With Nexstar spinning off stations as part of its Media General acquisition, TV M&A volume hit $681.2 million during the second quarter of 2016, according to the most recent report by SNL Kagan.
The Nexstar spinoffs, required to comply with FCC ownership caps, accounted for 80% of the deals, the broadcast analyst group said.
Nexstar sold a total of 12 stations in 10 markets to five different buyers. The largest of these deals — and the top TV deal of the quarter — was the $270 million sale of KWQC, the NBC affiliate serving Davenport, Iowa, and ABC affiliate WBAY Green Bay, Wisc. to Gray Television. Other buyers included Graham Holdings Company, MSouth Equity Partners and Heartland Media, Bayou City Broadcasting Lafayette, and Marquee Broadcasting.
The second quarter's largest TV deal not involving Nexstar involved Calkins Media leaving TV altogether, selling off its three TV stations for $82 million to Raycom and American Spirit Media.
The radio deal market, however, amounted to just $47.8 million, its lowest quarterly deal volume in 34 years, since the first quarter of 1982.
(Photo via Pictures of Money's Flickr. Image taken on Sept. 17, 2015 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)
