NBCU Closes On Serestar Stations

NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, a division of NBCUniversal, today announced that it has completed its $21 million acquisition of a group of full-power, Class A and low-power television stations serving the Sacramento and Salt Lake City markets from Serestar Communications.

In addition, the groups announced that the joint sales and time brokerage agreement pursuant to which Serestar has operated KNSO, the Telemundo-owned station in the Fresno market and KEJT-CD, the Class A station in Salt Lake City, will be terminated. The stations will be operated by NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations as part of the Telemundo Station Group.

The transaction was completed on March 5.

With this acquisition, the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations Division will include 30 Telemundo stations and 12 NBC stations serving audiences in 30 markets in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

“The Telemundo stations have redefined the way that local Spanish-language audiences receive their local news. With each new team we’ve welcomed to our group, we have enhanced the stations’ news programming, hired local journalists to support the boost in news, and pioneered our industry’s first-ever Spanish-language station apps that feature the marketplace’s only Spanish-language weather alerts. We are proud to welcome the stations to NBCUniversal and our owned stations family,” said Valari Staab, president, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.

“NBCUniversal/Telemundo has been a terrific company for Serestar to have been affiliated with. I’m confident that the Telemundo Station Group leadership team will do a great job of continuing to serve the community and of growing the success of these stations that the Serestar dedicated team has managed so successfully over the past five years,” said Philip Wilkinson, Serestar president-CEO.

“Our Telemundo stations have become a powerful source for hyper-local, live news, weather, consumer, investigative, political, and community information in all of our markets. Working together with our sister NBC stations to serve all audiences, including bilingual viewers, we look forward to continuing to super-serve Hispanics in Salt Lake City, Sacramento, and Fresno with the outstanding journalism that our Telemundo stations deliver day in and day out,” added Manuel Martinez, president, Telemundo Station Group.

In December 2018, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations entered into an agreement with Serestar to acquire its Telemundo-affiliated television stations in Salt Lake City and Sacramento. As part of the transaction, the agreements pursuant to which Serestar provided day-to-day operational services to KEJT-CD, the Telemundo owned station in Salt Lake City, and KNSO, the Telemundo owned station in Fresno, Calif., were terminated.

The FCC-approved transaction includes assignment of the following licenses in the Sacramento market: KMUM-CD (Class A) (Sacramento, Calif.), KCSO-LD (low power) (Sacramento), and KMMW-LD (low power) (Stockton, Calif.).

The transaction also includes the following licenses in the Salt Lake City market: full power KTMW (Salt Lake City), KULX-CD (Class A) (Ogden, Utah), K17II-LD (low power)(Logan, Utah), and KULU-LD (low power) (Park City, Utah).