NEW YORK—New data shows that deal-making in the broadcast business slowed considerably in Q3 2022, with the total value of transactions totaling only $83M, of which there were only $14.3 million in the TV sector and $68.7 million in the radio market, according to Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The $83 million total represents less than half of the deal volume in the second quarter at $185.9 million.
Notably, the data showed rising prices for low-power TV stations, the S&P analysis found.
"The only significant TV deals in the third quarter were the sale of two digital low-power stations for exceptionally high prices," noted Volker Moerbitz, a research analyst with Media & Communications (Kagan) covering the broadcast sector in a blog post. "In July, Word of God Fellowship Inc., operator of the Daystar Television network, announced the purchase of WXNY-LD in downtown New York from New York Broadband LLC. The $3.0 million purchase price was the highest price paid for a single low-power TV station since November 2013. Transmitting from the top of the Empire State Building, the station reaches 4.8 million households."
In the last 20 years, there have only been five sales of single low-power TV stations for $2.5 million or more, S&P reported. The last one happened in July 2017.
Over the previous four years, average prices for single low-power TV stations have been constantly growing from $180,000 in 2018 to $434,000 in 2021. So far in 2022, with the sales of WXNY-LD and WBQC-LD and six other LPTV stations sold for more than $1 million, the average has grown past half a million to $549,000, S&P said.
In 2022, S&P Global Market Intelligence registered six radio transactions of $10 million or higher. Three of them were announced in the third quarter, doubling the number of high-value deals.
