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.
In an announcement made Tuesday ahead of the filing of an asset purchase agreement with the FCC, the company led by Chairman/CEO Brandon Burgess confirmed that it is purchasing stations in Missouri and South Carolina it has operated for 3 1/2 years.
At the same time, ION is acquiring its affiliate in Boise, Idaho, for an undisclosed price.
For an undisclosed sum, ION is reeling its St. Louis affiliate, WRBU-46, and Columbia, S.C. affiliate WZRB-47, from a trust overseen by Gary Chapman with Ion Media Networks. The trust created after former owner Roberts Broadcasting declared bankruptcy.
ION was a creditor in Roberts’ bankruptcy proceedings and determined by a court as its beneficiary.
In a separate deal announced concurrently, ION is acquiring KTRV-12 in Boise from Block Communications for an undisclosed price.
The transactions officially expand the company’s station footprint to 63 stations in 58 markets. This makes ION the only network to operate TV stations in each of the 20 largest U.S. markets and 24 of the top 25 DMAs.
“Growing our TV station portfolio will give U.S. households access to much-needed affordable independent entertainment, kids and lifestyle programming,” said Burgess. “These three important acquisitions will add 5 million viewers to our networks’ audience reach.”
The acquisitions will also expand ION Media’s position as the largest U.S. holder of full power UHF broadcast TV spectrum, covering 1.22 billion MHz pops across all key metropolitan areas, in the advent of wireless spectrum innovation and development.
