Nexstar CEO On CBS Stations – Can’t Buy Them Under Current Regulatory Regime “But If That Were To Change, Maybe Our Opinion Would Change”
deadline.comWith Paramount Global and its assets currently in play, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook was asked on a call today if the nation’s biggest broadcast might look at CBS stations. “Obviously, given our station footprint, the digestion of CBS station assets would be a tough nut, particularly under this regulatory environment and regime,” he said on a call after quarterly earnings. “If that were to change, maybe our opinion would change.
But that certainly would have to happen, I think, for anyone to have confidence they could pursue a complicated regulatory transaction in the current environment.” Regulators could be a headache as well for Sony and Apollo in their preliminary $26 billion joint bid for Paramount.
It would see two more Hollywood studios merging. Sony can’t own U.S. broadcast assets under FCC rules. Apollo can, but it already owns stations and might run up against the current ownership cap – an issue that already scuttled one big deal it was part of, for Tegna, last year.
Nexstar, parent of the CW, is a big company with a hefty market cap of $5.8 billion and an enterprise value of about $12 billion, cash on hand and low debt.
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