Media mogul Byron Allen has another new deal on the table.
According to Variety, Allen and his company — Allen Media Group — have agreed to a deal to buy seven TV stations from Gray Television Inc. for $380 million in cash.
Following this deal, Allen will own and operate TV stations in 19 different markets in addition to his other media properties.
“We are thrilled to facilitate the transfer of these fine Quincy television stations to Byron Allen and Allen Media Group, who we are confident will continue the strong commitments to journalism and localism that have distinguished these stations under Quincy’s outstanding stewardship.”
The Allen Media Group will reportedly acquire KVOA in Tucson, AZ; WKOW in Madison, WI; WSIL in Paducah, KY; KWWL in Cedar Rapids, IA; WXOW in La Crosse-Eau Claire, WI; WAOW in Wausau-Rhinelander, WI; and WREX in Rockford, IL.
According to Deadline, the new deal is also set to expand Allen Media’s portfolio to 23 ABC-NBC-CBS-Fox network affiliate broadcast stations across the nation.
Gray Television Inc. shares that it expects sales from the divested stations to close in Q3 of 2021, concurrent with its upcoming purchase of assets from Quincy Media Inc. Gray for $925 million.
“I truly appreciate Gray and Quincy, two of the best broadcast groups in the business, working with us to acquire and transfer these amazing assets. Over the past year-and-a-half, we’ve invested close to $1 billion to acquire best-in-class, top-tier, broadcast network affiliates,” Allen said in a prepared statement. “We plan to invest approximately ten billion dollars to acquire more ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX television stations over the next two years with the goal of being the largest broadcast television group in America. All of our media assets, including these broadcast television stations, will work in concert to amplify our free-streaming service, Local Now.”
For the past year, Allen has been working hard to expand his media empire and to become a staple for Black-owned media outlets.
Most recently, he, Diddy and other Black media conglomerates banded together to call out General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra for being racist and exploiting them for a slim ad budget.