BALTIMORE— Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the broadcast assets of 8 television stations owned by New Age Media, or to which New Age provides services, for an aggregate purchase price of $90 million.
The eight stations are located in three markets and reach 0.8 percent of the U.S. TV households.
Completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval by the Federal Communications Commission and antitrust clearance. Sinclair anticipates that the transaction will close and fund late in the fourth quarter of 2013 or first quarter of 2014.
The New Age stations covered by the transaction are:
Station
Affil.
Market
DMA(1)
WOLF
FOX
Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, Pa.
54
WQMY
MY
Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, Pa.
54
WSWB
CW
Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, Pa.
54
WTLH
FOX
Tallahassee, Fla.
106
WTLF
CW
Tallahassee, Fla.
106
WGFL
CBS
Gainesville, Fla.
163
WNBW
NBC
Gainesville, Fla.
163
WMYG-LP
MY
Gainesville, Fla.
163
To comply with FCC local television ownership rules, Sinclair expects to sell the license and certain related assets of WSWB in Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, Pa., WTLH in Tallahassee, Fla., and WNBW in Gainesville, Fla., to Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation and WTLF in Tallahassee, Fla., to Deerfield Media, Inc. New Age does not own the license assets of WSWB, WNBW, and WTLH, and for many years it has provided services to these stations pursuant to existing shared services and joint sales agreements, so Sinclair will continue to provide sales and other non-programming support services to each of these stations, as well as to WTLH, pursuant to customary shared services and joint sales agreements.
