<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 Two ABC affiliate owners say\u00a0they’ll continue to preempt\u00a0late night\u00a0talk show host Jimmy Kimmel\u00a0with their own local programming, even after\u00a0ABC said they would reinstate\u00a0his show nationally.<\/p>\n
Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group\u2019s decision highlights the influence and sometimes-tenuous relationship local TV station owners have with national broadcasters such as Disney-owned ABC.<\/p>\n
Kimmel was\u00a0briefly suspended\u00a0over comments he made in the aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.<\/p>\n
Here are key facts about the two companies, which collectively own about a quarter of ABC affiliates, including in some bigger cities like Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Nexstar Media Group, based in Irving, Texas, operates 28 ABC affiliates. It said Tuesday that it stands by last week’s decision to preempt the show, \u201cpending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, and Nexstar’s stations will focus on \u201ccontinuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nexstar owns ABC-affiliated stations in cities including Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans; Salt Lake City and smaller markets including Evansville, Indiana; and Binghamton, N.Y., among others.<\/p>\n
In all, the company owns or partners with more than 200 stations in 116 U.S. markets, and owns broadcast networks the CW and NewsNation, as well as the political website The Hill and nearly a third of the Food Network.<\/p>\n
It hopes to get even bigger.\u00a0Last month, it announced a $6.2 billion deal to buy TEGNA Inc.,\u00a0which owns 64 other TV stations.<\/p>\n
The deal would require the Federal Communications Commission to change rules limiting the number of stations a single company can own.\u00a0The FCC\u2019s chair, Brendan Carr, has expressed openness to changing the rule.<\/p>\n
Sinclair Broadcast Group, based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, operates 38 local ABC affiliates. The company,\u00a0which has a reputation for a conservative viewpoint in its broadcasts, said in a post Tuesday on X that it will be preempting the show and replacing it with news programming.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiscussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show\u2019s potential return,\u201d the company said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Sinclair owns, operates or provides services to 178 TV stations in 81 markets affiliated with all major broadcast networks and owns the Tennis Channel. Its ABC affiliates include stations in Washington, D.C., Portland, Ore., Chattanooga, Tennessee, and other cities.<\/p>\n
While local TV affiliates broadcast their own programming, such as local news, they also contract with national broadcasters and pay them to air their national programming, splitting advertising revenue and fees from cable companies.<\/p>\n
For example, if there are 16 minutes of advertising during an hour of commercial time, typically about 12 minutes go to the national broadcaster and 4 minutes go to the local station owner, said Matthew Dolgin, a senior analyst at research firm Morningstar who covers the technology, media, and telecom sectors.<\/p>\n
While affiliates get 100% of ad revenue from local programming, national TV shows during prime time typically get much better ratings, thus higher advertising dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe areas where these stations own ABC affiliates, they\u2019re a smaller market. They probably don\u2019t get really big Kimmel viewership,\u201d he said. \u201cSo for them, they don\u2019t lose maybe quite as much. … It’s easier for them to take a stand on Jimmy Kimmel than it would be for a lot of the other national programs I think they really rely on, including, for example, Monday Night Football,\u201d Dolgin added.<\/p>\n
Sinclair made headlines in 2018\u00a0when a video that stitched together dozens of news anchors for Sinclair-owned local stations reading identical statements decrying \u201cthe troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country\u201d went viral. Sinclair didn’t disclose that it ordered the anchors to read the statement.<\/p>\n
Nexstar operates similarly.<\/p>\n
Danilo Yanich, professor of public policy at the University of Delaware,\u00a0said the company is the \u201cbiggest duplicator\u201d of news content today. His\u00a0research\u00a0showed Nexstar stations duplicated broadcasts more than other affiliate owners.<\/p>\n
Lauren Herold, an editor of the forthcoming book \u201cLocal TV,\u201d said the web of companies involved in getting Americans their television shows is \u201crelatively unknown\u201d to most viewers, though their influence has been made known for decades.<\/p>\n
Often, Herold said, that\u2019s been when local affiliates have balked at airing something they viewed as controversial, such as the episode of the 1990s comedy \u201cEllen\u201d in which Ellen DeGeneres\u2019 character came out as gay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a complete oddity,\u201d Herold said. \u201cI think what\u2019s more alarming about this particular incident to me is the top-down nature of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whereas past flare-ups between affiliates and their parent networks have often involved individual local TV executives, Herold pointed to the powerful voices at play in Kimmel\u2019s suspension:\u00a0Disney CEO Bob Iger, the\u00a0FCC’s chair Carr, as well as Sinclair and Nexstar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FCC kind of pinpointing particular programs to cancel is concerning to people who advocate for television to be a forum for free discussion and debate,\u201d Herold said.<\/p>\n
Jasmine Bloemhof, a media strategist who has worked with local stations, including ones owned by Sinclair and Nexstar, said consolidation has given such companies \u201cenormous influence.\u201d Controversies like the latest involving Kimmel, she said, \u201creveal the tension between Hollywood-driven programming and the values of everyday Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNetworks may push one agenda, but affiliates owned by companies like Sinclair and Nexstar understand they serve conservative-leaning communities across the country,\u201d Bloemhof said. \u201cAnd that friction is bound to surface.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dolgin said he believes the balance of power might lie with ABC over the affiliates. While Disney does rely on local TV affiliate relationships to get viewership, ad revenue, and revenue from cable companies, the ABC broadcast network makes up a \u201cvery small percentage of (Disney’s) revenue,\u201d Dolgin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they\u2019ve got alternative ways with their streaming services, with their cable networks to reach consumers otherwise,\u201d he said. \u201cSo to me, that puts them a little bit in the driver\u2019s seat in this relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source spectrumnews1.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK \u2014 Two ABC affiliate owners say\u00a0they’ll continue to preempt\u00a0late night\u00a0talk show host Jimmy Kimmel\u00a0with their own local programming, even after\u00a0ABC said they would reinstate\u00a0his show nationally. Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group\u2019s decision highlights the influence and sometimes-tenuous relationship local TV station owners have with national broadcasters such as Disney-owned ABC. Kimmel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2044889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22793,22694,22800,22804,21796,22691,21741,22695,21737],"class_list":["post-2044888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-app-for-your-consideration","tag-associated-press","tag-business","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-los-angeles-app-region","tag-top-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/What-to-know-about-Nexstar-and-Sinclair.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2044888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2044889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2044888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2044888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2044888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}