Chris Ripley, president and chief executive officer of Sinclair, made references to the cost-cutting measures likely coming to Tribune Media stations if the Federal Communications Commission approves the deal.
The deal makes the largest owner of local TV stations even bigger, giving Sinclair the presence it covets in top markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. When broadcast television were the only available networks, there was little need for scale in the business and many owners were companies that also owned newspapers.
The New York Times reports Fox had been interested in Tribune Media mainly to rival Sinclair's expansion plans.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest USA broadcaster, will acquire Tribune Media Co., in a deal worth almost $4 billion.
"This transaction is a game-changer that solidifies Sinclair as a broadcast industry leader in technology innovation and gives them increased clout in negotiations with networks, programmers and cable, satellite and online distributors", said Preston Padden, an industry consultant who has held senior positions at Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox 's Fox Broadcasting.
Harry Jessell, editor of TVNewsCheck.com, said the Northeast Pennsylvania market could cause a potential problem because FCC regulations state two big network stations in one market can't have the same owner.
Sinclair also gets cable network WGN America and a stake in the Food Network, a joint venture between Tribune and Scripps Network Interactive Inc SNI.O .
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The $43.50 per share offer represents a 26 percent premium over Tribune's closing price on February 28, a day before Reuters broke the news that Sinclair had approached Tribune about an acquisition.
The boards at both companies approved the deal, worth $3.9 billion, on Monday. Sinclair is already the nation's largest owner of local television stations, broadcasting in more than a quarter of USA homes, and similarly has a "right-leaning agenda".
The brokerage pointed out that Sinclair expects a pro forma EV/EBITDA of less than 7.0X for the deal, estimate more than 40 percent free cash flow accretion in 2014.
Currently, Tribune owns or operates 42 television stations in 33 markets, including WHNT News 19.
Sinclair, one of the largest television station operators in the country, is headquartered in Hunt Valley. It already owns KMPH-TV, the Fox affiliate in Fresno, and KFRE-TV, the CW affiliate there.
Tribune, which has a market cap of around $3.2 billion, attracts 60 million monthly unique visitors to Tribune Broadcasting's local websites and apps, according to internal data and Google analytics.
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