Sinclair Broadcasting, parent company of Ring of Honor, is constantly in acquisition mode. There was a well-publicized bid for Tribune assets and reports of bidding on a regional cable network package.

Some of Anthem’s strongest assets are its tv properties: Fight Network, Pursuit Channel (outdoor hunting and fishing), FNTSY Sports Network (fantasy sports) and Edge Sport (in partnership with IMG). 

All of these channels are fairly low profile at the moment and not broadly distributed in the United States. One element Sinclair could focus on immediately is to leverage their channel distribution in negotiations. Sinclair has been able to grow the penetration of The Tennis Channel through leverage in distribution of its domestic television assets. When faced with distribution channels, expanded bandwidth via ATSC 3.0, would be a safe landing spot in the U.S. for some of these stations on digital sub-tiers (such as Charge! Or COMET TV).

The Anthem channel’s  target markets are not a stretch when one imagines a hunting channel or extreme sports appealing to middle America (in which some of Sinclair’s strongest asset base remains). Sinclair is fairly conservative when spending on rights fees (with the possible exception of The Tennis Channel). Non-premier fight sports, hunting and extreme sports command very low rights fees (and many of those organizations are thankful for the exposure). These channels seem to better fit the portfolio rather than a high-profile regional sports package, in which the fees would be expected to continue to escalate to air local major league basketball, hockey and baseball. 

Most synergistically is The Fight Network and its most-run program, IMPACT Wrestling. Sinclair could immediately place ROH in the programming lineup and add more robust content to the station. With access concurrently to over 15 years of archives, one could thread historical stories more cleanly. An example would be to tell Samoa Joe’s history in both organizations over several years. In addition Anthem owns classic “St. Louis” wrestling programming.

Other assets, like the Global Wrestling Network, could be rolled into current Sinclair assets like HonorClub. The name “Global” appears to be putting a legal strain onto Anthem in dealing with a name-assets assignment lawsuit by Jeff Jarrett. 

Ultimately, one corporation does not run several independent wrestling brands for long. IMPACT would likely be wound down but ROH’s creatives could run year to a year and a half of inter promotional feuds that, if done correctly, could peak to successful business.