Rejecting a pair of informal objections, the FCC has approved Gray Television's $2.8 billion-plus purchase of Meredith's TV stations.

The deal is for 16 full-power stations in 12 markets.

Also: Gray TV Buying Meredith Stations in Deal Worth $27 Billion

Gray had to divest WJRT Flint-Saginaw, Michigan, where Meredith also owned a station that would have created a duopoly that violated FCC local ownership rules.

The deal gives Gray a 25% national audience reach, well below the FCC's 39% maximum.

The FCC rejected a complaint from and individual who "express[ed] concern about “consolidation” of the news industry and a “decline in media integrity.” The FCC said that "[m]erely making anecdotal and vague observations about the media industry while rhetorically questioning whether the Transaction would favor the “self-serving interests” of an applicant is not enough to satisfy even the first step of the Commission’s two-part test under the public interest standard."

The FCC rejected the other informal complaint by over-the-air antenna seller Mr. Antenna that Meredith and refused to sell it ad time on KVVU-TV Henderson, Nevada, to advertise its over-the-air antennas, saying: "The arguments raised by Mr. Antenna rest on his allegation that Meredith has a corporate policy against advertisements that promote cord-cutting and that such a policy would continue under Gray’s ownership. Upon review of the record, we cannot conclude, as Mr. Antenna suggests, that such a policy exists, or ever existed, at Gray or Meredith."

The Meredith stations Gray is getting are WGCL and WPCH, Atlanta, Georgia; KPHO/KTVK, Phoenix, Arizona; KPTV/KPDX, Portland, Oregon; KMOV, St. Louis, Missouri; WSMV, Nashville, Tennessee; WFSB, Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut; KCTV/KSMO, Kansas City, Missouri; WHNS, Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; KVVU, Las Vegas, Nevada; WALA, Mobile, Alabama; WNEM, Flint-Saginaw, Michigan; and WGGB/WSHM-LD, Springfield, Massachusetts.

Jon Lafayette contributed to this report.

Meredith said Mr. Antenna Las Vegas got it all wrong when it said the broadcaster refused to sell it ad time to advertise its over-the-air antennas and that the FCC should reject an informal objection lodged by the company.

Over-the-air TV antenna marketer Mr. Antenna Las Vegas asked the FCC to block the transfer of the license of KVVU-TV Henderson to Gray Television, which is buying the station from Meredith, or alternatively condition the sale.

Mr. Antenna had cited what it claimed was a station policy under Meredith of not selling spot advertising time to the company. "From April 2019 until this year, Mr. Antenna advertised its outdoor antenna products and services on KVVU-TV," it told the commission. "In late June 2021, however, KVVU notified Mr. Antenna that effective July 1, 2021, KVVU would no longer accept advertising from vendors whose products presented a ‘cord-cutting’ alternative to cable service," the company said.

Mr. Antenna had said requiring that "Gray and related entities forbear from denying reasonable requests for airtime from vendors of television antennas should be made a condition of the KVUU sale."

In a response to the FCC to Mr. Antenna's informal challenge, Meredith told the FCC that Mr. Antenna had no legal basis for the challenge. It said its failure to sell over-the-air antenna ads to Mr. Antenna for a brief period of time was due to a miscommunication that it quickly attempted to resolve, offering to sell the time.

Given that, it said, there is no factual support for the complaint.

Meredith has no corporate policy against ads for over-the-air antennas or their installation, it told the FCC. It also said Gray has had no input on Meredith's decisions about what ads to take.

Over-the-air TV antenna marketer Mr. Antenna Las Vegas has asked the FCC to block the transfer of the license of KVVU-TV Henderson to Gray Television, which is buying the station from Meredith, or alternatively condition the sale.

Back in May, Meredith struck a deal to sell its stations to Gray for $2.85 billion.

The FCC sought public comment on the proposed merger.

Mr. Antenna cited what it claimed was a station policy under Meredith of not selling spot advertising time to the company. "From April 2019 until this year, Mr. Antenna advertised its outdoor antenna products and services on KVVU-TV," it told the commission. "In late June 2021, however, KVVU notified Mr. Antenna that effective July 1, 2021, KVVU would no longer accept advertising from vendors whose products presented a ‘cord-cutting’ alternative to cable service," the company said.

"Meredith rejects the claims in the Informal Objection and will be filing a response," the company said in a statement.

Mr. Antenna said that it was told the policy came from Meredith and applied to all its stations. "The reason given for the change in policy," it told the FCC, "was that Meredith’s retransmission consent income is tied to cable subscribership, and that the number of cable households is declining as increasing numbers of people install outdoor antennas as an over-the-air alternative to cable. Therefore, in the eyes of Meredith, such antennas posed a competitive threat."

