TV/Radio Dollar Volume Deal-Making Down In Q2

• by Wayne Friedman , July 9, 2014

TV/radio station deal-making slowed down for the second quarter of 2014 -- partly as a result of new Federal Communications Commission rule-making.

Mergers and acquisition value dropped to $1.85 billion in the second quarter of 2014 -- down 52% from the $3.88 billion level in the second quarter of 2013, according to SNL Kagan.

A total of 613 stations were traded in the first half of 2014 -- 449 radio stations and 164 TV stations. The average TV station price was $46.5 million; the price was $2.3 million for the average radio station. TV deals totaled $1.33 billion in the period and radio deals totaled $518.6 million.

Over the last year or so, major billion-dollar TV group deals were made by a number of big TV groups, including Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gannett Co. and Tribune.

The largest TV deal in the second quarter of 2014 came when 21st Century Fox, traded its owned-and-operated outlets in Boston and Memphis for two Cox Enterprises San Francisco stations -- a Fox affiliate and an independent station. SNL valued this deal at $429.7 million.

The top radio deal: Four FM stations going for $105.0 million to Steel City Media from Wilks Broadcast Group.

The FCC recently instituted rules restricting/eliminating TV station activities where one station’s sales team sells advertising time for another in what is known as a joint sales agreement (JSA).