Re: Record price for a TV station

[Mark Shneyder <bostonradio@yahoo.com>]

--- beckwith@ime.net wrote:
> Re: KRON-TV/San Francisco sale for $823 million.
> 
> NBC parent GE was one of the losing bidders; they tried to throw cold water on
> the proceedings when chairman Bob Wright threatened to shaft the new owner at
> affiliation agreement renewal time if they didn't take the prize.
> Chris


Most of NBC's affiliation agreements run thru
2004 and 2005. It's expected that many affils
will use NBC's declining prime-time ratings
as a bargaining chip for their next agreements.
I really don't think NBC has any room to gamble. It's
the only web whose parent(GE) doesn't own+operate
a TV production/movie company like CBS/Viacom(Paramount),
Fox(20th Century), WB(Warner), ABC(Disney/Touchstone).
Bob Wright is more concerned with building a 
a solid distribution arm(such as buying into
Paxson) and play hardball with affils(Sunbeam)
rather than investing smartly into a quality o+o
production house...GE's strategy doesn't make much sense
as the growing digital distribution is opening more
and wider lanes for the delivery of content. GE still
operates like we're living in the age of the limited
spectrum of the 1920's and 1930's. 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com