Mr. Antenna said that hardly squared with the public interest mission to provide over-the-air TV, one it said Meredith had stressed its commitment to over-the-air broadcasting when it sought a channel change for KVVU and pitched the over-the-air benefits that would accrue to the change.

Mr. Antenna said requiring that "Gray and related entities forbear from denying reasonable requests for airtime from vendors of television antennas should be made a condition of the KVUU sale."

It also said the condition should apply to all the stations. "Because "the infirmity we identify is transaction-specific," it told the commission, "the condition should be applied to all of the Meredith television licenses that Gray acquires as a result of the Transaction."

Mr. Antenna said the FCC could allow Gray not to sell spot ads to outdoor antenna vendors, but only if Gray swore that the policy is unrelated to its maximizing retrans revenue.

Meredith Corp. said it promoted Corey Hanson to VP and general manager for its duopoly in Portland, Oregon, which consists of KPTV and KPDX-TV, effective Aug. 2.

Hanson is returning to the stations. She was station manager there before becoming VP and general manager at WALA-TV, Meredith’s station in Mobile, Alabama.

Hanson will succeed Adrienne Roark, who was named president at the CBS station group. 

Meredith is in the process of selling its stations to Gray Television.

“Corey’s leadership has been invaluable to Meredith since she first joined KPTV/KPDX in 2004 and through her time at WALA. She has a proven record of ratings success and a passion for innovative non-traditional projects that generate revenue, community involvement, and team building,” said Meredith Local Media Group President Patrick McCreery. “Corey led the WALA team through COVID-19, one of the most challenging periods in our industry’s and country’s history. I am confident that her experience and results-driven leadership will make a lasting impact on the KPTV/KPDX team and the community.”

Hanson joined Meredith in 2004. She began her career as a news producer at KOIN-TV, Portland. 

“I am so grateful to the team at WALA Fox 10 for their perseverance, hard work, and genuine care for their community and one another during the past year. I am very proud of this team and its many accomplishments,” said Hanson. “I am equally grateful to return to Portland and continue to build on the Fox12 team’s success. I couldn’t be more thrilled to get started.”

People (the TV Show!) has been renewed through three additional seasons, taking the entertainment news magazine through the 2023-24 TV season, Meredith Local Media Group said Thursday.

The show, which is executive produced by former Access Hollywood EP Rob Silverstein, is currently cleared in 12 Meredith markets: Atlanta; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; St. Louis; Nashville; Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut; Kansas City; Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; Las Vegas; Mobile-Pensacola, Florida; Flint-Saginaw, Michigan; and Springfield-Holyoke, Massachusetts. Sony Pictures Television is handling national distribution for the show, with the expectation that it be nationally cleared by fall 2022.

“Our local audiences and advertisers love People (the TV Show!). We had the faith in People and its powerful combination of celebrity and entertainment news, and positive stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, to program this show in the most competitive access time periods,” Meredith Local Media Group president Patrick McCreery said in a statement. “We replaced established entertainment news magazine shows that have occupied these time periods for decades and are pleased to see viewers respond and embrace our show.”

Also Read: As TV Evolves, So Does Syndication

According to Meredith, People has seen a 12.2% increase in household ratings and a 12% increase in the adults 25-54 demographic across the 12 markets in which it airs. Meredith launched People as a television brand after acquiring Time Inc., which owns the magazine, in a $2.8 billion deal that closed in January 2018.

People is produced in New York City and hosted by Kay Adams and Lawrence K. Jackson along with Jeremy Parsons and Sandra Vergara as New York and Los Angeles correspondents. Nancy O’Dell and Gretchen Carlson serve as special correspondents.

Local TV stations again proved their importance in 2020 when audiences seeking information about the pandemic, protests and politics tuned in in droves. 

But while it’s clear that local TV stations aren’t going anywhere — and still need programming to fill all of those non-news, non-network hours — the flight to streaming and audience fragmentation means the financial model is more challenging than ever. So how to thread that needle?

The answer varies, but working with partners who can come up with innovative ideas tops station executives’ lists of what they are looking for in 2021.

“A lot of people over the last couple of years have really started to do new things,” Frank Cicha, executive VP of programming, Fox Television Stations, said. “There’s a shift in attitude about how all this works.”

For example, Meredith and Sony Pictures Television are slowly rolling out a new entertainment magazine, People (the TV Show!). People debuted this fall in Meredith’s 12 markets and SPT plans to have the show cleared nationwide by 2022 — a timetable that used to be unacceptable. 

Another innovation from Sony is offering Dr. Oz spinoff The Good Dish to stations with lots of customizable advertising opportunities for local stations. For example, it is working with grocery store chains to sponsor downloadable lists of recipe ingredients that will drive viewers into the store.

