Newport Television

Newport Television, LLC was a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications.[1]

Newport Television, LLC
TypePrivate
IndustryMedia
FateAcquired by Nexstar, Sinclair, and Cox
PredecessorTelevision arm of Clear Channel Communications
SuccessorNexstar Broadcasting Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Cox Media Group
Founded2007 (2007)
FounderProvidence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale
DefunctJune 1, 2013 (2013-06-01)
Headquarters
Key people
Sandy DiPasquale
(president, CEO)
ServicesTelevision
OwnerProvidence Equity Partners

History

In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6 million.[2] The deal was set to be completed in March 2008 but eventually collapsed due to LK's lender refusing to provide the funding;[3] KFTY (now KEMO-TV) and KVOS have since been sold to other companies. As of October 10, 2007, Newport had agreed to sell KION-TV, KMUV-LP, K44DN, KKFX-CA, KCOY-TV to Cowles Publishing Company for $41 million.[4] Newport's purchase of the Clear Channel stations and those being resold were granted conditional Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, subject to divestitures of media properties owned by other affiliates of Providence Equity Partners in several other markets.[5] The entire deal closed on March 14, 2008 after several stations, in addition to those being divested by Newport, were placed into trust companies.[6]

In March 2012, Providence Equity Partners began to explore strategic alternatives for Newport Television, which may lead to a sale of the group.[7] In July 2012, it was officially confirmed that Nexstar Broadcasting Group would acquire twelve of Newport's stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group would acquire six, and Cox Media Group would acquire four.[8][9] As part of the same deal, Newport's CMS operations, branded as Inergize Digital, would go to Nexstar. This deal was followed eight days later by the announcement that WXXA-TV in Albany, New York would be sold to Shield Media, LLC, who would then enter into joint sales and shared services agreements with Young Broadcasting's WTEN.[10]

Four other Newport stations were not part of either of the July 2012 deals, with the company continuing to pursue buyers for those stations;[11] Nexstar would announce its acquisition of two of those stations, KGET-TV in Bakersfield, California and KGPE in Fresno, on November 5.[12] On November 26, Newport announced that KMTR would be sold to Fisher Communications. Because Fisher already owned KVAL-TV, Fisher assigned the rights to acquire the FCC license to Roberts Media, LLC (a company wholly unrelated to the bankrupt Roberts Broadcasting), which Fisher then entered into a Joint Sales and Shared Services Agreement with KVAL.[13]

On October 23, the FCC granted approval to the sale of the Jacksonville and Tulsa stations to Cox, plus the Albany station to Shield Media. This was followed the next day by the FCC approval of the July sale of the stations to Nexstar except for the two in Little Rock being sold to Mission Broadcasting, which were later approved on December 10. On November 19, the FCC granted approval of the remaining stations from the July deal to Sinclair.

Nineteen of the stations involved in the July deal were consummated on December 3, 2012. On the same day, Sinclair announced that they would acquire non-license assets of WHAM-TV, while the license was transferred to Deerfield Media.[14] On January 23, 2013, the FCC granted approvals of the Newport California stations to Nexstar; and on January 30, the FCC granted approval to the WHAM transaction to Sinclair. On April 24, 2013, the FCC granted its approval on Newport's final station, KMTR to Roberts Media.[15] This was after an announcement that Fisher was being sold to Sinclair for $373 million, two weeks prior.[16] On June 1, the KMTR sale was consummated, completing the disestablishment of the company.[17]

