Telemundo Station Group

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Telemundo Station Group
Company typeDivision
IndustryBroadcast television
ParentNBCUniversal Local
(NBCUniversal TV and Streaming)
Divisions
Websitetogether.nbcuni.com/n/telemundo-station-group/

Telemundo Station Group is the division of NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations (NBCUniversal), a subsidiary of Comcast that oversees their Telemundo owned-and-operated television stations and the TeleXitos network. The NBC owned-and-operated stations are held in the separate NBC Owned Television Stations division.

History[edit]

Telemundo was formed as NetSpan in 1984 by the owners of WNJU in Linden, New Jersey (serving the New York City area) and KSTS in San Jose, California. These stations joined KVEA in Los Angeles in 1985.[1] The following year, KVEA's part-owner, Reliance Group Holdings, purchased John Blair & Co., which owned WKAQ-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico, branded on air as Telemundo, and WSCV in Fort LauderdaleMiami-West Palm Beach. In late 1986, Reliance took control over WNJU and KSTS.

In 1987, Reliance merged all these stations into the Telemundo Group.[2] The new corporation quickly went public, and in 1987, Reliance decided to rebrand NetSpan as Telemundo. It then established KTMD in Houston and KVDA in San Antonio.

On November 9, 1995, Ensaness Communications sold a 74.5% controlling interest in WSNS-TV in Chicago to Telemundo for $44.7 million, with Essaness retaining a 25.5% stake.[3] Essaness would later sell its stake in the partnership to Telemundo in 2003.

In 1997, Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment purchased a majority interest in Telemundo from Reliance Capital Group.[4] NBC would then purchase Telemundo from Sony and Liberty Media in 2001.[5] Telemundo in 2001 would also acquire KXTX-TV in Dallas.[6]

In April 2002, NBC bought then Holbrook, Arizona station KPHZ (now KTAZ) and its translators un Phoenix, Arizona (KPHZ-LP and KPSW-LP) from Venture Technologies Group for $7,5 million.[7] It was finalized on September 26, 2002.[8] In 2005, NBC/Telemundo successfully got FCC approval to swap licenses with the Daystar Network's owned KDTP: the KPHZ license moved from Holbrook to Phoenix, broadcasting on channel 39. Daystar's KDTP license then moved from Phoenix to Holbrook, broadcasting on channel 11. These changes were completed in 2006.[9]

In September 2002, NBC agreed to acquire WPXB in the Boston area from Paxson Communications, with the intention of making it a Telemundo owned-and-operated station.[10][11] Paxson, which was in the process of selling some of its stations in order to raise $100 million, had originally planned to sell WPXB to another company, but NBC had a right of first refusal on Paxson's stations in the fifty largest markets,[12] which it had obtained when it acquired a 32 percent stake in Paxson in 1999.[13] NBC completed its purchase of WPXB on October 29, 2002;[14] two days later, the call letters were changed to WNEU.

On October 8, 2002, NBC announced that it would acquire three Telemundo affiliates: KHRR (in Tucson) and KDRX-CA (in Phoenix) from Television Apogeo, and KNSO (in Fresno) from Sainte Partners II, L.P.[15] The sale of Arizona stations were completed on January 1, 2003;[16][17] while the acquisition of the Telemundo-affiliate in Fresno was completed on April 30, 2003.[18]

On February 23, 2005, NBC bought Telemundo affiliate KBLR for $32.1 million.[19][20] The sale was completed on May 24, 2005.[21]

In January 2006, NBCUniversal agreed to buy Denver's KDEN-TV from Longmont Broadcasting.[22] The acquisition was completed on July 13.[23] In November, NBCUniversal agreed to donate Steamboat Springs' KMAS-TV (who was the main Telemundo affiliate for Denver before NBC's acquisition of KDEN) to Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network.[24] The donation was completed on July 26, 2007.[25]

On January 26, 2011, NBCUniversal announced the sale of its Spanish-language independent station KWHY-TV to the Meruelo Group due to its pending merger with Comcast.[26] The sale was completed on July 1.[27]

On March 21, 2013, NBCUniversal entered into an agreement to acquire WWSI from ZGS Communications for $20 million. Prior to the sale agreement, WWSI had been the largest station (in terms of market size) aligned with Telemundo that was not an owned-and-operated station of the network. The deal created a duopoly with NBC-owned Philadelphia station WCAU.[28] The sale was completed on July 2.[29]

In July 2013, NBC Owned Television Stations and Telemundo's owned stations were brought together under a newly formed division, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, under NBC TV Station president Valari Staab.[30]

In 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it was hiring people for NBC-owned KNSD in San Diego with the intention of launching a new Telemundo-owned station in the area, replacing Tijuana, Mexico-licensed station XHAS-TDT (whose affiliation expired at the end of June 2017). The new Telemundo affiliate, branded as "Telemundo 20", launched on July 1 on KNSD's digital 39.20 subchannel. On September 12, 2017, NBCUniversal acquired KUAN-LD from NRJ TV, LLC, to serve as San Diego's Telemundo station instead;[31] the sale was completed on December 21, 2017.[32]

