The Tribune Company agreed on Monday to buy 19 local television stations for about $2.7 billion, becoming one of the nation’s biggest commercial TV station owners amid an effort to build out its video and digital operations and move away from newspapers.
The stations are located in 16 regions, including Denver, Cleveland and St. Louis, and many of their local news broadcasts are ranked first or second in their markets. They will complement Tribune’s 23 existing stations and its WGN America superstation.
The deal comes less than a month after Gannett agreed to buy the Belo Corporation for about $1.5 billion, nearly doubling its local television holdings. Such consolidation is meant to help media companies gain more scale, giving them additional negotiating clout with broadcast partners.
At the same time, Tribune is weighing a potential sale or spinoff of its newspaper properties, including The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. While advisers to the media conglomerate have been in touch with potential suitors, ranging from the Koch brothers to the billionaire Eli Broad.
Tribune is buying the stations from Local TV Holdings, a company owned by the investment firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. It will finance the deal through cash o! n hand and up to $4.1 billion in loans from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse.
The transaction is expected to close in 2013.
Guggenheim Securities and the law firms Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling advised Tribune. Moelis & Company, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank and the law firm Dow Lohnes advised Local TV.
