3mo ago

Sinclair Will Preempt Jimmy Kimmel’s Show When It Returns To ABC But Says Discussions Are Ongoing With Network

deadline.com Sinclair Will Preempt Jimmy Kimmel’s Show When It Returns To ABC But Says Discussions Are Ongoing With Network

The station group says that it will run local news programming

Earlier on Monday, ABC announced Kimmel’s return, after a backlash in the creative community and among others who said that The Walt Disney Co. was capitulating to the Trump administration

23 comments

Disney should just ignore this and use their “refusal to air” as leverage to dump Sinclair and find other affiliates.
- They might, unironically. Corporations do not care about other corporations and if one is in the way between them and a pile of money, shi about to get real
  
  They also care about the other large piles of money from other shows on Sinclair stations. And there are a lot of those.
- Here's a list of all Sinclair stations by city, in case you have one in your city and want to write a letter: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group
- It would help if people would boycott their local Sinclair/Nextstar channels and advertisers and let them know why on review sites.

ABC should withhold the rest of their programming if the Sinclair affiliates continue to do this.

I must have an extremely distorted sense of how many people still watch broadcast television seeing that Sinclair is still, apparently, relevant.
I would have guessed this would have done more harm to their market and teaching them to seek out alternatives and break their habits.
- I convinced my boomer parents to finally cut cable TV in favor of Netflix, but also helped them set up OTA antennas for "news" and "sports."
  Now they watch almost entirely OTA TV and barely any streaming. womp, womp.
  Every time I go over there they're just mindlessly absorbing advertisements and other propaganda like it's nothing. I can't stand it.
- To be fair, I use broadcast OTA and I have an antenna on my roof. It saves money, and I get to watch most of the shows I watch. It also cut down on my streaming bill. I ended up writing some emails to two of my local stations describing my feelings about capitulating to the adminstration, as well as, my feelings on the Nexstar Tegna merger. I advocated for the disbandment of the ownership and shift toward local. One actually reached back out and said they were going to shop for a local business/person to buy their station. Funnily enough, it was the Sinclair station.
  
  Same here, and Sinclair made it a point to buy up local news. Since the Sinclair purchase, the most reputable seattle new station has turned into absolute trash.
- I must have an extremely distorted sense of how many people still watch broadcast television seeing that Sinclair is still, apparently, relevant.
  There's a big age gap, but also a wealth gap. Our inability (refusal) to extend broadband to rural areas and make it a basic utility rather than a luxury means you still have large chunks of the country that get all their media through the cartelized broadcast racket.
- I watch broadcast TV at night. I actually rewatched The Office a few times with it.
  There are perhaps dozens of us.
  
  I guess it makes sense reruns are still a thing. It’s been so long since I’ve watched OTA TV it would probably be a surreal experience.

Bold move Sinclair. Oh well, you’ll just continue to lose. Local stations about to get cheap to buy.
- I don't think they're selling, is the problem. Sinclair can absorb loses out of spite for a very long time
  
  It will end up like the radio. All the stations that broadcast will just play stuff about Jesus. Some cities are worse than others for this. Jacksonville is the worst. All Jesus all the time
  
  This Deadline article says Sinclair has too much debt to close a merger.
  Nexstar’s overture followed closely on the heels of a proposal by Sinclair to buy Tegna. Sinclair, the No. 2 station owner, had previously taken steps to separate its station business from the rest of its portfolio, which includes cable’s Tennis Channel. Immediate reaction from Wall Street noted that Sinclair and Tegna collectively may have too much debt for a combination to close. Nexstar, by contrast, has a strikingly tidy balance sheet.
  Their 2nd quarter financial report confirms
  Total Company debt as of June 30, 2025 was $4,106 million.

Disney needs to close this franchise and give it to others.

Makes sense. They want to make money. Getting fucked by the FCC would do the opposite of that. Losing some viewers is better than losing all viewers.
E: For maximizing profit in the context they operate. Not for the benefit of society.
- Capitulation 101
  
  Yes. Expecting anything but a cost-benefit analysis that maximizes profit in the given conditions is all we can expect from capitalist for-profit corporations. If capitulation is the more profitable route, most of them would take it.
  For-profit corporations managed to create this veneer of taking a stand on social issues during the last 15 years and many of us fell for it to some degree. So when the mask started falling off over the last little while it was somewhat surprising. But it shouldn't be.

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