Stations Like New Ideas

With all of these ideas and more, station buyers say: bring them on.

“We need to support the independents as much as possible,” said one station buyer. “Independents have been the engine that have pushed the industry forward.”

Independent studios — such as Debmar-Mercury and SPT — operate without an affiliate network or TV stations, which means they are free to work with the highest bidder or most interested party on any given project.  

“What pushes the marketplace forward is the trust you get from groups who are more agile, smaller, more adept and more hungry,” that source said. “That’s where change comes from, the change doesn’t come from groups who are established and content with where they are.”

Other companies — such as Comcast-owned NBCUniversal or The Walt Disney Co. — tend to develop projects for their own stations
and then sell them to non-owned stations in other markets. 

That’s not entirely bad, because it means that stations in markets that aren’t New York, Los Angeles or Chicago (and sometimes Dallas), have access to shows starring well-known talent such as Drew Barrymore, Kelly Clarkson or Tamron Hall that they might otherwise not have access to. But stations know that expensive shows aren’t really in their budgets anymore unless they can be subsidized elsewhere.

That’s where station buyers see opportunity in things like up-and-coming advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) networks, such as Fox-owned Tubi and ViacomCBS-owned Pluto TV. Many are free to watch, although the largest, Disney-owned Hulu’s ad-supported tier, still costs $6 a month. NBCUniversal’s ad-supported Peacock is free with subscription tiers. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max is looking at launching an ad-supported tier this spring.

As those services look to differentiate themselves, they will be looking for more programming, and station executives are eyeing them as potential partners.

“Something I would like to see in the future is a way that streaming could contribute to the overall revenue of a show,” Cicha said. “Once we get to a place where barter spots can be monetized on streaming, that could open up a whole new world.”

Tests also remain important to station groups. This March, Fox is testing a half-hour court show The Mediator from Ice-T and former Warner Bros. syndication executive Stuart Krasnow and more tests are expected to be on the way. 

“The way that show came to us is so much about how these things will need to get done in the future,” Cicha said, with producers willing to shoulder some of the financial risks. Krasnow comes from Warner Bros., so he understands the economics of syndication from the stations’ point of view.

“I don’t want to sound draconian, but if there’s not some other way to finance these syndicated shows, there won’t be syndicated shows,” Cicha said. “Still, I’m optimistic. Once people realize this and understand, all of these conversations get a lot easier and I think there’s way more interest now in trying new things.”

Another area that’s changing is the use of library programming. 

“People are getting more creative with deals for things like off-network hours,” Cicha said. That includes such shows as NBCUniversal’s Dateline, renewed in more than 75% of the country earlier this month for a fifth season as a syndicated strip, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which is coming out for a syndicated run next fall. 

“Networks are continuing to rely on those types of procedurals, and studios aren’t going to get the kind of money that cable networks used to give for them,” Cicha said.

Opportunity Knocks

That spells opportunity for groups like Fox, which has many non-network-affiliated MyNetwork stations to program, complete with hours of primetime real estate available to interested programmers. 

Stations also are starting to fill some hours with repeats of long-running shows that have left or are leaving production. NBCUniversal has been offering Jerry Springer to stations for two years now, even though the show went out of production in 2018. Next year, CBS Television Distribution’s Judge Judy will end first-run production, but the show will live on in repeats on stations across the country. With 25 years of episodes in the can, viewers will hardly be able to tell the difference, and repeats of Judge Judy perform nearly as well as Judy originals. (Meanwhile, Judge Judy Sheindlin is taking first-run production of a new show over to Amazon’s free ad-supported streaming service IMDb TV, where it will premiere next fall.)

Maybe the most surprising thing is that station executives aren’t wishing for more programming — the fall 2021 slate already looks pretty full, with such shows as Jay Leno’s You Bet Your Life coming from Fox, Nick Cannon back on track from Debmar-Mercury, a talker starring Niecy Nash in the works from CBS Television Distribution and SPT’s aforementioned The Good Dish and game show Common Knowledge, hosted by Joey Fatone.

Duopolies abound in Kansas City, but the one Big Four affiliate without a sibling station is, in fact, the market leader. Fox affiliate WDAF thrives on a relentless local strategy, airing 62 hours a week of local news, and talent that connects with K.C. viewers.

“Our anchors are real people,” Tracy Brogden-Miller, VP and general manager, said. “The community connects with them because people can relate to them.” 

Also drawing viewers to Fox4 is syndication standouts such as Live with Kelly and Ryan, Rachael Ray, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! 

