Key Points
- Scripps has finalized the sale of Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV to Circle City Broadcasting
- The deal is part of over $120 million in recent station sales aimed at reducing debt and repurchasing Ion stations.
- Scripps plans to seek FCC waivers on ownership limits through its purchase of Inyo Broadcast Holding stations.
The E. W. Scripps Company on Tuesday said it finalized the sale of its Indianapolis ABC affiliate to Circle City Broadcasting.
The transaction, valued at $83 million, involves WRTV (Channel 6) and is the second station sale closed by Scripps in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Scripps sold WFTX (Channel 36), its Fort Myers-area Fox affiliate, to Sun Broadcasting for $40 million.
The proceeds from the transactions will total over $120 million, Scripps said in a press release Tuesday. That money will be used to pay down the company’s debt and toward the buyback of nearly two dozen Ion-affiliated TV stations that are currently owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings.
Scripps was required to divest the stations several years ago as a condition of gaining regulatory approvals for the acquisition of Ion, which includes dozes of other local TV stations that Scripps now owns.
Under federal law, local TV broadcasters are not allowed to own a collection of stations that reach more than 39 percent of the American viewing audience. But the regulatory environment changed under President Donald Trump, whose hand-picked Chairman at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, has been more-amenable to large-scale transactions involving broadcasters.
Scripps says it intends to approach the FCC with requests to waive the current ownership rules, something that was once approved on a per-case basis. The FCC granted a blanket waiver to its ownership rules when Nexstar Media Group sought to acquire 60 TV stations owned by TEGNA, though the transaction is currently being challenged in federal court.
Scripps is also moving forward with a swap of TV stations and related assets involving Gray Media in five markets, a transaction that is expected to face less regulatory friction.
