Emmis Communications will sell nine of its 16 television stations in transactions worth $681 million. The Indianapolis-based company announced earlier this year that it was weighing whether its money could be more profitably invested outside terrestrial TV broadcasting.
The largest of the deals has Emmis selling five stations to Providence, R.I.-based LIN TV for $260 million, the Associated Press reported. They are: WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, IN; WALA-TV and WBPG-TV in Mobile, AL, and Pensacola, FL; WLUK-TV in Green Bay, WI, and KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, NM.
Emmis will sell three stations — WFTX-TV in Fort Myers, FL; KMTV-TV in Omaha, NE; and KGUN-TV in Tucson, AZ.— to Milwaukee-based Journal Communications for $235 million. Gray Television, of Atlanta, will buy WSAZ-TV in Huntington/Charleston, WV, from Emmis for $186 million.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the sale signals that Emmis is likely to buy more radio stations.
