TV News
Tegna sells off 2 Dallas TV stations including WFAA to new owners
Two TV stations in Dallas, including WFAA, have a new owner. As part of a $5.4 billion deal announced February 22, five TV stations in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston previously owned by Tegna will be under new ownership.
According to a release, Standard General — a hedge fund founded in 2007 by Soohyung "Soo" Kim and Nicholas Singer — is acquiring Tegna, a media company with 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets.
Once that deal closes, Standard General plans to sell its Dallas, Austin, and Houston stations to Atlanta-based Cox Media Group.
The stations involved in Standard General’s deal with Cox Media Group are:
- WFAA, the ABC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, and KMPX, the Estrella affiliate in DFW
- KVUE, the ABC affiliate in Austin
- 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 properties are stations in Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.
Cox Media Group president and CEO Dan York says in a statement that acquiring the Dallas, Austin, and Houston stations complements the company's existing 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.
The Omni Dallas Hotel is channeling Rockefeller Center with its ice rink this season.
Photo courtesy of Omni Dallas Hotel