NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations has completed its acquisition of the Serestar Communications stations in Sacramento and Salt Lake City. The deal was for $21 million.
In the Sacramento market, NBCU gets KMUM, KCSO and KMMW.
In the Salt Lake City market, NBCU pics up KTMW, KULX, k17II and KULU.
The groups said the joint sales and time brokerage agreement pursuant to which Serestar has operated KNSO, the Telemundo-owned station in Fresno, and KEJT-CD, a Class A station in Salt Lake City, will be terminated. The stations will be operated by NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations as part of the Telemundo Station Group.
“The Telemundo stations have redefined the way that local Spanish-language audiences receive their local news,” said Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations. “With each new team we’ve welcomed to our group, we have enhanced the stations’ news programming, hired local journalists to support the boost in news, and pioneered our industry’s first-ever Spanish-language station apps that feature the marketplace’s only Spanish-language weather alerts. We are proud to welcome the stations to NBCUniversal and our owned stations family.”
With this acquisition, the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations Division will include 30 Telemundo stations and 12 NBC stations serving audiences in 30 markets.
Expansion of local news at the formerly Serestar stations may be in the works, said a deal insider.
“NBCUniversal/Telemundo has been a terrific company for Serestar to have been affiliated with. I’m confident that the Telemundo Station Group leadership team will do a great job of continuing to serve the community and of growing the success of these stations that the Serestar dedicated team has managed so successfully over the past five years,” said Philip Wilkinson, president/CEO, Serestar Communications.
NBCUniversal and Serestar agreed to the deal in December.
“Our Telemundo stations have become a powerful source for hyper-local, live news, weather, consumer, investigative, political and community information in all of our markets," added Manuel Martinez, president, Telemundo Station Group. "Working together with our sister NBC stations to serve all audiences, including bilingual viewers, we look forward to continuing to super-serve Hispanics in Salt Lake City, Sacramento, and Fresno with the outstanding journalism that our Telemundo stations deliver day in and day out.”
