TV Deals

Fifteen years ago, a media company primarily known for its radio holdings and its leadership by an African-American woman attracted the industry's attention. Today, this company no longer owns radio stations ... and has just shed its last two owned and operated broadcast holdings. Those properties are low-powered TV stations in the Garden State.

A Florida-based non-profit operation focused on evangelical Christian programming, founded by Bob D'Andrea in 1979, has just expanded with the acquisition of a full-power TV station, Class A sibling, and an LPTV cousin. This brings the Christian Television Network (CTN) into the Crescent City, Sin City, and a key market in the Rockies, thanks to a deal that saw Greg Guy of Patrick Communications represent the seller.

A full-power TV station serving the El Paso market and a collection of 8 Class A and LPTV facilities in five other markets are now officially owned by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group, with four other deals still pending at the FCC. It's the lead item in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Feb. 1, which also sees two deals involving AM stations in Big Sky Country and the Keystone State.

Trinity Broadcasting Network has just been given a greater opportunity to share the word of Christ to viewers in two of the nation's biggest markets. In a deal brokered by Greg Guy of Patrick Communications, TBN will soon have a deeper presence in the Windy City and the New York Tri-State Area.

A low-power TV station in November 2017 won FCC approval for a minor modification to a construction permit that effectively transports the facility from Lafayette, Ind., southeast to the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Now, this LPTV is being swapped. In exchange, owner DTV America Corp. is getting an LPTV located in the Southern Tier of Western New York.

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.

As RBR+TVBR was first to report on Nov. 30, 2017, HC2 is acquiring the Azteca América Spanish-language broadcast network from affiliates of Mexico’s TV Azteca. HC2 also signed a definitive acquisition agreement to acquire the broadcast TV assets of Northstar Media LLC. Northstar owns a collection of low-power TV stations that comprise the largest Azteca América affiliate group in the U.S. Among those stations is Class A KPDF-41 in Phoenix. Now, HC2 will have a bigger facility serving the Valley of the Sun.

As RBR+TVBR exclusively reported on Friday, LBI Media's nationally distributed Spanish-language broadcast TV network Estrella TV will soon make its grand return to the Miami market, ending a six-month absence from the nation's third-largest Hispanic DMA. We now know what the sale price is, and how the station has been devalued since the seller acquired this property some 12 years ago. We also know who the exclusive broker is in this transaction.

The Spanish-language broadcast TV network known for its prime-time variety program hosted by a man in a clown suit, a host of originally produced reality competition shows, and two weekday newscasts will soon return to Miami after a six-month absence. This results in a perhaps cloudy South Florida future for another Spanish-language TV network -- one that Philip A. Falcone's HC2 Holdings acquired just weeks ago.

A low-power TV station serving a market impacted by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 is trading hands. This facility is the subject of a March 2012 Order to Show Cause issued by the FCC, seeking answers as to why Class A authorization should not be modified to LPTV. That involved a previous owner. Now, the current owner has decided to part ways with the facility, and it's the lead deal up for discussion in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018.

Terry Crosby and Randy Nonberg are widely known in the TV industry for their longtime involvement in Hispanic media. Now, the one-time Chairman/CEO and President/COO, respectively, of the former Una Vez Más broadcasting company have opted to sell four TV stations -- including two it acquired in August 2013 from a subsidiary of Viacom. The buyer has emerged in recent weeks as a major player in Hispanic media.

An entity which pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in the FCC’s Incentive Auction, including $72,817,599 for giving up the spectrum for a “zombie” station in the Big Apple, has just received Commission approval of a deal that sends 7 Class A TV stations in the Pittsburgh market to Philip Falcone's HC2 Station Group. 

In 1990, a low-power TV station designed to improve the signal coverage of a full-power station located to the north of Houston made its debut. Over the years, it has faithfully served as a simulcast partner for what is today Ion Media-owned KPXB-49 in the nation's eighth-largest DMA. Now, with the FCC's spectrum auction concluded and repacking underway, as well as the voluntary rollout of ATSC 3.0 next-gen digital TV broadcasts, Ion has decided it no longer needs the LPTV. 

What are the key regulatory items of note for broadcasters that they should keep their eye on in 2018? The team at Pillsbury Withrop Shaw Pittman LLP has put together a 2018 Broadcasters' Calendar that includes 10 top items of note What's the top item of concern?

A presently silent low-power TV station serving Ohio's state capital is heading to a new owner. This facility was once the market's home for Azteca América programming. Who's the buyer? An Oxford-educated, New York-based investor in TV and media who runs a mini private equity portfolio.