Post Co. to Buy Miami TV Station

The Washington Post Co. is buying a second television station in the Miami market, NBC Universal's WTVJ, The Post Co. said yesterday, creating a two-station group designed to increase revenue while lowering costs.

Post-Newsweek Stations owns six television stations and has not bought a new one since 1994. NBC Universal, owned by General Electric, was shopping the Miami station as part of a cash-raising plan by the network, which is cutting costs from its broadcast television side to bolster its online efforts.

The Post Co. has owned Miami's top-rated WPLG, an ABC affiliate, since 1969.

The purchase price was not disclosed. The Post Co. hopes to close the deal by the end of this year.

"We are pleased to be able to reach an agreement to purchase such a historic station as WTVJ, the first TV station to broadcast in Florida," Alan Frank, president and chief executive of Post-Newsweek Stations, said in a statement.

Two-station groups, or duopolies, are common in the broadcast television industry. But they typically involve a station affiliated with one of the four major networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox -- and a lower-rated network, such as the CW.

It is rare when one company owns two stations in the same market that are both affiliated with a major network, as The Post Co. will have in Miami.

Under Federal Communications Commission rules, one company is allowed to own two broadcast television stations in the same city if the market is large enough and if one of the two stations is not among the top-rated.

In Miami, about half of the market's stations are Spanish-language, including the No. 3 and No. 5 stations, a circumstance that has pushed WTVJ down in the ratings. The transaction must still pass FCC review.

In duopoly transactions, the acquiring company lowers costs by combining operations of the two stations, which typically leads to staff reductions.