According to the Wall Street Journal, 24 television stations are going to be acquired from Newport Television for a combined figure around $1B. Seller Providence Equity Partners put the group’s 56 stations on the block earlier this year.
According to WSJ, the groups involved in the current deals include Nexstar, Cox and Sinclair.
Providence will have earned a nice payday if it does pull in that much in return for less than half of the group’s portfolio. It paid $1.012B for the group, including $260M in equity, when it acquired the group from Clear Channel back in 2008.
RBR-TVBR hastens to caution readers that selling half of the stations wouldn’t mean selling half of the group’s value. The DMA sizes, and hence the station values, run from #33 all the way down to #177 – so the composition of what’s left on the shelves after these deals are completed will be a major factor in the total value recouped from the sale of the stations.
At the time the prospect of selling the stations was announced, group head Sandy DiPasquale stated, “These are quality television stations, and I am excited about the opportunity to work with Providence and the CCTV employees to build on their success integrating broadcast and internet services to meet their customers’ evolving needs,” said DiPasquale at the time of acquisition.
Do you have any interest in what PEP has on the shelf? RBR-TVBR assembled this list of markets and stations from the group’s website.
Salt Lake City UT (33)
* KTVX-TV ABC/CoolTV
* KUCW-TV CW/Country
Cincinnati OH (35)
* WKRC-TV CBS/CW
San Antonio TX (36)
* WOAI-TV NBC/Mexicanal
Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York PA (41)
* WHP-TV CBS/MNTV
* WLYH-TV CW/ CoolTV
Jacksonville FL (47)
* WTEV-TV CBS/CoolTV
* WAWS-TV Fox/RTN/MNTV
Memphis TN (49)
* WPTY-TV ABC/CoolTV
* WLMT-TV CW/RTN/MNTV
Fresno-Visalia (55)
* KGPE-TV CBS/Country
Little Rock-Pine Bluff AR (56)
* KLRT-TV Fox/CoolTV
* KASN-TV CW/Country
Albany-Schenectady-Troy NY (58)
* WXXA-TV Fox/ CoolTV
Tulsa OK (59)
* KOKI-TV Fox/CoolTV
* KMYT-TV MNTV/Country
Mobile AL-Pensacola FL (60)
* WPMI-TV NBC/weather
* WJTC-TV Indy
Wichita-Hutchinson KS (67)
* KSAS-TV Fox/CoolTV
* KMTW-TV MNTV/Country
Rochester NY (80)
* WHAM-TV ABC/CW
Syracuse NY (84)
* WSYR-TV ABC/NewsChannel 9
Eugene OR (121)
* KMTR-TV NBC/CW
Bakersfield CA (126)
* KGET-TV NBC/CW
* KKEY-LP Telemundo
Binghamton NY (157)
* WIVT-TV ABC
* WBGH-TV NBC
Elmira-Corning NY (174)
* WETM-TV NBC/indy
Jackson TN (176)
* WJKT-TV Fox/CoolTV
Watertown NY (177
* WWTI-TV ABC/CW
