The Dallas Mavericks became the latest team to fast-break their local game telecasts from a regional sports network to a broadcaster, announcing a deal with Tegna.

Tegna’s KMPX in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market will broadcast all Mavericks games not exclusively televised nationally for free.

WFAA, the Tegna-owned ABC affiliate in Dallas, will simulcast at least 15 of those games.

The games will also be broadcast by Tegna stations in Waco, Midland-Odessa, Abilene and San Angelo.

Tegna said Mavericks telecasts will reach about 10 million people over the air — that’s triple the audience reach the team achieved via cable under its old deal with RSN Bally Sports South. 

“We are looking forward to giving Dallas Mavericks fans every opportunity possible to watch our exciting team build on the momentum of its incredible run to the NBA Finals last season,” Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont said. “Our new agreement with Tegna helps meaningfully deliver on that goal by broadcasting more games to more local homes than in any period in franchise history. Through our new partnership with Tegna and our expanded relationship with WFAA, more Mavs fans than ever before will be able to watch the team they love.”

WFAA becomes the official local broadcast partner of the Dallas Mavericks. WFAA and Tegna will lead local and regional advertising and sponsorship sales for all local games, and Tegna will work with partner broadcast companies to announce additional Texas markets.

“This is an incredible day for Mavs fans and our partners across Texas, and we are grateful to the Mavericks organization for their partnership and trust,” Tegna senior VP, media operations Brad Ramsey, said. “Mavericks fans, our audience, and our advertising partners had an unbelievable reaction to the 10 games we made available last season, and we are thrilled to build off of that momentum and make every game, home or away, available to more fans in more homes.”

Joseph Holloway has joined Tegna's WOI and KCWI in Des Moines, Iowa, as anchor and executive producer of Good Morning Iowa.

Holloway had been an anchor/reporter at WCNC, Raleigh, N.C.

“We’re excited to have Joseph join our team,” says Local 5 news director Perry Pace. “With his extensive experience, he’s the perfect fit as both an anchor and a leader for Good Morning Iowa. I’m confident that his calm, thoughtful, and energetic style will inspire our team and connect with our viewers.”

Before WCNC, Holloway was anchor/reporter at KOTV, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a reporter and fill-in anchor at KNWA in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A sports fan, Holloway has also worked freelance in sports journalism for ESPN, CBS, and Cox Sports Television.

“People have a right to know what’s going on in their neighborhoods,“ Holloway said. ”I’m passionate about making sure they know the whole story so they can make their own decisions.” 

Gray Television has made a deal with Tegna and the Seattle Kraken to air Kraken National Hockey League games in two Alaska markets.

Tegna earlier made a deal to broadcast 70 regular season Kraken games on KING and KONG, its stations in Seattle, as well as KGW in Portland, Oregon, and KREM and KSKN in Spokane, Washington.

Gray’s KAUU Anchorage and KYEX Juneau will also air the games.

Tegna said additional broadcasters in Washington and Oregon are expected to be added to the Kraken broadcast network.

“Gray’s leading Alaskan television stations are proud to partner with the Kraken and Tegna to bring Kraken games to free over-the-air television in Anchorage and Juneau,” Sandy Breland, chief operating officer of Gray Media, said. “Gray’s stations and the Kraken are both a key part of the culture in the Pacific Northwest, making this a great win for viewers and fans.”

With cord-cutting contributing to the collapse of regional sports networks on cable, more leagues and teams are putting games on local broadcast stations, counting on getting added reach by putting games over the air.

 Also Read: Will Broadcast’s Local Sports Comeback Stand Up?

“We couldn’t be more excited or more proud to partner with Tegna and Gray Media to expand our broadcast reach into Anchorage and Juneau,” said Jeff Webster, chief commercial officer for the Seattle Kraken. “We’ve built an incredible relationship with the hockey community in Alaska over the years and it’s important that we continue to foster that connection. This partnership is another example of our commitment to making Kraken hockey accessible for our fans in Alaska and beyond.”

The Kraken will open the season by facing off against the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 8. 

“Our partnership with the Kraken is all about their passionate fans and delivering more games to more people in more homes,” Tegna senior VP, media operations Brad Ramsey said. “We are thrilled with the early momentum we are seeing from advertisers and sponsors in Seattle, Portland and Spokane, and grateful to our friends at Gray for helping us expand free over-the-air Kraken games beyond the continental United States.”

Christopher Franklin has been named president and general manager of WATN-WLMT Memphis, Tennessee, the Tegna-owned ABC-CW duopoly. He’s been interim general manager since earlier this year and starts in the official role immediately. 

Franklin joined WATN-WLMT in 2020 and had been marketing director. 

“Chris brings a wide range of skills and talent to his new role in Memphis,” Tegna senior VP, media operations Paul Trelstad said. “With a management style that is the embodiment of the stations’ ‘Solution Seekers’ ethos, Chris’ passion for Memphis and the people of Tennessee makes him the perfect person to lead WATN and WLMT into the future.”

Rick Rogala was the WATN-WLMT general manager, until he took on the GM job at WBNS Columbus, Ohio, also part of Tegna, in February.

Earlier in his career, Franklin worked at Fox Television Stations, and had been director of media production at Hope Church. Prior to his time at Hope, he worked for security company Guardsmark, managing video production. 

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead and serve our Tegna Memphis television stations,” Franklin said. “My primary focus is on recruiting, training and developing great people while also maintaining our strong connection with the Memphis community. As my pastor wisely emphasizes, ‘There is no impact without contact!’ It’s essential to actively engage and demonstrate dedication to our entire Memphis community to foster genuine business and community relationships. I am truly looking forward to the rewarding journey that lies ahead.”

Michael Steib will succeed David Lougee as president, CEO and director at Tegna as of August 12. Lougee, 65, will retire from those roles and will become a senior adviser. 

Steib, 48, is CEO of Artsy, an online platform for discovering and collecting art, after a stint as president and CEO of XO Group, parent company of The Knot. 

Earlier, he was in executive positions at NBCUniversal and Google. 

“Dave has had a great run at Tegna,” Tegna chairman Howard Elias said. “The board and I deeply appreciate all he has done to build the company into an industry leader with a strong financial position and a commitment to the communities in which we operate, but we understand his desire to retire as CEO at this juncture. Over the past year, the board has engaged in a thoughtful and comprehensive succession process to identify Tegna future leadership. We are fortunate that Mike Steib will be Dave’s successor working with a top-notch team. Mike is a dynamic executive with technology and digital savvy, a passion for local journalism, deep advertising and media experience, a history of developing high performance teams, and a track record of successfully building businesses and driving business model transformation. We are confident he has the broad skill set that will be necessary to chart Tegna’s future at a time of unprecedented change in our industry.”

Tegna owns 64 TV stations, multicast networks True Crime and Quest, and OTT ad platform Premion. 

Back when he worked in television, Steib was Google’s director of TV ads and NBCU’s general manager of strategic ventures. 

“I believe deeply in the power of local news to connect our communities and strengthen our democracy,“ Steib said. “And I am excited about the many opportunities to leverage technology to enhance this service and generate substantial value for shareholders. With strong operations in more than 50 key markets across America, a history of exceptional journalism, strong cash flow, and a talented and passionate team, Tegna is incredibly well positioned to seize this moment and build a bright future for local news and community in our country.”

Lougee joined Tegna in 2007. Prior to becoming president and CEO in 2017, Lougee was executive VP of Belo. Earlier in his career, he was VP of news at WRC Washington and news director at KUSA Denver.

“I am confident that Mike is the right CEO to take Tegna into the future at a time of profound change in our industry, and I look forward to helping him in any way I can,” Lougee said. “I am very proud of all we have accomplished over the last seven years and have been fortunate to work with a terrific board, superb management team, and dedicated employees.”

Lougee was inducted into the B+C Hall of Fame in 2015. 

Tegna said it was ending production of Daily Blast Live, which has aired on Tegna stations since it was launched in 2017. 

“Daily Blast Live will be sunset after this season’s final show on Friday, September 6,” Tegna said in a statement.

We wish to thank our incredibly talented on-air talent and production team for bringing daytime viewers seven seasons of energetic, humorous and thoughtful debate. We look forward to celebrating DBL’s best moments in the coming months ahead of the show’s conclusion,” Tegna said.

Daily Blast Live, originally called BOLD (Broadcast Online Live Daily) replaced Tegna’s talk show T.D. Jakes. 

Tegna and partner Sony Pictures Television shopped the show to other station groups, but couldn’t get those broadcasters to pay a licence fee.  It launched on 36 Tegna stations covering 25% of the country and  later appeared in about 50 markets.

Daily Blast Live was designed to be produced fresh for each time zone, covering the stories people were talking about.

David Loving srtarts as president and general manager of KHOU-KTBU Houston May 20. He comes from WOI-KCWI Des Moines, where he was the general manager. Both duopolies are part of Tegna. 

Robert Springer, the previous general manager at KHOU-KTBU, announced his departure last month. 

Loving knows Houston well, having been president and general manager of Univision’s KXLN from 2010 to 2019. 

“Among a deep pool of candidates, David stood out for his understanding of what it truly means to ‘Stand for Houston,’ ” said Brad Ramsey, senior VP, media operations, Tegna. “His previous experience in Houston is invaluable, and I’m excited to see all that he and the talented KHOU team can accomplish together.”

Loving is a graduate of Texas A&M University. He has spent 28 years in various roles across Houston, Austin and San Antonio, and was a board member of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Mexico Gulf Coast Chamber, and the Texas Association of Broadcasters.

”Returning to Houston, one of the greatest cities in the U.S., fills me with immense excitement,” he said. “Teaming up with the outstanding professionals at KHOU, I am eager to reconnect with Houston’s vibrant community and valued clients and celebrate the rich diversity that makes the city truly exceptional.”

KHOU is the CBS affiliate in DMA No. 8. 

Ramsey saluted the departing Springer as well. "His contributions at KHOU, KUSA [Denver] and KARE [Minneapolis], as well as Tegna at large, are too numerous to count," he said. "He has been a model of what it means to serve the greater good of our communities and to Stand for Houston."

Tegna, which made a deal to broadcast 17 Indiana Fever games featuring top WNBA draft pick Caitlin Clark, said it made deals that will put the games on stations in 11 additional markets.

In addition to Tegna’s WOI Davenport, Iowa; WHAS Louisville, Kentucky; and WOI Des Moines, Iowa; the games will air on stations owned by Gray Television, Sinclair, Nexstar Media Group, Coastal Television Broadcasting Group and Weigel Broadcasting.

“This is a pivotal moment for our Fever team and women’s basketball, more broadly, and this groundbreaking partnership with Tegna will ensure more fans than ever will be able to watch this historic season,” Rick Fuson, CEO of Fever owner Pacers Sports and Entertainment, said.

With cord-cutting and the decline of the cable regional sports networks, broadcast stations have clamored to add sports to their lineups. Women's sports, including the WNBA, are also hot, boosted by the popularity of Clark. Some stations are airing the majority of a local team’s games, like in Phoenix, where the majority of Suns and Mercury games are on broadcast. In other markets, a smaller package of games are being broadcast. 

