Sinclair Buy of Bonten Enabled by UHF Discount Restoration
Sinclair Broadcast will buy Bonten Media for $240 million in a transaction that was enabled by Thursday’s FCC vote to restore the UHF discount (see 1704200048), industry officials told us. Bonten owns 14 TV stations in eight markets that provide…
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service to 1 percent of U.S. households, Sinclair said in a press release Friday. But Sinclair was right up against the 39 percent national cap, if its reach is calculated without the UHF discount, industry officials said. Though the Media Bureau said Thursday’s rule change likely won’t take effect for a month or so, the deal isn't expected to close until Q3 2017, the release said. Along with Bonten’s stations, the deal also includes four stations owned by Esteem that Bonten provides services to through joint services agreements, a role that will be taken over by the Sinclair-affiliated Cunningham Broadcasting, the release said. “We believe our economies of scale help us bring improvements to small market stations, including investments in news, other quality local programming, and multicast opportunities,” Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said in the release.