On January 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced it was putting WNCN up for sale, along with WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama and the other two former Outlet stations, WJAR and WCMH. On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would acquire the four stations. This made WNCN a sister station to WNCT-TV in Greenville. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. In April 2013, as part of a new branding campaign, the station switched its branding from "NBC 17" to just WNCN. The new brand is intended to emphasize the station's "strong desire to more aggressively serve its local communities". For the past 17 years, the station had almost never used its call letters on-air, except during legal IDs.