“We could not be more excited to make these exciting WNBA games available to more fans, in more homes, across more markets, including Caitlin Clark’s home state of Iowa,” said Brad Ramsey, senior VP, media operations at Tegna. “We are grateful to the Pacers organization, the WNBA and our broadcast partners for their trust and for helping us create a first-of-its-kind fan experience.”

The first game to be broadcast will be May 16 when the Fever plays the New York Liberty.

“This is a key moment for women’s sports and live sports on broadcast television. Continuing Gray’s commitment to live local sports,” added Sandy Breland, chief operating officer of Gray Television. “Gray is beyond excited to bring the Fever free, over the air to local viewers in Cincinnati, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lexington and South Bend.”

Here are the stations that will be airing Fever games this season:

• Indianapolis, Ind.: WTHR 13.1, 13.3 & WALV 46.1 (Tegna)
• Champaign-Springfield, Ill.: WCIX 49.1 & WCIA 3.1 (Nexstar)
• Cincinnati, Ohio: WXIX 19.3 (Gray Television)
• Davenport, Iowa: WQAD 8.1, 8.3 (Tegna)
• Dayton, Ohio: WKEF 22.3 (Sinclair)
• Des Moines, Iowa: WOI 5.1 & KCWI 23.1 (TEGNA)
• Evansville, Ind.: WFIE 14.2 (Gray Television)
• Fort Wayne, Ind.: WPTA 21.3 (Gray Television)
• Lafayette, Ind.: WPBY 35.1, 35.2 (Coastal Television Broadcasting Group)
• Lexington, Ky.: WKYT 27.2 (Gray Television)
• Louisville, Ky.: WHAS 11.1, 11.2 (Tegna)
• South Bend, Ind.: WCWW 25.1 & WMYS 69.1 (Weigel); WNDU 16.2 (Gray Television)

Tegna said it named Greg Retsinas as president and general manager of KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon, effective June 3.

Retsinas has been KGW’s news director for the past five years. He succeeds Steve Carter, who is retiring after 32 years with Tegna.

“Greg’s leadership at KGW has been distinguished by integrity, curiosity and accountability, qualities that have garnered the unwavering respect of the KGW team,” said Mark Cornetta, senior VP, media operations at Tegna and president and general manager, KUSA. “His experience and commitment to serving the unique community that is Portland coupled with a proven track record of results make him the ideal steward to lead KGW into the future.”

As news director, Retsinas followe a digital-first strategy, adding digital and streaming content. Before that is was the station’s director of digital strategy and regional digital director for Tegna. 

Before joining Tegna in 2014, Retsinas worked in print and digital newsrooms, spending 15 years with the New York Times Co., in reporting and management roles.

“I am honored and excited to take on this leadership role at KGW, a station with a proven legacy of serving our community through our news, advertising, and community solutions,” Retsinas said. “Along with our talented team, I am proud to continue to help make a positive impact for those we serve. Innovation and authenticity have been our station’s hallmarks for decades, and as we look ahead, I’m eager to build on that success and lead the KGW team in creating a new, exciting future.” 

The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast its games on stations owned by Tegna and stream them on Amazon Prime Video in the Northwest.

Root Sports Northwest had televised the Kraken during the team’s previous three seasons.

Tegna stations KING and KONG in Seattle, KGW in Portland and KREM in Spokane will broadcast all 70-plus non-nationally televised Kraken games starting next season.

KING will be the official television partner of the Kraken.

Tegna said it will work with other broadcasters to televise Kraken games in other markets in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

The Kraken also become the first NHL team to work directly with a streaming service. 

Prime Video will stream all non-nationally televised games to Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Prime will also have preseason games and the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Root has been a terrific partner for us; we have appreciated their support as we determined our broadcast plans moving forward,” Kraken owner Sam Holloway said. “Today’s announcement is a game-changer for our fans. Our goal is to increase the ways they can watch our games — whether they’re cheering us on at home or on the go. To have both Tegna and Prime Video as trusted partners is a dream come true. I can’t wait for more fans to fall in love with Kraken hockey.”

With cord-cutting impacting the cable industry, fewer fans are pay TV subscribers, limiting the number of people who can watch games.

Cord-cutting also puts financial pressure on the RSNs, which lose subscription and advertising revenue while programming rights costs stay high.

Last year, Diamond Sports, the largest RSN operator, declared bankruptcy and dropped its contract with a number of teams.

The Arizona Coyotes (which last week announced a move to Salt Lake City, Utah) and Vegas Golden Knights have also taken the bulk of their local game telecasts to broadcast.

“Our collaboration with the Seattle Kraken marks a significant milestone in our commitment to celebrating the essence of local sports on local broadcast television,” Tegna president Dave Lougee said. “We look forward to bringing every thrilling moment of Kraken hockey to all viewers in the Pacific Northwest as we build on our long-standing commitment to the region.”

KING ,Tegna and the Kraken will lead advertising and sponsorship sales for all local games.

John Forslund, JT Brown, Eddie Olczyk, Alison Lukan and Nick Olczyk will continue broadcasting the games next season.

“Seattle Kraken hockey is synonymous with the Pacific Northwest, and we're thrilled to bring Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska access to Kraken games on Prime Video,” said Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships, Prime Video. “Live Kraken games add to our growing selection of premium live sports and deliver additional value for Prime members throughout the Kraken home footprint.”

Top WNBA draft choice Caitlin Clark will appear on local broadcast for 17 games next season in a deal between Tegna and the Indiana Fever.

At a time when women’s sports — and women’s basketball in particular — are exploding in popularity with viewers and advertisers, Tegna’s WTHR, an NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, and WALV, that market’s MeTV affiliate, will offer a close look at Clark, the leading scorer in the history of college basketball.

“This is an exhilarating moment for women’s sports,” Tegna CEO Dave Lougee said. “The WNBA and Fever are leading the charge with this groundbreaking local broadcast rights agreement. The remarkable journey of Caitlin Clark and her teammates has captured the hearts and minds of millions. We’re thrilled to deliver all the Fever action to every household in the Indianapolis region.”

Tegna said it will be working with additional broadcasters to bring Clark and the Fever to more local markets in Indiana’s TV territory.

“So many new fans are tuning in to watch the world’s best basketball players compete in the WNBA, and the Fever have built a roster of incredible young talent that has caught the attention of basketball fans all over the globe,” said Rick Fuson, CEO of Pacers Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Fever and its NBA sibling, the Indiana Pacers. “Tegna and WTHR have been amazing local partners for years, and we are excited that more fans than ever before will get the chance to watch these amazing athletes play.”

Also Read: Scripps Wants Women’s Sports Boom To Boost Ion 

With the collapse of the regional sports network business, a number of teams have signed up to put games on broadcast — either the majority, like the Phoenix Suns and Mercury in Phoenix — or a handful of games, like the Milwaukee Bucks.

Broadcasters are promising team owners and leagues they’ll reach more fans over the air than through cable, even though regional sports network deals in the past have been more lucrative.

“We’re delighted to build on our strong marketing partnership with the Pacers and Fever and our longstanding commitment to local Indianapolis sports,” WTHR general manager Michael Brouder said. “Our station has always been at the center of the biggest local events that capture the spirit of Hoosiers far and wide. Our entire team in front of and behind the camera will be helping the Fever connect with our community and fans like never before.”

The deal between the Fever and Tegna was brokered and negotiated by Dan Granik and David Sternberg of Range Sports, a division of Range Media Partners, long-time consultants to Pacers Sports & Entertainment.

The following games will be shown for free over the air:

• May 16 vs. New York, 7 p.m. WTHR
• May 22 at Seattle, 10 p.m. WTHR
• May 25 at Las Vegas, 9 p.m. WTHR
• May 30 vs. Seattle, 7 p.m. WTHR
• June 1 vs. Chicago, 1 p.m. WALV
• June 10 at Connecticut, 7 p.m. WTHR
• June 13 vs. Atlanta, 7 p.m. WTHR
• July 10 vs. Washington, Noon WTHR
• August 24 at Minnesota, 8 p.m. WALV
• August 26 at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. WTHR
• August 28 vs. Connecticut, 7 p.m. WALV
• September 1 at Dallas, 4 p.m. WALV
• September 4 vs. Los Angeles, 7 p.m. WALV
• September 8 vs. Atlanta, 4 p.m. WTHR
• September 11 vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m. WALV
• September 15 vs. Dallas, 3 p.m. WALV
• September 19 at Washington, 7 p.m. WTHR

* All times ET

Larry Audas, president and general manager of WFMY Greensboro and WZDX Huntsville has announced his retirement. He’s been with Tegna, and Gannett before that, for 29 years, and has worked in broadcasting for 47 years. 

Audas plans to step down April 30. 

“Off we go to better serve kids, grandkids and the most supportive wife ever, together every step of our nomadic travels,” Audas said in a memo to staff. 

Audas took over at the Greensboro, North Carolina, station in 2011 and at the Huntsville, Alabama, station in 2020. Before that, he was president and general manager of KTHV Little Rock, Arkansas, for nine years. Previously, Audas was news director at WLTX Columbia (South Carolina). 

Before moving up to management, Audas was an anchor at KTHV, KPRC Houston and KFOR Oklahoma City. 

“Rather than some personal merit, by the literal grace of God have we enjoyed and survived parts of six crazy, exhilarating, exhausting decades of news, challenge and change,” Audas said in his memo. “My very best wishes and sincere gratitude as you continue to press forward beyond my late April departure.”

Tegna’s KXTV Sacramento, California, is launching a locally produced entertainment show called Take a Look. 

Hosted by Mark S. Allen, who has been part of the station’s The Morning Blend program, Take A Look will debut on March 10 at 1 p.m. as a preview to the Oscars broadcast on ABC. KXTV is an ABC affiliate.

After its debut, the show will air Friday mornings at 9:30 a.m. starting on March 22. 

Take a Look will have rotating celebrity co-hosts and guests and feature celebrity interviews, movie critiques and commentary about upcoming major motion pictures, television shows and streaming series.

“Through luck and longevity, I’ve been able to form solid relationships with some of the most influential and talented individuals who are creating movie and television content,” Allen said. “As a result, I get these opportunities to sit toe-to-toe with legendary award-winning actors, directors, and producers in-studio or on-set around the globe.”

In addition to his successful television career, Allen is a Cannes Film Festival award-winning feature film director and producer and was one of the founding creators of the Critics’ Choice Awards. 

Gray Television, which will air a package of five Cleveland Cavalier basketball games on two Ohio stations this season, said it made deals with Nexstar Media Group, Cox Media Group and Tegna to put the games on additional stations in Ohio.

The move is the latest in a series following an agreement between the National Basketball Association and Diamond Sports Group, the bankrupt owner of the Bally regional sports networks, to increase reach by shifting telecasts to broadcast from cable.

NBA teams have made similar arrangements in markets including Milwaukee, Dallas, New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Gray’s WUAB Cleveland and WXIX Cincinnati will air the five games starting March 8 when the Cavs take on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In Columbus, Tegna will air two games on the WBNS primary channel and another game on digital channel 10.2, which usually carries MeTV programming.

