Updated at 12:40am Eastern, 12/3; Originally reported at Noon, 11/30:
Brian Brady was in the news several times in 2018 regarding a bitter retransmission fee dispute with Charter Communications‘ Spectrum MVPD service that lasted four months.
In January 2011, a similar dispute led DirecTV to yank his company’s stations. Are such feuds now in the past, given a reported investment by Leon Black‘s buyout firm—an entity recently rumored to be eyeing Nexstar Media Group?
Those may not be the right questions to ask. The proper one could be if this makes Apollo Global Management the best buyer for a broadcast TV company other than Tribune Media?
According to multiple media reports, Apollo teamed up with Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting in a now-failed bid to acquire Tribune, which infamously terminated its merger agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group over issues regarding Shared Service Agreement partners and divestments it planned to individuals with very close ties to Sinclair’s C-Suite.
Both the New York Post and Reuters offered reports late Wednesday, citing sources close to the matter in each of their stories.
Northwest’s holdings are comprised of the following stations:
- CBS affiliate KSWT-13; Estrella TV, on KSWT-13.2; and NBC affiliate KYMA-11 in Yuma, Ariz.
- CBS affiliate KJRW-17 (formerly KVIQ); DT multicast channels with the market’s affiliates for The CW and MyNetworkTV; and NBC affiliate KIEM-3 in Eureka-Arcata, Calif. This impacted only Del Norte County and the town of Crescent City, Calif., area, as Altice USA-owned Suddenlink is the main provider serving Humboldt County.
- KFFX-11 in Yakima, Wash., the market’s FOX affiliate, and simulcast partner KCYU-LD 41 in Tri-Cities, Wash.
- FOX affiliate KMVU-26 in Medford-Ashland, Ore.
- KAYU-28 in Spokane, the market’s FOX affiliate.
- FOX affiliate WSYT-68 in Syracuse.
- NBC affiliate KPVI-6 in Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho.
- FOX affiliate WICZ-40 in Binghamton, N.Y.
E-mail communication from RBR+TVBR to Brady was not acknowledged by midday Friday.
The Apollo/Northwest bid is intriguing, as Apollo in mid-July as rumors emerged that Black’s buyout firm was interested in making a deal with Perry Sook and his Nexstar Media Group. The reports had Apollo joining P2 Capital Partners in investigating a bid; P2 has a very small stake in Nexstar.
Then came the implosion of the Tribune/Sinclair deal, putting Sook in the driver’s seat as Nexstar formally struck a $6.4 billion deal with the owner of WGN-9, WPIX-11, KTLA-5 and a host of other marquee TV stations.
Now, there’s chatter that Cox Media Group is the next TV station owner in motion. With unconfirmed reports that CMG and Hubbard Radio discussing the latter’s TV properties, Apollo, with Brady-led Northwest, could be looking at Cox’s TV stations. “We are looking not to sell our stations, but to pursue a merger or partnership,” Guthrie said via e-mail in late July in response to a RBR+TVBR report.
The Apollo/Northwest partnership was one of several bids submitted for Tribune. Among those with bids was Byron Allen, which the New York Post reported that he was “seriously interested” in. “Allen’s rival bid has backing from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs,” said Post reporter Keith J. Kelly, who writes the “MediaInk” column.
The Post also reported that West Palm Beach-based ION Media, Cerberus Capital and the Tom Hicks-led Hicks Equity Partners submitted a joint bid.
Meanwhile, Sinclair is said to be seeking the Twenty-First Century FOX regional sports networks it must sell in order to complete its merger with The Walt Disney Co.
