station trading

As they said they would last week in the wake FCC approval, Media General and Young Broadcasting closed on their merger Tuesday. The combination creates a mega-group with 31 stations operating in 28 markets, reaching 16.5 million, or 14%, of U.S. TV households. On the pro forma basis, the merged company had 2012 revenues of $605 million.

Media General and Young announced the merger last June and the FCC OK’d it this afternoon. The combination creates a mega-group with 30 stations operating in 27 markets, reaching 16.5 million, or 14%, of U.S. TV households. On the pro forma basis, the merged company had 2012 revenues of $605 million, including approximately $115 million of political revenue.

The NBC affiliate in the Philadelphia DMA is being sold by Access.1 Communications to spectrum aggregator LocusPoint Networks.

The price tag for seven Fox and CW affiliates in four markets — Roanoke, Huntsville, Quad Cities and La Crosse — represents a buyer’s muliple of just 5X, says Nexstar. With the deal, Nexstar’s portfolio swells to 102 stations in 54 markets reaching approximately 15.5% of all U.S. TV homes.

The sale by Frontier Radio Management Corp. of stations in Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming to Gray Television for $23 million tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

The cable group tells the FCC that the $90 million purchase of eight stations uses joint sales agreements to sidestep FCC ownership regulations that bar ownership of two of the top four rated TV stations in a market.

Shareholders of Media General will vote this week on a proposed merger with New Young Broadcasting that will expand the Media General’s broadcasting portfolio while also dramatically changing its ownership structure. If the deal is approved, it will mark the first time that J. Stewart Bryan III and his family won’t control the company.

The $23 million deal gives it KGNS, Laredo, Texas; KGWN and KCWY Cheyenne, Wyo.-Scottsbluff, Neb.; KCWY Casper, Wyo.; and some LPTVs and translators.

After 58 years as a family business, Bill Duhamel says it’s time to sell KOTA. “The rapidly consolidating television industry makes it difficult for a single, stand-alone business to remain competitive and to develop the necessary capital to expand into the digital era,” he said. Acquisition-minded Schurz owns 10 other TV stations. Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

Delmarva Broadcast Services has sold WMDT Salisbury, Md. (DMA 142), to Marquee Broadcasting Inc. for $9 million. The station is an ABC affiliate that also airs The CW on a subchannel. The buyer is owned by Brian and Patricia Lane, who have no other broadcast interests. Larry Patrick of Patrick Communications was broker for the seller; George Kimble of Kozacko Media Services was the buyer’s broker.

Score one for the new guy in Alaska’s brewing television war. The FCC has granted Denali Media, a subsidiary of Alaska telecommunications giant General Communications Inc., the go-ahead to buy CBS affiliate KTVA Anchorage and NBC affiliates KSCT-LP Sitka and KATH-LD Juneau. Other broadcasters in the state had urged the FCC to deny the sale, saying it could result in GCI being able to squash competitors by charging exorbitant rates, assigning unfavorable channel positions or bypassing local programming altogether.

Despite Gannett’s plans to close its $1.3 billion acquisition of Belo’s 20 TV stations by the end of this year, the deal is unlikely to gain regulatory approval any sooner than the first quarter of 2014. The shutdown of the federal government delayed regulators’ examination of the transaction, particularly at the FCC, where the deal raises some contentious media policy issues. Not only did the shutdown delay the FCC staffers’ review of the transaction but it delayed the return of the commission to its full five-member complement.

The former president-COO of Gray Television has filed with the FCC to purchase the NBC affiliate in Utica, N.Y., from Smith Media

The sale by Journal Broadcast Group of KMIR, KPSE-LP and K29KF-D Palm Springs, Calif., to OTA Broadcasting for $17 million tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

Disney is supposedly considering selling its O&Os. It’s a rumor that has been making the rounds for a few weeks. The conventional broadcasting wisdom says that the network is a marginal business and the stations are the business of high margin. In other words, if you had to sell something, you would sell the network. But the conventional wisdom may be out of date.

Walt Disney Co. is looking to hire an investment bank to explore a possible sale of its eight ABC owned-and-operated television stations, a move that could reap billions. The is not the first time Disney has flirted with selling its broadcast group, and sources cautioned that the media giant is still mulling the idea and may decide against it.

As part of its proposed $985 million purchase, Sinclair has proposed spinning off its stations in two markets to comply with FCC local ownership rules while proposing to provide sales and other non-programming support services to them. Those side deals have drawn heavy flak in petitions to deny at the FCC, on grounds that the arrangements would give Sinclair too much power in those markets, including over retransmission consent negotiations with cable operators. Now, the Department of Justice is said to be investigating those same allegations.

Sinclair Broadcast Group tried and failed to steal Belo Corp. from the clutches of Gannett Co., leaving Gray Television Inc. and LIN LLC as targets for the largest U.S. TV station owner. Sinclair twice tried to top Gannett’s offer for Belo in the days before the shareholder vote, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the process was private.

