TAMPA (WFLA) – Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST), today announced that it has agreed to acquire WSNN-LD in Sarasota, Florida, from Citadel Communications, LLC. The acquisition will enable WFLA-TV (NBC) and WTTA-TV (My Net) to significantly expand their leading local news presence in the Tampa DMA to include Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties along the West Coast of central Florida. The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory and other customary approvals. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Home to the award-winning journalists of the “Suncoast News Network,” WSNN-LD is a low-power independent television station reaching more than 400,000 homes in the region. The station currently broadcasts more than seven hours of live local news each weekday and nearly 50 hours of live local news every week. Together with WFLA-TV and WTTA-TV, the three TV stations will provide unprecedented coverage of breaking news, weather, sports, and community activities in Tampa, the nation’s 13th-largest television market, and in the surrounding area.

“WSNN-LD and its Suncoast News Network provide comprehensive local news, weather and sports coverage across both linear and digital platforms, and offer a variety of advertising opportunities for businesses and marketers throughout Sarasota and the three-county region,” said Mark Higgins, WFLA-TV/WTTA-TV Vice President and General Manager. “WSNN-LD is the perfect complement to WFLA-TV and WTTA-TV, and positions us extremely well in what will again be a battleground state during the 2024 presidential election cycle.”

Philip J. Lombardo, Chairman and CEO of Citadel Communications, LLC, commented: “We are extremely proud of WSNN-LD’s growth since our company acquired a majority ownership stake in 2014. The station has since transformed itself from a cable program service with limited local reach, to a full-service local television station with broad distribution across the Suncoast. We value the reputation we’ve earned for providing viewers with the most comprehensive local news coverage, dedicated weather coverage especially in hurricane season, and delivering the area’s only local sports coverage. We look forward to having Nexstar, with whom we have a long relationship, build upon WSNN-LD’s record of news and community service in ways that will serve our viewers, advertisers and employees well.”