WXIN
On December 6, 2017, reports stated that Sinclair and Fox were working on a deal that would see most of the Fox-affiliated stations whose affiliation contracts were set to expire at the end of the year renew said agreements, in exchange for Sinclair selling some Fox affiliates involved in the Tribune deal or already under the group's ownership directly to Fox Television Stations. The deal would see between six and ten Fox affiliates owned by Sinclair and Tribune in markets with an NFL franchise become Fox owned-and-operated stations. It is not known if WXIN will be one of the stations sold nor how the deal could be brokered with regards to its duopoly with WTTV/WTTK, although the stations being sold to Fox are expected to largely come from Tribune Media (notably KCPQ and its MyNetworkTV-affiliated sister KZJO in Seattle, where Sinclair already owns ABC affiliate KOMO-TV and Univision affiliate KUNS-TV), many of which were previously owned by Fox. (Sinclair may sell additional Fox affiliates to other groups not associated with the company to both address the aforementioned issues and the ownership conflicts that Sinclair and Tribune have in ten markets that largely would be excluded from the side deal with Fox.)
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).