Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced it will buy the stock and broadcast assets of four Titan Broadcast Management TV stations and assume Titan’s agreements to provide sales and services to two others.
“We are pleased to bring the TTBG stations into the Sinclair portfolio,” said David Smith, president and CEO of Sinclair in a statement. “They will complement the California properties we are acquiring from Fisher, as well as add to our Iowa presence and give us our first stations in Nebraska. We welcome all of them to the Sinclair group.”
The six stations are in three markets reaching 1% of US TV households. Sinclair put the purchase price at $115.35 million and expects the transaction to close and fund late in the third quarter early in the fourth quarter of 2013 pending FCC approval.
The four stations Sinclair will own and operate are KMPH and KFRE the FOX and CW affiliates for Fresno, CA, and Omaha, NE, FOX affiliate KPTM, along with KPTH, the FOX affiliate for Sioux City, IA. The two stations Sinclair will provide sales and other services to are KXVO, the CW affiliate for Omaha, NE, and Sioux City, IA, CBS affiliate KMEG.
In April, Sinclair agreed to buy Fisher Communications. Before the Titan purchase, Sinclair’s TV and radio stations reached 34% of US households.
[TVNewsCheck]