Deerfield Media, Inc. is a

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...

company and a

shell corporation A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...

owned and operated by Stephen P. Mumblow. It was established on December 1, 2012 by the acquisition of several

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...

s connected to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Most of its stations are part of duopolies with another Sinclair-owned station, and are operated under local marketing agreements or similar by Sinclair. As a part of its acquisition of multiple stations from Newport Television in Cincinnati and San Antonio, Sinclair sold

WSTR-TV WSTR-TV (channel 64), branded on-air as Star 64 (stylized as STAR64), is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains joint sales and shared services agre ...

and

KMYS KMYS (channel 35) is a television station licensed to Kerrville, Texas, United States, serving the San Antonio area as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Dabl. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains joint sales and shared se ...

(

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

and

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

affiliates respectively) to Deerfield, and also gave them an option to purchase

WJTC WJTC (channel 44) is an independent television station licensed to Pensacola, Florida, United States, serving northwest Florida and southwest Alabama. It is owned by Deerfield Media alongside Mobile, Alabama–licensed NBC affiliate WPMI-TV (ch ...

and

WPMI WPMI-TV (channel 15) is a television station licensed to Mobile, Alabama, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for southwest Alabama and northwest Florida. It is owned by Deerfield Media alongside Pensacola, Florida–licensed independent ...

at a later date. Deerfield Media also acquired KBTV-TV, a Fox affiliate in Beaumont, Texas, from Nexstar Broadcasting Group, whose operations were assumed by Sinclair's KFDM. Through an option exercised by Sinclair, Deerfield also acquired

WUTB WUTB (channel 24) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the digital multicast network TBD. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Sinclair Broadcast ...

, a

affiliate owned by

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Co ...

. This purchase created a triopoly between Sinclair's Fox affiliate,

WBFF WBFF (channel 45) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (based in nearby Hunt Valley), alongside ABC affiliate WJLA-T ...

, and CW affiliate,

WNUV WNUV (channel 54) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox/MyNetw ...

(owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, and also operated under an LMA by Sinclair). Deerfield also reached a deal to acquire the license assets of

WHAM-TV WHAM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox ...

, an ABC affiliate in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, also from Newport Television, and to acquire KAME-TV, the

affiliate in Reno, Nevada, from Ellis Communications on February 1, 2013 as part of Sinclair's purchase of KRXI-TV from

Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation ( doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

. In April 2018, Deerfield Media moved its headquarters from New York City to Park City, Utah.

2021 FCC fine

On July 28, 2021, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) issued a Forfeiture Order against Deerfield Media related to the lawsuit ''DirecTV, LLC v. Deerfield Media, Inc.'', ordering the company to pay 6 fines of $512,228 each, totaling $3,073,368. The order was the result of a lawsuit filed by DirecTV and its parent AT&T alleging that Deerfield Media, along with several other station groups whose stations are managed by Sinclair Broadcast Group, failed to negotiate for retransmission consent in good faith for its stations KBTV,

WHAM Wham! was a British pop music duo. Wham may also refer to: Places * Wham, North Yorkshire, England, a hamlet in the Yorkshire Dales, United Kingdom * Wham, Louisiana, an unincorporated community, United States Stations * WHAM (AM), a talk radio ...

, and WSTR. The FCC adopted a Memorandum Opinion and Order and Notice of Apparent Liability on September 2, 2020 affirming the lawsuit allegations. The stations affected by the fines were represented in retransmission negotiations by Duane Lammers of Max Retrans.

Stations currently owned by Deerfield Media

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license. K36PL (branded as Park City Television) and K34QB (branded as TV8 Vail) are operated directly by Deerfield Media with no involvement from Sinclair Broadcast Group.

References

{{SBGI, state=collapsed 2012 establishments in New York City Mass media companies established in 2012 Sinclair Broadcast Group Television broadcasting companies of the United States

2021 FCC fine

Stations currently owned by Deerfield Media

See also

References