Will the station on the river soon have more brothers and sisters to play with?

So, can anyone confirm that the New York Times is buying four stations from NBC? I know NYTimes has wanted to buy stations for years but couldn’t seem to find the deal they wanted. Word on the street has it that this is their deal now to get four of NBC’s smaller stations. Hey, if it helps the stock price, I’m all for that since it dropped like a rock over the past year.

If anyone has any information, please share.

Here’s something I found about NBC and the selling of the stations. Source: Broadcasting & Cable

Following the lead of other broadcasters pruning away their smaller stations, NBC is putting four of its owned-and-operated stations on the auction block, hoping to raise more than $600 million, according to people familiar with the deal. The properties are in NBC’s smallest markets: Raleigh, N.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Birmingham, Ala.; and Providence, R.I. They’re generally healthy, with each ranked among the top stations in late news, a good sign of vitality. NBC stations group President Jay Ireland wants to shed smaller markets and concentrate in markets where NBC can own a station duopoly or in markets with strong Hispanic demographics to feed the owned-and-operated stations of NBC’s Spanish-language broadcast network, Telemundo. For example, NBC recently bought a station in the increasingly Latino Las Vegas market. The company owns 29 stations, 14 NBC properties and 15 Telemundo affiliates. All NBC’s O&Os are being pinched by the steep slide in the parent network’s ratings.