New Trib TV Group: "It’s a monster."

NEW STATION SUPER GROUP REACHES HALF OF U.S.
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
Following its takeover by financier Sam Zell in December, Tribune created a yet-unnamed company that would manage not only its own 23 television stations (including seven in the top 10 markets), but also the nine small-market stations of Local TV, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm. The Tribune-Local TV group got bigger just days later when Local TV announced that it had agreed to purchase another eight stations in midsize markets -- including Cleveland, Denver and St.Louis -- from Fox for $1.1 billion. By one key measure -- TV household coverage calculated for purposes of the FCC ownership cap -- the super group is the largest in the nation, reaching 36.3 percent of the national TV households. That puts the group just three percentage points under the cap. Tribune will undoubtedly maintain that the household coverage of the Tribune-owed stations and the Local TV-owed stations should be treated separately in determining compliance with the FCC’s national ownership limit. Its total TV coverage is 46.3 percent of all TV households. The group ranks fourth in annual revenue with around $1.6 billion in 2006. Only the Fox, CBS and NBC groups with their collection of prime major-market stations generate more top-line cash. Most of revenue ($1.1 billion) comes from the Tribune stations, but it was the $326 million from the eight Fox stations that pushed the super group past ABC in the rankings. The super group has seven duopolies, all involving a Big Four network affiliate paired with either a CW or MNT affiliate.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/01/01/daily.2/