Media moves
Austin TV station switches to new owner as part of $5.4 billion deal
Tegna’s TV stations in Austin, Dallas, and Houston soon will be under new ownership.
As part of a $5.4 billion deal announced Tuesday, February 22, investment firm Standard General will purchase Tegna, which owns 64 TV stations. But once that deal closes, Standard General plans to sell its Austin, Dallas, and Houston stations to Atlanta-based Cox Media Group.
The stations involved in Standard General’s deal with Cox Media Group are:
- KVUE, the ABC affiliate in Austin.
- WFAA, the ABC affiliate in Dallas, and KMPX, the Estrella affiliate in Dallas.
- KHOU, the CBS affiliate in Houston, and KTBU, the Quest affiliate in Houston.
Those five stations will be Cox Media Group’s only TV stations in Texas. Among its current lineup of 33 TV stations are stations in Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.
In a news release, Dan York, president and CEO of Cox Media Group, says acquiring the Austin, Dallas, and Houston stations complements the company’s “exiting core strengths.”
In 2015, media giant Gannett announced the spinoff of its TV stations as a new company called Tegna.
In an interesting twist, Gannett now owns the Austin American-Statesman, which Cox sold in 2018 to GateHouse Media. A year later, Gannett merged with GateHouse, with the combined company retaining the Gannett name.
