Media mogul Byron Allen has reached a deal to promote 10 tv stations for $171 million to Atlanta-based Grey Media.
Grey and Allen Media Group introduced the settlement Friday.
Allen’s stations in Huntsville, Ala.; Montgomery, Ala.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Lafayette, La.; and Paducah, Ky.; had been a part of the transaction. Every station has affiliations with one of many Large 4 broadcast networks: ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS.
The transfer furthers Allen’s retrenchment after a $1-billion shopping for spree in recent times. Allen had a purpose of changing into the biggest unbiased tv operator within the U.S. However the build-up — which got here throughout an more and more difficult interval for broadcast TV — left the Los Angeles-based firm burdened with debt.
This spring, Allen Media Group employed funding banking agency Moelis & Co. to promote his network-affiliate tv stations.
Allen Media Group, which was based by Allen in 1993, continues to personal tv stations and channels, together with Pets.TV, Comedy.TV and Automobiles.TV, leisure studios and the Climate Channel.
The Los Angeles entrepreneur and former humorist had been steadily increasing his empire for greater than a decade.
With the acquisition of Allen’s stations, Grey strikes into three new tv markets: Tupelo, Miss.; Terre Haute, Ind.; and West Lafayette, Ind.
Grey owns a second station in a number of of the opposite places. The corporate stated in an announcement that the mixture, recognized within the trade as a “duopoly,” will enable it to offer “expanded native information, native climate, and native sports activities programming.”
The deal, which requires the approval of the Federal Communications Fee, must be full by 12 months’s finish, the businesses stated.
