TV Station Acquisition Market Quiet in 2Q

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The market for TV stations remained quiet in the second quarter, with deals totaling just $98.2 million.

Combined with radio, broadcast deals totaled $233.3 million in the second quarter of 2015, bringing the first half total to $343.8 million.

A year ago, mergers and acquisitions activity totaled $5.3 billion as TV station groups including Granite Broadcasting, LIN Media, Media General, Graham Holdings, Gannett, 21st Century Fox and Cox Media Group bought, sold and swapped stations.

Cash flow multiples were unchanged at about 8 times earnings for TV and 6-7 times earnings for radio.

The biggest deal of the quarter was Gray Television paying $33.6 million for CBS affiliate KOSA-TV, Odessa-Midland, Texas. The seller was Investment Co. of America.

(Photo via Ervins Strauhmanis's Flickr. Image taken on Sept. 19, 2014 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.