In a deal covering eight CBS affiliates serving more than three million television households, ViacomCBS and Sinclair Broadcast Group have announced a multi-year agreement to renew eight CBS network affiliations for Sinclair stations.
The markets’ combined reach stretches to 3% of the US audience, serving over 3 million television households. The deal includes two top-50 market affiliates, KUTV in Salt Lake City, UT and KEYE-TV in Austin, TX. ViacomCBS also reached agreement to renew the affiliation of WTVH in Syracuse, NY to which Sinclair provides services.Sinclair is one of the largest operators of CBS affiliates, reaching 8% of the US and serving over 8 million households across 23 markets. Sinclair’s CBS affiliates will remain locally available to subscribers of CBS All Access, CBS’ digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, and will continue to be distributed across virtual and traditional multichannel video programming distributor platforms.
“We’re happy to have reached an agreement with Sinclair that includes several early renewals and enables us to continue serving millions of households with leading news, sports and entertainment programming,” said Ray Hopkins, president US networks distribution, ViacomCBS. “Sinclair is a great partner, and we look forward to our continued collaboration.”
Barry Faber, Sinclair’s president of distribution and network relations, added: “We are pleased to extend our affiliations for these stations with ViacomCBS. The CBS Network’s extremely popular sports, entertainment and news programming, together with the high-quality local news and other programming provided by Sinclair, positions these stations to continue to serve as an important marketing platform for advertisers, as well as to generate a growing distribution revenue stream.”
