SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The owner of Bay Area's KRON-TV announced Thursday that
it is putting the station up for sale, after losing money on the venture for
seven years.
Young Broadcasting Inc. released a statement indicating that KRON already
has attracted some interested parties.
"When we purchased KRON-TV in 2000 we believed we had acquired a jewel and
we still feel that is the case today," chairman Michael Young said. "Our
decision to sell is based on the high level of interest in the property that we
have received."
Industry experts say major networks such as NBC or Fox would find KRON an
attractive purchase in the Bay Area, the nation's sixth-largest media market.
New York-based Young Broadcasting outbid NBC, paying $823 million for the
station in 1999 -- the highest price ever paid for a television station at the
time. NBC then demanded that Young pay $10 million a year to be a network
affiliate, but Young rejected the proposal, opting instead to operate KRON-TV as
an independent station.
That strategy failed, and KRON quickly sank in ratings, plummeting from
first to sixth place during prime time hours. From 2001 through 2006, Young
piled up a cumulative $373 million in losses.
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