U.S. Broadcast Station M&A Volume Nears $4.5 Billion in Q2

The volume of broadcast-station mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. reached $4.47 billion in the second quarter of 2017, according to estimates from Kagan, due primarily to large TV deals.

The TV segment contributed $4.22 billion of the total, and $3.82 billion came from just one deal. Sinclair Broadcast Group’s bid for Tribune Media was for $3.94 billion in cash and equity and the assumption of approximately $2.70 billion in net debt. The second-largest TV deal of the quarter also involved Sinclair, with its $240 million acquisition of Bonten Media Group. In the third-largest TV transaction, Saga Communications sold its six remaining owned-and-operated stations to Morgan Murphy Media for $66.6 million.

In the first half of 2017, the broadcast deal market registered a total volume of $7.24 billion, with $4.39 billion coming from the TV sector.