After months of stalled negotiations, Tribune and The CW finally seem to be closing in on an agreement to renew their affiliate deal, reports Deadline, keeping The CW on Tribune in the country’s biggest markets.

At issue is, of course, money. CBS and Warner Bros. wanted Tribune to pay higher license fees, while Tribune was pushing back.

At stake for Tribune was losing network programming in primetime for stations such as WPIX New York, KTLA Los Angeles and WGN Chicago. While Tribune stations that currently carry The CW could make a go of it as independents, the change would likely devalue those stations, driving down viewership and thus ad rates.

Tribune gives the network that’s co-owned by CBS and Warner Bros. the strongest available stations in the country’s biggest markets. One idea that had been floating around was CBS moving The CW to its own duopoly stations — WLNY New York, KCOP Los Angeles — in big markets, and then finding other homes for it in other markets, such as Weigel’s WCIU Chicago.

The Tribune stations currently represent 28 percent of The CW’s nationwide coverage, says Deadline. Other station groups that carry The CW, including Sinclair and Nexstar-owned Media General, signed off on their deals months ago.

Should The CW have had to move stations, it would have required the network to scramble just as the ad-selling season is getting started. That would most certainly result in less eyeballs on the ten-year-old network that just seems to be finding its footing, with shows such as Arrow, The Flash, Jane the Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Supergirl, starting next fall.

In January, the idea of The CW launching itself as an SVOD service — thus divorcing itself from having to air on broadcast stations — was floated, although at the time that notion was dismissed by Tribune executives as posturing. Tribune’s argument against that plan was that airing as a broadcast network on TV stations is still far more lucrative than existing as an SVOD service or an app.

This fall, The CW app will be available to more than 80 million devices, and won’t require authentication through a cable operator or other pay-TV service, says Deadline.

READ MORE: Deadline

[Image of Arrow courtesy of The CW]

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