U.S. Broadcast Deal Volume Reached Nearly Half a Billion Dollars in Q4 2015

MONTEREY: Broadcast station mergers and acquisitions (M&A) volume in the U.S. reached $486.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to SNL Kagan.

The SNL Kagan report finds that the total is low compared to the more than $3 billion of the previous quarter, but it is still more than the deal volume of the first half of the year. There were no billion-dollar deals in Q4 and only one transaction of more than $100 million, but with 37 transactions of $1 million or more, Q4 delivered a similarly solid number of million-dollar deals as the previous quarter (38 deals over $1 million).

TV registered deals worth $326.4 million. The TV market ended the year with an average 8.4-times forward seller’s multiple (0.1 point higher than at the end of Q3). The top TV deal and the only $100 million deal of the quarter was Nexstar Broadcasting Group’s $130 million acquisition of the CBS outlets in the West Virginia markets of Charleston-Huntington, Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill and Wheeling, as well as the NBC affiliate in Clarksburg, from West Virginia Media Holdings.