Not true, at least according to people in the know.
So ya’ll calm down and stop emailing me 🙂
3/21 Update: Good morning. Now that I’ve woken up completely after reading what Newsblues published I have to say it again – 7 has NOT been sold to FOX. I can’t tell you who’s my sources, obviously, ’cause then I’ll have to kill you (ha!) but be assured they are solid people.
So relax, stop refreshing the site to see if I have posted something because my server is starting to cry. And that rumor person, you really really need to save some money and buy a life. You need it. Badly.
Now I’m off shopping and enjoying the nice weather today, and when I come back I’ll post some videos.
C ya
i work wsvn, i’d hate to tell you, its true!
well ok, when tomorrow rolls around we’ll know for sure who’s right and who isn’t 🙂
?
just being skeptical 🙂
and rightfully so, admin.
For 1 second, you had me.
Then I read the message body.
Then I read Steve’s message.
Then I read your reply.
I’m confused.
I would be suprised if this was true, however. Is WSVN really worth $700 mil?
Has Ed Ansin gone nuts?!
Steve:
Because you “work at SVN” which means you could be a person who fills a vending machine, what other blogs have record of this supposed sale?
Newsblues is reporting this story to be true.
can anyone pull the text from the newsblues article, i dont have a membership.
I really hope that the deal falls through.
The real estate is clearly worth 700 million, but bet if this is true that they sell the land where the station is and move inland somewhere cheaper,as if there’s cheap real estate to be had in South Florida. Clearly the employee contracts aren’t worth that much. Any idea of how many waterfront condos can be built on that patch of land?
FROM NEWSBLUES:
Miami’s Sunbeam-owned WSVN-7-Fox has been sold to Fox Television for $700 million, say tipsters, who believe the “official” announcement will come later today.
Sunbeam, a privately held company that also controls Boston’s WHDH-7-NBC, is owned by Ed Ansin, who was once described by Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan as a “despicable, ruthless, egomaniacal, power-mad narcissistic troll in need of psychoanalystic intervention.”
WSVN would become Miami’s third fourth fifth network O&O. NBC owns WTVJ-6-NBC (and WSCV-51-Telemundo), and CBS owns WFOR-4-CBS (and WBFS-33-UPN).
the value of the real estate is NOT where the $700 million would come from. The figure is based on the revenue the station brings in from ad sales. WSVN is the top biller in the market. The land is valuable, but not worth anything near $700 million.
But quite frankly, I SERIOUSLY doubt a sale is imminent. we’ve all heard these rumors a hundred times before.
Newsblues forgot WLTV and WAMI owned by Univision.
jodie is right…
the $$ is way off…
an announcement is not imminent..
because the story is not true… that dumb guy at news blues reported a rumor…
wsvn has not been sold to fox and will NOT be sold!!! So we can put all these rumors to rest
i hope it is not true, i like this though “despicable, ruthless, egomaniacal, power-mad narcissistic troll in need of psychoanalystic intervention”
i only hope i can be successful enough for people to say that about me.
🙂
one more thing, i checked newscorp’s site and there are no press releases from them about it
Just say it IS true for a sec… What would be the big deal? I don’t know anything about the inner workings of these places, so I’m clueless why it would be bad. Or good?
“Damn the man save the empire”
just seemed appropriate right now, hope you know what movie it references.
🙂
I checked with Newscorp and there was no annoucement regarding a new O&O. This “Steve” has obviously not responded since he made his first post. He knows we are on to him. I would not believe it for a second.
this is stupid, who cares if it is or isnt…. how would it effect any of u anyway…
and frankly i hope it is true.
My senior sources at WHDH are also confirming that this sale rumor is simply not true. In my personal opinion, Ansin will be six feet under before WHDH and WSVN are sold to their respective networks. This is a transaction that will most likely be done by Ansin’s sons in the coming years.
nate…. if you didnt care, why did you take the time to post that.
Nate,
We care because WSVN is one of the most unique, pioneering, and famous stations in the country that marches to its own beat (for better or worse). Many network O&Os — especially Fox and NBC stations — are completely homogeneous with the same boring look and branding. Just look at the incredibly lame WTVJ as an example.
Bottom line — we don’t want yet another local station to lose its identity — especially one as trendsetting as WSVN.
Question to admin–was “Steve” the guy who originally told this to you?
mm
No, Someone else told me, And I got a lot of emails about it from people either saying it was for real or asking if it was. I don’t know whether or not “Steve” emailed me
Thanks for clearing that up.
By the way, well said jodie.
i gotcha… thnx for the explaniation.
makes sense and its prob true if it did go to a fox o&o it would be like evryone else and like someone pointd out before, u already got enuf o &os already in the miami mrkt
jodie,
i couldnt have said it better myself.
