Lavie article: SBG buying Tribune

This is the place to discuss all the latest ROH news, announcements and events!
Post Reply
WOHBuckeye
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 4:49 pm

Lavie article: SBG buying Tribune

Post by WOHBuckeye »

Great stuff.

This has been a discussion at where I work (I'm in the media industry), Sinclair would essentially have enough TV stations in local markets with the Tribune buy to become a virtual fifth network. American Sports Network coming back, with it being farmed out to other companies and studios, that's another possibility to keep an eye on - Sinclair looks to keep ROH as content on air and farm the company out to another company to manage (maybe a New Japan?)

One thing watching SBG in action over the years, they are extremely conservative on spending and we won't likely know anything until they put it in a press release.
Laviemarg
Posts: 52
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:06 am

Re: Lavie article: SBG buying Tribune

Post by Laviemarg »

I apologize for the super late reply (I just joined the Board) but I appreciate your feedback on the article. Things have gotten even more interesting with the FCC, public backlash and media attention. Let's see what happens...
impactwrestling
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:31 pm

Re: Lavie article: SBG buying Tribune

Post by impactwrestling »

Is there any new news about the deal? I just recently found out about this merger and have been doing a lot of Google searching to try to find information. The elephant in the room is a 2 or 3 hours Weekly show on WGN. Let's be quite frank. The only way they will be seen as a viable alternative to Impact Wrestling or WWE is If their production is at the same level. As much as some people may not want to admit it perception is everything big production means you're big. Wrestling will never be Center front and will always be storyline driven so the product would have to cater to the mainstream audience. I'm hoping this deal mean something that can change the landscape of professional wrestling. Something that can be take out the WWE. Can rekindle a legitimate wrestling War.
famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: Lavie article: SBG buying Tribune

Post by famicommander »

impactwrestling wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:44 pm Is there any new news about the deal? I just recently found out about this merger and have been doing a lot of Google searching to try to find information. The elephant in the room is a 2 or 3 hours Weekly show on WGN. Let's be quite frank. The only way they will be seen as a viable alternative to Impact Wrestling or WWE is If their production is at the same level. As much as some people may not want to admit it perception is everything big production means you're big. Wrestling will never be Center front and will always be storyline driven so the product would have to cater to the mainstream audience. I'm hoping this deal mean something that can change the landscape of professional wrestling. Something that can be take out the WWE. Can rekindle a legitimate wrestling War.
They already passed up Impact Wrestling years ago, and neither of those promotions is within spitting distance of WWE. Hell, not even NJPW, CMLL, or AAA are within spitting distance of WWE. The best thing ROH can do is continue to grow in the sustainable way that they already are, and not let fanciful notions of a head to head war with WWE derail the most momentum they've ever had.

If ROH continues to grow at is current pace and WWE's attendance and TV numbers continue to drop, then maybe 5-10 years down the line they'll be more of a true competitor to WWE. But they're sure as hell not "taking out" WWE any time soon.

As for the deal itself, it is widely expected to go through, though Sinclair may need to sell off a dozen stations or so to make it work. ROH will almost definitely end up on all the new local Sinclair stations, but WGN America is a question mark. ROH would certainly fit with their new direction of cheaper programming, but nobody has said anything officially.
Post Reply