Report: 2Q 2017 Media Deals Remain Steady

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says there were 232 media deals in the second quarter 2017, with some $18.8 billion in announced deals overall -- higher than all quarterly periods over the last two years except one.

MediaPost is reporting there were 255 deals totaling $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2017. A year ago, in second-quarter 2016, there were 192 deals with a total value of $48.9 billion, while second-quarter 2015 had 225 deals totaling $75.9 billion.

For the second quarter of 2017, there were five deals over $1 billion. The biggest: Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the purchase of Tribune Media for $3.8 billion. Sinclair wants to create an even bigger leader when it comes to the number of TV stations owned by one company.

 Among communications spectrum deals, there was Verizon Communications $2.3 billion deal for Straight Path Communications and Liberty Interactive Corp. $1.2 billion deal for General Communications. In film/content, there was MGM Studios'- $1.0 billion purchase of Studio Partners.

Advertising and marketing deals tallied 64 deals; internet/data category, 51; recreation/leisure, 33; communications, 31; publishing, 19; film/content, 16; broadcasting, 9; casinos/gaming, 4; music, 3; and cable, 2.