The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the transfer of three local television broadcast licenses from Allen Media Group to peer broadcaster Gray Media.
The transaction was first announced in August, weeks after Allen Media said it intended to sell off its local TV station business in order to address its various debt obligations. Multicast News, which shares common ownership with The Desk, was the first to report on Allen Media’s planned exit from the local TV business.
The deal originally involved 10 local TV stations. Gray Media said it expected the acquisitions to go through no later than the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year. It wasn’t immediately clear why the closing of the transaction was delayed.
The stations covered by the original deal are:
- KADN (Channel 15, Fox & NBC) – Lafayette, Louisiana
- WCOV (Channel 20, Fox) – Montgomery, Alabama
- WAAY (Channel 31, ABC) – Huntsville, Alabama
- WFFT (Channel 55, Fox) – Fort Wayne, Indiana
- WEVV (Channel 44, CBS & Fox) – Evansville, Indiana
- WREX (Channel 13, NBC) – Rockford, Illinois
- WTHI (Channel 10, CBS & Fox) – Terre Haute, Illinois
- WSIL (Channel 3, ABC) – Harrisburg, Illinois
- WTVA (Channel 9, ABC & NBC) – Columbus, Mississippi
- WLFI (Channel 18, CBS) – West Lafayette, Indiana
This week, the FCC approved the transfer of licenses covering three of those stations — WLFA, WTVA and WTHI — with the remainder of the deal still pending.
“Six years ago, Allen Media Group began the process of investing over one billion dollars to acquire big four network-affiliated television stations,” Allen said in a statement at the time. “We have received numerous inquiries and written offers for most of our television stations, and now is the time to explore getting a return on this phenomenal investment.”
Gray Media is currently engaged in a dispute with Dish Network that forced the removal of its local TV stations earlier this month. The dispute centers around fees Gray Media charges Dish in exchange for the privilege of redistributing its local TV stations to Dish’s satellite TV subscribers.
On Monday, various local TV stations owned by Gray Media said they offered Dish a temporary extension of their prior contract in order to keep their programming on the satellite service, but Dish rejected that offer.
The stations said Dish was “unwilling to agree to a fair market deal” to keep the channels. Gray Media is encouraging Dish subscribers to seek a refund for the missing channels.
In an earlier statement, a spokesperson for Gray Media said Dish made an unusual demand during its negotiations toward a new agreement, which it characterized as a “materially-adverse provision” that was “unlike any provision in any distribution agreement with Gray’s roughly 400 other distribution partners.”
The spokesperson declined to say what that specific provision was when approached by The Desk for further information, but the company affirmed they felt the request was proof that Dish was not negotiating toward a new agreement in good faith, as it is required to do under federal law.
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Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said the FCC approved the transfer of 10 TV station licenses to Gray Media. The FCC approved the transfer of three TV station licenses.
