thinking about this upcoming transaction. Would it make sense for both stations to eventually do a channel share where they retain licenses but share a single frequency? Seems a bit redundant with current technology for an owner to have two full power signals that cover the DMA almost equally well.

In reality, with this transaction the existence of WSYM is a bit redundant seeing how it will essentially be WILX with Fox programming. But, I suppose it still has enough financial worth to not completely turn the license in. For now.

[jmeltonwx]

Gary Baxter moves to WXMI as he has been named GM-Sales Manager
https://tvnewscheck.com/business/articl ... -director/

[SBaxley]

little update : FOX47 will remain at 600 W. St. Joseph rd studios

[DefendTheDen]

Why isn't FOX47 moving to where channel 10's studio is, since Gray is about to buy FOX47.

[MWmetalhead]

Scripps just announced it is selling perennial underachiever WRTV in Indianapolis to the owner of WISH-TV for $83 million.

I wonder if WMAR-TV in Baltimore will be next?

They clearly are in the mode of dumping underachieving, crappy stations. WSYM should feel honored that it was the first to go!

[zzand]

The employees of WRTV are not happy about the sale. Not sure why since the owner of Wish has done a good job since taking over Channel 8 and it's side channels.

[MWmetalhead]

Probable newsroom consolidation (not to mention other functional areas). There will definitely be some job losses.

With WRTV being the acquiree and multi-decade ratings laggard, they are likely to be hit hardest.