Until now, the Phoenix DMA, which includes Flagstaff and Prescott, Ariz., has been dominated by Gray Television, The E.W. Scripps Co., TEGNA, and the owned-and-operated Spanish-language TV stations of TelevisaUnivision and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
Now, the No. 1 owner of broadcast TV stations is entering the Valley of the Sun. But, it isn’t buying the property it will now operate — resulting in an affiliation shift for The CW Network in the nation’s 11th-ranked market.
After 22 years of operations as an unaffiliated station, KAZT “AZ7” in Prescott, Ariz., which uses translator TV stations serving Lake Havasu City, Kingman, Bullhead City and Flagstaff, Ariz., in addition to a digital Class A facility covering the Phoenix market, will come under the control of Nexstar Media Group.
It is thanks to a multi-year Time Brokerage Agreement announced early Monday (1/8) by Dallas-headquartered Nexstar.
Licensed to Arizona Television, “AZ7” has been looked at on a national level as a model independent station that, thanks to its LPTV facility serving Phoenix, can thrive in an ultracompetitive digital and over-the-air visual media landscape.
Arizona Television is led by Lynn Londen, a member of the family that owns Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company. It acquired KAZT in April 2002, after a previously announced sale to Pappas Telecasting did not close; KAZT had been known as KUSK-TV, and was launched and originally owned by William H. Sauro, who declared bankruptcy at the end of 1997, prompting the station’s sale.
Under Londen’s leadership, AZ7 participated in early ATSC 3.0 tests and one year ago gave its endorsement to a “virtual Over the Air” streaming service offering a “local broadcast bundle.”
Now, market rights to The CW are shifting to KAZT-7 from The E.W. Scripps Co. Until Nov. 20, 2023, it aired on KASW-61, an original affiliate of The WB that took on The CW in 2006. Today, KASW is billed as “ARIZONA 61,” and has doubled-down on local sports by becoming the home for Arizona Coyotes hockey games. Since then, KNXT-15.2 has served as The CW’s home in Phoenix. This will effectively cease on February 1, when KAZT-7 will see Nexstar provide programming “and other services to strengthen the station’s relationship with the local community, including management of its sales, promotion, marketing, and technical operations.”
Financial terms of the agreement between Nexstar and Londen’s Arizona Television were not disclosed.
In prepared comments, Nexstar broadcasting division President Andrew Alford said, “We’re pleased to enter into this agreement with KAZT-TV, especially since Arizona will once again be a battleground state in this year’s Presidential election.”
Indeed, the timing is beneficial for Nexstar, as Arizona has been predicted to be one of the strongest markets in the U.S. for political advertising. With LIV Golf, ACC college football and basketball, and WWE NXT beginning in autumn, political action committee and candidates alike could be attracted to KAZT, especially if men are the target for such advertising.
“We’re looking forward to helping KAZT-TV expand its service to Phoenix-area viewers and forge an even deeper connection to the community,” Alford continued. “We know that adding the live sports and entertainment programming of The CW Network will enable KAZT-TV to establish new and meaningful relationships with a variety of advertising and marketing clients.”
Thanks to the Time Brokerage Agreement, Nexstar will now own or provide services to local television stations in ten of the 15 largest TV markets in the U.S., and 18 of the top 25. This includes WPIX-11 in New York, which is owned by Mission Broadcasting, an independently owned company led by Dennis Thatcher that has a close operational relationship to Nexstar.
