Breaking! Gray to Buy Raycom

Here we go again....

Gray Television says that it has a greed to a deal to buy Raycom Media in a worth just over $3.6 billion dollars. 

Gray and Raycom mostly own small to mid-market stations, but this deal will turn Gray television into a major player. 

If the merger goes through it will mean that Gray will have 142 television stations in 92 markets, placing it only behind Sinclair and Nexstar when it comes to size. 

While this merger is huge, it is nowhere close to the size of the Sinclair/Tribune deal. After the merger, Gray will still only reach about 25% of U.S. television households. This is far below the almost 70% that Sinclair is expected to reach. 

The biggest markets for the Gray/Raycom deal will be Tampa, Cleveland, and Charlotte. 

While this involves a lot of stations, getting FCC approval for this deal should and will be much easier for Gray than it is for Sinclair. 

There is overlap in only 9 markets and Gray has already decided which stations in those markets will be divested.

Here is a look at those stations and markets where they will need to divest: 

Market (Rank)  Retained Station   Divested Station
Knoxville (61)    WLVT (CBS)          WTVZ (Fox)
Toledo (78)       WTVG (ABC)         WTOL (CBS)
Waco (86)         KWTX (CBS)          KXXV (ABC)
Tallahassee       WCTV (CBS)           WTXL (ABC)
Augusta (112)    WRDW (CBS)         WFXG (Fox)
Odessa (144)     KOSA (CBS)          KWES (NBC)
Panama City     WJHG (ABC)         WPGX (Fox)
Albany (154)     WANB (ABC)        WSWG (CBS)
Dothan (173)    WTVY (CBS)          WDFX (Fox)

---