Media General Broadcasting and Merideth Corporation getting married

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Media General Broadcasting is buying Merideth Corporation. In Connecticut and Western Mass it's going to be interesting.

In the Hartford/New Haven market Merideth owns WFSB Channel 3 the CBS affiliate. MG owns WTNH Channel 8 the ABC affiliate and WCTX Channel 59 the My Network TV affiliate.

In Springfield Merideth owns WGGB Channel 40 the ABC/FOX affiliate. (FOX is on WGGB-DT2). They also own WSHM-LD Channel 21 aka CBS 3. CBS 3 being a low-power station DOES NOT Count towards the ownership cap

In Springfield MG owns WWLP Channel 22 the NBC/CW affiliate plus WFXQ-LD a low-power repeater of WWLP. (The CW is on WWLP DT2/WFXQ DT2)

FROM Radio/TV Blog FYBUSH.COM

Media General, fresh off last year’s merger with LIN, is paying roughly $2.4 billion to acquire Meredith Corp., landing not only Meredith’s 13 TV markets but also its extensive print and digital portfolio of home and lifestyle magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens.

The deal means some big spinoffs in the adjacent Hartford and Springfield markets, where the combination of Media General’s former LIN stations and Meredith’s stations represents nearly all the players.

In Hartford, the new “Meredith Media General” will have to spin either dominant CBS affiliate WFSB (Channel 3) or the New Haven-based duopoly of ABC affiliate WTNH (Channel 8)/My affiliate WCTX (Channel 59).

In Springfield, the deal affects every commercial station in the market: Media General inherited LIN’s long ownership of dominant NBC affiliate WWLP (Channel 22), which also just lit up CW on 22.2; Meredith, of course, recently combined its CBS low-power WSHM-LD (Channel 21) with ABC/Fox affiliate WGGB (Channel 40), and will now have to spin either WWLP or the WGGB/WSHM cluster. (Because WWLP’s Chicopee facility is also a master-control hub for other Media General/ex-LIN stations, it seems likely that WWLP would stay and WGGB/WSHM would be sold, assuming the Justice Department signs off on that.)