Over the last 18 months, the founder of 5-Hour Energy, Manoj Bhargava, emerged as one of the most significant new buyers of broadcast television stations in the U.S. Through Bridge News LLC, with Vince Bodiford in the role as Chief Executive Officer, what had been a digital multicast all-News offering modeled after the original CNN News Network of 30 years ago was transitioning to an owned-and-operated station group fueled by low-power TV properties.
Now, in a surprising and sudden move, the NewsNet operation bankrolled by Bhargava and overseen by Bodiford has come to its conclusion.
In fact, RBR+TVBR in its August 2 edition reported that Bridge News LLC had just agreed to acquire a LPTV property within the Tallahassee, Fla., DMA from Jeff Winemiller’s Lowcountry 34 Media.
What’s next for the collection of LPTV properties that Bridge News, operator of NewsNet, has amassed and has agreed to acquire?
RBR+TVBR reached out to Bodiford early Monday via email. He replied, “I remain to lead the station group team, and the overall communications lead for all Manoj-owned companies and non-profits.”
This means Bodiford will continue to oversee some 90 over-the-air stations. And, the growth isn’t ending for Bridge News LLC. “You can expect a significant increase in our over-the-air acquisition activity in the coming days and weeks,” he said. “We will continue to operate and expand our separate, large group of television stations, and rework the use of subchannels on each one.”
For Bhargava, the shutdown on Friday of NewsNet ends two years of operations in which upgrades and bigger aspirations were put into play for what had been a Farmington Hills, Michigan-based offering with limited resources. This saw Bhargava take a majority stake in NewsNet, founded by Eric Wotila.
Both NewsNet and sibling network “SportsNews Highlights,” launched in November 2022, ceased operations. Some 80 individuals have lost their jobs; this includes the entire staff of both networks, and most corporate staff of Bridge Media Networks.
What happened? In a statement, Bhargava told RBR+TVBR, “The company believed that audiences would be attracted to this non-bias news and information – but instead found that audiences did not view our networks in large enough numbers for long enough time required to generate advertising revenue to pay for the networks. Simply put – more viewers are attracted to sensationalized, bias news. We believed people would want to watch a clean, non-bias news network, but we were wrong. Without a large audience, we just couldn’t continue to lose money. We hired the best people and talent, and we appreciate their hard work and effort. But we just couldn’t continue.”
Some 150 U.S. broadcast stations, inclusive of Bridge News’ own 90 properties, aired NewsNet. The offerings were also free ad-supported streaming television (“FAST” channel) offerings.
Bhargava has gained notice in 2024 not just for 5-Hour Energy or for NewsNet — and not for the best of reasons. In April the owner of Sports Illustrated sued Bhargava, hurling accusations that for a six-month period during which he controlled the brand’s publishing rights, he reneged on millions of dollars in fee payments, allegedly threatened to kill the print version of SI, and mentioned that he’d have no qualms dismissing the entire SI staff. Charges of racism and gender discrimination were also brought to the forefront.
Two months earlier, in February 2024, Bhargava was the center of attention in a “poison pill” plan initiated by Cumulus Media to prevent a hostile takeover of the audio content creation and distribution company. As reported upon July 21, 2023, via SEC Form 13G/D, Bhargava’s Renew Group Private Ltd. had acquired 829,618 shares (or a 5.15% equity interest) in Cumulus.
The Singapore-based entity since then engaged in what Cumulus called “the significant accumulation” of its stock. Indeed, as of January 24, 2024, some 10.01% of the company’s outstanding Class A shares were held by Renew.
Bhargava proved to be far from done. He told Cumulus leadership he intended to push that stake up to 20% — even as he, according to Cumulus, has a “sizeable holding” in a direct competitor of Cumulus Media.
To prevent a hostile takeover, the board’s shareholder rights plan puts a 15% equity interest trigger into effect, requiring Cumulus board approval for the acquisition of shares pushing this threshold.
Meanwhile, in Cumulus’ statement regarding its decision to move forward with a shareholder rights plan, the company noted that Bhargava has a “sizeable holding” in a direct competitor — Audacy Inc.
As RBR+TVBR first reported in August 2023, Bhargava added to his radio portfolio $60 million of first-lien Term B debt linked to the company that remains in debtor-in-possession status despite its February 2024 reorganization OK from a Houston federal bankruptcy judge.
The investment was roughly 10% of “Entercom Media” debt, as noted in documents filed regarding his stake in Audacy.
Bridge News’ legal counsel in its most recent LPTV acquisitions is Dan J. Alpert.
