History
Local TV was created in December 2006, after Oak Hill Capital entered into an agreement with The New York Times Company to purchase nine local network-affiliated television stations; on May 7, 2007, the sale was completed as one part of a larger sale of the New York Times Company's Broadcast Media Group "for approximately $575 million." At 12:01 a.m., Local TV assumed ownership of the nine television stations, located in "eight mid-sized markets."
On December 21, 2007, Tribune Company and Local TV agreed to form a "broadcast management company" to provide management services to both Tribune Company's and Local TV's stations. Also as part of the agreement, the websites for Local TV's stations were transitioned to a platform developed and managed by Tribune Interactive. The next day, December 22, 2007, Local TV announced plans to acquire eight Fox owned-and-operated stations from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, completing that sale on July 14, 2008.
On January 6, 2009, Raycom Media announced that it would acquire the Fox affiliate (and former O&O) WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama from Local TV, in exchange for its CBS affiliate WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia and an undisclosed cash amount (revealed to be $85 million in an FCC filing). Raycom was required to divest WTVR as a condition of its purchase of Lincoln Financial Media's stations (which included Richmond's NBC station WWBT), as Richmond did not have enough stations to legally permit a duopoly. Raycom was previously blocked from selling WTVR to Sinclair Broadcast Group. The swap also benefited Raycom, as it is based in, and already has a strong media presence in the state of Alabama.
On June 14, 2010, CBS Corporation announced that it would sell its CW station WGNT in Hampton Roads to Local TV; the station's operations would be consolidated with Local TV's existing CBS affiliate WTKR.
Read more about this topic: Local TV
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Look through the whole history of countries professing the Romish religion, and you will uniformly find the leaven of this besetting and accursed principle of action—that the end will sanction any means.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)