Heard on NPR yesterday- ABC can withhold programs like MNF and *gasp* College Football from Sinclair and Nexstar (text)

[underpants]

I don’t see any confirmation of the first post below but apparently ABC does have some leverage. Monday Night Football, all football, are massive ratings magnets. Most of the too 10 watched shows every year are football games. College football is religion in some parts of the country. Oh and ABC owns ESPN too.

BREAKING FOX NEWS: Disney drops the hammer and goes nuclear telling renegade broadcaster Sinclair. Dont broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live. You dont get to broadcast Monday Night Football & ABC News. This is a developing story @GovPressOffice

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A


As has been pointed out in many quarters, not only will Sinclair/Nexstar owe ABC a huge preemption fee each time they DON'T run Kimmel, but ABC can also offer Kimmel to rival in-market stations at low cost, and Sinclair/Nexstar risk ABC terminating their deals

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

Do it Disney and let's see just how fast Sinclair and Nexstar cave when they start losing massive amounts of money.

[John Coktosten]

3. WOW

I'm stunned. A corporate entity doing something to stand up for what's right?

No way, still in disbelief

[MarineCombatEngineer]

5. IKR?

I'm kinda stunned, but it seems that these corporate entities are finally starting to stand up the Been A Dick Donald and his merry band of criminals.

A belated welcome to DU.

[John Coktosten]

10. Thank you!

[underpants]

7. ABC has SEC games now

The SEC traditionally has been on CBS but ABC has some now too. Fox has the Big “10”.

Saturday night games in ABC and ESPN get big ratings.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

2. They may well be able to...

...depends on the specific affiliate agreements between ABC, Sinclair, and Nexstar.

[underpants]

8. Right. See Prof's post below

[ProfessorGAC]

4. I Opined Yesterday...

....that ABC may have installed some poison pill language.
It's what, in my industry, was called "take or pay". The deal price reverts to list price & a fee attached for the volume not taken.
If Keith is right, that appears to be precisely what ABC did.

[underpants]

11. Missed that. Hadn't heard it until NPR

God I’m going to miss NPR.

Makes sense. Affiliates have a lot of power but networks aren’t going to let them dictate content. Since networks can now own TV shows (early 90’s) it seems mostly to be cop shows, reality, and gameshow rehashes.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Not Surprised You Missed It

It was mid thread in a post about Sinclair refusing to air Kimmel.
It wasn't an OP, so easy to miss.
In many of those markets, the potential loss of college football could be the hammer that backs Sinclair down.
Their local viewership will likely have a fit.

[newdeal2]

6. That's good

I think Trump will try to still get involved and mess things up for ABC one way or another.

[dweller]

13. Absolutely he will

Maybe offer Sinclair exclusive broadcast rights to turning point USA propaganda, or throw some $$ at them from excess funds he has sitting around from USAID rescissions …
😐



✌🏻

[C_U_L8R]

9. Yo-Yo meets Hand

Smack.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. The mouse that roared. NT

[Kid Berwyn]

14. Sink 'em, CapCities!

It's getting to look more and more like a functioning democracy around here.

[badhair77]

15. I'm paying a lot for my cable bill and I expect to see

the programming they are contracted to provide. I’m contacting Xfinity tomorrow to get a refund for missing programs. They’ll probably say no but at least I’ve presented the possibility. Again, they might say yes.