ABC controversy comes amid proposed acquisition of Sacramento station’s parent
The suspension of the “Jimmy Kimmel Show” and its reversal Monday come amid acquisition talks for the parent company of Sacramento’s ABC affiliate, KXTV.
Last month, Nexstar Media Group announced plans to acquire Tegna, which owns Sacramento’s affiliate, ABC10, in a $6.2 billion deal.
The acquisition must pass antitrust scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, according to a recent regulatory filing. The companies plan to file an application with the FCC by the end of September. Tegna’s California holdings include KXTV in Sacramento, and KFMB in San Diego, according to its most recent annual filing.
Nexstar was one of the affiliate groups that announced last week that it would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for the foreseeable future, along with Sinclair. On Wednesday, ABC suspended Kimmel’s show. On Monday afternoon, Disney said the show would return to the air the following day, Reuters reported.
Affiliates sometimes have boards that can seek to influence networks’ programming decisions, said Stacey Woelfel, a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. But in this case, the companies found it more effective to preempt the network’s show.
Affiliates agree to air certain amounts of a network’s programs, but are allowed a defined amount of preemptions, which permit leeway, for instance, to carry local parade coverage after a local team wins a championship.
“Was it within their limit? Might have been,” Woelfel said of the affiliates’ decision to preempt the Jimmy Kimmel show. “But they couldn’t have done it forever.”
The power dynamic between local stations and the networks is shifting as streaming becomes more popular, Woelfel said. A network like CBS can reach viewers with Paramount Plus, and NBC can reach its audience with Peacock. As a result, affiliates become less powerful.
While networks do own some stations, generally in New York, Los Angeles and a few other major cities, most are owned by companies like Nexstar and Sinclair.
“If you go to a McDonald’s in your hometown, it’s probably not owned by McDonald’s, it’s probably owned by a local business person,” Woelfel said. “It’s a little bit like that… An ABC affiliate is separate and different than ABC, and those aren’t the same people making those decisions.”
