Entravision Communications entered into an agreement with OTA Broadcasting to acquire stations KMIR-TV, an NBC affiliate, and KPSE-LD, a MyNetworkTV affiliate, serving Palm Springs, California.
Entravision is paying $21 million for the stations and is expecting the transaction to represent a purchase price multiple of less than 6.5 times expected blended 2016-2017 pro forma broadcast cash flow. Entravision plans to fund the deal with proceeds from the FCC broadcast incentive auction. The company expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2017.
“Palm Springs is a growing and vibrant market that we know very well and have served for more than 20 years. Our existing television and radio assets located in the market have helped us build strong relationships with the Palm Springs community and our local news programming, ‘Noticias Ya,’ is highly rated,” said Walter Ulloa, chairman and CEO of Entravision, in a statement. “We are excited to add KMIR’s impactful and significant local news presence to our portfolio in Palm Springs. This is a strategic transaction that is extremely attractive on a financial basis, allowing us to broaden the services we provide the Palm Springs market and positions us to continue to build on the success of KMIR and KPSE.”
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Entravision currently owns and operates the UniMas and Univision affiliated television stations (KVER-CD, KEVC-CD, and KVES-LD) and 94.7 FM Jose and 103.5 FM Tricolor radio stations (KLOB-FM and KPST-FM) serving the Palm Springs market.
Entravision has 56 primary television stations and is the largest affiliate group of both the Univision and UniMas television networks.
For OTA Broadcasting, the sale marks the continued cash out of its stable of TV stations. In the broadcast incentive auctions, Dell CEO Michael Dell was able to turn around his investments in small broadcast TV stations for a sizable profit, as his investment arm OTA Broadcasting sold 10 broadcast licenses for $440 million after years earlier spending $90 million to buy 24 stations, according to The Wall Street Journal.