Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. and ABC Television Network Announces Multi-Year Deal That Extends Affiliations Across All Sinclair Stations to 2022
January 10, 2018 at 02:05 pm
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Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. ABC Television Network announced a multi-year deal that extends affiliations across all Sinclair stations to 2022, including station affiliation agreements that had been scheduled to expire at the end of 2017. Additionally, ABC also agreed to an extension of all affiliations with ABC affiliated stations that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under joint sales agreement. The extended and renewed agreements will expire August 2022. Contingent upon the closing of Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune, ABC and Sinclair also agreed to an extension of Tribune's ABC affiliation agreements in New Orleans, LA, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA, and Moline, IL (Quad Cities) to be co-terminus with Sinclair's ABC affiliations. The owned stations which had 2017 expirations dates are WJLA in Washington, D.C., WBMA and WABM in Birmingham, AL, KATV in Little Rock, AR, KTUL in Tulsa, OK, WSET in Roanoke, VA, WCIV in Charleston, SC and KHGI and KWNB in Lincoln, NE; and the stations to which Sinclair provides services are WHAM in Rochester, NY and WGTU and WGTQ in Traverse City, MI. The nine renewed markets serve approximately 5.8 million households and the other ABC affiliates, including Sinclair and Tribune stations, serve an additional approximately 11.6 million households.
Sinclair, Inc. is a diversified media company and a provider of local news and sports. The Company operates through two segments: Local Media, and Tennis. Its Local Media segment is comprised of its television stations. It produces more than 2,400 hours of news per week at 115 stations in 73 markets. Its Tennis segment primarily consists of Tennis Channel, a cable network which includes coverage of many of tennis' top tournaments and original professional sports and tennis lifestyle shows. Its content is delivered via multiple platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program distributors, and the streaming aggregator of local news content, NewsON. The Company owns, operates and provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets affiliated with all the various broadcast networks, and owns Tennis Channel and multicast networks Comet, CHARGE!, TBD., and The Nest. The Company also owns and provides services to 21 regional sports network brands.