Tribune Broadcasting

Tribune Broadcasting Company

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Broadcast television radio
Genre	Media company
Predecessor	WGN Incorporated (1924–1966) WGN Continental Broadcasting Company (1966–1981)
Founded	1981 (1981) in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Headquarters	515 North State Street, Chicago, Illinois, United States[1]
Area served	United States
Key people	Peter Liguori (President/CEO, Tribune Media) Larry Wert (President, Tribune Broadcasting)
Parent	Tribune Media
Divisions	Tribune Studios
Website	www.tribunemedia.com

Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC is an American media company which operates as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owns and/or operates 43 broadcast television stations and one radio station throughout the United States; it also holds full or partial ownership of three cable television and two national digital subchannel networks.

History

Tribune Broadcasting logo used from 1995 to August 4, 2014.

Tribune Broadcasting's development originated with the June 1924 purchase of Chicago, Illinois radio station WDAP (720 AM) by the Chicago Tribune. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WGN, to match the Tribune's slogan, "World's Greatest Newspaper." The Tribune would launch a television station in Chicago, WGN-TV (channel 9), in April 1948 as a dual affiliate of CBS and the DuMont Television Network (which it would remain so until 1953, when CBS acquired WBBM-TV and moved its affiliation there). Two months later, the Tribune's then-sibling newspaper in New York City, the Daily News, established its own television station, WPIX (channel 11) – which launched without a network affiliation as all four broadcast networks at the time (ABC, NBC, CBS and DuMont) had already owned other stations in the market.

During the next six decades, Tribune Broadcasting (known originally as WGN, Incorporated, and from 1966^[2] to 1981^[3] as WGN Continental Broadcasting Company) would acquire radio and television stations throughout the United States; most of the television properties acquired by the company prior to 1995 were independent stations. WGN-TV and WPIX are the only stations that Tribune has owned since their inceptions. Tribune also operated several local cable television systems from 1977 to 1985.

In 1993, Tribune launched Chicagoland Television (CLTV), a regional cable news channel for the Chicago area, which originally operated separately from the company's other Chicago media properties until it merged its operations with WGN-TV's news department in 2009. In November 1994, Tribune Broadcasting formed a partnership with several minority partners, including Quincy Jones, to form Qwest Broadcasting; Qwest operated as a technically separate company from Tribune (which owned stations in a few markets where Tribune owned stations, including WATL in Atlanta, which was operated alongside Tribune-owned WGNX);^[4] Tribune would later acquire the Qwest stations outright in November 1999.^[5]

In January 1995, Tribune Broadcasting became a partner in The WB Television Network, in a joint venture with the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner.^[6] Tribune initially had a 12.5% ownership interest in the network at its launch and later increased its stake to 22%. In addition, partly as a result of a November 1993 affiliation deal with the network, most of Tribune's television properties were WB affiliates. On July 2, 1996, Tribune acquired Renaissance Broadcasting, which owned Fox- and WB-affiliated stations in several large and mid-sized markets.^[7]

On January 24, 2006, Time Warner announced that it would partner with CBS Corporation to form a new network that would feature The WB and CBS-owned UPN's higher-rated shows mixed with newer series, called The CW Television Network. All but three of Tribune's 19 WB affiliates (including three that were sold off to other companies later that year) became affiliates of The CW on September 18, 2006, through ten-year agreements (the exceptions were in Philadelphia, Seattle and Atlanta, due to The CW affiliating with CBS-owned stations in those markets), though Tribune itself would not exercise an ownership stake in The CW as it did with The WB.^[8]

In April 2007, Tribune's broadcasting interests were included in the sale of the entire company to Chicago investor Sam Zell, who planned take the publicly traded company private. The deal was completed on December 20, 2007.^[9]

On December 21, 2007, Tribune and Oak Hill Capital Partners-controlled Local TV, LLC announced plans to collaborate in the formation of a "broadcast management company" (later named The Other Company); its Tribune Interactive division also operated the websites of its stations as part of the partnership.^[10][11][12]

On December 8, 2008, Tribune announced that it would voluntarily restructure its debt obligations, as part of its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court. As the company had sufficient funds to do so, Tribune continued to operate its newspaper publishing and broadcasting, and interactive businesses without interruption during the restructuring.^[13]

On January 1, 2011, Tribune launched the digital broadcast network Antenna TV, a service that features a variety of classic television series, including programming from Sony Pictures Television and D.L. Taffner Entertainment.^[14] On May 13, 2013, Tribune announced that it would buy a 50% stake in the This TV digital broadcast network from fellow Chicago-based media company Weigel Broadcasting; Tribune took over operational duties for the network on November 1, 2013.^[15]