In Dayton, Nexstar’s WBDT will air three games, while CMG’s WHIO will air a pair of contests on digital channel 7.2.

In the Wheeling, West Virginia-Steubenville, Ohio, market, Nexstar’s WTRF will air all five games on digital channel 7.2.

In Youngstown, Nexstar’s WYTV will air all five games on digital channel 32.2.

The five games will not appear on Bally Sports Ohio. 

“We are excited to share that in addition to airing these five games on Gray’s WUAB in Cleveland and WXIX in Cincinnati, Gray has partnered with local television broadcasters to expand the coverage of Cavaliers basketball throughout the region,” said Matt Moran, senior managing VP for Gray Television. 

“These agreements will offer an exceptional viewing experience with unparalleled reach. This is a significant victory for the Cavaliers and sports fans throughout the region,” Moran said.

Comscore said that it reached a multi-year agreement to provide local cross-platform measurement for Tegna in all of the 51 markets where Tegna has television stations.

Comscore competes with Nielsen, the leader in the TV audience measurement business.

Tegna and Comscore signed an agreement in 2020 that called for Comscore to provide ratings in 22 of 51 markets.

In 2021, Tegna renewed a deal with Nielsen that covered 34 of Tegna’s markets.

A Tegna spokesperson did not answer a question about whether Nielsen would continue to work with the company’s stations.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Also Read: Nexstar Picks Comscore for Local, National, Cross-Platform Audience Measurement

“Expanding our partnership with Comscore will offer us deeper insights through digital and qualitative data, enriching cross-platform solutions for our valued advertising partners,” said Lynn Beall, executive VP and COO, media operations, at Tegna. “We look forward to partnering with our clients to deliver their targeted audiences across any platform with precision and effectiveness to grow their business.” 

Also Read: Nexstar Extends Deal With Nielsen for Local, National Ratings

Comscore will provide Tegna with a complete view of audiences across linear, CTV, and digital channels and data  that will help Tegna’s advertising clients optimize their campaigns.

“Comscore is proud to be a valued partner to Tegna which is known for its trustworthy and impactful local journalism and strong connections to the communities they serve,” said Comscore CEO Jon Carpenter. “The combination of our local linear TV data, and our groundbreaking cross-platform solutions will help TEGNA measure the value of their content and deliver outsized value for their advertisers across linear and digital. We're excited to begin this latest phase of our partnership.”

Broadcast stations are looking to keep more of their distribution revenue by changing the way they pay networks for programming — especially sports — to a variable payment model from a fixed reverse-compensation fee.

Cord-cutting has slowed the growth of station retransmission-consent payments, which are calculated on a per-subscriber basis. If pay TV churn accelerates, retrans payments could shrink while networks continue to get their fixed fees from stations. That would pressure profit margins for the affiliates.

Station groups want the networks to share the risk.

On Tegna’s earnings call Thursday, CEO Dave Lougee said some of its new network affiliation deals don’t have fixed fees.

Also Read: Scripps CEO Defends Broadcast as Stocks Fall During Earnings Season

“The majority of these subscribers are now tied to a variable payment model when it comes to our reverse-compensation payments, tying payments to subscriber counts,” Lougee said. 

Lougee noted that Tegna in January renewed its affiliation agreement with NBC, which covers 20 markets and 21 million households.

Some other big broadcasters said they were keen on putting their payments to the networks on a variable basis.

On Gray Television’s call Wednesday, CEO Hilton Howell noted that “all the affiliates of the content companies — cable. satellite and virtual — pay for all channels on a per-sub basis.” Meanwhile, “broadcasters are the only people who are paying the conglomerates on a fixed-fee basis. And so I think the simple answer is that we should be paying on a per-sub basis as well.”

On Nexstar Media Group’s call Wednesday, reverse comp payments came up, but Nexstar execs said the issue wasn’t a simple one of fixed versus variable.

“I think that you have to understand that our agreements are more nuanced even than that,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said.

“Even where we have what you might consider to be fixed arrangements, maybe there are collars around the bandwidth of both growth and contraction, and there are all kinds of elements that go into baking the cake with each of the networks we're on,” Sook said. “I mean they are multifaceted, they are very complex, take a long time to negotiate, and money isn't always the only thing we talk about.”

Sook said he didn’t want to comment on Nexstar’s relationship with any of the networks.

“There are dynamic discussions happening in real time. And I would just say that everyone at the table is aware of what's going on in the industry and that the sands are shifting under our feet. And there is sensitivity to that all around the table,” he said.

“Having been on both sides of the table for those discussions, I think I have probably unique appreciation for the fact that they are each very different, complex,” added Nexstar president and chief operating officer Mike Biard, a former Fox distribution executive. 

“Focusing on a single aspect of those relationships, I think, misses the point,“ Biard said. “Certainly, this is the point from our perspective, which is we're going to manage the entire relationship to the net cost. And I know there's been focus on the fixed-cost aspect that some have talked about. At the right price, I would take fixed cost. It’s all about how that cost works through our business, and that's what we're focused on.”

Although network executives declined to discuss the issue, they would likely take a variable deal if the numbers were in their favor.

Gross retransmission fees were estimated to rise 3% to $14.8 billion this year by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Growth is expected to slow, with fees reaching $15.93 billion in 2027. Affiliates are estimated to keep 48% to 50% of the gross fees, with the rest going to networks.

When stations started getting cash retransmission payments from distributors, the networks argued that national programming, particularly sports, was a big part of what those distributors were paying for, and they wanted a cut of retrans cash.

Originally, the networks took a percentage of retransmission revenue, with some stations paying 50%. 

About 10 years ago, CBS started to ask affiliates to pay a fixed programming fee rather than a percentage of the retransmission payments they negotiated with distributors.

CBS argued that its costs, particularly for long-term sports rights, are fixed and that the affiliate’s payments should also be fixed, matching cost certainty with revenue predictability. (A fixed payment also insures against affiliates allocating a bigger share of retrans payments to the independent stations they own, reducing how much they have to share with the networks.)

Nearly all of CBS’s affiliate deals are for fixed fees, as are Fox’s, sources said.

Now affiliates are pushing to go back to a percentage scheme.

The parent companies of the Big Four networks also own stations and cable networks, so they have a good handle on how many subscribers their affiliates will have through the life of what are typically three-year agreements.

With that knowledge, some industry execs believe the networks would try to negotiate percentage deals that would ultimately generate the same revenue as a fixed fee arrangement.

Network executives said the payment should reflect the value the network brings to the station, but station leaders have said the presence of network programming on network-owned streaming platforms is changing that equation.

“What we have said consistently is we pay [networks] for programming and exclusivity of that programming,” Nexstar’s Sook said. “And to the extent the program is becoming less exclusive, it is less valuable to us, and we potentially will pay you less over time.”

It’s worth noting, though, that affiliates get carriage fees when their signals and local programming are carried by streaming services like Paramount Plus (CBS).

Once upon a time, the networks compensated their affiliates millions of dollars for carrying national programming and advertising in their markets. Now the stations pay the networks. That’s why the stations’ current payments are called reverse compensation. And that was a long time ago.

The drop in political ad spending in 2023 sharply reduced Tegna’s fourth-quarter profits and revenue.

Net income fell 65% to $76.1 million, or 40 cents a share, from $218.6 million, or 97 cents a share, a year ago, the company reported.

Revenue fell 21% to $726 million, mainly due to less political advertising, the company said. Comparted to the previous non-election year of 2021, revenue was down 6%. The company blamed macroeconomic headwinds in the ad market.

Advertising and marketing services revenue edged down 0.3% to $351.9 million, while political advertising plunged 87% to $22.9 million.

Subscription revenue was down 9% To $339 million, mainly due to the six-week blackout that resulted when Tegna’s contract with DirecTV expired at the end of November.

The company said it plans to return 40% to 60% of free cash flow to shareholders over the next two years.

Last year, Tegna’s agreement to be acquired by Standard General fell apart because of a regulatory review that took so long that Standard General’s financing expired.

“Tegna is back on offense, operating from a position of strength,” said CEO Dave Lougee.

“Our new capital allocation framework positions us well to execute our business strategy to drive shareholder value in a continually evolving media landscape,” Lougee said. “This new framework maintains our flexibility to pursue organic investments, bolt-on M&A, and prepare for long range debt maturities.”

Lougee said that 93% of Tegna’s Big 4 network subscribers are now under network agreements  that run through late 2026 or longer. The majority of these subscribers are tied to a variable payment model when it comes to our reverse compensation payments, tying payments to subscriber counts, he said.

“Our high-margin, recurring revenues from subscription and political advertising drive confidence in our outlook, as demonstrated by our multi-year free cash flow guidance announced today,” Lougee said.

Tegna said it named Tom Cox, the president of its Premion advertising unit, to the new position of chief growth officer.

The company also said that Daniel Spinosa, Premion’s CFO will succeed Cox as president.

Cox, who had also been senior VP, business development at Tegna, will report to CEO Dave Lougee. In his new post he will lead efforts to accelerate Tegna’s digital business and oversee Tegna’s technology and digital product divisions.

“As we look to the future, Tom’s extensive experience leading transformative transactions and scaling early to mid-stage businesses will be instrumental as we chart our future trajectory,” said Lougee

Cox joined Tegna in 2011 from Fox Digital.

“This is a pivotal moment in Tegna’s history and media overall. I am eager to work with our digital, technology, and Premion teams to drive innovation and further growth across the business, leveraging the strength of TEgna’sgreat assets,” said Cox.

Before joining Tegna, Spinosa was with Comcast, where he was general manager for Xfinity Store and Entertainment Services. Before Comcast, Spinosa spent 12 years with AOL.

Tegna said that five more of its TV stations in Texas will broadcast a package of Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association games this season.

Tegna’s WFAA in Dallas previously announced plans to air the Mavericks games.

The additional stations are KCEN in Waco, KYTX in Tyler, KWES in Midland-Odessa, KIDY in San Angelo and KXVA in Abilene. 

“Providing access to games has always been our top priority,” said Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall. “We are thrilled to work with additional Tegna stations to bring more fun and excitement to our MFFLs [Mavs fans for life] across Texas.”

The move comes as more teams are putting games on broadcast because regional sports networks on cable are losing subscribers because of cord cutting. 

Tegna acquired the rights to broadcast the games in a deal with Diamond Sports Group, the bankrupt owner of Bally Sports Southwest.

“We are very proud to expand our partnership with the Dallas Mavericks, one of the hottest teams in the NBA coming out of the All-Star break, to make these important late-season games available to more fans across Texas,” said Brad Ramsey, senior VP of media operations for Tegna.  

The first game in the package air March 1 as the Mavericks take on the Boston Celtics.

Sinclair Broadcast Group said Tegna has agreed to carry Sinclair’s multicast network The Nest on 35 of its stations.

The stations include WXIA in Atlanta, WSAU in Washington, D.C., KPNX-TV in Phoenix and WTSP in Tampa.

