By Kevin Eck, TV***@Me*********.com on October 7, 2014
FOX Television Stations is buying KBCB in Bellingham, Wash. from World Television and Venture Technologies Group for $10 million.
Tribune, which owns Seattle FOX affiliate KCPQ, recently issued a statement saying FOX told the station group it was going to pull the affiliation by January 17, 2015. No word has come from FOX about why it bought KBCB, though it does give it some strategic options.
In its statement, Tribune said, “we are continuing to engage in discussions with Fox and moreover have prepared for all operational and economic possibilities for our Seattle Fox station.”
In June, FOX got San Francisco Bay Area’s KTVU from Cox Media in a trade for WFXT in Boston and WHBQ in Memphis.
In 2013, FOX bought Charlotte CW and MyNetworkTV affiliate WJZY-WMYT making WJZY the FOX station in the market, after pulling the affiliation from WCCB.
Charlotte, the SF Bay Area and Seattle have NFL teams in the National Football Conference which FOX has a contract to air. Removing the middle man, in this case Tribune, can increase the amount of ad dollars FOX can earn by airing the games.
The only markets with NFC teams without a FOX owned station are Green Bay, New Orleans, St. Louis and Seattle.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/fox-buying-station-in-seattle_b130765?utm_source=morningmedianewsfeed&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter20141008
KBCB is on Comcast and Frontier FIOS cable in Seattle but only in SD. Interesting that KBCB carriage agreement with Comcast is up in December. That could have some impact in everything.
These are going to be interesting times on the Seattle TV scene, thanks to Fox wanting to buy a station there just so they can get a bigger cut of NFC ad profits.