Nexstar Media Group owns WDAF. Meredith has CBS affiliate KCTV and MyNetworkTV station KSMO. Hearst Television has ABC outlet KMBC and The CW affiliate KCWE. Scripps owns NBC affiliate KSHB and independent KMCI, known as 38 the Spot. KUKC is a Univision affiliate and KGKC a Telemundo one. Spectrum is the primary pay TV operator. 

Adjusting To New Normality 

Staffers are getting used to the work-from home era. WDAF has two buildings. KSHB has three floors and lots of room. “We’re able to have separate bubbles and keep people apart,” said Kathleen Choal, VP and general manager, KSHB-KMCI. 

The energy in the stations may not be what it was. “People in the business love it because it’s loud, it has a pulse to it,” said Sarah Smith, KMBC-KCWE  president/general manager. “It’s more quiet now.” 

Choal marked one year in Kansas City in October. Charlie Henrich, VP and general manager of KCTV-KSMO, arrived in March. 

Earlier in his career, he worked in Kansas City for Newport Television. “The city to me is very familiar,” he said. “The market can pride itself on its consistency.” 

The news race is tight. WDAF won households and the 25-54 demo at 6 a.m. in September. KMBC won the household race at 5 p.m. and WDAF a tight battle in 25-54. At 6 p.m., KMBC won households and WDAF the demo. At 10 p.m., KCTV got a 3.9 in households and WDAF a 3.8, KMBC a 3.5 and KSHB a 1.9. In the 10 p.m. demo, WDAF had a 2.0, KMBC a 1.2, KCTV a 1.1 and KSHB a 0.6. 

WDAF goes live at 4 a.m. KMBC has a lively investigative approach. “Do we do the day-to-day things? Yes,” said Smith. “But we try to dig a little deeper.” 

KCWE started a 60-minute noon news Sept. 21. KCTV launched a 9 a.m. news in June, in place of a lifestyle program. “That couldn’t have come at a better time for us,” said Henrich. 

KSHB offers news segments called “The Rebound.” “We want to give people hope,” said Choal. “That’s a hard thing to find.” 

Both KGKC and KUKC do news inserts, but not full local newscasts … yet. “My goal is to produce local content, including news,” said Steve Downing, general manager at KGKC, shooting for a morning newscast next year. 

Both Spanish-language stations hustled to keep viewers up to date on Census and election information. “Even though we’re not a full news station, we do a lot of outreach in the community,” said Velia Chavez, general manager at KUKC. 

The Chiefs are the reigning Super Bowl champs, and look strong again in 2020. In these divisive times, it’s something everyone in DMA No. 32 can agree on. “Everyone is proud that [quarterback] Patrick Mahomes calls this city home,” said Smith. 

Kansas City offers a favorable mix of both cosmopolitan and folksy vibes. “There are lots of big-city amenities,” said Brogden-Miller, “but not a lot of big-city problems.”

KMCI OFFERS DAILY SCHOOL LESSONS

Scripps independent station KMCI is partnering with the Kansas City Public Schoools on KCPS Homeroom, a school lessons program that airs from 8-9 a.m. weekdays. As the pandemic took hold and students were not permitted in schools, Kathleen Choal, VP and general manager of KSHB-KMCI, reached out to the public school system and asked if the stations could help. The school system said yes. 

Kansas City schools are a mix of hybrid and remote learning these days. Kansas City Public Schools pays a modest fee for air time (“It’s not designed to be a money-maker for us,” Choal said) and has school staff deliver the lessons, which target kindergarten to 12th grade students. The hour is commercial-free and the school system handles production. 

“What we’re trying to do is bridge the divide between the kids that have internet access and the kids who don’t,” Choal said. 

The partnership began in August with graduation videos and rolled into lessons when school began. It will continue throughout the school year. 

“We think it’s a good service to our community,” Choal said. — MM

Meredith has promoted WNEM Saginaw-Flint general sales manager Ken Frierson to VP and general manager. He starts immediately. 

“Ken has been an extraordinary member of WNEM-TV 5 for over a decade and has worked in the local television industry for nearly a quarter century,” said Meredith Local Media Group president Patrick McCreery. “He has successfully led the WNEM sales team and helped the station consistently grow its market share, a pattern I’m confident will continue in his role as General Manager.”

Frierson succeeds Julie Zoumbaris, who left WNEM in July.

Frierson started as an account executive at Fox affiliate WSMH Flint and then joined WNEM-TV 5, a CBS affiliate, and Meredith in 1991. He worked at WEYI in Flint as regional sales manager before being promoted to national sales manager. Frierson returned to Meredith in 2010 as WNEM-TV 5’s local sales manager and was promoted to general sales manager in 2018. 

He has also worked at stations in Peoria, Syracuse, Detroit and Troy, Michigan. 

