Sinclair to Buy TV Stations From Allbritton

Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the country’s biggest owners of local television stations, continued its buying spree on Monday, announcing a deal to acquire seven stations owned by Allbritton Communications, including WJLA, the coveted ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C.

The purchase price was $985 million. Along with the seven stations, Sinclair will take control of NewsChannel 8, Allbritton’s local cable news channel in Washington. Sinclair said that it would explore the rollout of a national cable news channel using NewsChannel 8 as its core.

The acquisition continues a period of aggressive expansion by Sinclair, which has stations that cumulatively reach about 35 percent of households in the United States. Before Monday’s announcement, the company had completed about $2 billion in station deals since late 2011. “We are thrilled to add the Allbritton properties to our growing portfolio and national footprint,” Sinclair’s chief executive, David Smith, said in a statement.

Allbritton’s chief executive, Robert Allbritton, told employees in May that he was putting the seven stations and NewsChannel 8 up for sale so that he could concentrate on the Web site Politico, which the company also owns, and possible investments elsewhere. “My plan is to use the resources and expanded mindshare that such a move would make available to increase my commitment to Politico,” he wrote in an internal memorandum at the time. “Then we can plunge in further on a variety of other potential investments that intrigue me as I contemplate the next chapter for our business.”

On Monday Mr. Allbritton said he was confident that Sinclair’s “leadership and resources will enable our stations to reach new heights of service to our communities.”

The sale comes during a frenzied stretch of local television buying and selling. Gannett announced last month that it would acquire 20 stations owned by Belo for about $1.5 billion, and Tribune announced earlier this month that it would acquire 19 stations owned by Local TV Holdings for $2.7 billion.

Analysts had previously said that Allbritton’s stations could go for more than $900 million, led by WJLA in Washington, one of the biggest markets in the country. The other six stations, all affiliates of ABC, are much smaller, in markets like Birmingham, Ala.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Roanoke, Va.

Given the value of WJLA â€" and how much influence a station in the nation’s capital can have â€" some had speculated that Allbritton would sell it separately, but the company opted not to. In a statement on Monday, Mr. Smith of Sinclair made it clear that WJLA was the crown jewel. “To buy a full-blown news operation in our nation’s capital and an infrastructure that allows us to be connected to our branches of government and be at the pulse of national issues is a once-in-a lifetime event,” he said.

Without making any definitive comments about the creation of a national cable news channel, Mr. Smith said NewsChannel 8 “provides the perfect platform should we decide to expand it into other markets, especially given the amount of local news we produce across our entire portfolio.”

Sinclair has connections to 149 television stations across the country, many of them in small and medium markets. It owns some of the stations outright; others it operates or manages for affiliated companies. With the addition of the Allbritton stations, Sinclair estimated that it would reach 38.2 percent of households in the United States.

Public interest groups might object to the deal, partly because it furthers a consolidation trend and partly because Sinclair’s newscasts have been accused in the past of showing bias toward Republican and conservative causes.

Sinclair said in a news release that it would pay for the stations “through a bank loan and/or by accessing the capital markets.” It expects the transaction to close by the end of the year.