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. has agreed to buy four small-market television stations owned by Cox Media Group for $99 million, the latest deal for Sinclair in a string of acquisitions over the past year and a half. The Hunt Valley TV station owner also announced it has launched a new operating unit, Chesapeake TV, to run the Cox stations and other small stations the company might acquire. Sinclair also will provide sales services to an additional Cox station. The broadcaster has purchased 30 TV stations in mid-sized markets over the past 18 months.

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.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is warning DirecTV customers in Baltimore and other markets they could lose access to Sinclair-owned stations starting March 1 because of an inability to reach agreement over the amount the satellite company pays to carry the stations and their programs. In the Baltimore market, Sinclair owns WBFF Fox 45 and has a local marketing agreement with WNUV The CW Baltimore. Sinclair's "carriage" agreement with DirecTV, which includes both stations, ends Feb. 28. "Although DirecTV and Sinclair have been negotiating for quite some time in an effort to reach a new agreement, at this time it does not appear that these efforts will be successful," Baltimore-based Sinclair said in a statement.

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.

Is Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., accused by critics of behaving like a private company at times, ready to become a private entity? That seemed to be the million-dollar question during the Hunt Valley broadcast company's conference call yesterday to discuss first-quarter earnings. The company tossed cold water on the idea as quickly as it entertained it, however. Sinclair executives have long asserted that the company's stock is undervalued. Its shares rose 51 cents, or nearly 7 percent, yesterday to close at $8. The company believes its worth is closer to $12. Barton Crockett, an analyst with JPMorgan, asked hypothetically why the company doesn't revert to private status if it believes it isn't earning its worth in the public markets.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is warning DirecTV customers in Baltimore and other markets they could lose access to Sinclair-owned stations starting March 1 because of an inability to reach agreement over the amount the satellite company pays to carry the stations and their programs. In the Baltimore market, Sinclair owns WBFF Fox 45 and has a local marketing agreement with WNUV The CW Baltimore. Sinclair's "carriage" agreement with DirecTV, which includes both stations, ends Feb. 28. "Although DirecTV and Sinclair have been negotiating for quite some time in an effort to reach a new agreement, at this time it does not appear that these efforts will be successful," Baltimore-based Sinclair 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.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said profits soared in the fourth quarter, capping a presidential election year in which the Hunt Valley TV station owner saw record levels of political advertising, a rebound in auto advertising sales and rapid growth through acquisitions. Net income rose to $59 million, or 73 cents per share, from $22.7 million, or 28 cents per share, in the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31, the company reported Wednesday. Earnings beat analysts' expectations of 59 cents per share.

The partisan media madness started early Tuesday on the "Fox & Friends" morning show with host Steve Doocy somehow turning a report on midnight voting in Dixville Notch, N.H., into an attack on President Barack Obama for his handling of the September attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. "Appalling" was the word U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) used to describe the president's behavior. And, with Doocy priming the pump of vitriol, she was only warming up. Meanwhile, on the other side, former Democratic National Party chair Howard Dean was on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" minutes after the polls opened in Pennsylvania, already alleging voter suppression in Philadelphia based on hearsay.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. saw its profit grow 33 percent in the third quarter as political campaigns and automakers ramped up spending on advertising, the Hunt Valley-based company said Thursday. The broadcaster earned $26.2 million in the three months that ended Sept. 30, or 32 cents per share, compared with $19.2 million during the same months last year, or 24 cents per share. Boosted by political and automotive advertising, sales from continuing operations jumped 49 percent to $226.4 million, from $151.9 million in the third quarter of 2011.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Thursday that it has reached a retransmission agreement in principle with the Dish Network and that it has extended the existing pact by two weeks to allow the negotiation of a final contract. The agreement had been set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Retransmission contracts set the fees that cable and satellite TV providers pay broadcast stations to include their signals in channel lineups. The agreement allows Dish, which has about 14 million customers nationwide, to carry 70 television stations that Sinclair provides service to or owns.

Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said Monday that it was continuing to negotiate with Dish Network over a soon-to-expire agreement that allows the satellite TV provider to carry dozens of Sinclair-owned television stations. The retransmission consent agreement expires at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. Such contracts set the fees that cable and satellite TV providers pay broadcast stations to include their signals in channel lineups. Sinclair said in a statement Monday that "significant doubt exists as to whether or not a new agreement will be reached with Dish.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. saw its second-quarter income jump 61 percent and raised its quarterly dividend as political advertising far exceeded company expectations, the Hunt Valley broadcaster said Wednesday. The company earned $30.1 million, or 37 cents per share, in the three months that ended June 30, up from $18.6 million, or 23 cents per share, in the same period the year before. The company's stock jumped 13 percent Wednesday, rising $1.31 a share to $11.51 each in Nasdaq trading.

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.

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.