On December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal announced its purchase of ZGS Communications's ten Spanish-language television stations.[33] The sale was completed in early 2018.[34] Two of the stations (WRIW-CD and WZGS-CD) were filed separately, as ZGS were negotiating channel sharing agreements at the time of the sale. Those sales were completed in July 2018.[35][36]

On March 5, 2019, KCSO-LD in Sacramento, California and KTMW in Salt Lake City (and their respective repeater stations) were acquired from Serestar Communications.[37]

On July 30, 2021 NBCUniversal announced it was buying Albuquerque, New Mexico Telemundo affiliate KASA-TV and its repeater stations for $12.5 million dollars. In the short term NBC announced it was entering a transitional services agreement Gray Television, which had purchased Fox affiliate KJTV-TV and other Ramar television assets in Lubbock, Texas earlier in 2021. The deal will give NBCU Telemundo station group 31 stations and marks the end of 23 years of Ramar's ownership of the Telemundo affiliation in the city.[38]

Stations[edit]

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)
Owned since Secondary owned
networks[39]
Phoenix KTAZ 39 (29) 2002 TeleX, Cozi, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Tucson, Arizona KHRR 40 (16) 2003 TeleX, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Fresno, California KNSO 51 (27) 2003 TeleX, Cozi, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Corona/Los Angeles KVEA[n1 1] 52 (25) 1985 TeleX
Sacramento, California KCSO-LD[n1 2] 33 (3) 2019 TeleX, theGrio, NBC LX Home
KMUM-CD[n1 2]
(Repeater of KCSO-LD)
33 (31) 2019
KMMW-LD[n1 2]
(Repeater of KCSO-LD)
33 (14) 2019
Poway/San Diego KUAN-LD 48 (17) 2017 TeleX
San Jose/San Francisco KSTS[n1 1] 48 (19) 1984 TeleX, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Salinas/Monterey K15CU-D[n1 3][n1 4] 15 (15) 1990 Cozi, NBC LX Home, TeleX, Oxygen
Denver KDEN-TV 25 (29) 2006 TeleX, Cozi, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Hartford WRDM-CD[n1 5] 19 (31) 2018 TeleX
Washington, D.C. WZDC-CD[n1 5] 44 (34) 2018 TeleX
Fort Myers WWDT-CD[n1 5] 43 (43) 2018 NBC LX Home
Miami WSCV[n1 1] 51 (30) 1987 TeleX, Telemundo Palm Beach
Orlando WTMO-CD[n1 5] 31 (31) 2018 TeleX, NBC LX Home
Tampa WRMD-CD 49 (30) 2018 TeleX, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Chicago WSNS-TV[n1 6] 44 (33) 1996 TeleX
Merrimack, New Hampshire/Boston, Massachusetts WNEU 60 (29) 2002 NBC LX Home
Springfield, Massachusetts WDMR-LD[n1 5] 14 (23) 2018 TeleX, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Las Vegas KBLR 39 (20) 2005 TeleX, NBC LX Home, Cozi, Oxygen
Linden, New Jersey/New York, New York WNJU[n1 1] 47 (35) 1984 TeleX
Albuquerque KASA-TV[n1 7] 2 (27) 2021 MeTV, Start TV, Cozi TV, Charge!
KUPT-LD[n1 7] 2 (32) 2021 TeleX, NBC Lx Home, Oxygen, Movies!, TBD, Cozi
Mount Laurel, New Jersey/Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WWSI 62 (28) 2013 TeleX
Raleigh, North Carolina WRTD-CD[n1 5] 54 (15) 2018
San Juan, Puerto Rico WKAQ-TV[n1 3][n1 8] 2 (28) 1987 Spanish Independent, NBC (via WNBC in New York City), NBC LX Home
Providence, Rhode Island WRIW-CD[n1 5] 51 (17) 2018 Cozi, Oxygen
WYCN-LD[n1 3][n1 9] 8 (36) 2016 TeleX, Cozi, NBC LX Home
Dallas/Fort Worth KXTX-TV 39 (36) 2001 TeleX
Houston KTMD[n1 3] 47 (22) 1987 TeleX, NBC LX Home, Cozi, Oxygen
Las Cruces, New Mexico/El Paso, Texas KTDO[n1 5] 48 (26) 2018 TeleX, NBC LX Home
Rio Grande City, Texas KTLM 40 (14) 2013 TeleX, Cozi, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
San Antonio KVDA[n1 3] 60 (15) 1989 TeleX, Cozi, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
Salt Lake City KTMW[n1 2] 20 (20) 2019 TeleX, theGrio, NBC LX Home, Oxygen
KULX-CD[n1 2]
(Repeater of KTMW)
10 (14) 2019
KEJT-CD
(Repeater of KTMW)
50 (21) 1993
Richmond, Virginia WZTD-LD[n1 5] 45 (34) 2018 NBC LX Home, Oxygen
  1. ^ a b c d Original "NetSpan" station (predecessor network to what would become Telemundo)
  2. ^ a b c d e a station owned by Serestar Communications before its sale to NBC Universal's Telemundo Station Group in 2019
  3. ^ a b c d e a station built and signed on by Telemundo
  4. ^ Though traditionally owned by Telemundo as a translator of KSTS, since 2014 this station no longer carries Telemundo programming and instead carries Cozi TV in English on its primary channel; Telemundo is now on KMUV-LD (owned by News-Press & Gazette Company).
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Indicates a station owned by ZGS Communications before its sale to NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group in 2018
  6. ^ This station was jointly owned by Ensaness Communications from 1996 to 2003.
  7. ^ a b Owned by Ramar Communications prior to purchase by NBCUniversal in 2021.
  8. ^ Since 2014, WKAQ-TV also carries a mainly WNBC-sourced NBC affiliate, NBC Puerto Rico, in English on their DT3 channel.
  9. ^ This station was originally owned by Telemundo as its Boston station, W32AY, from 1995 to 2001. It was acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016 and served as the primary station for NBC Boston from 2017 to 2019 before being moved to Providence.

