Gray Picks Up Saginaw’s WNEM in $2.7B Meredith Acquisition, Will Sell Flint’s WJRT

Gray will become the United States’ second largest television broadcast group when it acquires 17 Meredith stations, including WNEM-TV (Saginaw) in a $2.7 billion deal announced in a press release on Monday (5/3).

Gray currently operates WJRT-TV (Flint), which shares in the DMA 73 market with Saginaw’s WNEM. To facilitate regulatory approvals for this transaction, Gray will divest its Flint station to an independent third-party no later than the closing of the Meredith acquisition.

Flint-Saginaw was the only local market in which Gray already operated among the 17 newly purchased stations across 12 television markets in 11 states, which include:

• WGCL (CBS) / WPCH (Independent), Atlanta, Georgia (DMA 7)
• KPHO (CBS) / KTVK (Independent), Phoenix, Arizona (DMA 11)
• KPTV (FOX) / KPDX (MyNetwork), Portland, Oregon (DMA 21)
• KMOV (CBS), St. Louis, Missouri (DMA 23)
• WSMV (NBC), Nashville, Tennessee (DMA 29)
• WFSB (CBS), Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut (DMA 32)
• KCTV (CBS) / KSMO (MyNetwork), Kansas City, Missouri, (DMA 34)
• WHNS (FOX), Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina (DMA 35)
• KVVU (FOX), Las Vegas, Nevada (DMA 40)
• WALA (FOX), Mobile, Alabama (DMA 57)
• WNEM (CBS), Flint-Saginaw, Michigan (DMA 73)
• WGGB (ABC & FOX) / WSHM-LD (CBS), Springfield, Massachusetts (DMA 116)

“The television station portfolios, company cultures, and commitments to localism of Gray and Meredith are highly complementary,” Gray’s Executive Chairman and CEO Hilton H. Howell said. “We are very excited to acquire Meredith’s excellent television stations, and we look forward to welcoming its employees into the Gray family. Moreover, Gray’s Board and shareholders are deeply appreciative of the tireless efforts of our team led by Kevin Latek and Jim Ryan on this transaction and our other recently announced significant transactions. Building on our successes throughout 2020 and just the first few months of 2021, Gray Television clearly has an even stronger and brighter future than ever!”

Gray’s other Michigan stations include WILX-TV (Lansing) and WLUC-TV (Marquette).