The FCC has given its final approval to the sale of Tribune Media, a process that took so long that you’ll be forgiven if you forgot how it’s shaking out in the Upper Midwest.
Sinclair Broadcast Group first proposed buying Tribune in 2017 but Tribune pulled out the following year after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he had “serious concerns” about the merger as proposed. Nexstar and Tribune then announced their merger plans in December 2018.
The Nexstar-Tribune combination, which will result in the divestiture of 21 stations to three other companies, received clearance from the Justice Department over the summer. Nexstar closed on the transaction on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Here’s what the Nexstar-Tribune combination means for the Upper Midwest:
Tegna enters Iowa: Nexstar was required to spin off overlapping stations in the Des Moines and Quad Cities markets. Nexstar will keep its existing CBS/CW/FOX operation in the Quad Cities but take over Tribune NBC affiliate WHO-DT (Des Moines).
Nexstar spun off its ABC affiliate WOI-DT (Ames-Des Moines) and Tribune ABC affiliate WQAD (Moline-Quad Cities) to Tegna, along with CW affiliate KCWI (Ames-Des Moines). Tegna owns stations in Minneapolis and St. Louis but previously had no holdings in the early-voting state of Iowa, where political revenue is likely to be high in the coming months.
The change could shake up the Des Moines market, where Nexstar had already been trying to pull WOI out of its longtime distant third place in the ratings. Tegna’s WOI will compete with Nexstar’s WHO and Hearst CBS affiliate KCCI.
Nexstar grows in Wisconsin: The company will now have three markets in the state, adding Tribune FOX affiliate WITI (Milwaukee). It already owns the CBS affiliate in Green Bay and the FOX affiliates in La Crosse-Eau Claire.
Nexstar retains several other Upper Midwest markets: Its other regional holdings include CBS affiliates in Marquette, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and Bismarck-Minot and the ABC affiliate in Sioux City.
Tribune’s big-market stations split up: Nexstar will take over WGN-TV (Chicago) and KTLA (Los Angeles), but is spinning off WPIX (New York) to Scripps.
Divestitures that didn’t end up happening: Sinclair had announced plans to sell FOX affiliate KDSM (Des Moines), among others, when it was trying to buy Tribune and WHO-DT. KDSM remains under Sinclair ownership since the deal never happened.
In Milwaukee, Sinclair had already returned the license of WCGV in anticipation of the Tribune deal, which would’ve combined Sinclair CW affiliate WVTV with WITI. WCGV had already given up its spectrum in the spectrum auction and was sharing bandwidth with WVTV; Sinclair lost must-carry rights for WCGV in returning its license.