The Nest replaced Stadium on broadcast stations after Sinclair sold control of Stadium to Jerry Reinsdorf’s Sliver Chalice last year. The Nest carries what Sinclair calls “comfort food programming,” including true crime, home improvement and celebrity-driven shows.

“Multicast broadcast TV continues to grow as audiences discover our group of unique, new, free over the air TV networks,” said Lee Schlazer, senior VP, distribution. “We’re excited to bring our latest network, The Nest, to Tegna stations across the country.” 

As part of the deal, Sinclair’s Comet network is getting an upgrade to KHOU in Houston.

Sinclair also operates the Charge! And TBD multicast networks.

WCNC, the Tegna-owned NBC affiliate in Charlotte, named Todd Spessard as its news director, effective March 4.

Spessard had been VP of content at Griffin Media in Oklahoma City. He succeeds Carrie Hofmann, who was named president  and general manager of Tegna's WLTX in Columbia, S.C. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Todd to the WCNC Charlotte team," said Joan Barrett, president and GM of WCNC. "His wealth of experience, strategic vision, and dedication to excellence make him the ideal candidate to lead our newsroom into the future.”

Earlier in his career, Spessard led newsrooms at KWTV in Oklahoma City, KOKI in Tulsa, KSNW in Wichita, KJRH in Tulsa, and KMIZ in Columbia, Missouri. He was also a producer at WDAF in Kansas City and WOOD in Grand Rapids. 

Spessard began his career as an Anchor/Producer at KHGI in Kearney, Nebraska.

NBA basketball is coming to broadcast in the Quad Cities, where WQAD will be airing 10 Milwaukee Bucks games this season.

Tegna, which owns the station, said the games were made available for local over-the-air distribution as part of the NBA’s agreement with Diamond Sports Group, the bankrupt owner Bally Sports Wisconsin, which televises most of the team’s games.

Tegna is working with Weigel Broadcasting, whose WMLW airs a package of Bucks games in Milwaukee.

With cord-cutting eroding viewership at regional sports networks, broadcast stations are making deals to air more local sports. 

In some cases, stations air packages of 10 games or so. In other cases, like in Phoenix and Utah, broadcasters have taken over the local television rights to pro teams.

Broadcasters are attractive to teams and sports leagues because they can potentially reach many more viewers than cable channels alone. 

“We’re thrilled to reach Bucks fans on broadcast television stations,” said Peter Feigin, president of the Bucks and Fiserv Forum. “Over-the-air is an easy and affordable way for Bucks fans to watch our games, and we’re excited to work with Weigel and broadcasters like Tegna to make them widely available.”

WQAD said the Bucks games will air on digital channel 8.3 and reach nearly 240,000 homes in the Quad Cities area over the air and through the channels distribution through pay TV services.

“We’re thrilled to make these Bucks games available to every fan, and every household, in the Quad Cities,” said Jim Kizer, president and general manager,  at WQAD.

The first game to air on WQAD will match the Bucks against the Minnesota Timberwolves on February 23.

The Bucks’ TV broadcast team of Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson, Steve Novak and Melanie Ricks will be the announcers.

“Weigel is elated to help bring Bucks basketball games to viewers on broadcast television, an accessible and affordable option for all sports fans,” said Evan Fieldman, executive VP of Weigel.

 The Quad Cities market includes Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois.

Tegna said its Premion over-the-top advertising unit has acquired Octillion Media, which runs a demand side platform focused on connected TV advertising.

The deal will boost Premion’s CTV ad capabilities, the companies said.

“Octillion is precisely the type of smart bolt-on acquisition we have long considered to accelerate our already successful, organically-grown Premion business,” Tegna CEO Dave Lougee said. 

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Tegna said the cost of the acquisition will be covered with available cash on hand.  The transaction is expected to be accretive in terms of free cash flow and earnings per share within 12 months and is not expected to have a material impact on Tegna’s 2024 financial results, the company said.

Also Read: Premion Campaign for Florida Auto Dealer Wins Advanced Advertising Innovation Award for Best Use of Data

Octillion was founded in 2019 and was the first local OTT platform to be certified by TAG for providing transparency.

Gabe Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of Octillion, and the company’s other employees will join Premion.

“With our shared belief that transparency, quality, and brand safety are the key pillars of success for local CTV advertisers, bringing Octillion together with Premion is a natural fit,” Greenberg said. “We’re excited to continue to build and develop our innovative CTV/OTT product offering and activate the platform’s capabilities backed up by quantified business outcomes across Premion’s network of sellers and clients.”

“We built Premion with a local-first mindset from the start,” added Tom Cox, president of Premion and senior VP, corporate development for Tegna. “The acquisition of Octillion Media provides us with a proven purpose-built local CTV platform to further enable product innovation, improve operational efficiencies, and drive accelerated growth.

“Local relevance remains a top advertiser priority, and the addition of Octillion’s technology will enhance our ability to meet ever-evolving customer needs and drive value for our clients,” Cox said.

Tegna-owned WFAA Dallas said it made a deal with the Dallas Mavericks to broadcast 10 more of the NBA team’s games this season.

WFAA had previously planned to air three Mavericks games free over-the-air. The 10 games added to the WFAA schedule will not be available on Bally Sports Southwest or the Bally Sports app, where most Mavs games can be viewed.

“We are very proud to partner with the Dallas Mavericks and to make these important late-season games available to every fan, and every household, in North Texas,” Brad Ramsey, senior VP of media operations for Tegna and president and general manager of WFAA, said. “As WFAA celebrates 75 years, we’ve long been the home for live, local sports and local sports fans and we look forward to cheering on the Mavs right alongside their fans and our viewers.”

WFAA’s announcement comes as more teams are shifting games to broadcast from cable, which is being impacted by cord-cutting. Some, like the Mavs, are moving a handful of games; others, like the Phoenix Suns or Utah Jazz, are putting the bulk of their games over the air in order to reach a larger audience.

The station said the games will be available to 3 million households and 7 million people in the Dallas-Forth Worth market.

“Providing access to games has always been our top priority,” Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall said. “We are thrilled to work with WFAA to bring more fun and excitement to our MFFLs across North Texas.”

The games on WFAA Will be announced by Mark Followill, in his 19th season as the Mavericks play-by-play announcer, Mavericks legends Derek Harper and Devin Harris, along with Jeff “Skin” Wade and Lesley McCaslin.  

WFAA will have pre- and postgame coverage from Dana Larson and Brian Dameris, and special appearances in some broadcasts by WFAA’s sports team of Joe Trahan, Mike Leslie and Jonah Javad. 

The games on WFAA will feature opponents including the Phoenix Suns, the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

Tegna and DirecTV said they ended their six-week blackout by reaching a new long term distribution agreement.

The deal covers Tegna's 64 TV stations, which cover 51 markets. Many are NBC affiliates, and the deal came ahead of NBC's coverage of the Cleveland Browns playing the Houston Texans in an NFL Wild Card Playoff game Saturday. NFL playoff games tend to focus distributors and broadcasters on coming to a deal to end a blackout.

Also: DirecTV-Tegna Blackout, Peacock Exclusive Threaten to Block Viewers Amid the NFL’s Big Wild Card Weekend

The stations' programming will be returning to DirecTV, DirecTV stream and U-verse today, when the NFL playoffs kicked off.

Also: NFL Playoffs Lead What's On This Weekend in TV Sports Jan. 12-15 

Financial terms were not disclosed.

In a statement the two companies said they "greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers."

Coming off a year in which seven of the top 10 most watched shows were NFL postseason games, and the other three were NFL regular-season holiday matchups, you'd think the TV/video business would prioritize unfettered access to the veritable high holy event that is pro football's Wild Card Weekend. 

But some football fans will run up against solid blocking starting Saturday. 

In Cleveland, fans have rejoiced as former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco, who turns 38 next week, has come off the practice squad to lead the injury-riddled Browns into a Wild Card match-up against the Houston Texans Saturday. 

But if they get their channels via DirecTV, these Cleveland viewers are going to have to scramble (or audible, depending on your choice of dumb pun) in order to see the 4:30 p.m. ET game, with local NBC affiliate WKYC off DirecTV's grid because of a retrans dispute with station group Tegna. 

While Cleveland is the most specifically impacted market, the Tegna dispute will have plenty of collateral damage for fans in distant markets. For example, DirecTV-subscribing Dallas Cowboys faithful in the Texas enclaves of San Antonio, San Angelo and Abilene currently have their Fox affiliates blacked out on DirecTV, which will affect viewership of Saturday’s game against Green Bay. 

A DirecTV rep told us Tuesday there was no news to share about the blackout, which has been going on since late November. 

Meanwhile, subscription streaming platform Peacock, which holds a walled garden of around 30 million paid subscribers, as of NBCUniversal's end-of-September count, is about to present Saturday night’s Miami-Kansas City AFC matchup exclusively, with no simultaneous NBC network broadcast outside of the participating teams’ respective home TV markets. 

The NFL is collecting an additional $110 million from NBCU to give its SVOD the exclusive window. But not all NFL and fans are happy about the game being confined to the streaming service, which starts at $5.99 a month.

Station group Tegna has announced an affiliation renewal agreement with NBC covering 20 markets and 17% of U.S. TV households. 

“As the largest NBC affiliate group among independent station groups, we are proud of our longstanding partnership that enables us to serve local communities,” Tegna president and CEO Dave Lougee said in a statement. 

Terms of the deal weren't announced, but it covers 10 of the top 25 U.S. TV markets. 

Here's the list provided by Tegna:  WXIA Atlanta; KPNX-KNAZ Phoenix, Arizona; KING Seattle; KARE Minneapolis; KUSA Denver; WKYC Cleveland; KGW Portland, Oregon; WCNC Charlotte, North Carolina; KSDK St. Louis; WTHR Indianapolis; WTLV Jacksonville, Florida; WGRZ Buffalo, New York; WBIR Knoxville, Tennessee; WCSH Portland, Maine; KCEN-KAGS Waco, Texas; KTVB Boise, Idaho, along with KTFT Twin Falls, Idaho; KWES Odessa-Midland, Texas; KBMT Beaumont, Texas; and WLBZ Bangor, Maine.

Notably, 64 Tegna-owned network affiliates in 51 markets, including the just renewed NBC stations, have been blacked out on DirecTV since late November. 

Last week, NBC reached an agreement in principle with Gray Television to renew affiliation for stations covering 56 markets. 

Byron Wilkinson has been named president and general manager of KVUE Austin, Texas. Tegna owns the station, an ABC affiliate. 

He had been interim general manager at KVUE and was previously interim general manager at KBMT-KJAC Beaumont, Texas, also part of Tegna. 

Wilkinson succeeds Kristie Gonzales atop KVUE, with Gonzales shifting to the general manager job at WXIA Atlanta in September. 

Wilkinson had previously been director of sales at KVUE. Before that, he was director of sales at KTHV Little Rock, Arkansas, and local sales manager at KHOU Houston, both part of Tegna. 

