Shareholders approve GE/Seagram merger
General Electric's shareholders decided to approve the $35 billion offer to acquire Seagram Company. The deal for General Electric required Seagram to keep the entertainment assets, and wanted to combine Seagram's entertainment group with General Electric's NBC television network. General Electric said that they would not keep the beverage division, which would instead sold off to both Pernod Ricard and Diaego.
Among the entertainment holdings include MCA, who owns Universal City Studios, Inc. (both film and television), as well as the MCA Music Entertainment Group, and interest in USA Networks. These entertainment holdings would be combined with General Electric's NBC to form the largest entertainment industry.
USA Networks has plans to air NBC shows for the merger. General Electric's NBC Studios and Seagram's Universal Television is currently producing the comedy Mr. Rhodes for NBC.
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NBC to buy Sunbelt
NBC was in negotiations to purchase Sunbelt Broadcasting Company, which was controlled by James E. Rogers in Las Vegas. Among the station holdings NBC kept was KPVI in Pocatello, KYMA in Yuma, KVBC-TV in Las Vegas and KRNV-TV in Reno, while NBC is not keeping KKVI, which would instead sold to Fox Television Stations. The four NBC stations would join WNBC-TV in New York City, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, KUTV-TV in Salt Lake City, WTVJ in Miami, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., WMAZ-TV in Macon, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, KSDK in St. Louis, WKYC-TV in Cleveland, WBIR-TV in Knoxville, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KXAN-TV in Austin, WAVY-TV in Norfolk, WBAL-TV in Baltimore, KKYC-TV in Kansas City, KJRH-TV in Tulsa, WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, WIVB-TV in Buffalo, KMOL-TV in San Antonio, WJRH-TV in Providence, WCMH-TV in Columbus, WNCN-TV in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville/Goldsboro, WNEN-TV in Boston, WWAC in Wildwood, WMNJ in Millville, WOCI in Philadelphia, WAND-TV in Decatur, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, WESH-TV in Orlando, WDSU-TV in New Orleans, WXII in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WGAL in Harrisburg/Lancaster/York, WYFF in Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville, KOAT in Albuquerque/Santa Fe, WCNC-TV in Charlotte, KTVB in Boise, KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, KING-TV in Seattle, KHNL-TV in Hawaii, as well as its two satellites KHBC-TV in Hilo and KOGG in Wailuku, KSBW-TV in Santa Cruz, WETM in Elmira, WKTV in Utica and WTOV-TV in Steubenville.
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Fox completes Petracom merger
The merger between Petracom Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations was completed. Petracom owns Fox stations WTVW (channel 7) in Evansville, KARD (channel 14) in West Monroe/El Dorado and KOZL (channel 27) in Springfield, while KLBK-TV (channel 13) in Lubbock was sold to CBS.
The Petracom stations would join the 40 Fox owned and operated stations, making it a grand total of 43. The New World stations would add a grand total of 57, to became the largest owned-and-operated station group.