Florida News Center

(from TampaBay.com) – Bright House Networks customers got a welcome New Year’s present Monday, as the company announced a last-minute deal with Media General to keep the Virginia-based media chain’s TV stations on its system, including Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8.

But the deal, reportedly reached an hour before the midnight deadline on New Year’s Eve, follows the pattern of several recent conflicts between cable and satellite companies and broadcasters. (considering that Bright House has more than a million households in its system in the Tampa Bay area, NBC’s affiliate disappearing from the system would have hurt everyone from NBC Universal to viewers without access to other systems or a broadcast antenna….Cont….

TV viewers are once again subjected to retransmission fights between a local station (and its owner) and a television provider. This time Tampa’s WFLA-TV (Media General) and BrightHouse Networks cable are in negotiations for a new signal transmission agreement. If WFLA and Bright House do not come to an agreement before January 1, 2013, the station will be pulled from local cable line-ups.

Of course this grand standing is nothing new to television and is usually always resolved from signals are pulled. However, WFLA is not taking any chances and has been encouraging its viewers to switch to other providers, via segments in every newscast, crawls on the top and bottom of national simulcasts and via a special website (www.DONTDROPWFLA.com). Stay tuned….

(from TBO.com) – The Tampa Tribune was purchased by a private equity investment group and beginning today will be operated by a newly created, locally based company called the Tampa Media Group.

The Tribune’s longtime corporate owner, Virginia-based Media General Inc., announced the transaction this morning, transferring ownership of the Tribune, its affiliated newspapers and TBO.com to the Los Angeles-based Revolution Capital Group.

The purchase price was $9.5 million.

“This deal gives us the opportunity to do what makes sense for this local market,” Tribune publisher William Barker said. “It gives us the ability to be outwardly focused and not worry about how some larger corporation leverages us.”….Cont….

(from TampaBay.com) – The Tampa Bay Business Journal has an interesting story tonight asking if the request for a zoning change to the property in downtown Tampa which houses many of Media General’s Florida news properties — including NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8 and the Tampa Tribune – might indicate a sale of the newspaper is near.

According to the Journal, the Richmond, Va.-based company asked to split the newer, five-story building housing the TV station, the newspaper’s journalists and the website TBO.com (known as The News Center) from the smaller building across the courtyard which houses the newspaper’s printing press and assorted offices, along with a nearby four-story parking garage….Cont….

(from TVNewsCheck.com) – Media General Inc. (the owners of Tampa’s WFLA-TV)  today reported that its broadcast and digital revenue in the second quarter increased 17.3% to $84.1 million, from $71.7 million last year, with broadcast accounting for 17.1%.

Local time sales increased 4.4% to $47 million, from $45 million last year.

National time sales increased 2.9% to $23.4 million, from $22.7 million last year.

The largest broadcast advertising category, automotive, increased 26.5%. Other key categories delivering increases were financial, grocery, travel, home improvement, professional services and medical. Categories that declined included department stores, furniture, telecommunications and restaurants….Cont….

(from TampaBay.com) – The Tampa Tribune and its area print products have been excluded from a $142-million deal in which Richmond Va.-based Media General will sell 63 daily and weekly newspapers to superstar investor Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway company.

Along with the $142-million, Media General will receive a $400 million loan and $45 million in revolving credit to pay off existing bank debts.  The deal is expected to close June 25, allowing Media General to focus on its digital and television businesses.

The company owns 21 daily newspapers and a host of other print products throughout the Southeastern U.S., Tennessee and Ohio, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Winston Salem-Journal and the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va….Cont….

(from TVNewsCheck.com) – Media General Inc. (owners of Tampa’s WFLA-TV, The Tampa Tribune/TBO.com) today reported total revenues in the 2012 first quarter were $150 million, an increase of 0.4% from last year on the strength of higher broadcast revenues, partially offset by lower print and digital media revenues.

Political revenues were $6.2 million, compared with $188,000 last year. Cable and satellite retransmission fees increased 63% to $8.7 million from $5.3 million last year, as the result of rate increases in contract renewals….Cont….

(from TVNewsCheck.com) - Media General Inc. (owners of Tampa’s WFLA-TV and the Tampa Tribune) today reported total revenues in the 2011 fourth quarter were $168 million, down $22 million, or 11.7%, from than the prior year’s quarter.

The company said the decrease was mostly due to “an expected and significant decrease” in political revenues in an off-election year. Political revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 were $24 million, compared with only $3.6 million in the current quarter. Lower print revenues and a drop in advertising services revenues also contributed to the overall revenue shortfall….Cont….

(from TampaBay.com) – Media General replaced top executives in charge of the Tampa Tribune, Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8 and TBO.com on Wednesday as part of a restructuring that eventually will include layoffs.

John Schueler, president of the company that controls Media General’s Florida news operations, Florida Communications Group, has been transferred to an unspecified job in the company’s Richmond, Va., headquarters.

Tampa Tribune publisher Denise Palmer, who also served as vice president of news for the Tampa market, and Cathy Helean, the company’s Tampa vice president of marketing, also were replaced, with no new positions outlined….Cont….

(from Reuters.com) – Broadcaster and publisher Media General Inc’s quarterly loss widened as a fall in political ad spends and global economic uncertainty hurt advertising revenue.

The company — which publishes newspapers like The Tampa Tribune and the Winston-Salem Journal and owns TV station WFLA-TV — said it still expects to cut total operating expenses by about $20 million for 2011….Cont….