“Among an outstanding pool of candidates, Byron stood out for his commitment to KVUE and the Austin community, and his track record of leadership and results,” Tegna senior VP, media operations Brad Ramsey said. “From sales leadership roles in Houston and Little Rock to interim general manager roles in Austin and Beaumont, Byron has demonstrated the importance of developing strong teams and leaders. He will continue KVUE’s momentum and build on our commitment to Central Texas.”

Wilkinson is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. 

“As a native Texan and someone whose family has fallen in love with Austin, I am deeply honored and excited to take on this new role at KVUE,” he said. “Together with our talented team, we will continue to strive for excellence in all that we do, while making a positive impact on the lives of those we serve.”

With cord-cutting eroding traditional linear TV viewing, all of Tegna’s stations last year launched local streaming apps, helping them reach a new audience.

So far this year, people have streamed more than 2 billion minutes of content from Tegna stations, said Adam Ostrow, senior VP and chief digital officer, with the average user engaged for more than 10 hours a month. “We’re finding it, among all of our digital products, to be the most engaging one, so that’s been really exciting,” he said.

At this point, Tegna, B+C’s Multiplatform Broadcaster of the Year for 2023, has an installed base of more than 30 million users for its mobile apps and is looking to broaden the distribution of its connected TV apps.

The streaming apps offer the stations’ live local news programming and other original Tegna content from its Locked On Sports and Verify journalism units. 

Some stations are independently creating original programming for the apps and Tegna is working with stations on new franchises that can be scaled across all markets.

In Cleveland, WKYC anchor Maureen Kyle hosts a show called Mom Squad. Gordon Severson of KARE Minneapolis hosts a personal finance show, Your Money. And in San Diego, KFMB meteorologist Shawn Styles hosts the weekly Cooking With Styles.

The apps also enable Tegna’s stations to deliver developing stories without interrupting broadcast programming. 

A scheduling tool has been integrated into Tegna’s drag-and-drop content management system, making producing the app similar to producing a newscast. 

“Behind the scenes, we want to make it easier for our stations to program their 24/7 feed and provide the best possible experience to users,” Ostrow said.

Tegna has also been building up its Verify brand, which aims to counter the misinformation that appears on social platforms and other outlets. Across platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, Verify has about 467,000 followers.

A weekly OTT show, Verify This, has increased its viewership for four straight quarters, accumulating 2.48 million minutes watched in the third quarter. 

Demand for Verify is likely to ramp up during the upcoming election season.

But Ostrow noted that “one of the things that distinguishes Verify from some of the other fact-checking brands that are out there is that we go a lot broader than politics.” Verify content also deals with personal finance and other topics.

“One of our most popular stories ever actually was about whether you should warm up your car before driving in cold weather,” Ostrow said. The answer, according to Verify, is no. 

Brian Gregory has been named president and general manager at WVEC Norfolk, Virgina. He has been the news director at Nexstar Media Group’s KDVR-KWGN Denver. He starts at WVEC December 18. 

Previously, Gregory was news director at KWCH Wichita, Kansas; executive producer at KOVR Sacramento, California; and assistant news director at WVLT Knoxville, Tennessee. His TV career began at WJET Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Tegna owns WVEC. Doug Wieder was the general manager there, until he shifted to the GM job at KARE Minneapolis in October. 

“Brian brings a proven track record of performance to his new position at WVEC,” said Paul Trelstad, senior VP, media operations, Tegna. “With more than 25 years of experience in our industry, including more than 20 in news management, his inclusive management style is evident in the results he’s achieved consistently throughout his career. He’ll be an excellent addition to our strong, capable team in Norfolk.”

Known as Hampton Roads, Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News is Nielsen’s DMA No. 44. 

“It is a tremendous honor to join the WVEC team,” Gregory said. “I’m passionate about embracing innovation and setting a positive vision for the future. It’s a privilege to head to Norfolk and help lead this incredibly talented team.”

On Thursday evening, Tegna-owned TV stations were, as expected, taken off the programming grids of DirecTV's three pay TV platforms.

Tegna counts 64 network affiliates in 51 markets, while DirecTV insists the actual tally is 66 network stations in 52 metro regions. 

“Despite months of effort, DirecTV has refused to reach a fair, market-based agreement with Tegna,” the broadcaster said in a statement. "As a result, DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers will lose access to NFL and college football conference championship games, as well as some of the most popular national network programming and top-rated local news. We urge DirecTV to continue to negotiate with us until a deal is reached that restores our stations to their customers.”

Also read: DirecTV and Tegna Queue Up Another Blackout Do-Si-Do

Back at DirecTV headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., the operator's top program licensing negotiator, Rob Thun, shared a deck with Next TV over Zoom.

Taking a page from a playbook that worked effectively for Charter Communications two months ago in pivotal program licensing dispute with Disney, DirecTV and Thun put together a "proposal" for Tegna to either set consumer pricing itself and let DirecTV customers decide whether they want to pay for its local channels a la carte, or let DirecTV negotiate directly with the broadcast networks itself. 

With NBCUniversal/Comcast, CBS/Paramount and ABC/Disney committing more than $2 billion a year each over the next decade to the NFL, Thun contends that station groups like Tegna are accepting spiraling reverse retransmission rates from conglomerates and passing the pain to pay TV operators.

“The broadcasters seem to not want to take the same aggressive tactics in negotiations with the networks themselves, and then they just pass the trash down the line to the pay TV providers. They assume we’re going to eat it and ultimately pass it on to our consumers. But we've hit the wall in terms of what prices our customers are willing to pay,” Thun told Next TV.

Featuring a potpourri of research including Kagan figures indicating a 270% spike in broadcast retransmission fees since 2015, Thun's deck is reminiscent of some of the “new deal” proposals put forth into the program licensing market recently by Charter CEO Christopher Winfrey and his team. It even includes a citation to the “Doom Loop,” the virtuous cycle signaling the demise of the pay TV industry that was created and published by equity analyst Craig Moffett back in May and also used by Charter in some of its recent messaging.

In the deck, DirecTV describes Tegna as a kind of serial blackout causer, involved in 275 impasses with operators since 2010 and demanding the highest retrans rates in the television industry while offering fewer programming enticements than ever to viewers. 

Asked by Next TV if his proposal was merely the kind of rhetorical mechanism often seen in an ever-increasing spiral of fee disputes between programmers and distributors, Thun said DirecTV is “dead serious” about it, conveying a similarly earnest pushed-to-the-wall vibe that characterized Winfrey's publish speaking engagements during September's Disney impasse. 

Indeed, there are a number of factors suggesting the Tegna dispute might be the point at which DirecTV digs in on retrans:

• We're already in week 13 of the NFL season, and college football's regular season is over. With audience interest dwindling in broadcast TV scripted and reality content, live sports — most specifically live NFL football — remains a key source of urgency for these kinds of disputes. 
• In terms of the remaining live football games, 21 Tegna stations are affiliated with NBC, which is also distributed via SVOD Peacock, and 16 Tegna stations are aligned with CBS, which is distributed via Paramount Plus. 
• Even the Super Bowl itself will be available for linear viewing outside its 2024 broadcast home, CBS, with Paramount Global vowing to simulcast it on Nickelodeon. 

After the football season ends, Thun said, “We’re in a different ball game, because they [Tegna] are going to be in the thick of these elections, right? Two-thirds of their footprint has elections coming up through Super Tuesday across 16 states. I think the whole advertising market, especially for the broadcaster, is expecting the soft ad market to boomerang up based on what will likely be a very contentious election cycle. And it's not going to bode well for them to be off of their largest distributors.”

WXIA, Tegna’s station in Atlanta, said it named TV news veteran Carol Fowler as director of content, effective December 11.

Most recently, Fowler had been director of content for Tegna-owned KSDK St. Louis.

In her new post, Fowler will oversee the day-to-day operations of WXIA’s news department and help develop the station’s audience growth strategy, reporting to president and general manager Kristie Gonzales.

WXIA’s news director, Jennifer Rigby, left the NBC affiliate earlier this year and now serves as senior news consultant for Gray Television.

Also Read: Local News Close-Up: Hotlanta Still Simmering

“During her more than 25-year career, Carol has led large market newsrooms to new heights. With her digital acumen, she has successfully created innovative newsrooms that serve the local community, no matter the platform,” Gonzales said. “She is a strong believer in teamwork and her unwavering dedication to inclusive journalism is evident in her team’s award-winning work in St. Louis. We are thrilled to have a leader of her caliber in Atlanta.”

Before joining KSDK, Fowler was senior VP of digital news products at the Chicago Sun-Times. She also served as news director for Chicago stations WFLD and WBBM. Fowler started her career as a political reporter for WCIA Champaign, Illinois.

Along the way she started KloboMedia, a social media management agency.

“It’s an honor to join 11Alive in this leadership role,” Fowler said. “Our goal is to create and support a newsroom environment that brings out the very best in every journalist, all with a clear understanding of our purpose as a news organization. Reporting stories that are top of mind and highly relevant to the lives of our diverse Atlanta audience will be at the core.”

Tegna is back on the rocks with DirecTV, signaling to viewers Saturday that its stations could soon be pulled off the programming grids of the pay TV operator's platforms amid failing broadcast retransmission licensing negotiations. 

The broadcaster, which owns 64 network affiliates in 14 markets, told viewers with DirecTV satellite, DirecTV Stream and U-verse TV subscriptions that they could "lose" Tegna stations starting November 30 without DirecTV agreeing to “fair, market-based” terms on broadcast retransmission licensing.

“Thus far, DirecTV has refused to agree to such terms, which is why we have begun informing DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers that they may lose access to their local Tegna station and our valuable programming,” Tegna said in a statement released to Next TV Saturday afternoon. “We hope that DirecTV is willing to negotiate a market-based deal before the November 30 deadline and doesn’t take away DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers’ local news, weather, sports and network programs.”

DirecTV sees it differently.

“Tegna has once again made a private negotiation public in the hopes of creating unnecessary and premature concern among some of our customers to extract higher rates for local broadcast stations,” the operator said in its own Saturday statement. “Unfortunately, that’s become the industry norm as the costs for free local stations have soared more than 20% year upon year upon year despite declining popularity and less compelling content. We will continue to meet our customers’ demands for greater choice and value and do our utmost to shield them from unwarranted price hikes as we work with Tegna to renew its stations without any interruption.”

Certainly factoring in negotiations: 21 of Tegna stations are NBC affiliates that are accessible via Peacock, while 16 Tegna outlets are CBS stations that are delivered via Paramount Plus. 

The two companies also threw down three years ago under similar circumstances. That dispute, which occurred before AT&T spun DirecTV off, lasted about three weeks. 

Tegna reported lower third-quarter earnings as revenue dropped by 11% in a non-election year.

Net income was $96.2 million, or 48 cents a share, compared to $146.1 million or 65 cents a share a year ago.

Revenue was down 11% to $713 million.

The company said it signed a multiyear affiliation renewal with ABC covering stations in 13 markets serving 11 million households.

Advertising and marketing services revenue dropped 3% to $312 million.  The company said the ad market improved from the second quarter, with automaker spending growing.

Subscription revenue edged up to $378 million.

Tegna said its stations’ streaming apps generated 677 million minutes in viewing during the quarter, a 78% increase year-over-year.

