Tag Archive for 'sunbeam television'

Who Bid on WTVJ?

Published
by
admin
on 7/1/2008
in Local Media and WTVJ Sale
. 38 Comments

From the previous post about the imminent announcement of a WTVJ buyer someone left this comment:

Companies that are out:
Sunbeam (bid was too low)
Gannett (WTVJ GM said the buyer will be a company she never worked for before, so they are out)
Media General (financial trouble)
Hearst-Argyle (Company has no CEO & no money)
FOX (Pulled out)
Disney-ABC (not buying anymore TV stations)

The split is still an option. While Sunbeam couldn’t afford to buy WTVJ, Post-Newsweek still could. Other possible contenders include COX and Tribune.

Jodie:

It needs to be Belo or Cox, for the sake of WTVJ, its employees and it legacy.

Several other visitors have echoed the sentiment that Cox and Belo would be the best thing to happen to WTVJ.

I’ve read a few things about Belo and it looked to me like they run their stations well. KHOU (Houston), WFAA (Dallas) and KING (Seattle) are at the top of the ratings and come off as pretty serious, newsy, stations. If they were to buy NBC6 it would be interesting to see if their approach works in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market

update 7/2: someone sent this Broadcasting & Cable blog post from May 28th which says Hearst-Argyle and some private equity companies were looking at WVIT in Hartford, CT which NBC put out for sale in March along with WTVJ.

13 SFOX tations Fined By the FCC, WSVN Wants Refund!

Published
by
admin
on 2/22/2008
in Local Media
. 5 Comments

13 FOX affiliates were fined today $7000 each because they aired an episode of FOX’s Married by America, in 2003, that contained 10.5 seconds pixilated boobies and ass! Yes, pixilated indecency, a new one courtesy of the ever watchful FCC! And it only took them 5 years to reach a decision, but they had to, the statue of limitations on indecency is 5 years!

According to the FCC merely pixilating the special areas of the female body was not sufficient to keep them from being patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards. Operative words being “community standards” which are used in the more raunchy pornography cases and which differ from place to place (hence why such cases are tried in conservative areas to have a bigger chance of scoring a conviction).

Originally the FCC fined 169 FOX stations but then wound up watering down their punishment to just a handful of tv stations that were the only ones to receive complaints from viewers. WTVT in Tampa, Florida

SunbeamTV, owners of WSVN, paid the fine but since they received no complaints are now asking for a refund:

Respondents raise multiple arguments, each of which is discussed below. Generally, they
assert that the subject episode of “Married By America” is not actionably indecent under the
Commission’s prevailing indecency standard.

One respondent, Sunbeam Television Corporation, licensee of Station WSVN(TV), Miami, Florida, paid its
forfeiture in full, subject to the outcome of the Commission’s final action with respect to the FOX/Affiliates
Consolidated Response

In response to the NAL, Sunbeam, licensee of Station WSVN(TV), Miami, Florida, tendered
a check made payable to the Commission in the amount of $7,000, subject to final agency action with
respect to the FOX/Affiliates Consolidated Response. Having determined that the NAL should be
canceled as to all licensees against which no specific complaint was filed, including Sunbeam, Sunbeam
may file appropriate documents requesting a refund of the amount it tendered

Meanwhile, in a state far far away outraged “family” organizations heard the news and had a collective orgasm.

FCC Forfeiture Order /PDF/

WSJ.com -
FCC Rejects Appeal by Fox on Reality-TV Indecency Complaint
Reuters-
Thirteen Fox stations fined over 2003 reality show
BroadcastingCable.com -
FCC Fines 13 Fox Stations for 2003 Episode of Married by America - 2/22/2008
Tampa Bay Business Journal -
‘Married By America’ broadcast lands fine on WTVT