Hunt Valley-based media company Sinclair Inc. recently announced its purchase an 8.2% stake in fellow broadcaster E.W. Scripps, a move Sinclair hopes leads to a merger.

Sinclair paid more than $15 million for over 6 million shares in Scripps, per the Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The media companies have been in talks for months gearing up for a merger transaction that could happen in the next nine months to a year.

“The company’s board has and will continue to evaluate any transactions and other alternatives that would enhance the value of the company and would be in the best interest of all company shareholders,” Scripps said in a statement. “Likewise, the board will take all steps appropriate to protect the company and the company’s shareholders from the opportunistic actions of Sinclair or anyone else.”

Sinclair owns WBFF and WNUV in Baltimore and WJLA in Washington, D.C. David Smith, the chairman of Sinclair, also owns The Baltimore Sun. WMAR in Baltimore is owned by Scripps, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the merger would impact their ownership.

If WMAR were to be owned by Sinclair through a merger, that could have wide-ranging implications for the Baltimore-Washington corridor, said Jay Newman, a former WJZ-TV president.

Newman worries there could be a lot less competition with one organization controlling the editorial content of half of the major television news stations in Baltimore.

“This type of massive ownership of television stations ... may be good for business, but not necessarily good for the consumer of news,” Newman said.

“Part of me is sad to see what has happened,” he said. “On the other hand, the pragmatic side of me says the audience isn’t there like they used to be. The revenue isn’t there like it used to be. On the business side, things need to be done differently.”

Newman said he hopes these companies will see community connection, public service and local news as important and use technology to their advantage, producing cost-effective work people can be proud of.

Sinclair Broadcast Group owns, operates or provides services to 185 TV stations in 85 markets affiliated with all major broadcast networks. The company has a reputation for a conservative viewpoint in its broadcasts.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati, Ohio-based E.W. Scripps Co. operates more than 60 local stations in over 40 markets. It also owns national news outlets Scripps News and Court TV, as well as entertainment brands like Ion.

The prospect of Sinclair buying Scripps arrives amid wider consolidation across the U.S. media industry — particularly in the local TV landscape. Just this past August, Nexstar Media Group announced a $6.2 billion deal to buy broadcast rival Tegna.

Companies like Sinclair — as well as Nexstar and Tegna — have argued that these kinds of acquisitions allow them to better compete with bigger media and tech players vying for consumers’ attention. But critics warn of wider homogenization of news; in other words, more and more local TV stations becoming duplicators of syndicated reporting — and sharing corporate owners who may decide not to air certain content.

In September, for example, both Nexstar and Sinclair chose to preempt Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show across their ABC-affiliated stations, over remarks the comedian made following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The blackout lasted for more than a week in dozens of local TV markets, even after Disney-owned ABC lifted its own suspension.

Whether or not the two companies agree to a merger has yet to be seen — and would still need a regulatory green light. But that could be likely under the Trump administration. Nexstar’s proposed merger with Tegna would require the Federal Communications Commission to change rules limiting the number of stations a single company can own, for example, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr has already expressed openness to changing the rule.