year, it sold the station to the Boston Celtics' ownership group. News Corporation then later sold the Boston Herald in February 1994, eliminating the potential regulatory conflict with reacquiring WFXT. On October 5, 1994, Fox announced it would exercise the purchase option; it retook control of WFXT on July 7, 1995. In 1990, FTS bought KSTU in Salt Lake City, making it the first network-owned station in Utah. New World Communications deal FTS gained a bulk of stations through the 1997 purchase of New World Communications, succeeding a 1994 business deal between the two companies which led to all of New World's stations switching from other networks to Fox during 1994–95. A significant factor that resulted in Fox's affiliation with, and later purchase of, New World Communications was Fox acquiring TV rights to the National Football League (NFL), primarily covering games involving teams in the National Football Conference (NFC). Because NFL games generate high ratings, owning these stations outright allows FTS to also collect the local advertising revenue, as well as use them as leverage during retransmission consent negotiations with cable and satellite providers. The original 1994 affiliation deal with New World also triggered a chain of affiliation changes across the country and other multi-station affiliation deals for the next couple of years. Renaissance Broadcasting had previously sold WATL to FTS in 1993 to become a Fox owned-and-operated station, the first network-owned station in Atlanta. FTS was in the planning stages for a news department at the station, and WATL had even gone as far as hiring a news director. However, when the New World affiliation deal was signed, it was agreed that New World's and Atlanta's longtime CBS affiliate WAGA-TV switch to the Fox network. As a result, Fox cancelled the plans for a newscast on WATL and put the station up for sale. Renaissance Broadcasting had also sold KDVR in Denver, along with its satellite station KFCT in Fort Collins, Colorado, to FTS on November 15, 1994, in exchange for acquiring KDAF in Dallas. One of original core stations that FTS acquired from Metromedia, it was set to lose Fox programming to that market's longtime CBS affiliate, New World's KDFW. New World was also expanded its own broadcasting holdings in 1994 by buying other stations groups, but its combined purchases ran afoul with the FCC's media ownership rules at the time prohibiting a single company from owning more