Research from Kagan has found that US broadcast station deals have reached their highest level since 2014, with the TV sector alone registering over $500 million in the final quarter and $5.03 billion for the year.
The analyst calculated that US broadcast station mergers and acquisitions volume reached $748.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and closed the year at $8.24 billion. As well as being the highest annual deal volume for the last three years, it was also the third highest recorded since the financial crisis of 2008.In the fourth quarter of 2017, a third of US broadcast station deal volume ($248.3 million) came from radio deals, while 65% of the TV deal volume of $500.5 million came from the top largest deal in the quarter. The total broadcast deal volume in 2017 amounted to $8.24 billion, with $3.21 billion in the radio and $5.03 billion in the TV sector.
The biggest TV deal of 2017 was the $3.76 billion merger of Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media Company in April, accounting for three-quarters of 75% of the total annual TV deal volume. But, Kagan noted, even without this deal, the TV market would have grown by 79% compared with 2016, excluding Nexstar Broadcasting Group's merger with Media General.
Other TV highlights in the Kagan analysis included Tegna’s $325.0 million acquisition of Midwest Television in December 2017, which also saw NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group acquire all stations of ZGS Communications for $75.0 million.
