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.
WPIX
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar Media Group announced it would acquire Tribune's assets for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The deal—which would make the Irving, Texas-based company the largest television station operator by total number of stations upon its expected closure late in the third quarter of 2019—would result in WPIX becoming Nexstar's largest television station by market size (supplanting MyNetworkTV-affiliated KRON-TV in San Francisco); it will also mark channel 11's first ownership change since its sign-on. Additionally, the merger with Nexstar would also result in WPIX gaining additional sister stations in nearby markets including Albany (ABC affiliate WTEN and Fox-affiliated SSA partner WXXA-TV), Binghamton (NBC affiliate WBGH-CD and ABC affiliate WIVT) and Utica (Fox affiliate WFXV, MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNY-LP and ABC-affiliated SSA partner WUTR) and Providence (CBS affiliate WPRI-TV and Fox-affiliated SSA partner WNAC-TV).