For the fourth quarter, Tegna said it expected revenue to be down by the mid- to high teens. 

“Tegna is operating from a position of strength within the broadcast industry, and we are seeing positive momentum across our organization,” CEO Dave Lougee said. 

“Our management team and board are laser-focused on generating shareholder value and building a track record of disciplined capital allocation as Tegna advances its strategy as a standalone company,” Lougee said. “We fully expect 2024 will be another strong year driven by our favorable portfolio of stations in key markets benefiting from a robust presidential election cycle, the Summer Olympic Games and the Super Bowl.” 

Tegna said it has named Doug Wieder president and general manager of KARE Minneapolis, effective Oct. 30.

Wieder has been GM of WVEC, Tegna’s station in Norfolk, Virginia, since 2019. He succeeds Bill Dallman, who announced plans to depart in May, atop the NBC affiliate.

“Doug’s steady, results-driven management style has consistently delivered exceptional results during his tenure at WVEC,” Larry Delia, senior VP, media operations at Tegna, said. “His invaluable expertise across news, innovation and community engagement are perfectly aligned with KARE’s brand, people and award-winning journalism. We’re excited to have his leadership, team-building skills and community focus at KARE to ensure the station continues to serve the needs of all Minnesotans.” 

Before becoming GM at WVEC, Wieder was the station’s executive news director. He joined the station as a senior producer in 2003. Earlier in his career, Wieder was a reporter, anchor and producer for stations in Richmond, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Macon, Georgia.

“It is a tremendous honor to join KARE, a station that has set the standard for excellence in local television,“ Weider said. “It has a rich legacy of community-focused journalism and storytelling with a sales team that takes pride in growing local businesses. I’m passionate about embracing innovation and setting a positive vision for the future. It’s a privilege to go to Minneapolis and help lead this incredibly talented team.”

Another team is moving to put its games on broadcast, with Tegna’s San Antonio station, KENS, getting an agreement to air 11 Spurs basketball games.

The Spurs are one of the National Basketball Association’s most interesting teams with 7-foot, 4-inch star rookie Victor Wembanyama starting his career.

Most of the Spurs games are expected to be televised over regional sports network Bally Sports Southwest, part of Sinclair’s bankrupt Diamond Sports Group. Some games will also be broadcast by KMYS in San Antonio, which is owned by Deerfield Media and operated by Sinclair.

Tegna said Spurs games appearing on KENS, a CBS affiliate, will be available to more than 1 million households in the San Antonio region via over the air, the KENS 5 streaming app, the official Spurs mobile app and through the station’s distribution deals with cable, satellite and streaming services that offer live TV programming.

“As fans gear up for an epic season, we’re pleased to partner with the Spurs and the NBA to bring these 11 heart-pounding games to every single household across San Antonio,” said Brad Ramsey, senior VP, media operations at Tegna. “As local broadcasters, our stations have always been the home for live, local sports and lifelong sports fans. We’re incredibly proud of this partnership with the world-class Spurs Sports & Entertainment organization.”  

The first game broadcast by KENS will come Nov. 20 when the Spurs play the Los Angeles Clippers.

Since last year, Nexstar Media Group’s KTLA has broadcast some Clippers games in California. This season, Utah Jazz games will be on Sinclair's KJZZ Salt Lake City, and the Phoenix Suns can be watched on Gray Television's KTVK and KPHE.

NHL teams are also moving to broadcast, with the Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights and Phoenix Coyotes airing on stations owned by E.W. Scripps.

Tegna said it named Kristie Gonzales president and general manager of WXIA-WATL Atlanta, succeeding John Deushane, who is retiring.

Gonzales had been general manager of KVUE, Tegna’s ABC-affiliated station in Austin, Texas. She will continue to oversee a group of stations in Texas as VP, media operations for Tegna.

“Kristie is an innovative thinker with a drive to deliver results, as she’s done in Austin and across the portfolio of stations she’s overseen in Texas,” Larry Delia, senior VP, media operations at Tegna, said. “She’s an excellent collaborator and community partner with an ability to inspire and motivate those around her. We’re excited to have her join the talented team in Atlanta and continue the stations’ leadership in the market.”

Before joining KVUE, Gonzales was the promotion and digital brand manager at WABC New York.

“It is a privilege to join and lead the team in Atlanta,“ Gonzales said. “My passion is serving our local communities with news and helping clients grow their businesses. I’m excited to get started in Atlanta with a team that’s renowned for their game-changing investigations and award-winning reporting.” 

Tegna reported higher earnings in the second-quarter as subscription revenues hit a record high.

In order to make up for the drop in Tegna’s share price when the deal to sell the company to Standard General fell through, Tegna said it was committed to share buy backs, including an additional $325 million after third quarter earnings are reported.

Tegna also raised its dividend 20% to 11.375 cents a share to make its stock more attractive.

In May, Tegna shares traded at more than $21 a share. Tegna closed at $17.07 Wednesday.

“After terminating the merger agreement, we swiftly transitioned to an offensive strategy focused on performance, operating efficiency and delivering maximum value to our shareholders. During the second quarter, we successfully met the outlook for our key financial metrics, achieved a record second quarter for subscription revenue and saw sequential improvement in advertising and marketing services revenue driven by improving trends in key verticals such as automotive,” said  Tegna CEO Dave Lougee

Second-quarter net income rose 52% to $200.1 million, or 92 cents a share, from $131.6 million or 49 cents a share a year ago.

Revenue fell 7% to $732 million. The company said the drop was preliminary because of a comparison to last year being an election year.

Subscription revenue rose 2% to $396 million, with rate increases offsetting subscriber declines.

Advertising and Marketing Services revenue was down 5% to $318 million. Tegna’s Premion advanced advertising unit lost a significant client last quarter, and the impact of that loss will be felt throughout 2023, the company said.

Tegna noted that its station streaming apps were added to Apple TV in June. Tegna has begun testing station streaming apps for Samsung, LG, Chromecast and additional platforms, which are expected to launch in the third quarter. 

Looking ahead to the third quarter, Tegna said it expects to be disproportionately impacted by cyclical even-to-odd-year results due to the absence of $93 million high-margin political revenue reported in the third quarter of 2022. 

The company said it is expecting revenues to be down by low double-digit percentages while operating expenses will be up by low single digits. Excluding programming, expenses will be down by low single digits.

Tegna said it received 8.64 million of its shares from Standard General, whose effort to buy the broadcaster failed as regulatory review extended beyond the data its financing expired.

Standard General’s deal with Tegna called for a $136 million termination fee, and Tegna said the shares it received satisfied that obligation.

Shares in Tegna traded as high as $22.29 when it appeared the Standard General deal was likely to be approved. Shares traded at $16.40, up almost 4%, on Friday morning (June 2).

Also Read: Standard General Tries, Tries Again With FCC on Tegna Deal

With the takeover deal off the table, Tegna said it is taking steps to return capital to shareholders.

Tenga said it will repurchase $300 million worth of its shares from JPMorgan Chase Bank, starting with 15.2 million shares on June 6. 

The company previously announced a 20% increase in its regular quarterly dividend.

Tegna said its board of directors are “actively reviewing the return of additional excess capital that accumulated during the pending merger.”

After more than a year of trying to get the deal done, Tegna said that as of Monday, May 22, its merger agreement with Standard General has been terminated and it can collect a $136 million breakup fee. May 22 was the deadline for Standard General's financing of the deal.

That’s according to Tegna’s announcement that it has launched an accelerated $300 million stock-repurchase program and a 20% bump in its quarterly dividend — from 9.5 cents to 11.375 cents per share — as a way to return some of that new cash to shareholders.

Tegna said it may be looking at returning added excess capital that accumulated during the non-merger’s pendancy.

Standard General’s proposed $8.6 billion purchase of Tegna’s TV stations and other media assets was designated for hearing by the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau before an administrative law judge (ALJ) over concerns about retransmission consent fees and potential job losses, including in news.

Also Read: Standard General Tries, Tries Again With FCC on Tegna Deal

The judge had said the review could not be completed by May 22. That meant the hearing designation essentially spelled the end of the deal.

Tegna president David Lougee signaled it was time for the broadcaster to move forward on its own. “As we look ahead, we are confident that Tegna is well-positioned to continue serving all our stakeholders based on our portfolio of leading broadcast assets and innovative digital brands, our delivery of high-quality, trusted news and content in the markets where we operate, and our continued focus on fostering a culture of diversity and inclusivity,” Lougee said in a statement. 

“This is a major victory for our union members, who have been fighting the hedge fund takeover of local news for more than a decade,” said Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, which had petitioned to block the deal. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel this week to provide moral support for the regulator’s decision to designate the Standard General-Tegna station group merger for hearing before an administrative law judge.

Warren has been a critic of the deal as anticompetitive consolidation and a fan of the hearing designation.

“I urge the [Federal Communications Commission] to continue its thorough and careful review, regardless of recent calls by supporters of the deal to rush through the agency consideration," Warren wrote. Warren has said that she fears the deal will mean layoffs, reduced competition for ads and increased retransmission-consent fees.

The companies have made numerous promises that they say address those concerns, but Warren is skeptical of behavioral remedies, which she says are hard to monitor and easy to evade. “I commend the FCC for taking these concerns seriously by reviewing the merger thoroughly, consistent with its statutory authority,” she told Rosenworcel.

Arguably the “rush through” characterization is a bit of a stretch since the FCC is currently on day 309 of its informal 180-day timeline for reviews. That includes multiple requests for documents from the parties.

Standard General agreed to acquire Tegna in February of 2022 in an $8.6 billion deal that includes the assumption of $3.2 billion in debt. Apollo Global Management (AGM) is providing some of the funding for the deal. AGM controls Cox Media Group, which will own some of the Tegna stations if the deal is approved.

The key to a strong and healthy democracy is an informed and engaged public. Receiving trustworthy and informative news — especially at the local level — is how we stay engaged.

A 2022 Gallup poll showed Americans have greater trust in local news than national news. That’s because we depend on local coverage to help us navigate issues like school closures, respond to emergency events and make choices about how we want to be governed.

But local news is facing a stiff headwind as it fights to remain viable in an environment where media consolidation is gutting newsrooms across the country. That is why Common Cause is opposed to gigantic hedge funds and investment groups taking over media outlets — because inevitably, they are in it to extract profits.

Right now, the hedge fund Standard General is promising that it will be the exception to the rule if it secures Federal Communications Commission approval to purchase Tegna, a media company with broadcast stations from Seattle to San Antonio. The FCC referred the case to an administrative law judge, which is usually the end of the line for mergers. But when the judge indicated a review of the proposed merger could not be completed in time to meet the financing deadline for the deal, Standard General-Tegna mounted an expensive public relations campaign, promising the world to certain groups to buy their support. When they had a chance to commit to those plans in its filings with the federal government, though, Standard General-Tegna did not present a shred of evidence that the deal would have any benefit to the public.

We have seen what happens when mega-conglomerates buy out companies. They slash jobs and mass-produce content. You can count on more car-chase stories and bear break-in videos.

