Inland Empire indie sold

Independent KHIZ-TV (Ch. 64), serving the Inland Empire portion of the Los Angeles market from Barstow, CA, is changing hands in a complicated deal. Arthur Liu's TVPlus LLC, part of his Multicultural Television Group, will increase its stake in licensee Sunbelt Television Inc. from 7% to 100% by acquiring a 93% stock stake from Initial Broadcasting of California LLC (IBC), headed by Peter White, for approximately 7.9 million bucks. This transaction was anticipated by a 2004 agreement, whereby IBC settled litigation and exercised options to acquire an additional 73% from various other shareholders, adding to its previous stake of 20%, while TVPlus acquired its initial 7% stake and provided millions in financing to IBC and Sunbelt. According to the KHIZ website, the station's cable coverage includes over 1.4 million households in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Kern counties. 

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