The Kagan team within S&P Global Market Intelligence took a close look at the transactions involving broadcast radio and TV stations in the U.S. since January 2020, and have come up with their top-line findings.
For the broadcast television sector, just two of the top 10 deals were seen last year. And, they failed to make the Top 5 by deal volume. In fact, the biggest TV station deal over the last four years came just as the nation was emerging from the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As shown below, The E.W. Scripps Co.’s acquisition of West Palm Beach-headquartered Ion Media for $2.65 billion, delivering it 71 full-power stations, is by far the biggest broadcast television transaction by dollar total to close since the start of this decade.
The cash multiple for this transaction comes in at 8.7x, Kagan data show.
The No. 2 and No. 3 TV industry deals by deal volume involve Gray Television, reflecting its Quincy Media, Inc., and Meredith Local Media station acquisitions in 2021.
At No. 4 is the INSP cable TV network parent Imagicomm Communications’ deal giving it 13 full-power and 24 low-power television stations as part of a spin-off plan engineered by Cox Media Group‘s controlling partner, Apollo Global Management.
That transaction was connected to the now-failed Standard General and Apollo combined bid for TEGNA, which would have been, by far, the biggest deal in TV since the start of 2020.
The No. 6 deal is 2023’s biggest for TV, and involves the acquisition by Hearst Television of WBBH-20, branded as “NBC2,” in Fort Myers-Naples-Marco Island.
AM/FM, WHERE ARE YOU?
The deal volume for Radio, compared to Television, since the start of 2020 is remarkably lower.
The biggest transaction involving AM and/or FM stations? It involves the $60 million Latino Media Network acquisition of stations deemed non-essential by TelevisaUnivision.
The cash flow multiple for that deal, as determined by Kagan, is 5.8x.
The second-largest transaction behind the June 2022 LMN acquisition? It involves Urban One, which acquired stations from Cox Media Group. An Urban One deal involving Emmis Communications in Indianapolis ranks No. 3.
Interestingly, the No. 4 deal involves a private investor and “Thunder Associates LLC.” Thunder is the owner of radio stations in a small non-measured West Virginia city.
