Nexstar to Sell KFTA For $5.6 Million

Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. of Irving, Texas, announced on April 19 that it has filed with the Federal Communications Commission to sell KFTA-TV, Channel 24, in Fort Smith to Mission Broadcasting Inc. of Becksville, Ohio, for $5.6 million.

Nexstar said that if the deal goes through, Mission will make the station a Fox Broadcasting affiliate.

Mission also plans to enter a joint sales and shared services agreement with Nexstar’s KNWA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Northwest Arkansas. Under that arrangement, KNWA would provide local news, sales and other nonprogramming services to KFTA.

Nexstar bought KPOM/KFAA, Channels 24/51, from JDG Television Inc. of Muskogee, Okla., in 2004 for $17 million. Nexstar changed the two stations call letters to KFTA/KNWA. KNWA broadcasts from Fayetteville, and KFTA carried the signal in Fort Smith.

“If approved, the sale of KFTA to Mission will provide viewers …with a full-power Fox station as well as the market’s first prime-time local newscast,” said Perry A. Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Broadcasting Group.

Nexstar said it has time brokerage agreements, shared services agreements and joint sales agreements with other television stations owned by Mission but that it does not own an equity interest in the company.

Nexstar owns, operates, programs or provides sales and other services to 46 television stations in 27 states (including KARK-TV, Channel 4, in Little Rock). The station group includes affiliates of NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and UPN and reaches about 7 percent of U.S. television households.

Mission Broadcasting owns and operates 14 television stations throughout the U.S. in small and mid-sized markets. The private company reported $36.5 million in revenue in 2004.