U.S. Broadcast Station M&A Volume Sets 11-Year Record

U.S. broadcast station mergers and acquisitions (M&A) volume reached $5.11 billion in the second quarter, the largest quarterly deal volume since the second quarter of 2007, according to Kagan.

Of this, 98 percent of the volume ($5.01 billion) is attributable to TV station sales. On June 25, Gray Television announced the acquisition of Raycom Media for $3.65 billion. Including translators, Raycom owns the licenses for 49 full-power and eight low-power TV stations and provides programming for an additional 14 stations. Kagan estimates the value of the TV stations at $3.44 billion, making this the eighth-largest U.S. TV station deal of all time and the largest since last year’s merger of Tribune Media Company and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The Sinclair/Tribune merger required a number of spin-offs to comply with FCC ownership caps. After a first station divestiture in March for $60 million, 22 more stations were sold to five different buyers in April and May to meet FCC ownership caps. Those five deals amounted to a total of $1.48 billion. The largest parts of the spin-offs were the sale of seven stations to 21st Century Fox for $910 million and the transfer of nine stations to Standard Media Group for $441.7 million. Meredith Corporation also bought one station for $65 million, Howard Stirk Holdings paid $4.95 million for three stations, and two licenses were transferred to local marketing agreement partner Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation for $60 million.

The only other large TV transactions were Gray Television’s $32.5 million purchase of KDLT-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from Red River Broadcast Co., and the $11.5 million sale of WMDE-DT in Washington, D.C., from Western Pacific Broadcast to WRNN-TV Associates.