ViacomCBS And Sinclair Set Renewals For Eight CBS Affiliates

ViacomCBS and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached multi-year renewals for eight CBS affiliates, covering some 3 million U.S. households.

The group of affiliates includes Salt Lake City and Austin, both top-50 markets. ViacomCBS also renewed the affiliation of WTVH in Syracuse, NY, which Sinclair programs.

Sinclair, the No. 2 owner of local TV stations, is a major operator of CBS affiliates, reaching 8% of the U.S. with those stations, or 8 million households in 23 markets. In addition to linear carriage, the deal includes local availability for Sinclair CBS affiliates to CBS All Access streaming subscribers.

“We’re happy to have reached an agreement with Sinclair that includes several early renewals and enables us to continue serving millions of households with leading news, sports and entertainment programming,” said Ray Hopkins, president of U.S. networks distribution for ViacomCBS. “Sinclair is a great partner, and we look forward to our continued collaboration.”

Barry Faber, Sinclair’s President of Distribution and Network Relations, stated, “We are pleased to extend our affiliations for these stations with ViacomCBS. The CBS Network’s extremely popular sports, entertainment and news programming, together with the high-quality local news and other programming provided by Sinclair, positions these stations to continue to serve as an important marketing platform for advertisers, as well as to generate a growing distribution revenue stream.”

The CBS affiliates included in the deal are KUTV in Salt Lake City, UT; KEYE in Austin, TX; WGME in Portland, ME; WTVH in Syracuse, NY; KGAN in Cedar Rapids, IA; WSBT in South Bend, IN; KRCG in Columbia, MO; KHQA in Quincy, IL; and KTVO in Ottumwa, IA.