Sinclair Broadcast Group

Bolstered by healthy advertising revenue and successful acquisitions, Sinclair Broadcast Group more than doubled its profits and almost doubled its revenues over the second quarter of last year.The Baltimore-based owner and operator of local television stations reported yesterday that its net income for the quarter that ended June 30 rose to $3 million, or 9 cents a share, up from $1.3 million, or 5 cents a share, the previous year.Its operating cash flow, a closely watched indicator in the broadcast industry, more than doubled, from $14.2 million last year to $29.6 million.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. will renew Fox Broadcasting Co. affiliations with 19 of its television stations in an agreement that also allows Sinclair to purchase a Fox-owned station in Baltimore. Under the agreement with Fox, Sinclair has the option to buy WUTB, Fox's MyNetwork station in Baltimore, for up to $52.7 million between July 1 and March 31, 2013. Sinclair negotiated for the option to strengthen its position as owner of a Fox affiliate in Baltimore, one of the broadcaster's most important markets, David Smith, Sinclair's chief executive and president, said in a statement.

Maryland's intermediate appellate court yesterday refused to block the switch of Channel 54 from affiliation with the United Paramount Network to Warner Brothers.The Court of Special Appeals ruling, anticipated by UPN, may not be appealed. UPN had already found a new local universe for its starship, "Star Trek: Voyager," on Channel 24.The decision also clears the way for the entry Friday of the WB Network, home of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," into the Baltimore market."We were confident that we would win," said Michael J. Collins, one of several attorneys for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates WNUV.

It's Saturday night at Canton's Du Burns Arena, and Mike "The Prodigy" Bennett flexes and preens as his opponent, Ring of Honor champion Jay Lethal, staggers across the mat. As the bad-boy wrestler's scantily clad girlfriend-valet joins the gloating, fans erupt in an angry chant of "You suck, you suck. " Those in the front row yell the loudest - pounding the metal dividers surrounding the ring in time with the chant. Welcome to the new - and, at the same time, very old - world of TV wrestling, as the Sinclair Broadcast Group embraces the original programming business that comes with chokeholds and body slams.

For the second time in three days, a top executive announced his departure from Cockeysville-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. Patrick Talamantes, Sinclair's chief financial officer, is leaving in two weeks to return to his native Northern California to become CFO for the McClatchy Co., a Sacramento-based newspaper chain, Sinclair announced yesterday. Talamantes two days earlier had announced the departure of Barry Drake as chief executive officer of Sinclair's television division. David Smith, chief executive officer, described the back-to-back resignations as a "huge set of coincidences."

In the battle over the future of television, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is sticking to its guns.The Baltimore-based broadcaster has begun transmitting trial signals on digital television and will soon begin demonstrations of the technology.Sinclair's strategy for entering the high-stakes digital market has drawn some criticism and is being watched closely by an industry that is still unsure about just how to use the new technology."Sinclair's at the leading edge of this story," said Harry J. DeMott, an analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston in New York.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. will renew Fox Broadcasting Co. affiliations with 19 of its television stations in an agreement that also allows Sinclair to purchase a Fox-owned station in Baltimore. Under the agreement with Fox, Sinclair has the option to buy WUTB, Fox's MyNetwork station in Baltimore, for up to $52.7 million between July 1 and March 31, 2013. Sinclair negotiated for the option to strengthen its position as owner of a Fox affiliate in Baltimore, one of the broadcaster's most important markets, David Smith, Sinclair's chief executive and president, said in a statement.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.'s ownership of local television stations was incorrectly stated in yesterday's editions of The Sun. Sinclair owns WBFF-TV and has a local marketing agreement with WNUV-TV.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 8/02/97

This fall, UPN and WB, which have struggled and failed to find a large audience, will cease to exist. Rising from their ashes will be a new broadcast television network, CW. Some of the expiring networks' more popular programming - including UPN's Veronica Mars, Smackdown and Everybody Hates Chris and WB's Smallville and Gilmore Girls - will be aired on CW, Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS Corp., said yesterday in announcing the move, which amounts to an acknowledgement that neither of the small networks could survive profitably on its own. More coverage The impact at Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Here's a look at what's happening on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 WEATHER - High 92, Low 75. 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. NEWS - Baltimore City Council to discuss controversial dismissed-rape complaints. BUSINESS - Sinclair Broadcast Group to report Q2 earnings. SPORTS - The Orioles host the Los Angeles Angels. Game time is 7:05 p.m.. Brian Matusz (3-11) starts for the O's against Ervin Santana (10-7) for the Angels. FEATURES - Remember to check mobile.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has finalized a planned purchase of Four Points Media for $200 million, the Hunt Valley-based broadcaster said Tuesday. Sinclair financed the acquisition of Four Points' television stations with a $180 million loan plus $20 million in cash that it had already paid. Sinclair acquired the Four Points TV stations, which it has been operating since Oct. 1, from affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management LP. The newly purchased assets include television stations in Salt Lake City; Austin, Texas; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Providence, R.I., and New Bedford, Mass.