Jodie, I don’t know what you see in 7. It is simply the Connecticut School of Broadcasting on the air, with inferior talent, inferior analysis, and an overall amateurish approach to news. I have lived here my whole life, and 7 has always been an inferior news product. Ratings mean nothing. It just means there are a lot of dumb people who think this is quality journalism. Fox News gets ratings too. That doesn’t mean it’s not an embarrassment. If you have no standards, keep watching 7. It is a very compatible product with American Idol, though I can’t imagine anyone who watches House or 24 staying to watch Belkys Nerey or Craig Stevens. Selling to Fox would not change 7 much. I doubt even 700 million would make Ansin smile. Nothing else ever has, and there’s nothing more annoying than a cranky billionaire. Except someone who relies on 7 for factual meaningful reporting of course.
ccc229
That is why there are more than one stations in a market (usually). You are free to watch some other cr*p.
ouch ccc229 calm down… lolol when i said you guys were diffcult down in Miami, I was right. ALways critiqing stuff and others opinions. dam
maybe ur right, i mean svn i think is diffrent from hdh, maybe its more of a joke newscast but atleast at ‘hdh things get serious. but i think they have a little more “giggle” room in miami
You know, ccc, people ARE entitled to like what they like. Who are you to judge, the all-knowing journalism God? Lighten up man. If you don’t like watching, well then don’t…
So, can someone answer MY question? 😉 What would be the diff if they sold? I don’t get it… And I’m asking a QUESTION, not giving a sarcastic opinion, just so no one jumps me. LOL
Laura, I would assume that things would be done the owned and operated way. I imagine that WSVN would have to differ from their fun reporting, and have to dumb it down to a WTVJ style newscast (and I’m not kidding you when i say TVJ puts me to sleep). Since they’re owned by FOX, everything must be done how FOX wants it. FOX graphics, FOX music, FOX segments. It would completely eliminate everything that makes WSVN completely unique, and would just make it, quite literally, like every other station. 🙁
Not all O&O’s have a homogenous look. What about Media General’s stations? Hearst-Argyle? Sinclair? They had homogenous looks for their stations, what makes an O&O different in regards to on air appearance?
O&O’s and affillates are different because of ownership and the way the news is presented. That’s where the contrasts end.
If fox were to buy WSVN for $700 million, and not because of their land but because of the quality of their station and the ad revnue, I imagine the executives at FOX would not want to dramatically change WSVN’s style. If they did, they would depreciate the value of their investment. But I guess we will have to wait longer to find out.
I’m glad that the rumors aren’t true. Although I’m not a big fan of 7’s newscasts these days, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that despite it’s flashy trendsetting ways, channel 7 has kept some little traditional things in it’s image.
WSVN still bills itself as simply “channel 7”, it uses the same chubby circle 7 logo it’s used for at least a quarter-century now (dates to the WCKT days), and overall still feels a bit like the unofficial independent station it was in 1989/1990 when FOX only aired 2 nights a week. It doesn’t plaster the FOX logo all over the place (except for at the lower right hand corner in the Community Calendar), and basically I feel FOX needs channel 7 far more than channel 7 needs FOX. If that is true, I can imagine Murdoch would salivate to get his paws on WSVN, which I hope never happens.
Oh yeah…WSVN’s 50th anniversary is at the end of July…I’d hope they do something nice to commemorate it (won’t hold my breath though).
If you guys knew anything about the family history invested in ‘SVN, you’d know it will never be sold until Ansin dies. His sons will then take over and the chance seems greater that they would sell, but still not very likely.
I used to work at 7 and moved on to a Fox O&O. They operate almost the same. A lot of the stuff we do is in-house. Everything 7 does is in-house. The O&Os are a little slower when it comes to bigger changes (like new music, graphics, or a new set)… just because there are so many bosses that have to clear the idea. And a lot of the O&Os won’t be as flashy (or trashy, depending on your p.o.v.) as ‘SVN, but that’s because there are more people in charge with more reservations about how big changes could destroy ratings. At 7, they love change (at least that’s what they say) and they’re more willing to make changes happen.
Trust me, not all the Fox O&Os look the same. It’s the other ones that do. If you travel a little and tune in to the news in other markets, you’ll see that all the NBC O&Os have the same rainbow graphics, all the ABC O&Os are called “Local (something)”, and all the CBS O&Os are on crack.
The problem with the Fox O&Os is that they’re so new (in comparison [sp?] ) that many of them just don’t have an audience. it’s like watching WNBC in NY is a tradition or something passed down within families through the generations. Then Fox shows up with news at 10 and everyone just says “whatever, ER is on”. And many of the Fox O&O’s don’t do anything to stand out in a big way, like ‘SVN does.