“It’s exciting to become general manager of such an incredible television station in the same market where I started my career,” said Frierson. “I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the spectacular team at WNEM and serve the people of Mid-Michigan.”

Frierson serves on the board of directors for the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

Flint-Saginaw-Bay City is DMA No. 77. 

Meredith’s Local Media Group includes 17 television stations.

Former Entertainment Tonight co-host Nancy O’Dell has joined Meredith’s new magazine strip, People (the TV Show!), which premieres on Meredith-owned TV stations in 12 markets on Monday, Sept. 14. O’Dell’s first exclusive with Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood will air as a two-part special on Monday, Sept. 14 and Tuesday, Sept. 15. 

O’Dell is reuniting with Rob Silverstein at People. O’Dell co-hosted NBCUniversal's Access Hollywood with Billy Bush for 13 years while Silverstein executive produced. She departed Access Hollywood in 2009. In January 2011, she was named co-host of CBS Television Distribution’s Entertainment Tonight, which she left in 2019.

“In her many years of covering entertainment news, and in the many years Nancy and I have worked together, I have witnessed how she has established trust and an incredible rapport with many A-list celebrities,” said Silverstein in a statement. “Nancy brings credibility, honesty, and authenticity – all primary characteristics she shares with the beloved People brand.”

Meredith took over ownership of People as part of its acquisition of Time Inc. in early 2018.

"After taking a personal break, I am excited to have found the perfect brand, colleagues, and opportunity with People (the TV Show!) – it just doesn’t get any bigger or more reputable than People,” said O’Dell, also in a statement. 

People (the TV Show!) will be hosted by Kay Adams and Lawrence K. Jackson with contributors Jeremy Parsons and Sandra Vergara.

In the COVID-19 infected economy, every little bit helps for small business, and Meredith Corp. and its MNI Targeted Media division have launched an ad campaign pitching that a small investment in targeted advertising can yield pretty big results.

The ad campaign uses the theme “I Believe.” Spots show a tire dealer who generated $12,000 in profit within a month of running a campaign with MNI. 

The spots are targeted market by market where Meredith owns stations: “Some good news, St. Louis. A local tire shop owner tried something new: targeted mobile ads. He made $12,000 in the first week. It’s easier than you think. Meredith St. Louis and MNI can help you too.”

In addition to St. Louis, the spots have started running in Atlanta and Las Vegas. In the next two weeks, they’ll run in all 12 markets where Meredith owns stations.

Running commercials to persuade small businesses to advertise is a bit unusual. Using TV ads to sell targeted digital ads is even more unique.

According to Vicki Brakl, senior VP of marketing, training and development at MNI, MNI think of itself as a small business within Meredith. “I don’t have a big budget, so one has to be really nimble and think about what we have at our disposal.”

What Meredith has are TV stations and MNI decided to work with them at a time when viewing is up as people shelter at home to reduce the spread of the coronavirus but ad demand is soft ahead of the elections, Brakl said. 

The virus has made business tough for small businesses. Most of those that are open are looking to conserve dollars, which in some cases means advertising less, or not at all.

“I’ve worked with small businesses so I understand that. But it’s amazing what you can do with very targeted advertising for not a ton of money and get some great returns if you do it the right way,’ she said.

Brakl said MNI came up with the ad in-house. “We produced it in-house. We’re kind of walking the walk and talking the talk just like a small business ourselves where we’re appealing to small business owners in those communities,” she said.

The ad was based on a real case study of a real Meredith ad client who owns a couple of tire repair stores in a southeastern market. With a small investment, an ad campaign generated $12,000 in profit in just a week.

“Sometimes smaller businesses are intimidated and think they need to be a big player and have a big agency to run a spot or create an ad and that’s just not true,” Brakl said. “You can still advertise and not spend a ton of money,” she said, adding that MNI has people on the ground in each of Meredith’s 12 TV markets to help small business owners plan campaigns.

“We will walk you through that and create a relationship that will make you feel comfortable all the way through,” she said.

MNI usually runs ads in social media and online. Using TV is a new wrinkle.

“We really believe in the power of local media and we really believe in the small business owner and we want to be able to support them with targeted advertising. It can be done right. You just have to have the conversation,” Brakl said.

Rob Silverstein, former executive producer of NBCUniversal’s Access Hollywood, has been named executive producer and showrunner for Meredith’s new half-hour syndicated strip based on the People magazine brand. The new show is expected to launch in Meredith’s 12 local TV markets this fall.

“Rob is a Hollywood insider and veteran TV producer. He led Access Hollywood for two decades, created and launched Access Live, and produced several Emmy and Golden Globes red carpet specials,” said Gary Brown, senior VP of content for the Meredith Local Content Group, in a statement. “We are thrilled to have someone with Rob’s breadth of experience in this new venture into syndicated programming.”

