The ('''SBG''') is the operator of the largest number of local
Television Station s in the
United States with a total of 59 stations across the country in 38 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in
The South and the
Midwest . Broadcasts by SBG stations can be received by 24 percent of American households. The company is based in
Hunt Valley, Maryland .
The company, founded by Julian Sinclair Smith, originated in
1971 as the with the launch of
WBFF (channel 45) in
Baltimore . A subsidiary of Chesapeake Television Corp., the '''Commercial Radio Institute''', later founded WPTT (channel 22, now
WPMY ) in
Pittsburgh , in
1978 ; and
WTTE (channel 28) in
Columbus, Ohio , in
1984 . All three stations originally were
Independents , though WBFF and WTTE became charter affiliates of the
Fox Broadcasting Company at its launch in
1986 .
Smith's son
David D. Smith began taking a more active role in the 1980s. In
1985 , the Chesapeake Television Corporation changed its name to . In
1990 , David Smith and his three brothers bought their parents' remaining stock and went on a buying spree that eventually made it one of the largest station owners in the country.
Though Sinclair became a public company in
1995 and is currently traded on
NASDAQ under the symbol SBGI, the Smith family still retains a majority financial interest, and all four Smith brothers serve as executives or directors.
Many stations are owned outright by the company, but many others are affiliated through
Local Marketing Agreements (LMA) . Sinclair pioneered the LMA concept in
1991 .
The stations are affiliates of various ,
CBS ,
NBC and Fox. Sinclair also owned or managed several affiliates of the
WB and
UPN networks, which both launched in
January 1995 . In
September 2006 , the WB and UPN merged their operations into a new network,
The CW . Eight of Sinclair's WB stations, along with independent KFBT (now
KVCW ) in
Las Vegas , became affiliates of the new network. At the same time, Sinclair aligned 17 of its stations (ten former WB affiliates, six former UPN stations, and one independent) with
MyNetworkTV , a new programming service owned by Fox's parent
News Corporation . Sinclair's relationship with Fox/News Corporation was also strengthened after Sinclair agreed to a six-year affiliation renewal for its 19 Fox-affiliated stations. The deal also includes flagship WBFF in Baltimore, despite Fox owning a station, MyNetworkTV affiliate
WUTB , in the same market.
On
December 22 ,
2006 ,
WTWC-TV in
Tallahassee, Florida renewed its affiliation agreement with NBC, keeping the station affiliated with the network through the end of 2016.
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Sinclair had experimented with using a centralized news organization called ''
News Central '' that provided prepackaged news segments for distribution to several of the group's stations. These segments were integrated into programming during local news broadcasts.
Mark Hyman , a high-ranking executive at Sinclair, also creates conservative
Editorial segments called "The Point" that are broadcast on some of the group's 61 stations. In addition, most of the stations that aired ''News Central'' emulated the prepackaged news studio appearance for local stories. This model was ultimately unsuccessful, and on
March 31 , 2006, ''News Central'' ended its national news broadcasts (although the "Point" commentaries lasted until
November 30 , 2006). Most stations running the ''News Central'' format ended up cancelling their news coverage altogether, although some stations that did so have subsequently contracted with competing stations in their markets to produce their newscasts. Sinclair still produces a one-minute national news briefing for its stations, entitled ''Washington Newsroom''.
Between
1994 and
1997 , nine stations owned by Glencairn Ltd. entered LMAs with Sinclair-owned stations in the same cities. Glencairn was owned by Edwin Edwards, a former Sinclair executive, who also personally owned WPTT in Pittsburgh. It held itself out as a minority-owned broadcaster.
However, Carolyn Smith, wife of Sinclair founder Julian Smith and mother of current Sinclair CEO David Smith, supplied Glencairn's initial capital and controlled 70 percent of Glencairn's stock. In December
2001 , after complaints from
Jesse Jackson and several other media companies, the
FCC fined Sinclair $40,000 for illegally controlling Glencairn. Sinclair tried to merge outright with Glencairn in 2001 and purchase Edwards' Pittsburgh station. However, the FCC only allowed four of the stations to come directly under the Sinclair banner. Glencairn kept the other six stations and changed its name to
Cunningham Broadcasting . Nearly all of Cunningham's stock (90 percent) is owned by trusts in the name of four members of the Smith family, and all six Cunningham stations have LMAs with Sinclair stations. Based on these arrangements, Glencairn/Cunningham has served merely as a
Shell Corporation with the sole purpose of evading
Federal Communications Commission ownership rules.
In three markets, Cunningham owns the fourth-highest rated station while Sinclair owns one of the three highest-rated stations. The FCC's duopoly rules do not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. In Cunningham's three other markets, there are too few stations or unique station owners to permit a Sinclair duopoly. The FCC requires a market to have eight unique station owners once a duopoly is formed.
In
2004 , Sinclair attracted controversy when it decided that eight of its ABC-affiliated stations would not broadcast an
April 30 airing of ''
Nightline '', which was a tribute to the soldiers killed in the
2003 Invasion and subsequent
Occupation Of Iraq .