The sale by Max Media of four full-power stations and various low-power and translator stations to Cowles Publishing for $18 million tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

A report Monday on WDSU New Orleans’ website that an Alabama group backed by Raycom Media  is “closing in on a deal” to purchase WVUE New Orleans is incorrect, says a spokesman for WVUE owner Louisiana Media Co.

KMIR-KPSE-LP is a NBC-MNT combo. Known as a spectrum speculator, buyer OTA Broadcasting says it looks foward to serving the market. The price was not disclosed.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has closed on its planned purchase of four television stations owned by Titan Television Broadcast Group for $115.35 million. As part of the deal, Hunt Valley-based Sinclair took over Titan’s agreements to provide sales and other services to two additional stations. Sinclair, which has been on a tremendous buying binge, funded the deal with cash.

The sale by CP Media to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $90 million tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

The stations, all in Montana, are KULR Billings; KTMF Missoula and Kalispell; KWYB Butte and Bozeman; KFBB Great Falls and KHBB Helena.

In light of the government shutdown, the FCC said today that it has suspended the 180-day clock it informally gives itself to determine whether pending deals comply with its rules and serve the public interest. That likely will affect Gannett’s $1.5B acquisition of Belo and Tribune’s $2.7B purchase of Local TV. The clock will restart on the business day after the government returns to what the FCC calls “normal operations.”

TCT Ministries Inc. (Garth Coonce, president) has sold WBNF-CD Buffalo, N.Y. (DMA 52), to LocusPoint Networks (Ravi Potharlanka and Bill deKay, co-founders), for $1.4 million. The station operates with 15,000 watts on ch. 15 with an antenna 554 feet above ground level. Broker in the deal is Greg Guy of Patrick Communications.

The sale by Citadel Communications of WOI Ames and KCAU Sioux City, both Iowa, and WHBF Rock Island, Ill., to Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $88 million  tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

Nexstar will acquire WOI Des Moines, Iowa; WHBF Rock Island, Ill., and KCAU Sioux City, Iowa, from Citadel Communications for $88 million and will operate them under a time brokerage agreement. Mission is buying WICZ and WBNP-LP Binghamton, N.Y., from Stainless Broadcasting for $15.25 million in a transaction structured as an asset purchase agreement.

Sunbelt Multimedia Co. has sold its Telemundo affiliate KTLM Rio Grande City, Texas (DMA 86), to Telemundo Rio Grande Valley LLC for $8.5 million. Larry Patrick of Patrick Communications brokered the deal. In 2012, Patrick was appointed receiver for Sunbelt Multimedia and associated entities by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

In a petition to deny the $985 million sale of the Washington ABC affiliate, Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition asks the FCC to hold a hearing on whether Sinclair’s widespread use of LMAs and JSAs is an attempt to evade FCC ownership restrictions.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that investor opposition to the terms of Gannett’s $1.5 billion takeover offer for TV station-owner Belo is intensifying, two weeks before Belo shareholders are due to vote. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

The sale by King Forward Inc. of W41DW-D Pigeon Forge, Ga., to LPTV Channel Holdings LLC for $16,000 tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

The sale by U S Interactive LLC of KPJO-LP Joplin, Mo., to DTV America Corp. for $30,000 tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Kelsey.

Getting rid of the outdated UHF discount is fine if Congress would simultaneously raise the ownership cap to 45% so groups can contend with new marketplace challenges. They are in a running battle for survival. None should be held back from accumulating more stations and benefitting from the economies and negotiating clout that come from size.

The Department of Justice asked Gannett and Belo for more information about Gannett’s $1.5 billion purchase of Belo, the companies said Friday. Announced in June, the merger would double Gannett’s TV station portfolio and create the nation’s fourth largest owner of “big four” network affiliates. Gannett played down the DOJ’s second request as a “standard part of the DOJ review process” and reiterated that the company expects to close the transaction by the end of the year. Still, a second request can soak up a lot of time.

LocusPoint Networks LLC (Ravi Potharlanka, president) has closed on its purchase of WRCF-LP Orlando, Fla. (DMA 19), from Specialty Broadcasting Corp. (Charles Namey, president) for $1,250,000. Greg Guy of Patrick Communications brokered the deal.

With the FCC indicating it will review the old provision that boosts how many TV stations a group can own, affected broadcasters are scrambling to make sure changes apply only to deals going forward and that they don’t have to divest current holdings. Feeling the heat: Tribune, Fox and Sinclair.

The owner of WHTV Lansing, Mich., says the merger between Media General and Young Broadcasting shouldn’t be approved until the commission determines that management agreements involving Young in Lansing pass muster.

Free Press and Put People First PA allege that Tribune’s proposed transfer of the three Local TV stations to a “shell corporation” are designed to let Tribune operate stations in markets where it also owns daily newspapers.

The two stations in Charlotte, N.C. that Fox Television Stations Group gobbled up in January may have only been the appetizer. The station arm of 21st Century Fox is sniffing around acquisition targets in several major markets, including Seattle, St. Louis and San Francisco. The push is part of a larger strategy to add to its station holdings in NFL markets, particularly markets with NFC teams, the conference for which Fox has a TV rights package. Fox at present has O&Os in 11 of the 16 NFC markets.