The new show will include celebrity and human-interest stories as well as entertainment news, beauty and style, true crime and more. It will air weekdays in Meredith’s 12 markets: Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis, Portland, Nashville, Kansas City, Hartford-New Haven, Greenville-Spartanburg, Las Vegas, Mobile-Pensacola, Flint-Saginaw, and Springfield-Holyoke, Mass. Ultimately, the team expects to expand the show into national syndication.

Silverstein joined Access Hollywood as a weekend producer and was promoted to executive producer in 1999. He also was a senior producer of NBC’s series American Gladiators.

Before joining Access Hollywood, he served as broadcast producer for the Fox News program, Front Page; a producer for CBS Sports; and executive sports producer for KMOX Radio in St. Louis.

Meredith acquired Time Inc., including People, in January 2018. The company has since sold some of Time’s most prominent magazine assets, including Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money, but held on to People. 

New York -- Despite the number of available stations dwindling as the industry continues to consolidate, a panel of top broadcast executives at the NAB Show New York said there was still room for more deals.

Nexstar Media, which completed its $7.2 billion purchase of Tribune Media Group in September, making it the largest station group in the country with nearly 200 stations, sees some opportunities to add scale. Chairman and CEO Perry Sook said that M&A prospects are limited by federal ownership regulations, but he added that other station groups are expected to seek additional scale.

Sook noted that the available pool of stations is shrinking: In 2001 there were 36 companies in local TV that had a national reach of 2% or greater. Now that has dwindled to about a dozen companies.

“There are fewer companies left to buy,” Sook said. He added that “M&A is not as easy as hitting button and buying a stock. I don’t know what’s on the horizon, but I predict there will be M&A.”

Meredith Local Media Group president Patrick McCreery said that he expects that outside money, particularly from private equity groups, will continue to flow into the sector, beefing up the M&A opportunities.

“It [the broadcast business] isn’t new and it isn’t sexy,” McCreery said. “But it is profitable.”

The executives seemed to take exception with analysts that have predicted that one of the more consistent growth engines in the business -- retransmission consent revenue -- was on the decline.

At the TVB Forward conference last month Wolfe Research managing director Marci Ryvicker predicted that retrans revenue would slow to around 7% growth after 2024, flattening out in later years. Other analysts have also predicted a slowdown, especially as cable operators continue to lose video subscribers.

Sook said that he still sees double-digit percentage growth on the retrans front, with McCreery and Gray TV president and co-CEO Patrick LaPlatney in agreement.

Driving that optimism is the belief that broadcasters account for about 35% of TV viewership while capturing just 18% of the revenue. And though achieving total parity -- which Ryvicker predicted would mean a consumer’s retrans bill would rise to $28 per month -- isn’t necessarily in the cards, the panelists believe there is room to get closer.

“The numbers are rough, but we think there is some runway there,” LaPlatney said.

Sizing Up Cannabis Ad Prospects

On the advertising front, the panelists said the nascent move toward impressions-based advertising, which would make it easier for advertisers to buy a broadcaster's full audience across all platforms, would result in a 5% to 10% increase in ad revenue easily. Even before that, though, they said there is still life in traditional broadcaster ad categories.

While auto ads have declined along with car sales, execs said that other segments have picked up, including legal and professional services. McCreery said that professional services were on par with auto for the first time ever at Meredith stations in calendar Q1 and Q2. Broadcasters are expected to take a smaller bite of political ads in this cycle, though, as digital grows. Some predict broadcast’s share will drop from 66% to 57% of total political ad revenue this year. Station execs said they were taking action to try to address the decline. McCreery said at Meredith, which also has a publishing unit, direct mail ads could factor into to taking the edge off some of the political declines. 

Sook said growth in TV ad revenue is usually fueled by the emergence of a new segment, something he says he hasn’t seen yet. But McCreery said there is a potential windfall in the cannabis category. “None of us want to touch it with a ten-foot pole right now because of the legislation, but that’s a pot of money I’d like to get my hands into,” McCreery said.

There are legal hurdles, though, as McCreery acknowledged. Cannabis sales outside of medical purposes are only legal in a handful of states and are illegal at the federal level. Sook said Nexstar has been approached about running ads in the past, and has declined.

“We’ve been approached, and we’ve said we’re a federally regulated entity just like the banks and until it’s deemed OK to do business with these folks, we’ve got more at risk than that,” Sook said.

[embed]https://twitter.com/BCMikeMalone/status/1184494595989819392[/embed]

The FCC has approved the sale of Time Warner's WPCH-TV Atlanta to Meredith for $70 million.