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The group issued a statement that said in part, ''"The action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq."'' ABC responded, saying that the program was meant to be ''"an expression of respect which seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country."''
For differing reasons, the decision to not air the episode attracted criticism both from supporters and opponents of the Iraq war. Affected stations were in the following markets:
WTXL in
Tallahassee, Florida , formerly owned by Media Venture Management but, at that time, operated by Sinclair under a local marketing agreement, decided to air the program. In some of the affected areas, such as Pensacola, other broadcasters stepped into the breach to air the broadcast.
In , a former associate of
Tom Ridge , and accuses
John Kerry of prolonging the
Vietnam War because of his
Anti-war Activism . The organization
Swift Boat Veterans For Truth , an anti-Kerry organization whose name become well known in the 2004 election year, was cross-promoting the film as part of a $1.4 million advertising campaign.
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In response, the
Democratic National Committee filed a legal motion with the
Federal Election Commission stating that it is inappropriate for the media organization to air "partisan propaganda" in the last 10 days of an election campaign.
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Sinclair fired its Washington bureau chief
Jon Lieberman , stating he revealed company business when he publicly discussed the documentary in an interview published
October 18 , 2004, in the ''
Baltimore Sun ''.
Sinclair later aired an edited version of the documentary.
SBGI stock took a
dive during and leading up to this time period as stockholders who threatened lawsuits and portions of the general public became enraged. The stock did not fully recover until late 2006.
In the summer of 2006, market.
After several weeks of negotiations, the two companies reached an agreement which allowed WCHS-TV and WVAH-TV to continue transmission over the Suddenlink cable system. The terms of the agreement were not released to the public
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Cable TV company
Mediacom filed an
Antitrust lawsuit against Sinclair on October 2006, claiming that Sinclair insisted on blanket carriage of 22 SBGI stations at all Mediacom cable companies where SBGI operates a TV station regardless of market differences. The District Court for the Southern District of
Iowa denied Mediacom's injunction motion on
October 24 ; Mediacom appealed to the
United States Court Of Appeals For The Eighth Circuit , but they dropped the appeal on
December 13 .
Yahoo story
Sinclair's ,
2007 , Senators
Daniel Inouye , Chairman of the US Senate
Committee On Commerce, Science And Transportation and Ranking Member
Ted Stevens signed a letter addressed to
Kevin Martin , the chairman of the
Federal Communications Commission , directing him to resolve the issue.
Dubuque, Iowa Telegraph Herald , V. 171, #32, February 1, 2007, p. 1. The impasse ended on
February 2 when Mediacom announced that it had reached a retransmission agreement with Sinclair for undisclosed terms. All 22 stations were restored to Mediacom systems shortly after the agreement was announced.
Cable360
Many satellite providers in the impacted areas looked to capitalize on the Mediacom/SBGI conflict and ran vigorous campaigns to try to recruit disenfranchised Mediacom subscribers. Sinclair's stations in Iowa, payment.
Multichannel.com Mediacom lost 14,000 subscribers during the last quarter of 2006 and an additional 18,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2007.
1
Sinclair was also involved with retransmission negotiations with
Time Warner Cable , but the two sides reached an agreement on
January 19 Mulichannel.com .
''Broadcasting & Cable'' reported on January 5, 2007 that Sinclair may pull 30 stations from
Comcast systems after its retransmission agreement was slated to expire on
February 5 Broadcastingcable.com .
Comcast was granted an extension so the retransmission rights were extended to
March 1 Multichannel.com . The deadline passed at 2 a.m. early Thursday morning, March 1.
The two sides were still talking so the deadline was extended to March 10.[http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070301/clth099.html?.v=24 Comcast has stated that they will not pay cash for retransmission rights, but is willing to barter such as giving free commercials for SBGI stations on Comcast cable channels.[http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/comcast-nixes-cash-only-compensation-tv/story.aspx?guid=%7B597A10C2%2D6886%2D4639%2DB7B7%2D546E75AE5EA3%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yho]
On March 9, Comcast and Sinclair jointly announced a four-year deal for retransmission rights which expire on March 1, 2011.
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- --- indicates a station built and signed on by Sinclair.
Footnotes:
- 1 These stations are nominally owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under Local Marketing Agreements . However, Sinclair effectively owns Cunningham because it controls nearly all of Cunningham's stock.
- 2 WNAB is owned by Tennessee Broadcasting, LP, an affiliate company of Beverly Hills -based Lambert Broadcasting, but its operations are managed by Sinclair under an outsourcing agreement. Sinclair is looking to acquire the station outright under an FCC "failed station" waiver.
- 3 Via local marketing agreements, Sinclair operates these stations, which are owned by local independent or private companies. The lone execption among this group is WTTA, in which Sinclair CEO David Smith is the station's majority owner.
- 4 Sinclair has ownership interests in WUHF and WYZZ-TV, but management capabilities belong to Nexstar Broadcasting Group -owned WROC-TV and WMBD-TV , respectively.
- 5 Proposed sale announced in July 2007 from Sinclair to Gormally Broadcasting LLC, pending FCC approval. {Link without Title}
- 1Operated by WTWC-TV under a shared services agreement (license was held by a third party)