Former[edit]

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)
Years owned Current status
Phoenix KPSW-LP 41 2002 Canal de la fe affiliate, KPDF-CD, owned by HC2 Holdings.
KDRX-CA 48 2002-2006 Defunct
KPHZ-LP 58 2002-2006 Daystar owned-and-operated (O&O), KDTP-LP
Los Angeles KWHY-TV 22 (4) 2001–2011 Spanish-language Independent station owned by Meruelo Broadcasting.
Steamboat Springs KMAS-TV 24 (10) 2002–2007 PBS member station, KRMZ, owned by Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network

References[edit]

  1. ^ Felix Gutierrez (June 1, 1986). "Spanish Media in L.A. on Upswing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  2. ^ "TELEMUNDO - The Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
  3. ^ Tim Jones (November 10, 1995). "WSNS-TV To Join Telemundo Show". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  4. ^ Marla Matzer (November 25, 1997). "Telemundo Agrees to Be Acquired by Sony, Liberty". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  5. ^ "NBC speaks Spanish". CNN Money. Time Warner. October 11, 2001. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  6. ^ "Telemundo buying Dallas indie". Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. June 27, 2001. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  7. ^ Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License - Federal Communications Commission
  8. ^ Application Search Details - Federal Communications Commission
  9. ^ "Mediaweek".
  10. ^ McClellan, Steve (September 4, 2002). "NBC acquires WPXB-TV". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  11. ^ Trigoboff, Dan (September 4, 2002). "NBC's confusing new station buy". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  12. ^ "NBC buys Paxson station in Boston burbs". Radio Business Report. September 6, 2002. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  13. ^ McClellan, Steve (October 11, 1999). "The peacocking of Pax" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. pp. 68–70. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  14. ^ "Application Search Details (WNEU, 3)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  15. ^ Telemundo buying two Az. stations - Tucson Citizen
  16. ^ Application Search Details - Federal Communications Commission
  17. ^ Application Search Details - Federal Communications Commission
  18. ^ Application Search Details - Federal Communications Commission
  19. ^ Telemundo 39 - KBLR Channel 39 Television
  20. ^ Inside Media
  21. ^ NBC Closes on KBLR - 5/24/2005 10:57:00 AM - Broadcasting & Cable
  22. ^ NBC's buying KDEN Denver for Telemundo - TvNewsCheck
  23. ^ Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
  24. ^ Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License - Federal Communications Commission
  25. ^ Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
  26. ^ NBC Has Deal To Sell KWHY In L.A. - Broadcasting & Cable
  27. ^ Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
  28. ^ NBCUniversal doubles in Philadelphia with Telemundo outlet, Radio & Television Business Report, March 21, 2013.
  29. ^ Telemundo Closes On Purchase of WWSI TVNewsCheck, July 2, 2013
  30. ^ "NBC's Owned Stations Reorganize". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
  31. ^ "Station Trading Roundup: 2 Deals, $660,000". TVNewsCheck. September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  32. ^ Consummation Notice
  33. ^ Miller, Mark K. (December 4, 2017). "NBCU Adding ZGS Stations To Telemundo". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
  34. ^ "NBCU Completes ZGS Stations Buy | TVNewsCheck.com". www.tvnewscheck.com. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  35. ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Notice, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 24 July 2018
  36. ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Notice, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 24 July 2018
  37. ^ Miller, Mark K. (March 6, 2019). "NBCU Closes On Serestar Stations". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia LLC. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  38. ^ Miller, Mark K. (July 30, 2021). "NBCU Buying KASA Albuquerque For $12.5M". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia LLC. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  39. ^ "Stations for Owner - NBC". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved June 3, 2020.

External links[edit]