(MORE)SALT LAKE CITY -- The top-rated Utah television station has been sold. Salt Lake City-based KUTV, its sister station KMYU and five other stations have been sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Sinclair has agreed to pay $200 million for the seven stations that comprise the Four Points Media group. The other stations in the Four Points group are in Texas, Florida and Rhode Island. KUTV Vice President and General Manager Steve Carlston confirmed the sale to The Associated Press.
The deal is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission. Carlston says the sale should close in early 2012.
A CBS affiliate, KUTV has held the top spot in the Utah market for nearly one year despite having a smaller staff than some other stations.
The Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) is the operator of the largest number of local television stations in the United States with a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and the Midwest. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be received by 24 percent of American households. SBG is known to be very conservative in its views.
What does this mean to local viewers? Probably not much, at least initially. I expect that KUTV 2.1 CBS will see very little, if any, changes. KMYU 2.2 Is an affiliate of both ThisTV and MyNetworkTV, and will probably remain mostly unchanged, but could see more programming from ThisTV and a reduction in MyNetworkTV programming. Personally, I would prefer KMYU 2.2 to show more ThisTV programming, since ThisTV is 24/7 movies, and MyNetworkTV is mostly syndicated programming. Currently, KMYU shows ThisTV movies only on weekday mornings and weekends.
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