On July 19, 2012, Newport Television reached an agreement to sell 22 of its 27 stations to Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Cox Media Group. KLRT-TV and KASN were among the twelve that were sold to Nexstar. However, since Nexstar already owned NBC affiliate KARK-TV (channel 4) and MyNetworkTV affiliate KARZ-TV (channel 42) and in order to comply with FCC regulations prohibiting common ownership between two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market, KLRT and KASN were instead transferred to Mission Broadcasting, a company which is involved in several local marketing agreements and joint sales agreements with Nexstar-owned stations in other markets where Nexstar itself is legally prohibited from owning multiple television stations. Nexstar/Mission's acquisition of KLRT and WJKT in Jackson, Tennessee (although that station is controlled by and based out of Memphis, Tennessee's ABC affiliate WATN-TV, which was also bought by Nexstar) created an irony, given that Nexstar terminated the Fox affiliations of several of its small-market stations during 2011 and 2012 due to a reverse compensation dispute. The FCC approved Mission's purchase of KLRT and KASN on December 10, 2012, and the deal was consummated on January 3, 2013.