Strip-mining for profits is what hedge funds do. They buy out companies, fire staff, sell off the profitable pieces and dump the rest.

Take for example The Los Angeles Times, my local paper. In 2007, when Sam Zell’s Equity Group, took control of The Tribune Co. and by extension, the Times, it cost over $8 billion. At the time, the Chicago-based investment group promised it would not cut newsroom jobs. By 2008, after multiple rounds of cuts, it was announced that a further 250 would lose their jobs.

That all turned around in 2018 when Patrick Soon-Shiong, a Los Angeles-based surgeon and cancer researcher, decided to purchase The Los Angeles Times. Under local ownership, the paper once again invested in local reporters, diversified the newsroom and rebuilt the California Section. Now, I can read about local businesses like Octavia’s Bookshelf working to bring Black authors to Pasadena’s only black-owned bookstore in honor of local author, and store namesake, Octavia Butler.

I can count on the kind of in-depth local reporting that uncovered secret tapes of Los Angeles City Council members scheming behind closed doors over redistricting lines. That coverage ignited a citywide debate over what we want our government to look like — one that may result in fundamental changes to redistricting, how we vote and what we expect of our elected representatives.

That’s the power of journalism that centers the communities they serve.

By contrast, the scorched-earth approach of hedge funds has long-term consequences on our democracy. Without an informed, engaged, and empowered citizenry, we won’t be able to tackle our collective challenges. When the public is uninformed, we have lower civic participation, lower voter turnout and greater political polarization.

When we don’t have a town square for deliberative democracy, people start wandering down dark alleys and political rabbit holes. The void left by local and ethnic media is so easily filled with disinformation.

The rapid decrease in local news should alarm everyone, especially heading into yet another consequential election year. With fewer resources to combat disinformation and hold power accountable, we have to do what we can to protect our local newsrooms.

There’s a reason that freedom of speech and the right to a free press are in the very First Amendment. Without a trusted platform for local voices, communities lose the ability to watchdog local government, hold leaders accountable, advocate for themselves, and bring awareness to issues that could never be adequately covered by a national outlet. Cities and communities lose the power of storytelling and collective problem-solving.

Quality local journalism is a public good. It’s right that the FCC takes its time to evaluate whether to approve another media consolidation. When it comes to our democracy, we can’t afford to sell it to the highest bidder.

Standard General said the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has “suggested” the company “attempt to resolve remaining concerns to allow the transaction“ — its purchase of  Tegna’s TV stations — “to move forward,” which it said it is definitely trying to do. 

Hedge fund Standard General’s proposed $8.6 billion purchase of Tegna’s TV stations and other media assets was designated for hearing by the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau before an administrative law judge (ALJ) over concerns about retransmission consent fees and potential job losses, including in news.

Standard General’s invocation of the Enforcement Bureau suggestion was a reference to a meeting with FCC officials last week. It said Wednesday (May 17) that it was taking steps to address the issues of “the potential for increased retransmission consent fees from after-acquired clauses and the impact [of the deal] on localism” and plans to get back to the FCC on Thursday.

Financing for the deal has a May 22 deadline, so Standard General is trying hard to get a decision from the FCC — preferably a yes — by then.

Standard General is providing some new info to the FCC and the public as part of that effort, it said, including making public the depositions it gave to the Justice Department related to jobs and retrans. Justice found no reason to challenge the deal on antitrust grounds, but the FCC’s review goes beyond that to whether the deal meets the public interest standard, a standard that is open to interpretation.

It also pointed out that Comcast, Tegna’s biggest customer among multichannel video programming distributors, as well as other MVPDs, have agreed to Standard General’s promise to waive its after-acquired clause rights. Those clauses would allow Standard General to raise retrans rates for Tegna stations to those of its current [Cox Media] stations where applicable.

“We remain available to answer any and all questions the FCC may have, but, in response to comments made during our meetings on Friday, we have provided additional information to the commission with the hope that they will move quickly to a vote,” Standard General partner Soo Kim said.

The Republican leadership of the House and Senate committees overseeing the Federal Communications Commission has called on the regulator’s acting Inspector General, Sharon Diskin, to look into FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s handling of the review of the Standard General-Tegna merger.

In a letter to Diskin Friday (May 16), House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) intimated that the designation of the deal for a hearing before the FCC's administrative law judge last February was "motivated by a biased desire to block the deal."

Also Read: Standard General Tries to Force Tegna Decision

If so, they said, the commission was being used as a “partisan cudgel.”

Both legislators are already on the record as taking issue with the hearing designation, which pushes review of the deal past a May 22 deadline for securing financing. In the past, similar designations have spelled doom for deals. Critics of this designation point out that the fact that it came from the Media Bureau rather than a vote by the commission is pretty much unprecedented.

Almost certainly a commission vote would not have resulted in a hearing since the FCC is currently at a political 2-2 tie. The FCC’s Republican commissioners, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, were not supportive of the Media Bureau decision.

Rosenworcel has said that the reason the deal was designated for hearing was that it needed a “closer review” to “ensure that this transaction does not anti-competitively raise prices or put jobs in local newsrooms at risk.”  Standard General has said it will do neither and has made promises to that effect.

Standard General agreed to acquire Tegna in an $8.6 billion deal that includes the assumption of $3.2 billion in debt. Apollo Global Management (AGM) is providing some of the funding for the deal. AGM controls Cox Media Group, which will own some of the Tegna stations if the deal is approved.

Petitions to deny were filed by The NewsGuild-CWA, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET)-CWA, Common Cause, the United Church of Christ, and Graham Media Holdings.

Heavy hitters from both sides of the Standard General-Tegna merger debate, including former Democratic chairs of the FCC and FTC, met with the FCC’s Republican commissioners last week as the companies attempted to get the FCC to give them a thumbs up or a thumbs down on the deal ASAP.

The companies said the purpose of the meetings was “to find a path forward from the Commission’s unprecedented inaction on the deal.” Deal opponents said the meetings were futile, highly unusual and bordering on improper — they said that the Federal Communications Commission’s office of general counsel “apparently advised at least one commissioner against holding such a meeting.” 

The FCC’s Media Bureau has been vetting the proposed merger for almost a year, and after multiple requests for more documents and data from the companies, said there were still issues that needed fact-finding, so it designated the deal for hearing before the FCC’s administrative law judge (ALJ).

The FCC and those opposing the deal said that designation was because there were still public-interest issues related to jobs and retransmission-consent negotiating leverage that required it. Standard General and Tegna have said those matters were nonissues and it was, instead, the FCC’s way of killing the deal by ensuring no decision would be made before a May 22 deadline for funding the merger.

Also Read: Soo Kim Says FCC Hearing Designation Is Deal ‘Kill Shot’

Tegna, which owns 64 TV stations in 51 U.S. markets, agreed to be acquired by Standard General in February of 2022 for $8.6 billion including debt. McLean, Virginia-based Tegna also owns multicast networks True Crime Network, Twist and Quest, as well as advanced-advertising company Premion.

Among the big names on the Standard General-Tegna side, according to an FCC filing, were Standard General founding partner Soo Kim; Tegna president Dave Lougee; former Democratic FCC acting chair Mignon Clyburn, who now runs her own advocacy shop; and Jon Leibowitz, former Democratic Federal Trade Commission chair and a partner with law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Among those representing the unions and others who petitioned the FCC to block the deal (unions the NewsGuild-CWA and National Alliance of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians-CWA, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry and Common Cause) were Cheryl Leanza and Andrew Jay Schwartzman.

Standard General said in a summary of the proceedings that it had asked for meetings with all four commissioners, but only the Republicans agreed to do so.

It told those commissioners that continued FCC inaction would cause “immense harms” to the entire broadcast industry and said they had made “extraordinary commitments to exapnding news and preserving jobs,” promises a Tegna without Standard General could not make going forward given financial pressures on public companies. They also warned of the “dangerous precedent” the FCC was setting that could drain lenders from broadcasting to “other industries” lacking such regulatory foot-dragging and uncertainty.

Also Read: FCC Was Right Not to Greenlight Deal (Guest Blog)

As to the meetings and the push for an up-or-down vote being unusual, Leibowitz said at the meeting that the deal-vetting process had been “one long series of unusual and unprecedented actions by the commission which had deprived the Applicants of a fair and timely process and which now may require unusual action from the commission to correct.”

Schwartzman and Leanza told the commissioners that the Media Bureau's designation of the deal for hearing, which they conceded will almost certainly mean no decision before the financing runs out, was justified by the complexity of the deal, the “involvement of private equity and hedge funds” and “factual discrepancies in Applicants’ statements and confidential documents.“

Also Read: Jesse Jackson Backs SG-Tegna Deal

Deal critics have previously pointed to the fact that Standard General is a private equity firm as an argument against approval, but Kim said that those critics are “misguidedly demonizing all ‘private equity’ and in doing so are condemning the pensioners, endowments and foundations that invest in alternative investment managers like Standard General.”

Those critics clearly disagree: “[The] meetings at the FCC appear to have been nothing more than a desperate attempt by two Wall Street funds, Standard General and Apollo Global Management, and their attorneys to spin the facts and prepare for likely litigation after their deal implodes in less than two weeks,” they said in a statement.

Tegna reported lower first-quarter earnings as it weighs its options regarding its soon-to-expire agreement to be acquired by Standard General.

In announcing its earnings Tegna reviewed the latest developments in the effort to get the transaction through what has been a lengthy regulatory review, including a the court of appeals denying a petition for a writ of mandamus compelling the FCC to vote on the deal.

Also Read: FCC Judge Suspends Standard General-Tegna Review

Tegna is currently evaluating its options,” the company said.

Standard General has said its financing for the deal will expire on May 22.

Tegna reported that its first-quarter net income fell 22.3% to $104.3 million, or 46 cents a share, compared to $134.2 million, or 60 cents a share, a year ago. 

Revenue declined 4.4% to $740.3 million

Subscription revenue rose 5.8% to $414 

Advertising and marketing services revenue fell 13.2% to 307.8 million.

Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel should be commended for the agency’s careful decision to refer the effort by hedge fund Standard General and private-equity fund Apollo Global Management to take over broadcaster Tegna to an administrative law judge (ALJ) at the regulator. There, the facts can be clearly determined around the public-interest standards at stake, including localism, consumer prices, the impact on jobs and diversity of media ownership. 

I was proud when my organization, Public Knowledge, joined with labor unions, civil rights groups, public interest nonprofits, and multiple companies to raise questions about Standard General and Apollo taking over the nation’s second-largest local broadcast TV station owner, Tegna. For years our organizations have fought to stem the tide of media consolidation that is contributing to the gutting of newsroom staffs and the reduction in truly local content to meet the needs of diverse communities across our nation. 

Hedge funds have a history of stripping their new acquisitions down for parts to cut large costs quickly, including firing workers and scaling back operations. In the case of broadcast channels, hedge funds look to cut back on local news and other diverse, targeted programming in favor of national content. FCC filings have shown that this acquisition was structured in a complicated way in order for Standard General to enter into joint retransmission consent negotiations to increase costs for cable TV subscribers. These public interest concerns are always considered in FCC license transfers and certainly warrant a hearing with the agency’s administrative law judge. 

