Your Local TV Station Might Be Up for Sale

There’s a major shift rocking local TV.

Six years after it began expanding into the TV station business, growing to become one of the largest independent privately held owners of Big 4 network affiliated stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group (AMG) is putting its broadcast TV stations up for sale.

The company announced earlier in June that it has hired investment bank Moelis & Co. to sell its broadcast TV stations. Over the years, the company has invested more than $1 billion to amass a total of 28 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX affiliated television stations in 21 U.S. markets, including in Honolulu, Hawaii; Madison, Wisconsin; Montgomery, Alabama; Flint, Michigan; and Tucson, Arizona, among others.

“Six years ago, Allen Media Group began the process of investing over one billion dollars to acquire big four network-affiliated television stations. We have received numerous inquiries and written offers for most of our television stations and now is the time to explore getting a return on this phenomenal investment,” Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group, said. “We are going to use this opportunity to take a serious look at the offers, and the sale proceeds will be used to significantly reduce our debt.”

The news comes a little over a year after the company revealed it would undergo layoffs. At the time, a representative for the company told The Hollywood Reporter that “Allen Media Group is making strategic changes to better position the company for growth that will result in expense and workforce reductions across all divisions of the company.”

In February, per Bloomberg Law News, it refinanced a $100 million revolving credit facility in an effort to extend its debt maturities to 2027.

The exploration of sales, meanwhile, comes as other companies have put up stations for sale, Apollo Global Management reportedly exploring a sale of its Cox Media Group portfolio of TV and radio stations. CNBC also previously reported that Sinclair was exploring the sale of more than 30% of its stations. The company reportedly hired Moelis & Co. to assist the sale.

Addressing the current state of broadcast TV and the number of sales, Lloyd Greif, CEO of the investment banking firm Greif & Co, told The Wrap, “Nobody wants to be the last man standing when it comes to TV stations and linear TV. Between cord-cutting and declining advertising revenues, it’s hard to see the value actually appreciate versus depreciate over time here. Unless you have a clear plan to continue to consolidate operations and try and pool resources, one would think that cost saving synergies have already been captured. The longer you hold them, the lower your return becomes.”