Allbritton Announces Agreement to Sell Television Group to Sinclair Broadcast Group

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: MarketWatch.com

press release
July 29, 2013, 9:00 a.m. EDT

ARLINGTON, Va., July 29, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Allbritton Communications Company ("ACC&quot announced today that the Allbritton family ("Allbritton&quot has entered into an agreement to sell the stock of ACC's parent company, Perpetual Corporation and the equity interest of an affiliate, Charleston Television, LLC to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Included in the Arlington, Virginia-based Allbritton station group are seven ABC affiliates in the following markets:

WJLA-TV, Washington, DC (#8)

WCFT-TV/WJSU-TV/WBMA-LP, simulcasting to Birmingham-Tuscaloosa-Anniston, AL (#42)

WHTM-TV, Harrisburg, PA (#43)

KATV, Little Rock, AR (#56)

KTUL, Tulsa, OK (#59)

WSET-TV, Lynchburg, VA (#68)

WCIV, Charleston, SC (#98) (held in an affiliated company)

Also included is NewsChannel 8, the 24-hour local cable/satellite news service collocated with WJLA and providing coverage to the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/allbritton-announces-agreement-to-sell-television-group-to-sinclair-broadcast-group-2013-07-29

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Hat tip: DCRTV.com

Sinclair Buys Allbritton's TVers, Including 7
http://dcrtv.com/

Sinclair Buys Allbritton's TVers, Including 7 - 7/29 - Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group gets all eight of DC-based Allbritton Communications' broadcast TV stations, including Channel 7/WJLA and local cable-oriented NewsChannel 8. The $985 million deal also includes Allbritton's stations in Harrisburg PA, Lynchburg VA, Birmingham AL, Little Rock AR, Tulsa OK, and Charleston SC. All of Allbritton's broadcast stations are ABC affiliates.

[blm]

1. Bad News for Democracy. Good news for Fascists.

.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Five things you need to know about Sinclair in wake of Allbritton, WJLA deal

Once again, hat tip to http://dcrtv.com

Five things you need to know about Sinclair in wake of Allbritton, WJLA deal
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-baltimore-sinclair-wjla-allbritton-deal-20130729,0,4272750.story

The journalism could be better than you think, but the politics might be worse

By David Zurawik The Baltimore Sun
5:32 p.m. EDT, July 29, 2013
....

2. Sinclair's conservative orientation is no secret. The company has long backed conservative candidates and causes. ... And, as a result, Sinclair management does do some stuff that might be considered, well, hinky. ... You can read two pieces {here} and {here} that I wrote about a series of robocalls that the company made to Baltimore and Maryland households voiced by WBFF anchorman Jeff Barnd asking residents for their views on Lyme disease, same sex marriage and the job Maryland's Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley was or wasn't doing. The Lyme disease was the come-on to make it seem non-political.

The question is whether its newly-acquired Washington muscle is going to tempt management into surrendering to its worst ideological tendencies -- letting politics trump its journalism.
....

5. The real story of all the stations Sinclair has purchased in the last year is in the enormous power it now has in determining political TV advertising in battleground states. From Ohio, to Pennsylvania and Florida, Sinclair is there, and when the candidates come running with their bags of money to blitz the TV airwaves in state, Congressional and the presidential campaigns, they will be coming to Sinclair among a handful of other mega-station-groups.

Don't make me laugh with talk about federal regulation. The station groups will control those last-second buys, not the toothless bureaucrats in Washington.