A fact-finding hearing in front of an ALJ makes sense if FCC staff feels it does not have full, accurate information, or a clear picture of the transaction. In addition to the concerns about loss of local content and media consolidation, all parties controlling broadcast licenses in the U.S. are subject to laws about ownership or control by non-U.S. citizens. Concerns over foreign ownership from Apollo Global Management’s stake in the deal must be addressed. Normally after an FCC referral to the ALJ, the parties trying to get a deal approved would withdraw their applications and maybe try again with a different deal structure. Not this time. Instead, Standard General, with a self imposed deadline of May 22 to close the deal, has engaged in an  expensive Washington smear and influence campaign that has become all too familiar around the FCC debates lately. 

In 2022 the public saw a bad-faith smear campaign about issues outside the FCC’s jurisdiction sink a nominee to the commission. Democratic elected officials failed to be unified behind seating a strong public-interest advocate at the FCC in response to this influence campaign. Now, in 2023, we’ve seen chair Rosenworcel’s FCC criticized by Democrats like Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) for simply following agency processes to get detailed answers about a major broadcast acquisition. In fact, Senator Menendez openly threatened the renomination of the only commissioner of color at the FCC, Geoffrey Starks, and by implication his own party’s ability to control the FCC agenda. Our hope is that such criticism and direct threats to the agency’s important consumer-protection work does not prevent the FCC from doing its investigation and making judgments based on the facts of the transaction. Now more than ever, Congress and the public need expert regulators protecting the public from tech and media consolidation. While we wait for Congress to create a regulator for dominant digital platforms, we already have an expert agency for media and telecommunications in the FCC. Its mandate to protect the public is clear and the debate around this transaction should focus on those protections and the transaction's details.

On this transaction, the Rosenworcel FCC has led with clear, simple process and standard questions. The timing may be difficult for Standard General, but that is their responsibility to adjust their transaction and timeline to fit the necessary review, not the other way around.

There will now definitely not be any action from the Federal Communications Commission's administrative law judge (ALJ), on Standard General’s acquisition of station group Tegna deal before the plug is expected to be pulled on its financing.

That’s because that ALJ, Jane Hinckley Halprin, has suspended her review “until further notice” after holding a status conference.

At that conference, Standard General and Tegna requested action and a decision before May 17 — given that there is a May 22 deadline for financing a deal announced more than a year ago — so it had asked for resolution in less than three weeks.

Challengers to the deal, which include The News Guild-CWA/National Association of Broadcast Employees and Engineers (NABET)-CWA, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry and Common Cause, had called instead for a year-long review before such a decision.

Also Read: Standard General Flags Fans of Tegna Deal

The presiding — and only — FCC ALJ, Halprin concluded that it would not be possible to do the requisite fact-finding and discovery for the review before that deadline. The FCC’s Media Bureau, in issuing the designation order, had indicated that more information was needed. Halprin said that since the deal may crater before such a review could be completed, why put the parties through the motions — literally and figuratively — “when the underlying transactions might not survive past May 22, 2023.”

Standard General has been trying to acquire Tegna’s 64 TV stations and other assets for most of a year, but the FCC’s Media Bureau designated the deal for a hearing before an administrative law judge, saying the agency needed to weigh in on “material concerns in the record related to how the proposed transaction could artificially raise prices for consumers and result in job losses.” Standard General has offered a number of pledges to try and assuage those concerns, but to no avail, if the designation is any indication.

Standard General agreed to acquire Tegna in an $8.6 billion deal that includes the assumption of $3.2 billion in debt. Apollo Global Management (AGM) is providing some of the funding for the deal. AGM controls Cox Media Group, which will own some of the Tegna stations if the deal is approved.

“As we have said for months, the FCC Media Bureau’s decision to designate the applications for hearing was a deliberate move to kill the transaction rather than to assist in making a decision," Standard General said in a statement. "At any point between now and May 22nd, the FCC has the ability to override the Media Bureau’s deeply flawed Hearing Designation Order and bring this deal to a vote. We urge the FCC to listen to the countless bipartisan voices calling for a vote and fair treatment of the applicants.”

“The ALJ’s decision just confirmed what we have thought since the Media Bureau announced the [Hearing Designation Order],” NewStreet Research’s Blair Levin said in a note to investors. “[O]verturning the order through a legal process would face very long odds.”

Standard General and Tegna have accused the FCC of trying to kill the deal through what they see as its slow-roll review. Such hearing designation orders are indeed usually a death knell for deals.

Standard General continues to point to high-profile deal supporters as the deadline for the financing of its Tegna acquisition fast approaches and it works to try to get an up or down FCC decision by that May 22 date.

Just this week, the company cited a blog post from National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt critical of the Federal Communications Commission’s extensive review of the deal and decision to designate it for hearing; a floor speech from Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) pointing to the lack of media diversity in the context of the deal's difficulties; and a letter from Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Illinois) in support of the deal.

In his blog post, LeGeyt cited Menendez's speech, calling it the latest in a chorus of alarm bells over the FCC’s “flawed merger review process.” He said that process —and the prospect it would kill the deal — risks undermining both investment in local television stations’ free service to the public and media diversity.

Menendez said he could not support FCC commissioners who did not support diversity, including by “acting in a way that denies a vote to a diverse applicant.”

That’s a reference to the FCC Media Bureau’s decision to designate the deal for hearing, which the agency has said is just a way to get more facts about some key issues before a vote. Standard General and Tegna and quite a few others have argued, though, that the designation is a way for the FCC to kill the deal, as has been the result of past hearing designations.

“If the merger is approved, the deal will create the largest minority-owned and woman-led TV broadcasting company in U.S. history,” Jackson said in a letter to FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel. “It would also triple the number of commercial TV stations with minority ownership. I am encouraging the FCC to move forward with a vote, as this deal deserves a fair process and aligns with their goal of increasing diversity in media.”

Standard General has been trying to acquire Tegna’s 64 TV stations and other assets for most of a year, but the FCC's Media Bureau said an administrative judge at the agency needs to weigh in on “material concerns in the record related to how the proposed transaction could artificially raise prices for consumers and result in job losses.” Standard General has offered a number of pledges to try and assuage those concerns, but to no avail if the designation is any indication.

Standard General agreed to acquire Tegna in an $8.6 billion deal that includes the assumption of $3.2 billion in debt. Apollo Global Management (AGM) is providing some of the funding for the deal. AGM controls Cox Media Group, which will own some of the Tegna stations if the deal is approved.

Petitions to deny were filed by The NewsGuild-CWA, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET)-CWA and Graham Media Holdings.

Even before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Standard General’s petition to force the FCC to vote on its proposed $8.6 billion acquisition of Tegna, company founder Soo Kim knew his last-ditch legal maneuvers were a long shot.

Nevertheless, Kim seemed disappointed, frustrated and chagrined that the deal appears likely to die when the financing he assembled expires on May 22.

He’s disappointed because more than two years worth of effort and millions of dollars have gone into the transaction. Kim is frustrated, he says, because during the long renewal process, no one told him what defects in his application to own the Tegna stations needed to be repaired to achieve approvals. And he’s chagrined, the Standard General managing partner and chief investment officer says, because no one else and no other deal has been subjected to a similarly prolonged and mystifying process.

Kim told Broadcasting+Cable the deal would almost certainly die when the financing expires, with no extensions, no new money coming in to rescue the transaction. 

In its ruling denying Standard General’s petition, the D.C. Circuit ruled that it did not demonstrate the FCC “has unreasonably delayed in acting on their applications.”

It is not clear if the government understood that Standard General’s financing was crucial and created a real deadline for completing the deal.

“The most valuable thing we have is the 15 months of financing I got,” Kim said. “That’s a long time. The FCC says, ‘Oh, don’t trouble me with your contract.’ Do you know how hard it is to get 15 months of committed financing now?”

Deal Can’t Be Rebuilt

Soo notes that the financing was obtained back when interest rates were approaching zero. Rates have since escalated, making Soo’s package super valuable. That financing can only be used to buy Tegna, and not some other company.

“It’s like a mortgage commitment. You can buy this house with a 2% mortgage, or you can buy something else out there with a 7% mortgage,” he said. “I have this amazing deal, which, by the way, I’m happy to share with the shareholders. I’m happy to share with the employees.”

By designating the transaction for a hearing by an administrative law judge just three months before that financing expires, the FCC’s Media Bureau effectively ended the deal.

The Media Bureau’s decision marked the first time ever a TV sale was designated for a hearing. It was also unusual because the bureau did not alert the commission it was taking that action.

Kim said that process was also unusual because Standard General was never what was wrong with its proposal or how to fix it.

“All we have ever asked is for our application to be treated like others,” Kim said.

Instead, the process was like something out of Animal House.

“Without pointing to what anyone's done wrong, we were put on ‘double secret probation,’ ” Kim said. “Double-secret probation isn’t a thing. When it comes to the ownership of the news voice in America this is very dangerous. This is not just about dollars and cents.”

He said this situation lets the government decide who is acceptable as a buyer of news. “That’s a scary thought,” he said.

In a letter to FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.) had many questions about the FCC’s handling of the Standard General-Tegna review, including a concern about accusations that the transaction was being blocked because Kim is a minority. “Even the appearance of impropriety harms the Commission’s reputation as a fair arbiter,” the letter said.

“If it could happen to us it could, happen to anybody,” Kim said.

“By saying that I'm not the right person, then you're effectively giving yourself the power to determine who is,” he added. “I think that control over news is something that U,S, citizens should not allow the government to have. Period.”

Kim said he worked hard and tried to cover all the bases in order to get the transaction approved. 

Sometimes — against the advice of his lawyers and lobbyists, who expected the deal to be approved — Kim tried to address objections to the deal by unilaterally pledging not to cut newsroom jobs or raise retransmission rates. That didn’t work.

“I spent all of our time trying to talk sense into everyone involved, including reaching out to the Hill, the White House, saying ‘do you know what this regulatory agency is doing? They are taking something and making a real mash out of it and hurting an entire industry.”

Concerns Over Uncertainity

National Association of Broadcasters CEO Curtis LeGeyt at NAB Show in Las Vegas last week said his organization got involved in the Standard General-Tegna situation because uncertainty over the FCC approval process would make it more difficult for the broadcast industry to attract investments.

Kim added that while the NewsGuild-CWA, one of the unions objecting to the deal, claimed it was interested in preserving localism, its participation in politicizing a regulatory transfer is going to do more damage to those assets.

“My view of America is very positive,“ he said. “I wasn’t born here and I’m a proud immigrant and I love this country and I love it for all the opportunities it presents and everything that’s been given to me.”  

The process threatens his faith in the American way, Kim said. “The worst thing it’s done is it almost has me questioning the fairness of the American system. This shouldn’t happen in America. It’s un-American,” Kim said.

Kim said that even after the deal ends, he’ll try to get answers to his questions about this process.

“I’m an industry veteran and I’m looking at this and asking why,” Kim said. “We will not stop until we figure out why.”