As B&C gets set for its 25th Hall of Fame ceremony on Oct. 20 at New York's Waldorf Astoria, we are taking a look back at the many ways the medium of television has changed as a business and as a part of culture. Today's installment: deals.
The recent spate of M&A, fueled by the ongoing macroeconomic recovery, has added a few more deals to the tally of those that have shaped the past quarter-century. Ours is not a dollar-based list ranked in terms of valuation, but rather a group of deals whose impact, in many cases, can still be felt in the larger TV and media landscape. (The tally reaches an even 25 when two near-deals that fell apart recently are factored in: Comcast-Time Warner Cable and News Corp.-Time Warner.)
· Altice buys Cablevision (pending regulatory approval)
· Charter buys Time Warner Cable (pending)
· Nexstar offers to buy Media General after Media General’s announced purchase of Meredith (pending)
· Gray TV buys station assets from Schurz (pending)
· AT&T buys DirecTV
· Gannett (now Tegna) buys Belo
· Cablevision Systems spins off AMC Networks
· Comcast buys NBCUniversal
· Scripps Networks acquires Travel Channel
· Time Warner buys CourtTV
· Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband
· Tribune buys Local TV
· Google buys YouTube
· CBS separates from Viacom
· Viacom buys BET
· NBC buys Universal
· NBC buys Bravo
· Viacom buys CBS
· Vivendi takes stake in NBCUniversal
· Disney buys Fox Family Channel
· Time Warner-AOL
· Disney buys CapitalCities/ABC
· Warner Bros.-Time Inc.
