Nexstar

Essentially the most aggressive broadcaster with regard to M&A, Nexstar Media Group, has caught its title within the hat for the eight ABC owned-and-operated stations, ought to Disney make good on hints remodeled the summer season and put them up on the market.

Tom Carter, a longtime Nexstar govt now serving as a senior advisor to CEO Perry Sook, stated Wednesday that the stations could possibly be bought by Nexstar with “little friction.” He stated this whereas talking in New York on the BofA Securities Media, Communications and Leisure Convention, an occasion coated by the Penske showbiz trades.

“We predict there could possibly be some alternatives relying on how issues fall out,” Carter stated.

Disney CEO Bob Iger spurred the pursuits of not solely Nexstar, but additionally myriad non-public fairness issues over the summer season when he stated the stations “might not be core” to Disney’s future.

Irvine, Texas-based Nexstar has swelled its holdings to greater than 160 stations by making not less than 40 acquisitions during the last decade, together with Tribune and Media Common.

Requested concerning the FCC’s 39% market possession cap, Carter acknowledged that Nexstar is already over that restrict. However the ABC O&Os would not change the maths that a lot.

“ABC’s portfolio of stations is modest,” he stated. “It’s solely eight, largely within the prime 10 markets. We’re in eight of the highest 10 markets already with a CW station. We might purchase a second station in that market and never improve our family footprint. There could also be a number of stations that may require divestiture of both a Nexstar station or an ABC station, however we might onboard these with comparatively little friction.”

In the meantime, requested about an deadlock with DirecTV that has stored Nexstar stations off the pay TV operator’s platforms since early July, Carter stated not a lot speaking was performed over the summer season, however that has modified just lately.

“Progress has been made,” he stated. “We’re not going to do a foul deal. However our expectation is that we’re going to achieve an settlement in some unspecified time in the future, hopefully sooner fairly than later, as a result of everybody agrees that it’s not in anybody’s finest curiosity to alienate the patron.”

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