The company buying ABC network affiliate KITV and its neighbor island sister stations will pay $21 million for the stations, according to a 69-page asset purchase agreement filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

KITV’s owner, New York-based Hearst Television, said on May 13 it was selling the station to California-based SJL Broadcast Management.

The price is significantly lower than the $330 million a company paid for KHON and a Portland, Ore., station in May 2012. Portland is the 23rd-largest media market in the nation and Honolulu is the 69th largest, which may explain some of the price differential.

Hearst has owned KITV and neighbor island sister stations KMAU-TV and KHVO-TV on Maui and Hawaii island, respectively, for 18 years.

KITV’s buyers have set up a new company called KITV Inc., incorporated in Delaware, for the transaction. George Lilly is president, CEO and director of KITV Inc.

Lilly was the head of Montecito Broadcast Group LLC, which owned KHON-TV for about 22 months between 2005 and 2007.

At the time the KITV sale was announced to staff in mid-May, Hearst President Jordan Wertlieb told employees that the buyers would honor all existing contracts.