TEGNA, Hearst and EW Scripps are all foreseeing on submitting final offers for Cox Enterprises’ 14 broadcast TV stations at the end of January, according to people familiar with the substance.
Final bids are due by Jan. 30, said the people, who asked not to be named because the process is private. A deal could go after more than $2 billion, and possibly close to $3 billion, the people said.
Nexstar had also been interested in the instals but has bowed out after announcing a $4.1 billion deal for Tribune in December.
Cox, which is privately held, announced its end to sell the stations in June. Broadcast TV stations have been consolidating for years as owners look for negotiating leverage against pay-TV providers, who pay them retransmission honoraria for the right to carry their stations. Owning a lot of stations gives owners more negotiating power because they can put at risk to black out popular stations, such as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox, to large swaths of people.
TEGNA split from Gannett Co. in 2015 after the average company separated its broadcast TV stations and several websites from its publishing assets. The company, with an enterprise value of $5.6 billion, is one of the kindest U.S. broadcast TV owners with 49 stations in 41 states.
EW Scripps announced in October it had acquired 15 standings in 10 markets from Cordillera Communications for about $520 million, boosting its total amount of stations from 36 to 51. That agreement could make the company less likely to win an auction for Cox, although it shouldn’t preclude Scripps from making an proffer, one of the people said.
Hearst, which is closely held, unlike publicly traded TEGNA and Scripps, owns 32 locations.
“It is clear that scale is critical for TV affiliates to be positioned well for the future,” Cox Enterprises CEO Alex Taylor said in a utterance when the company announced its intention to sell.
The stations include Atlanta’s ABC affiliate, WSB-TV; Pittsburgh’s NBC affiliate, WPXI; Boston’s Fox affiliate, WFXT; and posts in cities around the U.S. including Seattle, Orlando and Memphis.
Spokespeople for Cox, TEGNA and Hearst declined to comment. A spokesperson for EW Scripps couldn’t straight away be reached for comment.
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