The application was filed in February and was part of the strategy to avoid FCC review of the AT&T-Time Warner merger.

Related: Time Warner Selling WPCH to Meredith

Had Time Warner still owned the station, AT&T would have had to submit the merger for FCC review of that license transfer instead of simply submitting it to the Justice Department for antitrust review. The FCC's review goes beyond whether a deal is anticompetitive to look at its pro-public interest benefits.

Meredith has a JSA with WPCH — formerly Turner's Superstation WTBS — for more than 15% of ad time, so it already has an attributable interest in the station. It already owns WGCL-TV there, but the market is large enough to accommodate duopolies.

Time Warner has some other FCC licenses — for internal links between CNN field trucks and studios — but AT&T had signaled those will not be part of the deal either.

The assignment of license was granted April 14, but the FCC had not yet released the public notice of the approval at press time Tuesday (April 18).

Time Warner has filed an application with the FCC to sell its lone TV station, WPCH Atlanta, to Meredith Corp. Meredith has been operating the station for Time Warner, so it would not be a big change.   

The purchase price is $70 million, according to the agreement, which was filed with the FCC today (Feb. 23).

Meredith has a JSA with WPCH--—formerly Turner's Superstation WTBS—for more than 15% of ad time, so it already has an attributable interest in the station. It already owns WGCL-TV there.

AT&T has said its deal to purchase Time Warner would not have to be filed with the FCC—which presupposed the sale of that station, since if the license transferred to AT&T, the FCC would have to review it on public interest grounds. 

Time Warner has some other FCC licenses—for internal links between CNN field trucks and studios—but AT&T has signaled those will not be part of the deal either.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai would not comment on whether the FCC would use that WPCH sale to get at the larger AT&T-Time Warner merger, but that would appear unlikely from the deregulatory Republican.

There had been speculation that Time Warner would either have to sell the station or place it in a trust to avoid the FCC review.

Altice USA's request that CBS-affiliate WFSB in Connecticut unblock programming to its customers in the state for the National Football League’s AFC Championship game on Jan. 22, pitting the local favorite New England Patriots vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, has been stuffed.

WFSB, which broadcasts to a small portion of Altice USA customers in Litchfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut, went dark on Jan. 13 after the parties could not reach a retransmission consent agreement. Altice USA said the bulk of its Connecticut customers can see the game via the New York CBS affiliate (WCBS). The cable operator has also offered customers a free trial of CBS All Access, the over-the-top offering from the broadcaster, to watch the playoffs and other network content online. 

The fact that WFSB has not unblocked the channel shouldn’t be surprising. Going dark is usually a station’s only leverage in retrans negotiations and compelling event programming – like NFL playoff games – is usually what gets the parties to reach a compromise.

On its website, WFSB called Altice USA an “outlier,” adding that it has reached retrans agreements with every other distributor with no disruption in service.

“Without fair and equitable treatment, local TV stations will not be able to continue to provide top quality news, sports, entertainment, and other local programming that is most important to you,” WFSB said on its website.

Officials at WFSB parent Meredith Corp. did not immediately return a request for comment.

Altice USA said this is the second time its request to make the channel available for the NFL playoffs has been denied – it made the same plea for the Patriot’s Jan. 14 meeting with the Houston Texans in the AFC divisional playoff. Meredith refused that request even though the two U.S. Senators representing the state – Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy – had asked the channel be made available to Altice customers while talks continued.

“We’ve heard from our Litchfield and New Haven customers and know they want to watch the Patriots game this weekend,” Altice USA said in a statement. “We’re frustrated too and think it’s outrageous that WFSB refuses to put the channel back on for our customers as we continue our negotiations. We have asked WFSB and its owners repeatedly to stop holding our customers hostage. If WFSB cares about its viewers then why won’t they agree to put the game on?”

Shortly after Nexstar Broadcasting Group said it had reached an agreement with Media General to acquire the broadcaster in a cash and stock deal valued at $4.7 billion, Media General’s former suitor – Meredith Corp. – upped the ante by sweetening its offer for the company to more than $20 per share.

The potential bidding war sent Media General shares up about 4% (70 cents per share) to $16.37 each in early trading Thursday. Nexstar shares were down 5.4% ($3.07 each) to $53.83 and Meredith shares fell 1.7% (71 cents each) to $40.75 per share.

In a statement Thursday, Media General and Nexstar said they had agreed to a deal that will give Media General shareholders $10.55 per share in cash and 0.1249 shares of Nexstar stock for every Media General share they own. Media General shareholders also are expected to receive cash consideration from the upcoming Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction, boosting the total value of the deal to $17.66 per share. But that deal was contingent on Media General canceling its agreement to buy Meredith Corp. for $2.4 billion in cash and stock.

