• by Wayne Friedman , February 11, 2019

Continuing a wave of TV station deal-making and consolidation, Cox Enterprises is nearing a deal to sell its 14 TV stations to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for nearly $3 billion, according to Reuters.

The media holdings for Cox -- a privately held company -- also include radio, cable TV systems, newspapers, and automotive digital platforms.

The TV station industry has seen big moves in the last year and a half toward consolidation. In December 2018, Tribune Media agreed to be acquired by Nexstar Media Group for $4.1 billion. In June 2018, Gray Television said it would buy Raycom Media for $3.65 billion.

Apollo is also a bidder for TV stations that are poised to be sold off as part of the Nexstar-Tribune deal, and it has an agreement to buy more than a dozen TV stations from Northwest Broadcasting.

TV station groups witnessed increases in pricing on Monday stock market trading.

Tegna rose 2.5% to $11.96, while Gray Television was up 2.4% to $16.56. Nexstar was higher at 1.2% to $85.02, Sinclair Broadcast Group was up 0.6% to $31.55, and E.W. Scripps was 0.5% higher to $18.89.

Tribune Media was trading slightly down at 0.1% to $46.05.