Nexstar To Buy 4 North Dakota CBS Stations for $44 Million

Nexstar Broadcasting reached a $44 million deal with Reiten Television to buy four CBS-affiliated TV stations serving the same western North Dakota designated market area, Nexstar said in a news release Thursday. Nexstar will also provide sales and other services to two ABC-affiliated stations owned by Forum Communications in the same DMA, taking over a shared services agreement with Reiten. The deal will increase Nexstar’s portfolio of stations that it “owns, operates, programs or to which it provides sales and other services” to 114 television stations in 59 markets, reaching 18 percent of all U.S. TV households, the release said. “The Western North Dakota market is a natural complement to our existing operations in the Upper Midwest region of the United States,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said in the release. The deal is expected to close in late 2015 or early 2016, the release said. Nexstar also announced in a separate release that it opened a new $3 million, 15,000 square-foot broadcasting and news facility in Roanoke, Virginia, to support its stations WFXR Roanoke and WWCW Lynchburg and its website VirginiaFirst.com. The building includes “a dynamic news studio outfitted with the latest HD news production resources and technologies,” and enhanced meteorological equipment, Nexstar said. Along with the facility, Nexstar expanded its local news operation and added new newscasts and 30 news and production jobs, the release said.