The Hartford and Springfield Meredith TV stations have extended their partnership with CBS network through 2020.
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange filing, http://ir.meredith.com/sec.cfm Meredith’s WFSB-TV, which is located in Rocky Hill, and WSHM 3 in Springfield, have renewed their affiliate agreements with CBS through June 2020.
Meredith, even though it doesn’t have a station in New Haven, is impacting a deal to sell Channel 8 WTNH. Media General, the parent company of WTNH, confirmed that it has reached a sales price agreement to sell itself to Nexstar Broadcasting Group, but an industry expert says the deal is thick with complications.
Rich Hanley, associate professor of journalism in the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, said Nexstar can’t complete the deal until Media General legally terminates its agreement to buy Meredith even though that agreement collapsed last year.
Meredith operates in Springfield in a joint news-gathering collaboration called Western Mass News in conjunction with ABC 40 and FOX 6, according to MassLive.com. Meredith Corp. – which has owned CBS 3 Springfield, since 2003 – purchased WGGB from Gormally Broadcasting for $53.8 million in late 2014.
