• by Wayne Friedman , July 28, 2017

Second-quarter media merger and acquisition deals continue at a strong pace.

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

In the first quarter of 2017, there were 255 deals totaling $10.4 billion. 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.

In the cable TV system category, there was RCN’s proposed $2.4 billion deal for WaveDivision Holding, which would create the sixth-largest cable system operator.

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.