Latest in Belo Corp

That was fast. Gannett not only completed the $1.5B (not including debt) deal to buy TV station power Belo — it also announced an agreement to sell St. Louis’ KMOV just a week after it agreed to do so to win Justice Department approval for the transaction. Meredith Corp. will pay about $407.5M for KMOV as well as two…

The TV station deals, both announced over the summer, now are cleared to close. Gannett, which owns 23 stations, will pay $1.5B (not including $715M in debt) to add Belo’s 20 outlets. The owner of USA Today is already the No. 1 owner of NBC affiliates (not including the network-owned group), and will become the No. 1…

Gannett already owns the local NBC station in St. Louis, KSDK. So it isn’t terribly concerned about the Justice Department’s insistence that it unload “substantially all” of the assets at Belo’s local CBS station, KMOV, as a condition to win antitrust approval for its $1.5B acquisition of the TV station power. “The…

UPDATE, 7:50 AM: Gannett has a response for critics who asked the FCC to reject its acquisition plan with Belo. “This transaction is entirely consistent with all FCC rules, policies and precedent, and will bring substantial benefits to the public,” the company says. PREVIOUS, WEDNESDAY PM: The $1.5B deal announced last…

The $1.5B acquisition agreement changed a lot of investors’ minds about how much companies in the sector are worth. Gannett was up 34% to $26.60, the highest it’s been in more than five years and increasing its market value about as much as it will pay for the deal itself. Belo, up 28.3% to $13.77, also hit a…

With this deal, Gannett — which is already the top owner of NBC affiliates — will also have the No. 1 independent CBS station group and become No. 4 for ABC. It will control 43 stations, up from 23, that will reach about a third of the country including 21 of the 25 largest markets. The news has already propelled Belo…

Station groups including Belo, Gray Television, LIN Media, NexStar Broadcasting, and Sinclair Broadcast face a big problem after next year’s elections when the cash from political ads evaporates: Their revenues and cash flow could plummet as they’re forced to turn as much as half of the money they collect from cable…

The partnership involves big names in local TV including Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Hearst, and Media General. They want to enhance TV viewing beginning in early 2012 by offering an app that enables Apple or Android mobile devices to automatically detect what you’re watching. The stations then would feed…