NERW Update: Meredith deal ends, Nexstar to buy Media General

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Now that Media General has withdrawn from its plans to acquire Meredith, rival broadcast group Nexstar has stepped in with a $2.1 billion deal to acquire Media General, creating one of the biggest TV station groups in the country.

Here’s a quick look at how the Nexstar/Media General deal, if it’s completed, will reshape the TV landscape in NERW-land:

In upstate NEW YORK, Nexstar is already a dominant player with the former Clear Channel/Newport stations in Syracuse (WSYR-TV), Elmira (WETM), Binghamton (WIVT/WBGH-LP), Watertown (WWTI) and Utica (WUTR/WFXV), along with Rochester CBS affiliate WROC-TV and Burlington/Plattsburgh’s WVNY/WFFF.

To those stations, Media General adds Buffalo’s WIVB/WNLO (by way of its earlier acquisition of LIN) and Albany’s WTEN/WXXA,, creating the first station group that will cover every one of upstate New York’s TV markets, a goal Clear Channel never quite achieved.

In western MASSACHUSETTS, Nexstar gets Media General’s dominant NBC affiliate, WWLP, which competes with Meredith’s recently-combined WGGB/WSHM-LD.

In CONNECTICUT, Nexstar also enters new territory with former LIN stations WTNH/WCTX in New Haven/Hartford, competing against Meredith’s WFSB.

In RHODE ISLAND, Nexstar gets WPRI/WNAC-TV (ABC/Fox), another new market for the group.

And in PENNSYLVANIA, Nexstar just exited the Harrisburg market with the spinoff of CW affiliate WLYH (Channel 15) to Howard Stirk Holdings; now it re-enters with ABC affiliate WHTM (Channel 27), which Media General recently picked up from Sinclair. Nexstar already has Pennsylvania outlets in Erie (WJET-TV/WFXP), Altoona (WTAJ) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBRE/WYOU-TV).