CBS has filed to acquire Long Island full-power indy WLNY-TV, creating a TV duopoly with WCBS-TV and cross-ownership with six Big Apple O&O radio stations. But three low power stations associated with WLNY are going to Local Media TV Holdings.
The seller of WLNY is of course the same seller of the LPTVs – WLNY L.P. The stations being sold include WLNY-CD Mineola NY, W27CD Stamford CT and WLIG-LD Morristown NJ.
A number of interests are involved in the buyer, primarily Loop Partners V and Telcom Local Media LLC, each of which hold a 48.1% interest. Loop in turn lists Columbia Capital Equity among its investors, and members of Columbia have interests in television group Hoak Media LLC and other license companies. Six individuals are listed as directors of Local: Monish Kundra, James Fleming, Rajendra Singh, Serge G. Martin, Paul Koplin and Lawrence Rogow.
The price is $6.5M cash.
The price for the full power Riverhead NY station was $55M. That brings the seller’s total take up to $61.5M and makes a soothsayer out of broadcast analyst David Schutz, who had predicted that the deal for the stations could fall in the $60M-$75M range.
Upon filing of the immediate deal for the LPTVs, Schutz noted that it was highly unusual for such a full-power/low-power split, particularly in an instance such as this in which the low powers were essentially being used as repeaters for the flagship.
RBR-TVBR observation: The fact that CBS is getting a station with an over-air contour considerably east of New York City and not getting the over-air low power facilities that have extended its coverage in various directions underscores the fact that CBS will be relying on MVPD carriage to get WLNY programming out to the viewers of the entire DMA.