Verizon and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached an agreement, according to Bill Fanshawe, general manager of Baltimore's WBFF and WNUV television stations. WBFF is owned and WNUV is managed by the Hunt Valley based broadcaster. "We have settled," Fanshawe said late Thursday. "So, we are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreemnent in principle for a new deal that will provide for continued carriage of our stations on the FiOS systems after December 31st, 2011. " What that means immediately is that the crawls across the bottom of the screen warning FiOS viewers that they might not be able to see "Glee" and NFL football games after Dec. 31, are history.

"Working. For you," is the slogan of WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla. But next year, Sinclair Broadcast Group expects WPEC to also work especially hard for Sinclair shareholders as it rakes in advertising money on behalf of candidates for Congress and the presidency. Thanks to the Supreme Court's removal of restrictions on political spending and Florida's perennial status as a political battlefield, West Palm Beach viewers are likely to be blasted by more ads than ever, suggesting Republicans will wreck Medicare and Democrats will wreck the country.

Shareholders of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. approved the company's executive pay package in a "say on pay" nonbinding vote Thursday. Besides weighing in on compensation during Sinclair's annual meeting, shareholders also re-elected the broadcaster's eight directors, including Chairman David D. Smith, Sinclair's chief executive officer and president. Smith's total compensation last year was $3.6 million, including $1 million base salary, $1 million cash bonus and $1.6 million in option awards, up from a total compensation of $1 million in salary with no bonuses or option awards in 2009.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has acquired wrestling franchise Ring of Honor and plans to start airing the original television wrestling match programs on its network of stations in September, the Hunt Valley broadcaster said Monday. Besides producing weekly TV programs, Ring of Honor also stages live events around the country for a pay-per-view audience. The TV programs will be broadcast on CW, MYTV and Fox affiliates that are owned or operated by Sinclair. Sinclair's 22 percent coverage of U.S. TV households will help the franchise boost its name brand recognition while giving Sinclair revenue from advertising, product sponsorships, Internet pay-per-view, live events and merchandise sales, such as DVDs, said Steve Marks, chief operating officer of Sinclair's television group.

Sinclair Broadcast Group reported Wednesday that profit jumped 33 percent in the first quarter, thanks to double-digit gains in spending by automotive advertisers and revenue generated by the 2011 Super Bowl. Net income in the broadcast group rose to $15.3 million, or 19 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, up from $11.5 million, or 14 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2010, the Hunt Valley television station owner reported. Earnings beat Wall Street analysts' estimates of 18 cents per share.

Stock in Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the owner-operator of Baltimore's Channel 45 (WBFF) and five other broadcast stations around the country, jumped by about 15 percent yesterday in the first day of trading after a successful initial public offering.Shares in the Baltimore-based company closed at $24.125, up $3.125 from Tuesday's offering price, as Sinclair benefited from a bullish market for broadcast stocks.The company raised $105 million, about $15 million more than it predicted, when underwriters placed 5 million shares at $21 each.

A coalition of liberal public interest groups today will announce a campaign against Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group for what it terms "continued misuse of the public airwaves." The group will urge major Sinclair advertisers - Kraft, Staples, Target, Geico, McDonald's and Sprint - to join the effort "to encourage Sinclair to balance the content" of its news programming. "The campaign aims to spur action against Sinclair Broadcast Group's use of the 62 television stations it owns or operates to systematically promote partisan political interests," the group, led by Media Matters of America, says in a posting at www.sinclairaction.

Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said Wednesday it has settled a contract dispute with Time Warner Cable Inc., reaching a multiyear agreement that allows the cable provider to carry signals for 28 Sinclair television stations. That means Time Warner customers in 17 markets from Portland, Maine, to Pensacola, Fla., will have access to network TV stations such as Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC affiliates that might otherwise have gone dark. Time Warner, the second-largest cable operator in the United States, serves customers in 28 states, mainly in New York, the Carolinas, Ohio, Texas and Southern California.