Sinclair Broadcast Group

• Date founded: 1971
• Industry: Telecommunications
• Corporate headquarters: Cockeysville, Maryland
• Type: public

The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications conglomerate that began as a single network in 1971. The broadcast group has since undergone several periods of rapid acquisition, quickly becoming one of the largest and most powerful telecommunications companies in the United States. The Sinclair Broadcast Group was influential in its development of several new revenue generation techniques, including pioneering retransmission consent agreement fees.

Sinclair has continually looked towards future revenue streams, quickly adapting to digital television and the internet. Through both these adaptations and continuous aggressive acquisitions, the company was able to offer advertisers services across much of the United States. By the mid-2020s, the company owned or controlled nearly two hundred television stations in around one hundred markets and maintained control of television stations affiliated with each of the largest television networks. Its channels provided content originally produced by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as well as local news and sports media and several multicast networks. Beginning in the late 2010s, the company’s news coverage became increasingly associated with conservative politics and promoted claims that other media networks were pushing “fake news.”

History

The origins of the Sinclair Broadcast Group can be traced back to Julian Sinclair Smith, who started an FM radio station in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1960. Sinclair created Chesapeake Television Corporation, which launched a television station in Baltimore in 1971. The company then continued to found stations across the region, placing them in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Columbus, Ohio. At the time, each station acted independently. The Sinclair station WPTT-TV in Pittsburgh was notable at the time for providing local news without being affiliated with a major news network. Many of these stations were managed by Smith’s four sons.

During the 1980s, the stations merged into one larger, more influential company. The Chesapeake Television Corporation changed its name to the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and quickly began acquiring more stations. They bought large numbers of television stations throughout the 1990s, making the Sinclair Broadcast Group a commonly-recognized name across the United States. In 1995, the company went public, though the Sinclair family retained the majority of the stock.

At the time, FCC rules prohibited Sinclair from controlling multiple stations in the same market. However, the group pioneered the local marketing agreement, which it first tested on WPTT-TV in Pittsburgh. This style of legal agreement allowed a parent company such as Sinclair to control the financial, personnel, and programming aspects of a second station in the same market, while a local partner handled the day-to-day operations. By 1996, Sinclair had become the largest television broadcasting company in the United States that was not owned by a major television network. In 1998 alone, the company’s rapid acquisitions allowed it to double in size.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US economy dipped into a recession. This restricted the capital available to the group, slowing its expansion. Instead, the company began to transition its stations from analog television to digital television. Through this update, the Sinclair Broadcast Group pioneered the creation of retransmission consent agreement fees. These fees were charged to cable and satellite companies for the right to retransmit their signal to customers through local affiliate stations. This provided Sinclair with another significant revenue stream.

In 2007, Sinclair banded together with other broadcasters to found the Open Mobile Video Coalition. This group was intended to promote mobile television, meaning television programs broadcast across smartphones, laptop computers, and tablets.

When analog television was officially discontinued in the United States in 2009, the Sinclair Broadcast Group continued to look towards the future. In order to provide advertisers with greater means to access customers, the group developed its digital interactive platform. This platform sought to spread programming, and thus advertisements, across three screens: televisions, mobile applications, and websites.

In 2011, Sinclair began another wave of major acquisitions. During the next three years, the company acquired more than three billion dollars in assets and more than one hundred stations. In 2014, Sinclair launched its American Sports Network. The network focused on bringing collegiate sports to a wider audience. The company also began producing greater amounts of original programming, working towards the goal of vertical integration. By 2016, Sinclair and its affiliates were considered the largest producer of local television news in the United States.

Also in 2016, Sinclair launched a mobile news distribution program called “Circa.” In the following year, Sinclair underwent some leadership changes, with famed CEO David Smith moving to Executive Chairman. The company continued increasing its wireless marketing and digital content creation services, moving towards multi-media options and away from traditional television structures. The company also continued to acquire more television assets, purchasing twenty-one regional sports networks in 2019. In 2020, the company's Tennis Channel expanded internationally to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, offering a subscription service. In 2021, the company launched The National Desk (TND), which provides a condensed summation of the most important news stories, and in 2022, the company launched a direct-to-consumer subscription Bally Sports+, as well as gamification elements.

In 2024, the company sold Stirr, a streaming and on demand service that launched in 2019. Following the sale, only on-demand content was available to users.

Impact

The Sinclair Broadcast Group is one of the largest and most influential television companies in the United States. The channels owned by the group as predominately local television stations and digital media platforms. Though the company produces a significant amount of original content that is distributed across its many outlets, much of the media broadcast through Sinclair is local news, sports, and content provided by third-party syndicators.

Because of its widespread reach, Sinclair has become an appealing option for advertisers. In the 2020s, the company owned or controlled nearly two hundred television stations across nearly one hundred markets and maintained control of television stations affiliated with each of the largest television networks. Sinclair also maintained the ability to provide advertisers with outlets located on both mobile and internet services. In 2019, the company made an attempt to challenge conservative-leaning Fox News by shifting its political content to be more conservative. The company was criticized for supporting the anti-media rhetoric popularized by President Donald Trump, who routinely referred to other media outlets as promoting “fake news.”

Bibliography

Kelly, Tim. “Sinclair Broadcast Group Makes Bid to Buy NBC Sports Philadelphia, Other Local Networks.” Phillies Nation, 3 July 2021, www.philliesnation.com/2021/07/sinclair-broadcast-group-makes-bid-to-buy-nbc-sports-philadelphia-other-local-networks. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

Matthews, Dylan. “Sinclair, the Pro-Trump, Conservative Company Taking Over Local News, Explained.” Vox, 3 Apr. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/4/3/17180020/sinclair-broadcast-group-conservative-trump-david-smith-local-news-tv-affiliate. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

Mirabella, Lorraine. “Sinclair Broadcast CEO Expects Rapid Expansion of New, Mobile-Friendly Broadcasting Standard.” Baltimore Sun, 29 June 2021, www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-sinclair-broadcast-ceo-nextgen-broadcast-standard-20210629-ryqqif7cn5eqlfnutrnijtea5a-story.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

“Our History.” Sinclair Broadcast Group, sbgi.net/who-we-are/history/2020s. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

Rosenberg, Eli. “What We Know about the Conservative Media Giant Sinclair.” Chicago Tribune, 3 Apr. 2018, www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-who-is-sinclair-broadcast-group-20180403-story.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

“Sinclair Broadcast Group.” Crunchbase, www.crunchbase.com/organization/sinclair-broadcast-group. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

“Sinclair Broadcast Group.” Zippia, www.zippia.com/sinclair-broadcast-group-careers-10461/history. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.