06 May Byron Allen Acquires Four Bayou City Broadcasting Stations For $165M

by Patrick Hipes

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Broadcasting has acquired the Bayou City Broadcasting Evansville and Bayou City Broadcasting Lafayette station groups for $165 million, adding a total of four network-affiliate stations to Allen’s growing TV portfolio.

The deal unveiled Monday for Allen’s first broadcast stations encompasses WEVV (a CBS affiliate) and WEEV (Fox) in Evansville, IN, and KLAF (NBC) and KADN (Fox) in Lafayette, LA. It comes after Friday’s news that Allen is part of the ownership group involved in Sinclair Broadcast Group’s $10.6 billion deal to acquire Disney’s 21 regional sports networks.

Allen’s TV unit last year acquired The Weather Channel, the latest of the company’s nine 24-hour HD television networks that serve almost 160 million subscribers. Additionally, it runs The Weather Channel’s streaming service Local Now.

Said McCoy: “Byron Allen is a visionary, and a brilliant entrepreneur who always gets it done. Byron Allen’s companies, which exemplify excellence, are perfectly positioned to continue the strong tradition these stations have in serving their communities.”

Allen’s Entertainment Studios divisions now include broadcast TV syndication, production and distribution of 43 shows; movie production, acquisition and global distribution; digital movie acquisition and distribution; and global news publishing.