The Inbox....

Time to see what you guys are talking about.

One FTVLive reader wonders if Sinclair is moving away from their sidecar company Cunningham Broadcasting:

Hi Scott.

Although it was announced a month ago, as of today Fox affiliate WTTE in Columbus, Ohio is now airing Sinclair netlet TBD on 28.1 while it's intellectual property, which started airing on ABC affiliate WSYX 6.3 on January 6th, is now fully moved to sister station WSYX permanently.

While Sinclair Broadcast Group officially combined programming onto a station it owned outright (WTTE is owned by Sinclair sidecar Cunningham Broadcasting; Sinclair also controls CW affiliate WWHO in the market) due to ATSC 3.0, one has to wonder if due to Democrats taking back the White House if LMA's with sidecars will be getting scrutinized again, especially Sinclair in particular.

At #33, Columbus is by far the largest media market that has a subchannel-only affiliation with one of the "Big Four" networks. Even if the CW is included, its still 2nd to San Diego (#27) in that regard. You would have to go to #36 (Cincinnati) to find another major network affiliate on a subchannel, and #48 (Albuquerque) to find a "Big Four" affiliate on a subchannel. Sinclair has two markets larger than Columbus (#28 Baltimore and #29 Nashville) that control three stations that it could merge onto one or two signals. One has to wonder if Sinclair is planning on swapping out major network affiliations on networks it controls through LMAs and merging those programming on stations it owns outright so it could face less regulatory scrutiny.

It also wonders if the FCC should regulate such merging of signals. And if LMAs are scrutinized again, Sinclair shouldn't be the only target despite blatantly supporting the Trump administration. Nexstar should be scrutinized for Mission Broadcasting. Gray should be scrutinized for Excalibur Broadcasting. Only time will tell what will happen.

Another TV newsie reacting to the news that Nexstar is using Bill Shine as a consultant:

News Nation, how could you? I do not know what to say. It is not too late to avoid this path.

Lastly, an email of thanks:

Hi Scott,

I just wanted to send you a quick email to say thanks for all the hard work you put in. You are the only one that is holding media outlets accountable.

If it wasn’t for FTVLive, it would be scary to see what some of these stations would get away with.

Thanks for all you do and you really do deserve a vacation. Take some time off, we’ll be here when you get back.