WUTV
On December 6, 2017, it was reported that Sinclair and Fox were working on a deal that would see its Fox affiliates renew their affiliation agreement in exchange for Sinclair selling some of its Fox affiliates directly to Fox Television Stations. The deal would see between six and ten Fox affiliates owned by Sinclair and Tribune (all in markets with an NFL team) become Fox owned-and-operated stations. It is not known if WUTV will be one of the stations sold, although the stations being sold to Fox are expected to be from Tribune Media (notably KCPQ in Seattle, where Sinclair already owns KOMO-TV), many of which were previously owned by Fox. A sale to Fox would make WUTV Buffalo's first Big Four network O&O since WBUF-TV (channel 17, now PBS member WNED-TV), which was owned by NBC from 1955 until its sign-off in 1958. On May 9, 2018, Sinclair announced that seven Fox affiliates would be sold to FTS, but WUTV was not included and an affiliation renewal was announced for that station instead, keeping WUTV with Sinclair.
Attempted acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group
On December 6, 2017, it was reported that FTS would purchase up to 10 Fox affiliates from Sinclair (all in NFL markets) once Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune is finalized. The deal would most likely include Seattle's duopoly of KCPQ and KZJO since Sinclair already owns ABC affiliate KOMO-TV and Univision affiliate KUNS-TV. Other Fox affiliates currently owned by either Sinclair or Tribune involving NFL markets include former O&O's in Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, and Milwaukee (none of which are in conflict with FCC regulations, though both Sinclair and Tribune overlap in Milwaukee), as well as stations in Baltimore, Buffalo, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Pittsburgh. (The Baltimore station, being Sinclair's flagship station, likely would not be sold in any event.) FTS would reportedly exchange the Orlando duopoly of WOFL and WRBW as well as semi-satellite WOGX to Sinclair in return. Following the United States Department of Justice giving the OK to the Sinclair–Tribune deal, it was reported that Fox would be purchasing Seattle's KCPQ/KZJO, and is at least interested in the Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, and San Diego Fox affiliates owned by Tribune, as well as some of the other aforementioned Fox affiliates owned by Sinclair and Tribune. The ongoing proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, which would not include the sale of the Fox network to The Walt Disney Company (owner of ABC), would reportedly fund the acquisition of stations by Fox.