Less than 24 hours after the FCC restored the UHF discount, allowing broadcast TV companies to effectively own more stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to acquire Bonten Media Group Holdings. Concurrently, as part of this deal, Cunningham Broadcasting Corp. will purchase the membership interest of Esteem Broadcasting.
The aggregate purchase price: $240 million.
Bonten owns 14 television stations in 8 markets and provides services to four stations via joint sales agreements (JSAs) with Esteem Broadcasting.
Sinclair notes in an announcement released just after Friday’s Opening Bell on Wall Street that completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval by the FCC and antitrust clearance from the Department of Justice, as applicable.
The Company anticipates that the transaction will close and be funded with cash on hand in Q3 2017, subject to the satisfaction of the closing conditions.
The Bonten and Esteem stations
INVOLVED IN the transaction are:
|
Station |
Affil. |
Market |
DMA(1) |
|
WCYB |
NBC |
Tri-Cities, TN-VA |
98 |
|
WEMT |
FOX |
Tri-Cities, TN-VA |
98 |
|
WCTI |
ABC |
Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC |
100 |
|
WYDO |
FOX |
Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC |
100 |
|
KCVU |
FOX |
Chico-Redding, CA |
132 |
|
KRCR |
ABC |
Chico-Redding, CA |
132 |
|
KRVU-LD |
MNT |
Chico-Redding, CA |
132 |
|
KUCO-LP |
UNI |
Chico-Redding, CA |
132 |
|
KECI |
NBC |
Missoula, MT |
164 |
|
KCFW(2) |
NBC |
Missoula, MT |
164 |
|
KTXS |
ABC |
Abilene-Sweetwater, TX |
165 |
|
KTES-LD |
METV |
Abilene-Sweetwater, TX |
165 |
|
KTVM |
NBC |
Butte-Bozeman, MT |
185 |
|
KAEF |
ABC |
Eureka, CA |
195 |
|
KBVU |
FOX |
Eureka, CA |
195 |
|
KECA-LD |
CW |
Eureka, CA |
195 |
|
KEUV-LP |
UNI |
Eureka, CA |
195 |
|
KTXE-LD |
ABC |
San Angelo, TX |
196 |
|
(1) |
Represents television designated market areas (“DMAs”) according to the Nielsen Company. The numbers in the column represent the ranking in terms of size of the DMA out of the 210 generally recognized DMAs in the United States. |
|
(2) |
KCFW is a simulcast of KECI |
“We look forward to welcoming the Bonten employees into the Sinclair family and are pleased to be growing our regional presence in several states where we already operate,” Said Sinclair President/CEO Chris Ripley. “We believe our economies of scale help us bring improvements to small market stations, including investments in news, other quality local programming, and multicast opportunities with our emerging networks of Comet, Charge! and TBD.”
Including the Bonten station acquisitions, all previously announced acquisitions, and pro forma for expected synergies, Sinclair’s 2015 and 2016 media revenues would have been $2.24 billion and $2.62 billion, respectively.
The $240 million purchase price represents a 6.7x multiple and is expected to be on average approximately $25 million accretive to Sinclair’s free cash flow on an annualized basis.
Pro forma for all pending transactions, Sinclair will own, operate and/or provide services to 191 television stations in 89 markets, broadcasting 551 channels.
