I was the one who originally posted last week that the way to Sinclair was through its advertisers on its local newscast. I don't know about nationally, but from our market, it's clear that that strategy isn't going to work. This show is going to air, that's a given.
But there IS a way to cause serious discomfort on these guys. My house is a Neilsen house. Every 2 years or so, we have to keep a Neilsen diary of what we watch. Now, here's what happens. If there was a national call to the anonymous Neilsen houses, like mine to refuse to ever acknowledge in their Neilsen diaries that they were watching a Sinclair station, think of the result - HINT, it may not be obvious.
We're not trying to get the ratings down, though that would be a nice extra. We're trying to corrupt their ratings; the life blood of their company. Once it has been established nationally that you've introduced an exterior random influence on the Neilsen ratings for just one network, then those ratings are suspect and essentially worthless, and they absolutely cannot use those ratings to set ad rates. Hmmm, what do you think their stock would do at that point? Keep following me....
This company is leveraged to the hilt. If their stock tanks, it's like a margin call from their debtors. There's this sense that these brothers are untouchable. But that's not true. The people who hold almost absolute power over these brothers, who can make them dance like little pigs, are the ones to whom they owe all the money. (Having co-run a small business that was also deeply in debt, I can tell you that the phone calls from the bank (or the investor) are the ones you dread more than anything)
Whaddya think?