The Walt Disney Company is paring the two smallest markets off of its O&O roster, sending them back to whence they came: George Lilly and his SJL Holdings. And now we know the price for WJRT-TV Flint MI and WTVG-TV Toledo OH.
The Toledo station is going for $16.8M, and the Flint station for $13.2M, making the total value of the transaction $30M.
SJL sold the stations to Disney some 15 years ago.
Lilly’s SJL operates stations in two markets through various licensee companies. In Erie PA, it has NBC WICU-TV, and also operates CBS WSEE-TV via a shared services agreement. In Elmira NY, it has a single-station triple-play thanks to the magic of digital technology, carrying ABC on WENY-TV and offering both CBS and CW programming on side channels.
ABC will have O&Os in eight markets once this deal closes: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville NC and Fresno CA.