On July 1, 2013, Tribune announced that it would purchase the 19 stations owned by Local TV, LLC outright for $2.725 billion; the purchase expanded the number of Big Three network affiliates in its portfolio from one to 10 (most of Tribune's television stations prior to the purchase had either been independent stations or from 1995 onward, affiliates of networks that have launched since 1986; New Orleans station WGNO (channel 26) – an ABC affiliate – was Tribune's only station affiliated with one of the three pre-1986 networks prior to the purchase), as well as form duopolies involving stations in Denver and St. Louis where the two companies maintained local marketing agreements.^[16] In order to prevent conflicts with newspaper cross-ownership restrictions (specifically, with Daily Press and The Morning Call), three stations involved in the acquisition – the Norfolk, Virginia duopoly of WTKR (channel 3) and WGNT (channel 27), and Scranton, Pennsylvania station WNEP-TV (channel 16) – were sold to Dreamcatcher Broadcasting and are operated by Tribune under shared services agreements (Tribune has an option to purchase WNEP after the publishing/broadcasting split,^[17] although such a transfer may be complicated by possible FCC action on a proposal to end a "discount" in television station ownership limits that count UHF stations to half a percentage to a group's overall market reach, which would put Tribune just over the current limit of 39%, under which the company's current station holdings after the Local TV purchase would be grandfathered^[18]). The Federal Communications Commission approved the acquisition on December 20,^[19] and the sale was completed one week later on December 27.^[20]

On February 29, 2016, Tribune Media announced that it would review various "strategic alternatives" to increase the company's value to shareholders, which include a possible sale of the entire company and/or select assets, or the formation of programming alliances or strategic partnerships with other companies, due to the decrease in its stock price since the Tribune Publishing spin-off and a $385 million revenue write-down for the 2015 fiscal year, partly due to original scripted programming expenditures for WGN America since it converted the cable network from a superstation in 2014.^{[21][22][23][24]}

With the FCC reinstating the "UHF discount" rule, reports surfaced in late April 2017 that multiple parties were attempting to make offers for Tribune, including Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar Media Group, and a partnership between 21st Century Fox and Blackstone Group.^{[25][26][27][28]} On May 7, 2017, it was reported that Sinclair Broadcast Group was nearing a deal to purchase Tribune Media,^[29][30] and that 21st Century Fox had dropped its bid for the company.^[31][32]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group officially announced its intent to acquire Tribune Media. The transaction would have been a cash-and-stock deal valuing the company at $3.9 billion. Depending on regulatory changes or decisions, some divestitures might have been required.^[33] However, on August 9, 2018, Tribune canceled the Sinclair deal.^[34]

Television production and distribution

Tribune-owned stations

As of April 2015, Tribune Broadcasting currently owns 39 television stations located in 33 markets (including eight duopolies). 31 of its stations are affiliated with each of the current post-1986 broadcast networks: 14 are affiliated with Fox (not counting a satellite station of KDVR), 12 with The CW and three with MyNetworkTV. In addition, the company owns five CBS affiliates (not counting a satellite of WTTV), two ABC affiliates, two NBC affiliates and one independent station. It also provides operational services to three stations (one ABC affiliate, one CBS affiliate and one CW affiliate – the latter two are also operated as part of a duopoly) in the respective markets of Norfolk-Hampton Roads-Newport News, Virginia and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania through shared services agreements with Dreamcatcher Broadcasting.

WGN Radio is the company's sole remaining radio station, and serves as the flagship station for a regional distribution service known as the Tribune Radio Network.^[36] Its primary features are farm reports from longtime WGN agriculture broadcasters Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong. Tribune Radio Network formerly handled distribution of the Chicago Cubs Radio Network to its affiliates until the 2014 season, when the Cubs radio broadcasts in Chicago moved to WBBM radio in 2015, then WSCR in 2016; as a result, affiliate distribution of the Chicago Cubs Radio Network to its partner stations is now handled by Entercom. WGN also maintains a second online-only service known as WGN.FM (alternately known as "The G").

Other assets

Tribune Broadcasting owns WGN America, a basic cable/satellite channel that operated as a superstation feed of flagship station WGN-TV until December 2014 (one of four superstations owned by Tribune, along with remaining Tribune superstations KTLA, KWGN-TV and WPIX).

It owns the Chicago-based regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV); and maintains a 30% ownership interest in Food Network (the remaining controlling interest in that channel is held by Discovery Inc.)

Tribune Broadcasting also owns two digital multicast networks: This TV (launched in 2008, 50%), which airs television series), and Antenna TV (100%, launched in 2010), which airs movies and children's programming.

Carriage controversies

References