In what could become its latest swing in its hometown market, Atlanta-based television station owner Gray Media would consider acquiring Channel 2 Action News if its parent company were to sell off the property.
Gray Chief Executive Hilton Howell said the company is open to acquiring WSB-TV, a longtime ABC affiliate, which is also the oldest local broadcaster and one with a famed history in Atlanta.
“It’s an option and a possibility,” Howell said.
Howell disclosed his company’s interest during an interview about WANF-TV, its CBS affiliate, which is also known as Atlanta News First, and its transition this summer to being an independent station.
WSB-TV is a station under Cox Media Group, which is owned by parent company Apollo Global Management Inc. Cox Enterprises, which owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, holds a minority stake in CMG.
The asset management firm is reportedly looking to sell CMG, which if it happens, would include its portfolio of local broadcast television and radio stations across several major U.S. markets, according to a report published by Bloomberg in March.
Apollo reportedly prefers to sell the holdings to a buyer that could take on most of the company instead of carving up the channels to multiple parties, according to Bloomberg. Gray and Nexstar Media Group, another major television station owner, were among the potential buyers looking at some or all of the TV stations.
Apollo declined to comment on this story. WSB-TV also declined to comment. Howell and Gray did not respond to a request for further comments Tuesday.
Gray is one of the largest television station owners in the U.S. It has a foothold in 113 television markets across the U.S. reaching about 37% households, according to its most recent quarterly filing. Atlanta is the company’s largest market, where it owns WANF, PeachtreeTV and Telemundo Atlanta.
Acquiring WSB-TV would add the city’s top-rated station to Gray’s portfolio. Stations with higher ratings and household reach are attractive to any media company, particularly in an era of declining traditional television viewership.
Such a move may need to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Under its Local Television Ownership Rule, an entity cannot directly or indirectly own, operate or control two television stations within the same market if both are ranked within the top four based on audience share ratings, or if digital noise limited service contours of the stations do not overlap. A NLSC is a geographic area in which at least 50% of residents can receive the signal a majority of the time.
Earlier this year, the FCC granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to Gray. This move allowed Gray to acquire another station in the Rochester, Minnesota, television market, where it already owns another station. It was the first FCC approval of a new combination of two full-power, top-four ranked, same-market television stations in more than five years, according to a press release from the company.
Gray acquires stations where it believes that it can improve revenue, efficiencies and cash flow through active management and cost controls, according to its most recent quarterly filing. Gray has not hit the limit set by the FCC of television stations a single entity can own, which cannot reach more than 39% of all U.S. TV households.
On Monday, Gray announced its station WANF was ending its affiliation with CBS after 31 years and going independent in August. Atlanta’s new owned-and-operated CBS station will be Channel 69 (WUPA).
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