Media mogul Byron Allen to buy Hawaii ABC affiliate KITV

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The owner of The Weather Channel is buying local ABC television affiliate KITV.

An affiliate of Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios announced Monday it has signed a purchase agreement to buy the station from SJL Broadcasting for $30 million.

The deal includes transmission of KITV programming on the neighbor islands, and local carriage of four cable networks — MeTV, Hawaii TV, Start TV and Heroes &Icons — along with a Washington, D.C.-based news bureau and correspondent, Allen Media said.

SJL bought KITV in 2015 from Hearst. SJL previously had owned Honolulu station KHON-TV from late 2005 to 2007.

Allen Media/Entertainment Studios owns 15 TV stations affiliated with the nation’s four big networks.

Entertainment Studios, founded in 1993 by Byron Allen, began buying broadcast TV assets last year, a year after the motion picture distribution company bought The Weather Channel.

Allen’s Los Angeles-based media company reported initially buying four television stations in Indiana and Lafayette for $165 million in 2019, followed by 11 broadcast television stations purchased in February from USA Television Holdings and USA Television MidAmerica Holdings for $305 million.

“Over the past year we’ve invested over $500 million to acquire best-in-class, top-tier, broadcast network affiliates,” Allen said in a statement.

Allen added that he plans to spend $10 billion to acquire more stations affiliated with the ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX networks over the next two years with the goal to become the largest broadcast television group in America.

The company also owns several media streaming channels, including pets.tv, comedy.tv, cars.tv and recipe.tv.

Pennsylvania-based SJL Broadcasting owns a few stations in Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Puerto Rico along with KITV directly or through affiliates Lilly Broadcasting and Montecito Broadcast Group.

Brian Lilly, CEO of SJL Broadcasting, said in a statement: “SJL is proud of the commitment of our KITV family to serve the Hawaiian community. Allen Media Group recognizes the investment in news and will build on our success.”