the market's three existing major station owners, WBRC owner Raycom Media, then-WVTM owner Media General and then-WIAT owner LIN Media, neither of which operated an existing duopoly station in the Birmingham market, although the latter two groups were in the process of merging at the time, with Media General eventually selling WVTM to Hearst Television); it proposed another restructured plan, in which it would surrender the WCFT-TV and WJSU-TV licenses, and have WABM simulcast WBMA-LD (which, as a low-power station, would not be affected as FCC rules allow the ownership of low-power and full-power stations regardless of market ownership caps for duopolies) as a full-power satellite, with its existing syndicated and MyNetworkTV programming on its main channel being moved to a digital subchannel. Sinclair opted to retain WABM on the basis that its transmitter facilities are superior to those of WCFT and WJSU; indeed, moving ABC programming to WABM would give ABC a full-power affiliate in Birmingham itself for the first time since 1996. On September 18, 2014 (a month and a half after Sinclair's acquisition of Allbritton Communications was finalized on August 1), WABM began simulcasting WBMA-LD's main channel on digital subchannel 68.2 in preparation for the planned shutdown of WCFT and WJSU eleven days later on September 29 (which would be aborted five days prior to the shutdown date on September 24, when Sinclair agreed to instead sell WCFT and WJSU to Howard Stirk Holdings for $50,000, foregoing any operational agreements with the company for the stations). WBMA-LD's main ABC programming and its "James Spann 24/7 Weather" channel were restored on WJSU's on its second and third subchannels on December 3, 2014. Sports programming From 1992 to 2014, WABM held the local broadcast rights to college football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) through Raycom Sports and its predecessor sports syndication services (with games televised as part of its ACC Network arm from 2009 to 2019), airing most regular season games from selected conference teams each year as well as games from the first three rounds of the ACC men's basketball tournament. When the SEC Network debuted, however, it wound up on WTTO instead. In August 2014, WABM became a charter outlet of the Sinclair-owned American Sports Network ad hoc syndication service, carrying mainly college sports events; as a result, the ACC Network broadcast rights for the Birmingham market were migrated to sister station WTTO/WDBB