Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is buying Tribune Media Co. for about $3.9 billion, a deal made possible after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted last month to ease a limit on TV-station ownership in the U.S.

Sinclair will pay $43.50 a share to gain Tribune TV stations in big media markets like New York, Chicago and Miami, strengthening its hand in negotiations with pay-TV distributors and major broadcast networks like 21st Century Fox Inc.

The marriage of Sinclair and Tribune, two of the largest local TV station owners in the U.S., creates a U.S. broadcasting behemoth to face down online competitors vying for a piece of the local advertising pie. The deal, expected to be the first in a mergers-and-acquisitions frenzy following an historic airwave auction, sent the shares of Tribune surging as high $43.04 in New York.

Fox and Nexstar had also been looking to make the first splash in the broadcasting deals derby by acquiring Tribune. Fox, with funding from Blackstone Group LP, had been planning an offer but in the end didn’t submit a bid, according to a person familiar with the matter. Nexstar Media Group Inc. also was preparing an offer, according to people familiar with the matter.