Mission Broadcasting

Mission Broadcasting, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Broadcasting
Founded	1996 [1]
Founder	Nancie Smith
Headquarters	Wichita Falls, Texas[2] , U.S.
Key people	Nancie Smith (Chairwoman) Dennis Thatcher (President)
Revenue	$51.9 million[when?]
Number of employees	39
Website	missionbroadcastinginc.com

Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 20 television stations in 17 markets in the United States. The group's Chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith (who died in March 2011), who founded the company in 1996.^[3] All but one of Mission's stations are located in markets where Nexstar Media Group also owns a station, and all of Mission's stations (including its lone stand-alone station) are managed by Nexstar through shared services and local marketing agreements—effectively creating duopolies between the top two stations in a market or in markets with too few stations or unique station owners to legally allow duopolies.^[4] The company moved their headquarters from Westlake, Ohio to Wichita Falls, Texas in 2018. The company's stations are based in markets as large as New York City and as small as Grand Junction, Colorado.

History[]

On December 19, 2013, Mission Broadcasting announced it was acquiring KFQX for $4 million.^[5] The sale was approved on February 27, 2017^[6] and finalized on March 31.^[7]

2020 acquisitions[]

On March 30, 2020, Mission agreed to acquire certain assets of KMSS-TV, KPEJ, and KLJB from Marshall Broadcasting Group for $49 million.^[8] The sale was completed on September 1, 2020.^[9]

On July 13, 2020, Nexstar transferred its option to purchase WPIX from E. W. Scripps Company to Mission Broadcasting. Mission exercised the option and announced it was acquiring WPIX for $75 million. Once the transaction closed on December 30, WPIX became Mission's first station in a market without an accompanied Nexstar station, as an outright acquisition of WPIX (which broadcasts on virtual and VHF digital channel 11, and is thus not eligible for a UHF discount) by Nexstar would have caused Nexstar to well exceed the 39 percent market reach cap.^[10][11]

On August 7, 2020, Mission announced the purchase of KWBQ and its satellites and KASY-TV from Tamer Media LLC.^[12] The sale was completed on November 16.^[13]

On August 21, 2020, it was reported that Mission would acquire WLAJ and WXXA from Shield Media.^[14] The sale was completed on November 23.^[15][16]

On August 31, 2020, it was announced that Nexstar executed an option to purchase WNAC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island for $64,000. The option had been in place since 2003 when LIN TV-owned sister station WPRI-TV. Nexstar is assigning the WNAC license to Mission.^[17] The sale was completed on June 16, 2021.^[18]

Television stations[]

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license.

• ¹ Owned by White Knight Broadcasting, KSHV-TV is operated by Nexstar under a separate SSA from KMSS-TV.

See also[]

• Duopoly (broadcasting)
• Cunningham Broadcasting and Deerfield Media—similar holding companies related to Sinclair Broadcast Group
• White Knight Broadcasting

References[]

External links[]

• Official website