In a statement Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry Sook said the combination would be a “transformational event that enables both companies’ shareholders to participate in the near- and long-term upside of a pure-play broadcasting company with expanded audience reach, a more diversified portfolio and a significantly stronger financial profile, led by a proven broadcast and digital media management team.”

Nexstar also noted that it intends to divest the TV stations necessary to obtain FCC regulatory approval of the proposed transaction.

Not to be outdone, Meredith countered with an offer that includes $3.90 per share in cash (a total of $510 million); an even exchange of one share of Meredith stock for every Media General share (a pro-forma equity value of $14.94 per share) and a contingent value right for cash proceeds resulting from the upcoming Federal Communications Commission spectrum auctions that could be worth as much as $4.29 per share after taxes.

Media General shareholders would own 50.2% and Meredith shareholders, who would receive 2.8244 shares of Meredith Media General for each share of Meredith, would own 49.8% of the combined Meredith Media General.  Meredith shareholders would receive $14.95 per Meredith share in cash at closing for total cash proceeds of approximately $685 million.

"We're confident that the combination of Meredith and Media General will generate superior value over both the near- and long-term, particularly when compared to the unsolicited offer Nexstar Broadcasting Group has made for Media General," said Meredith Chairman and CEO Stephen Lacy in a statement.  "Given the compelling and superior value inherent in this proposal, we ask that the Media General Board of Directors re-enter serious negotiations around the Merger of Equals structure and its merits." 

Media General had agreed in September to buy Meredith in a deal valued at $2.4 billion. While that deal would have boosted the combined companies’ reach to 88 broadcast stations across the country, some critics of the deal said Meredith’s publishing assets – including Parents, Family Circle and Better Homes & Garden magazines – would be a drag on results.

Nexstar made its first counter offer just a few weeks later, proposing a $4.1 billion stock and cash offer for the company.

A Nexstar pairing with Media General wouldn’t be without problems either. The combined company would be a stronger No. 2 broadcast group with about 162 stations across the country – second only to Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s 164 stations, but would  most likely have to divest some stations to receive FCC approval of the deal. Nexstar has said it is willing to do that.  

Broadcaster Gray TV said it has reached a deal to acquire the TV and radio assets of Schurz Communications in a deal valued at about $442.5 million. The transaction comes on the heels of Media General’s $2.4 billion agreement to acquire Meredith Corp.

The deal is the latest in what could be a new push for consolidation in the broadcast market. Gray TV has about 76 stations in 45 markets in the South, Southwest, Midwest and West. With the addition of Schurz, Gray will grow to about 86 stations in 49 markets in 28 states, adding properties in Wichita, Kans., (KWCH-TV, CBS); Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va., (WDBJ-TV, CBS); Springfield, Mo., (KYTV, NBC); South Bend Ind. (WSBT, CBS); Rapid City, S.D., (KOTA, ABC); and Anchorage, Ak., (KTUU, NBC). WDBJ in Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va., is where two journalists – Alison Parker and Adam Ward – were murdered on air by a former employee in August.

The sale comes as some analysts believe that a new consolidation wave could sweep the broadcast business, as stations look to increase their leverage with content providers.

In a statement Gray said it would divest two stations – KAKE-TV in Wichita, WNDU in South Bend – to comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations. In addition, Gray said it would combine its existing operations in Georgia and South Dakota with Schurz’ stations in those markets. It plans to offer Schurz’s Augusta, Ga., station WAGTV in the upcoming FCC spectrum auction.   

"Today is a momentous day in Gray's 118-year history," said Gray CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr., in a statement. "Through the Schurz transaction, we will significantly expand the quality of our portfolio of leading television stations. We welcome more dedicated reporters, account executives, and technologists to our growing family. Quite simply, Gray's existing stations will make the Schurz stations stronger, while the Schurz stations will make our existing stations better."

Schurz, based in Mishawaka, Ind., owns TV and radio stations, newspapers and four cable systems in Arizona, Florida and Maryland with about 90,000 subscribers.  Gray said Schurz’s non-broadcast assets would not be included in the sale. The company was created in 1872 when Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett founded the South Bend Tribune, and their descendants still own the firm today.

"In a rapidly consolidating industry where size and scale matter more than ever before, we have come to the realization that Gray Television would be the best steward to ensure our stations succeed over the long-term," explained Todd Schurz, President and CEO of Schurz. "Gray knows how to operate top stations in small and medium-sized markets, and they have an entrepreneurial and decentralized culture," he continued. "Moreover, Gray shares our commitment to local communities, staffs, journalistic ideals, and the broadcasting industry. Being part of a larger company with these important credentials will create more opportunities for employees and the communities that we all love."