It is a company that today owns four broadcast TV stations, including the FOX affiliate and MyNetwork TV station serving the “Upland South” region, which includes Cape Girardeau, Mo. and Paducah, Ky.
Soon, these two stations will be run by the publicly traded company that’s shepherding the transition to ATSC 3.0-powered NEXTGEN TV.
It sets up a potential purchase of the properties for Sinclair Inc., as it has announced that it is acquiring the “non-licensed assets” of WDKA “My 49” and KBSI “FOX 23 in Paducah, Ky.-Cape Girardeau, Mo.
However, this includes an option to acquire all the licensed assets of the two stations from Standard Media, the company led by Deb McDermott and financed by Soohyung Kim.
Few, if any, details were provided in a short statement distributed Tuesday afternoon by Sinclair. “Under the terms of the agreement, Sinclair will provide WDKA and KBSI with services including programming, technical, and management,” the publicly traded company shared.
But what is known is that Standard General and its Standard Media arm are unwinding a transaction consummated in January 2021, three months after Sinclair agreed to sell WDKA and KBSI to Standard General affiliate Community News Media LLC for $28 million.
With this newly announced deal, Sinclair reenters a market that includes a portion of Missouri, Kentucky and downstate Illinois cities such as Carbondale. The nearest markets where Sinclair has a station are Nashville, which includes WNAB “The CW Nashville,” WZTV “FOX17” and WUXP “My30”; and St. Louis, where it owns and operates KDNL “ABC30.”
Competitors in the Paducah DMA include WPSD-6, the NBC affiliate owned by Paxton Media Group; WSIL-3, the Allen Media Group ABC affiliate that is for sale along with simulcast partner KPOB-15 in Poplar Bluff, Mo.; and Gray Media’s KFVS-12, the CBS affiliate.
