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Byron Allen buys 11 Heartland Media stations


TheRolyPoly

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In six years, Heartland goes from being a newcomer to almost a goner.

 

Allen Media (Byron Allen) is buying Heartland's 11 of its 13 stations for $290mil.

 

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/239568/byron-allen-buying-11-stations-for-290m/

 

KQTV is in the process of being sold to NPG while WKTV would be left under Heartland.

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30 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

In six years, Heartland goes from being a newcomer to almost a goner.

 

Allen Media (Byron Allen) is buying Heartland's 11 of its 13 stations for $290mil.

 

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/239568/byron-allen-buying-11-stations-for-290m/

 

KQTV is in the process of being sold to NPG while WKTV would be left under Heartland.

 

This makes me wonder what the endgame for WKTV is. There are several owners in adjacent markets - Hubbard, Quincy, Gray, Cox - which WKTV would fit like a glove given geography and status as #1 basically by default. Their blowtorch days stretching from Canada to the Berkshires are long gone but still a good pickup.

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1 hour ago, scrabbleship said:

 

This makes me wonder what the endgame for WKTV is. There are several owners in adjacent markets - Hubbard, Quincy, Gray, Cox - which WKTV would fit like a glove given geography and status as #1 basically by default. Their blowtorch days stretching from Canada to the Berkshires are long gone but still a good pickup.

 

Gray would be my guess given its stature and location.

 

Since Bob Prather is becoming part of Allen Media as a manager, I'd suspect WKTV will be sold sooner rather than later.

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This topic deserves its own thread.

 

I'm surprised KIMT wasn't left behind either. KIMT would've been Gray's one to lose, just like Utica's WKTV, given that both staions are close-proximity to their newly acquired sister-stations (KEYC & WWNY).

 

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1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

This topic deserves its own thread.

 

I'm surprised KIMT wasn't left behind either. KIMT would've been Gray's one to lose, just like Utica's WKTV, given that both staions are close-proximity to their newly acquired sister-stations (KEYC & WWNY).

 

 

No matter what, there's low hanging fruit out there. They are essentially an orphan right now at WKTV, since the CEO is moving over to Allen's company.

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2 hours ago, xoddf2 said:
This marks KHSL-TV's 4th owner (and KNVN's 4th operator) in almost 7 years. In that time, those stations have gone from Catamount to GOCOM to Heartland to Entertainment Studios.

 

Though if Bob Prather is going to now be running the show at Byron Allen's company, then it shouldn't be much of a change at all for the Heartland stations. Though they're still probably jockeying toward the ultimate goal of selling them all to Gray or another one of the big station groups.

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Going to air all of Bryon Allen's TV shows which are too many to name from Entertainment Studios. Bryon Allen all he does is buy channels I'm kinda surprised that he wanted to buy local TV stations which I wonder if he is just going to sell to a major broadcaster sooner or later.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Has the paperwork come up yet?

 

I did read that Heartland will continue to run the stations as their management, which makes this almost a merger of sorts. I'm not sure if Allen will put up another $10M or so to add KQTV to the purchase now that it is available (it wasn't at the time but its planned acquisition is dead). But WKTV...what's up with it?

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  • 4 weeks later...
2 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Looks like the FCC has greenlighted the Allen-Heartland deal today.

 

Geez, that was fast!

 

How long do you think it might be before WAAY, WTVA, and all the other soon-to-be-former Heartland Media stations will have the Allen Media Broadcasting copyright at the end of their newscasts?

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49 minutes ago, J1975am said:

 

Geez, that was fast!

 

How long do you think it might be before WAAY, WTVA, and all the other soon-to-be-former Heartland Media stations will have the Allen Media Broadcaasting copyright at the end of their newscasts?

 

Probably shortly after Thanksgiving.

 

Now what happens to KQTV and WKTV, that is the question. I'd be leaning towards Allen making a separate acquisition of them (and that likely wouldn't take long) since KQTV was in a canceled deal at the time (they can also add WKTV to the pie), although they could also be left in the lurch.

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1 hour ago, TheRyan said:

If Bryan Allen is going to get KQTV and WKTV, why would they make that a separate transaction?  Was there a legal technicality or were they just not quite ready to sell them?


Because the original transaction did not include those two stations.

 

One of the stations (KQTV) was involved in a separate transaction at the time this deal was announced. That deal was later called off.

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  • 2 months later...

“Over the past six months we’ve invested nearly $500 million to acquire best-in-class, top-tier, broadcast network affiliates,” said Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios. “We plan to invest approximately $10 billion to acquire ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox television stations over the next three years with the goal of being one of the largest broadcast television groups in America.”

 

Where's he finding this money? And what stations is he going to buy that haven't already been gobbled up by the big station groups?

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1 hour ago, C Block said:

“Over the past six months we’ve invested nearly $500 million to acquire best-in-class, top-tier, broadcast network affiliates,” said Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios. “We plan to invest approximately $10 billion to acquire ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox television stations over the next three years with the goal of being one of the largest broadcast television groups in America.”

 

Where's he finding this money? And what stations is he going to buy that haven't already been gobbled up by the big station groups?

 

39 minutes ago, TheOneManHerd said:

If freakin’ Apollo can’t find any, what makes Byron Allen think he can?

Y'all forget this dude was a comedian at first. Maybe this is all part of his act.

 

 

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I mean, Entertainment Studios also distributes movies, and the self-admitted strategy there is to go after the "crumbs" that bigger distributors don't want. It wouldn't surprise me if he's operating similarly with his broadcast stations.

 

At some point the bills are gonna come due for the big chains, and unloading their clunkers and laggards is an easy way to raise cash.

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