Former Newport-owned Stations

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)
Years owned Current ownership status
Mobile, Alabama - Pensacola, Florida WPMI-TV 15 (15) 2008–2012 NBC affiliate owned by Deerfield Media
(Operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
WJTC 44 (45) 2008–2012 Independent station owned by Deerfield Media
(Operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Fairbanks, Alaska KTVF 11 (26) 2008–2012 NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television
Little Rock, Arkansas KLRT-TV 16 (30) 2008–2013 Fox affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
(Operated through an SSA by Nexstar Media Group)
KASN 38 (39) 2008–2013 The CW affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
(Operated through an SSA by Nexstar Media Group)
Bakersfield, California KGET-TV 17 (25) 2008–2013 1 NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
KKEY-LP 11 (17.3) 2008–2013 Telemundo affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Fresno, California KGPE 47 (34) 2008–2013 1 CBS affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Monterey - Salinas, California KION-TV 46 (32) 2008 CBS affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
KCBA 35 (13) 2008 Fox affiliate owned by Seal Rock Broadcasters, LLC
(Operated through an SSA by Entravision Communications)
KMUV-LP 23 2008 Telemundo affiliate, owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
Santa Maria, California KCOY-TV 12 (19) 2008 CBS affiliate owned by VistaWest Media, LLC
(Operated through an SSA by News-Press & Gazette Company)
KKFX-CA 24 2008 Fox affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
Santa Rosa - San Francisco, California KFTY 50 (32) 2008–2011 Azteca América owned-and-operated station (O&O), KEMO-TV, owned by HC2 Holdings
Jacksonville, Florida WAWS 30 (32) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate, WFOX-TV, owned by Cox Media Group
WTEV-TV 47 (19) 2008–2012 1 CBS affiliate, WJAX-TV, owned by Hoffman Communications, Inc.
(Operated through an SSA by Cox Media Group)
Wichita, Kansas KSAS-TV 24 (26) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
KMTW 36 (35) 2 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Mercury Broadcasting Company
(operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Hoisington, Kansas KOCW
(Satellite of KSAS-TV)
14 (14) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Salina, Kansas KAAS
(Satellite of KSAS-TV)
18 (17) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Albany - Schenectady - Troy, New York WXXA-TV 23 (7) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate owned by Mission Broadcasting
(operated through an SSA by Nexstar Media Group)
Binghamton, New York WIVT 34 (34) 2008–2012 ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
WBGH-CA 20 (34.2) 2008–2012 NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Elmira, New York WETM-TV 18 (18) 2008–2012 NBC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Rochester, New York WHAM-TV 13 (13) 2008–2013 ABC affiliate owned by Deerfield Media
(Operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Syracuse, New York WSYR-TV 9 (17) 2008–2012 ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Watertown, New York WWTI 50 (21) 2008–2012 ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Cincinnati, Ohio WKRC-TV 12 (12) 2008–2012 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Tulsa, Oklahoma KOKI-TV 23 (22) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate owned by Cox Media Group
KMYT-TV 41 (42) 2008–2012 MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by Cox Media Group
Eugene, Oregon KMTR 16 (17) 2008–2013 NBC affiliate owned by Roberts Media, LLC
(Operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Coos Bay, Oregon KMCB
(Satellite of KMTR)
23 (22) 2008–2013 NBC affiliate owned by Roberts Media, LLC
(Operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Roseburg, Oregon KTCW
(Satellite of KMTR)
46 (45) 2008–2013 NBC affiliate owned by Roberts Media, LLC
(Operated through an SSA by Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania WHP-TV 21 (21) 2008–2012 CBS affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
WLYH-TV 15 (21) 3 Comet TV affiliate, WXBU, owned by Howard Stirk Holdings
Jackson, Tennessee WJKT 16 (39) 2008–2012 Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Memphis, Tennessee WPTY-TV 24 (25) 2008–2012 ABC affiliate, WATN-TV, owned by Tegna Inc.
WLMT 30 (31) 2008–2012 The CW affiliate owned by Tegna Inc.
San Antonio, Texas WOAI-TV 4 (48) 2008–2012 1 NBC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Salt Lake City, Utah KTVX 4 (40) 2008–2012 ABC affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
KUCW 30 (48) 2008–2012 1 The CW affiliate owned by Nexstar Media Group
Bellingham, Washington -
Vancouver, British Columbia
(Bellingham is nominally in the Seattle market)
KVOS-TV 12 (35) 2008–2012 Heroes & Icons owned-and-operated station (O&O), owned by Weigel Broadcasting

Notes:

  • 1 The licenses and other FCC assets of these stations were owned by High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. because of an ownership conflict (Providence Equity Partners also held a 19 percent ownership interest in the Spanish-language network Univision). However, Newport Television operated these stations under a shared services agreement (SSA).
  • 2 Owned by Mercury Broadcasting Company, Newport operated KMTW under a local marketing agreement with KSAS.
  • 3 Owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Newport operated WLYH under a local marketing agreement with WHP.

Former Subchannel Network

References

  1. "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners". Retrieved 2007-10-09.
  2. "Deals". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  3. Bid to Seal Records in $2.5 Billion Lawsuit Rejected
  4. "Deals". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
  5. "FCC OK's Clear Channel TV Sale". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
  6. "Clear Channel Completes Sale to Providence Equity Partners". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  7. Richwine, Lisa; Lauria, Peter (March 23, 2012). "Exclusive: Providence Equity shopping Newport Television". Reuters. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  8. "Sinclair Broadcast to buy 7 TV outlets for $452.5M". MarketWatch. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  9. "Newport Sells 22 Stations to Nexstar, Sinclair, Cox for $1 Bil". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  10. Shield Buying Newport's WXXA For $19.4M, TVNewsCheck, July 27, 2012.
  11. "Newport Sells 22 Stations for $1 Billion," from TVNewsCheck, 7/19/2012
  12. "Nexstar Adding Stations In CA, VT". TVNewsCheck. November 5, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  13. Fisher Communications (FSCI) Unit to Acquire KMTR(TV) in $8.5M Deal Street Insider, November 26, 2012
  14. Daneman, Matthiew (December 3, 2012). "WHAM-TV partially sold to Sinclair Broadcast". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  15. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2013-04-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. Malone, Michael (April 11, 2013). "Sinclair to Acquire Fisher Stations for $373 Million". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  17. CDBS Print. Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved on 2013-08-16.
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