Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. announced Saturday it has acquired Ring of Honor Wrestling.
ROH is currently the third largest wrestling promotion in the country and recently celebrated its ninth anniversary. A formal press conference is planned for June 24 in Baltimore.
“We have been waiting for and working for this opportunity for quite some time”, ROH owner Cary Silkin said, “and of our 9 years in business, there has been no better roster of wrestlers than this one to expose the ROH product to the masses. With Sinclair’s resources and many avenues of distribution, we believe many new fans around the world will be as captivated as those who have followed Ring of Honor over the years.”
Ring of Honor will debut a new television program this September, which will be syndicated across the Sinclair network of stations. It will be the only wresting promotion with a major, multi-market presence on broadcast television. For wrestling fans who don’t live in a market with a Sinclair station, the show will be made available online.
“We are very excited about this acquisition,” said Steve Marks, COO of Sinclair’s Television Group. “Television and professional wrestling have a long history of successful partnerships and driving viewership. Unfortunately, the broadcast networks have not protected that relationship, allowing professional wrestling to migrate to cable network distribution. We believe that the powerful promotional platform that our TV stations provide, coupled with our 22% share of the U.S. TV households, will allow ROH to achieve name brand recognition and grow its share of the wrestling market. When you consider the makeup of our station mix and the number of CW, MYTV and FOX affiliates we operate, this is a perfect fit for our viewer demographics.”