BALTIMORE—In another sign that dealmaking for U.S. TV stations may be heating up amid hopes that regulators will eliminate or loosen broadcast ownership caps, Sinclair has announced that it has acquired the non-licensed assets of WDKA-TV (Paducah, Ky.) and KBSI-TV (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), with an option to acquire all the licensed assets of the stations.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sinclair will provide WDKA and KBSI with services including programming, technical, and management.
The FCC has issued a public notice asking for comments on the current ownership rules, with comments and replies to comments due in August. FCC Chair Chair has also called the existing rules outdate and indicated his willingness to change them.
During the July Open Meeting on July 24, Carr says that the agency's 2022 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership regulation “will be inspired” by a recent 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the 2018 Quadrennial Review that vacated the agency's rules against a station group owning more than one of the top-four TV stations in audience share in a given market.
Sinclair previously owned WDKA and KBSI and sold them to Community News Media in a deal the FCC approved in 2021.
