After closing the deal with Midwest Television, Tegna adds KFMB-AM-FM-TV to its broadcast portfolio that now totals 47 TV stations.
DMA 29
Tegna Completes KFMB San Diego Purchase
Tegna Inc. today completed its $325 million acquisition of Midwest Television’s broadcasting stations in San Diego. The deal was announced last December.
Tegna now owns CBS and CW affiliate KFMB and KFMB-AM and KFMB-FM.
As a result of the completed sale, Tegna owns or operates 47 television stations and two radio stations in 39 markets. According to Tegna, KFMB leads San Diego in audience ratings and share across all demographics and is first in news across all major time slots.
“We are thrilled to welcome the talented KFMB team to Tegna,” said Dave Lougee, Tegna president-CEO. “Like us, KFMB cares deeply about journalistic integrity and serving the greater good of the San Diego community. We want to maintain that special connection while applying our strategic initiatives to enhance KFMB’s future capabilities. This transaction highlights Tegna’s continued track record of success as a strategic consolidator that delivers value for our shareholders.”
Tegna said it expects the transaction to be accretive to EPS by a few cents within the first 12 months after close, and immediately accretive to free cash flow.
Tegna financed the transaction through the use of available cash and borrowing under its existing revolving credit facility.
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Comments (3)
Snead Hearn says:
February 15, 2018 at 10:24 am
Congrats to Elisabeth Kimmel and the staff at KFMB for their high character and integrity serving the San Diego viewers. Hopefully Tegna will be smart enough to not come in and change something that is not broken. Great station, great staff and great community.
alicia farmer says:
February 15, 2018 at 10:49 am
Don’t hold your breath. Tegna stations are just making the donuts. News is generally defined by crime, car wrecks, and constant weather hype. 12+ minutes of commercials in every half-hour news program. As one astute employee stated: “a sea of sameness”.
Julien Devereux says:
February 15, 2018 at 4:04 pm
You nailed it, formergm. I recently moved back to the Twin Cities after being in Texas for almost 3 decades. KARE 11 was an incredible station when I left. Now that I’m back, I find that it’s a Tegna station, and barely a shadow of the news station I remember. Now, if it bleeds it leads… Also, their newest graphics package looks like someone used 3 colors (lavender, baby blue with an occasional touch of yellow) & white, and stole the layout of an original Windows phone. The weather graphics couldn’t possibly be simpler or cheaper looking, either. One good thing, they have a local show instead of a tabloid after the 6PM news. It’s quirky, but then, so are the Twin Cities.