Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group acquires seven stations from Gray TV for $380M
"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," Byron Allen said in a statement.
Byron Allen is making more mogul moves. His Allen Media Group is set to buy seven stations from Gray TV for $380M, it was announced by both parties on Thursday.
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Allen Media will acquire the stations as part of a divestment Gray was mandated to do once they acquired the assets of Quincy Media Inc., per Variety. The all-cash deal is for stations KVOA in Tucson, Arizona; WKOW in Madison, Wisconsin; WSIL in Paducah Kentucky; KWWL in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; WXOW in La Crosse, Wisconsin; WAOW in Wasau and Rhinelander Wisconsin; and WREX in Rockford, Illinois.
It is expected that the deal will officially close in the third quarter.
“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 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.”
Allen, who also owns multiple other media properties, including theGrio and The Weather Channel, says that he wants to ultimately own CNN. As reported by theGrio, the CEO and chairman of Allen Media Group says that he’s on the path to do so.
“I’d love to own CNN,” Allen said. “But I have to buy AT&T to do that. And I will. Believe me, I think about it every day.”
Allen is using his success to benefit other Black-owned media companies. Earlier this month, per theGrio, he announced he was partnering with Verizon for a media summit to increase advertising buys for Black media which typically gets scraps in terms of advertising dollars. The summit will take place in May.
It happened after Allen, along with several other Black media executives, called out General Motors CEO Mary Barra via a full-page newspaper ad about the company’s lack of advertising support for Black-owned businesses, despite the fact that African-Americans are a large part of their business. GM owns Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC, among other international brands.
GM ultimately pledged to increase their advertising support for Black-owned media companies. The summit intends to link more advertisers with representatives from Black-owned media companies.
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“I’m very proud of Verizon, one of the largest advertisers in the world, coming to the table to make sure we have real economic inclusion for Black-owned media,” Allen told Deadline. “The biggest trade deficit in our nation is the trade deficit between corporate America and Black America, and we must close that gap immediately.”
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