TV Deals

One of the nation's largest media companies serving Hispanic consumers has added a UHF property set to shift channels as part of the FCC's post-Incentive Auction repack process. It's in Texas' state capital, where this company enjoys already owns two TV stations — along with a pair of FMs. Kalil & Co. served as the exclusive broker in this transaction.

Educational Media Foundation is at it again: It's purchased yet another FM, and this time it is a silent facility serving a region of inland Southern California sandwiched between Riverside and San Diego. It's our top deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Oct. 17, 2017.

A full-power VHF station licensed to Del Rio, Texas that fell silent in May 2016 will soon be resuscitated and brought back to life — under new ownership. The facility has just been sold to a pair of individuals very familiar with Spanish-language television, which is a big part of this station's most recent past. Kalil & Co. represented the buyers as the broker in this deal. 

The sell-off of low-power TV stations by a religious non-commercial broadcaster continued Friday, as a Form 314 filing with the FCC confirms it is shedding 14 more LPTVs in such big markets as St. Louis, Minneapolis, and San Antonio. The divestment follows a $3.2 million deal finalized in March.

A Channel-Sharing Agreement for a Class A television station licensed to Miami, Fla., that's going away thanks to the FCC's Incentive Auction has been donated to the entity in control of two large PBS member stations serving South Florida.

Two Class A television stations serving the New York metropolitan area and the Chicago DMA are for sale. Patrick Communications will benefit from their sale, as they have been retained by the seller to make a deal happen.

There's no getting around this bruising bit of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence-owned media research group Kagan: U.S. broadcast station mergers and acquisitions volume reached $189.6 million in Q3 2017. This is the lowest quarterly deal volume of the year. But, the previous two quarters were skewed by two billion-dollar deals.

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.

In the final days of August, the parent company of a home shopping channel agreed to sell its full-power digital TV station serving Boston. At the same time, a channel-sharing agreement (CSA) was forged by the buyer to allow a company that collected millions in the recently concluded FCC incentive auction to use one-third of this digital station's spectrum. The asset purchase agreement and CSA recitals have finally found their way to the FCC via a Form 314 filing made today, with Media Venture Partners serving as the exclusive broker.

The trading of Channel Sharing Arrangements secured by companies that shed their broadcast TV stations in the FCC's recently concluded incentive auction just may be the next big boost for media brokers eager to buy and sell, and collect their commissions. The latest "CSA" to be dealt involves an affiliate of The CW that fetched $105,731,122 and is now dealing its post-auction channel sharing to Hearst Television.

A Class A FM straddling the North Dakota-Minnesota border and its Class C AM sibling have been sold to a "13G" local buyer. But, the buyer and the seller aren't exactly unfamiliar with one another: They are both members of the Ingstad family. It's the lead deal in RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY.

A Class D AM in Rapid City, South Dakota, with an FM translator is being sold. At the same time, an unbuilt AM that is scheduled to get an FM translator through the FCC's just-completed Auction 99 is trading hands in Southern Utah. We've also got a price on a Big D TV deal that RBR+TVBR first reported Sept. 28.

RBR+TVBR has confirmed that a close partner of Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to purchase an unaffiliated UHF station in Dallas that failed to fetch any bids in the FCC's recent Spectrum Auction. The seller of this station now exits TV ownership for good, after previously selling all of its stations to the company now known as TEGNA. Kalil & Co. represented the seller in this TV deal.

Some 3 1/2 months after the Bob Behar-led Hero Licenseco backed out of a multi million-dollar deal trading its post-Spectrum Auction Channel-sharing Agreement to a fast-growing media company based in Los Angeles, it appears that the deal is back on. According to a Form 314 filing with the FCC, this "zombie station" will indeed soon become a video service sibling to such iconic radio brands as "Power 106" and KDAY.

Norman Shapiro’s Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co. isn't just gaining a channel-sharing agreement for the Azteca América affiliate in Los Angeles. The company's TV-49 Inc. has just snagged a full-power TV station in the Gateway City from a not-for-profit entity that's been using it for religious programming. It's the top deal for RBR+TVBR's TRANSACTIONS TODAY for Tuesday, Sept. 12, which also sees Larry Fuss make a deal in the Deep South and Art Agnotti make an "artistic" move in Indiana.