EXCLUSIVE! Is Sinclair and Fox Television Planning a Backroom Deal?

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A number of sources have told FTVLive that it appears that Sinclair and Fox Television maybe working on a backroom deal that could have some soon to be Sinclair stations ending up in the hands of Fox. 

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Sinclair owns a number of Fox affiliates and will own even more when the Tribune deal is approved. 

Many of those stations have affiliate agreements coming up and Fox made some noise about pulling those affiliations and moving them to different stations in the market. 

Now, sources are telling FTVLive that Sinclair and Fox are looking to make a deal where Fox will keep renew their affiliation agreements with Sinclair, but that Sinclair will agree to sell some of their Fox stations to Fox. 

The stations Fox is looking to buy are in NFL markets.

So, that means after the Tribune deal goes through, stations like KCPQ (currently owned by Tribune) in Seattle will be turned around and sold by Sinclair to Fox. Same thing could happen in Denver, St. Louis, Kansas City and Indianapolis. 

Fox's goal is to own the Fox stations in the NFL markets.

One source tells FTVLive that Fox might trade WOFL in Orlando to Sinclair as part of the deal. Other trades may happen as well. 

Sinclair wants duopolies and now that the FCC is relaxing ownership rules and they pull of this deal with Fox, it will give them space and money to try and buy up more stations to help them fill their duopoly goal. 

But, Sinclair also wants top 20 markets for their ATSC plan, that means they will really have to think before selling off top market Fox stations to Fox. 

Look for this to happen soon after Sinclair gets the OK to takeover Tribune.

Stay tuned....