cbs/viacom

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Tue, 7 Sep 1999 13:17:29 -0400 (EDT), Scott Saloway <saloway@bu.edu> said:

> I'm curious to see how this will play out here in Boston. Will CBS still
> "investigate" buying PAX (and WBPX nee WABU)? Will GE accelerate its
> investigation?

There's no chance of CBS buying PAX now -- the Viacom stations are all
better-positioned in their markets, and the Funny Cookie Commission
won't let them have more than two.  The real question is what happens
in those markets (like New York) where the UPN station is owned by
United, not CBS.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Cris-Craft shopping
those properties around, and CBS might even be in a position to buy.

To answer your second question: I wouldn't be surprised now to see NBC
acquiring some or all of the Pax stations.  The trouble with Pax is
that they own a lot of stations in useless (to a large national
network) locations -- NBC probably isn't interested in
second-100-market U's that have never shown in the ratings.  So either
Paxson will have to be prepared to deal his valuable properties
separately, or the eventual buyer will need to have someone lined up
to take all of the pipsqueak stations off their hands.

This whole consolidation is incredibly interesting to watch, from my
perspective, because it is so short-sighted.  I predict that ten years
from now, none of these companies will be in the UHF transmission
business -- it just won't make economic sense.

- -GAWollman

- --
Garrett A. Wollman   | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wollman@lcs.mit.edu  | O Siem / The fires of freedom 
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA|                     - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick

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