TV Deals

In October 2016, Three Angels Broadcasting agreed to sell a group of television stations to EICB-TV for the purchase price of $3.2 million. This broker-free deal involved the transfer of roughly 70 stations, and it is now known that EICB requested more time, to get its finances in order.

In an update to a television station sale originally reported Sept. 26 by RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY, a Savannah-market station is trading hands. It is now known that two translator stations are included in the deal — and the buyer is getting the properties thanks to a top bid in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction precipitated by the seller's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The owner of the main PBS member station in the Windy City has snatched a "zombie" station. That's because the "station" it is acquiring no longer exists, and is now operating via a Channel Sharing Agreement (CSA) with another station in Chicago. That station just happens to be owned by the company lassoing this former competitor in the non-commercial TV space.

Since 2001, a low-powered television station with studios and operations in Rocky Mount, N.C., has provided a local voice to Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson Counties. This includes an affiliation with the Youtoo America network, and a local newscast.  Now, this LPTV is being sold to a local media group.

More than nine months ago, a journalist who heads a U.S.-based television network targeting South Asian consumers acquired an Otter. Really. That deal involved a low-power television facility in Northern California that used the Otter name for its branding, prior to its sale. Now, the same buyer is grabbing an LD facility in a market home to a plethora of theme parks.

Across the state of Hawaii, Family Broadcasting Corp. has carved a commercial niche for itself by offering a slate of second-run programs "the whole family can enjoy watching together." While over-the-air broadcasts are mainly associated a Honolulu-based facility, a satellite station in Hilo has served as a full satellite partner until now. That will soon change.

A low-power television station serving the capital city of Florida is being sold. The buyer? It's been broadcasting on television since 1992 and launched an international television network in 2016. That offering is likely on the way for Tallahassee.

It has the ability to reach 140,000 TV households in Citrus County and portions of Hernando, Sumter, Marion and Levy Counties in Central Florida. It has coverage on Channel 16 on Comcast and Bright House Network systems in this region of the Sunshine State. Soon, it will be the property of Christian Television Corp., bringing a new era to this hyperlocal television facility.

An unbuilt low-power TV station licensed to a Florida surfing mecca in Indian River County is now the property of Windsong Communications. The deal, which saw Bob Heymann of the Chicago office of Media Services Group serve as the exclusive broker for the seller, has closed.

The Northern Mariana Islands, home to Saipan, Tinian and Rota, is home to 9 FM radio stations and one AM station. Among the broadcast media owners is Holonet Corporation, and a change in the ownership structure of an FM in the CNMI is underway.

ION Media has moved to take advantage of the FCC's anticipated return of its UHF Discount by pulling a duo of full-power UHF stations out of a trust created in late 2013 as a result of the bankruptcy of Roberts Broadcasting. At the same time, ION is acquiring its affiliate in Boise, Idaho, for an undisclosed price.

It's been a difficult 10 full months since WBTS-LD signed on the air as "NBC Boston." News ratings have lagged. But, NBCUniversal is hardly giving up—it's just engaged in a complex deal that transfers a channel-sharing agreement tied to a Class A TV station that fetched millions in the FCC spectrum auction to WBTS, presumably to bump up its signal in the greater Boston area.

For media brokers, there's been perhaps no more prolific buyer of radio stations in recent years than Educational Media Foundation, the operator of the Christian Contemporary Music KLOVE and Air1 noncommercial networks. In the TV world, one entity has emerged with a similarly voracious appetite for properties. It's the Philip Falcone-led HC2 Holdings, and the company that's buying Azteca América just landed another low-power TV station.

On June 25, Atlanta-based Gray Television successfully reached an agreement to merge with Raycom Media. When all is said and done, the new Gray TV will own 142 stations across 92 DMAs. However, nine station spins were announced in order to meet federal regulatory approval in markets where Gray and Raycom each own stations. The first of these nine stations has just been dealt.