It’s been no secret that Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) has been looking to pare property and assets it believes are not absolutely necessary to retain anymore.
This explains why it is parting ways with a full-power TV station in Houston after nearly nine years of ownership, in a deal announced today by the company’s broker of record, Kalil & Co.
What’s perhaps more noteworthy is who the buyer is.
In a transaction filed with the Commission late Tuesday, SBS is agreeing to sell KTBU-55 in Houston for $15 million.
That’s $1 million lower than what SBS paid for the station in May 2011, when it purchased KTBU to make it its third MegaTV owned-and-operated facility, joining WSBS-22 in the Miami DMA and a Puerto Rico property, WMEI-TV.
The 2011 deal saw SBS acquire KTBU from Humanity Interested Media LP, a.k.a. US Farm & Ranch Supply Company, led by Gregory L. Brown. SBS paid half of the purchase amount in cash; a promissory note covered the remaining $8 million.
US Farm & Ranch Supply Company bought the station, licensed to Conroe, Tex., from none other than Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church for $30 million, in 2006. RBR-TVBR reported in 2010 on an unusual transaction in which a portion of the stock was sold by a receiver for $2 million.
Details of SBS’s KTBU sale were few on Tuesday, but RBR+TVBR has learned who the buyer is: TEGNA.
This means the company formerly known as Gannett will have a duopoly in Houston, as KTBU will be paired with KHOU-11, the market’s CBS affiliate.
A 45-page asset purchase agreement was posted to the FCC’s transactions database on Wednesday. The document, dated Jan. 21, 2020, notes that TEGNA will pay the full amount of the purchase price in cash at closing.
SBS General Counsel Richard Lara signed off on KTBU’s sale. The company’s legal counsel is Nancy Ory of Lerman Senter PLLC.
