Media General | Richmond Times-Dispatch
The FCC Friday approved Media General’s planned merger with New Young Broadcasting Holding Co. The companies plan to close the deal Nov. 12, a Media General release says.
On Thursday, Media General’s shareholders approved the deal, which was first announced in June. Significantly for the company, the merger means it will soon own WRIC-TV in Richmond, where the company will remain based after the merger. FCC rules once prevented Media General from owning a television station in Richmond, as it used to own the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Media General agreed to sell the Times-Dispatch and most of its newspapers to Warren Buffett in May 2012 and sold the Tampa Tribune, which competes with the Poynter-owned Tampa Bay Times, in October 2012.
The combined company will be called Media General and will own 31 television stations. Rick Edmonds wrote in July about the factors driving a wave of acquisitions in the local-television business. “A windfall in retransmission fees that cable and satellite systems pay to carry the stations is the biggest impetus of all,” Edmonds wrote. “The bigger the local broadcast company, the more leverage it has to keep negotiating these fees upward.”
