Nexstar Sells Five Stations in Four Markets

Nexstar Broadcasting Friday announced that it will be selling five television stations in four markets as part of its compliance with FCC ownership caps once its purchase of Media General is complete.

The agreements include:

  • Selling WCWJ, the CW affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla., and WSLS, the NBC affiliate in Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va. to Graham Media for $120 million total.
  • Selling Fox affiliate KADN and NBC affiliate KLAF in Lafayette, La. to Bayou City Broadcasting for $40 million in cash. BCBL is a minority-led broadcaster owned by affiliates of Bain Capital Credit, LP and Bayou City Broadcasting, LLC.
  • Selling KREG in Denver to Marquee Broadcasting, a woman-owned broadcast group that owns three local broadcast stations in Maryland, Georgia, and Delaware. KREG currently operates as a satellite station of Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate KREX, which will end once the sale is finalized.

In addition to divesting overlap markets and other markets to meet the FCC's 39% TV households ownership cap, two of the three proposed transactions represent opportunities for minority television stations, according to Nexstar. The company said it anticipates announcing more divestitures shortly.

(Photo via Ervins Strauhmanis's FlickrImage taken on Sept. 19, 2014 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)