With Apollo's history of negotiating high retrans fees, I wouldn't hold my breath that Charlie will cave easily. I don't see Tegna closing a more reasonable deal with Dish prior to the closing without input from Apollo.
I said AFTERWARDS, and I also stressed HOPEFULLY. Key word is HOPEFULLY.
I didn't say that. Can you read? I simply said that ONCE TEGNA SELLS, they will no longer have to get higher paying retransmission fees to get a higher buying price since it ALREADY HAS BEEN SOLD. I also stressed the word "hopefully".
That could happen. What also could happen is that that when Tegna knows they already know they have a buyer, they won't feel that they need to ask for ridiculous retransmission fees. Don't get me wrong. I'm simply saying "what if's" in this thread.
I agree on "hopefully"! Apollo is saying they will operate Tegna as a separate company to avoid the FCC's 39% rule. They'll also be transferring one Apollo station to Tegna that already has a higher retrans rate then the Tegna stations. It's expected that will set a new higher Tegna rate standard.
The way these transactions work is that a "deal model" was presented to the buyers which was used to help determine the price they were willing to pay. This is essentially a multi-year P&L. That model has lots of assumptions built in. You can be sure that there is an assumption there on 1) the price that they will be able to negotiate with Dish and 2) the timeline on when the revenue from Dish will return. It could go either way as far as a lower/higher price or a quicker/longer return, but I tend to think that the buyers would prefer to have the distribution back before the transaction date. The buyers will almost certainly get veto rights on any new material transactions prior to close so it doesn't really matter what Tegna wants anymore.
