Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the stock of Bonten Media Group Holdings, Inc. and Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the membership interest of Esteem Broadcasting for an aggregate purchase price of $240.0 million. Bonten owns 14 television stations in 8 markets which reach approximately 1% of the U.S. TV households and provides services to 4 stations pursuant to joint sales agreements with Esteem Broadcasting. Completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval by the Federal Communications Commission and antitrust clearance, as applicable. The Company anticipates that the transaction will close and fund with cash on hand in the third quarter of 2017, subject to the satisfaction of the closing conditions.

The Bonten and Esteem stations covered by the transaction are:

"We look forward to welcoming the Bonten employees into the Sinclair family and are pleased to be growing our regional presence in several states where we already operate," commented Chris Ripley, President and CEO of Sinclair. "We believe our economies of scale help us bring improvements to small market stations, including investments in news, other quality local programming, and multicast opportunities with our emerging networks of Comet, Charge! And TBD."

Including the Bonten station acquisitions, all previously announced acquisitions, and pro forma for expected synergies, the Company's 2015 and 2016 media revenues would have been $2.236 billion and $2.620 billion, respectively. The $240.0 million purchase price represents a 6.7x multiple and is expected to be on average approximately $25 million accretive to our free cash flow on an annualized basis1.

About Sinclair:

Sinclair is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country. Pro forma for all pending transactions, the Company will own, operate and/or provide services to 191 television stations in 89 markets, broadcasting 551 channels. The Company has multiple emerging networks as well as being affiliated with all the major networks. Sinclair is a leading local news provider in the country and a producer of live sports content. Sinclair's content is delivered via multiple-platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program distributors, and digital platforms. The Company regularly uses its website as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at www.sbgi.net.