Gray Media Buying Stations From Block and SagamoreHill
Gray Media will buy Block Communications’ seven TV stations for $80 million and separately acquire two stations from SagamoreHill Broadcasting, Gray announced in two news releases Thursday and Friday. The Block deal includes Fox and CW affiliate stations in Louisville, where Gray already owns an NBC affiliate. The sale also involves Block’s NBC affiliates in Decatur, Illinois, and Lima, Ohio, and three low-power TV stations, some of which are also network affiliates. That could mean the deal would require a waiver from the FCC, though the top-four prohibition was recently vacated by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2507230063). “Gray anticipates closing these transactions in the fourth quarter of this year following receipt of regulatory approval, including certain waivers of the FCC’s current ownership rules, and other customary closing conditions,” a release said.
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In the SagamoreHill transaction, Gray would acquire stations in Columbus, Georgia, and Lubbock, Texas. Gray has provided back-office services to both from its stations in those markets for several years and would seek failing station waivers from the FCC as part of the deal, that release said.