NBCUniversal’s Telemundo Station Group is buying 13 television stations from ZGS Communications.
ZGS is a Telemundo affiliate operating stations in Washington, D.C., Richmond, Hartford, Springfield, Providence, Fort Myers, Tampa, Orlando, Melbourne, Kissimmee, Raleigh, El Paso and Las Cruces. Telemundo and ZGS are jointly filing with the FCC to gain approval for the deal. The first markets they are focusing on are El Paso, Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Myers, Richmond and Springfield markets.
“Ronald Gordon, Eduardo Zavala and the ZGS stations have long been an important part of Telemundo’s success. We deeply value our long term partnership,” said Valari Staab, president of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, in a statement.
“Eduardo and I are very excited about this transaction because our stations and teams are finding the perfect home to continue growing and serving the Hispanic community, which has been our mission and privilege for the past 35 years,” said Gordon, chairman and CEO of ZGS Communications, in a statement.
RELATED: Comcast CFO: NBC's retrans growth should match CBS's trajectory
For NBC, Telemundo factors largely in not only the media company’s anticipated retrans growth but also in long-term advertising growth.
Speaking yesterday at a UBS investors’ conference, Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh said Telemundo is part of NBC’s bigger advertising reach picture that also includes the NBC broadcast network and NBCUniversal’s cable networks.
“When you actually put the quality behind that, NBC has just finished the 2016-2017 season as #1 in prime time for the fourth year in a row. And we are #1 again. We have got big nights in ‘18. We’ve got the Olympics. We’ve got the Super Bowl. We’ve got, on Telemundo, Spanish-language World Cup. Telemundo itself, won weekday prime, the season this year. So there’s that,” said Cavanagh according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.