New projections from S&P Global Market Research confirm that local political ad spending will be a windfall for broadcasters in 2026, with revenue expected to reach $4.02 billion.

That is up 15% from the last midterms in 2022.

The study also highlights the growing importance of political advertisers in a period when core advertising has been relatively sluggish. In a blog post, S&P Global Market Research analyst Peter Leitzinger predicted political ad revenue to be 16.3% of net total broadcast revenue in 2026, a record for a nonpresidential election year.

However, the study found that the largest growth segment within political advertising in 2026 is the growth of political advertising on connected TV (CTV).

That trend highlights the importance of ongoing efforts by broadcast TV groups to bulk up their digital operations. Even so linear TV still commands close to half of all political advertising dollars.

The study also ranked the TV station groups with the largest number of stations in states with highly contested congressional races. Sinclair ranks first with 26 stations. Nexstar Media Group and Gray Media followed with 23 stations.

As of the March 19 closing of Nexstar's purchase of Tegna, Nexstar will have the most full-power TV stations in competitive swing states.

NEW YORK—As local stations, TV news outlets and networks ramp up their efforts to secure a larger share of what promises to be record political spending in the fall mid-term 2026 elections, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has released a new study that examines how effective political messaging is likely to be on various platforms.

The December 2025 survey based on findings conducted in partnership with Dynata of 2,319 U.S. adults examined behaviors and sentiments across five key voting and party affiliation groups, potential voters, non-voters, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. It also examined how viewers spend their time, what sources they trust most and how different TV contexts influence outcomes for political messaging.

Results, published as “The Lead Story: How Multiscreen TV Drives Cross-Partisan Engagement for Political Ad Campaigns” found that Americans overwhelmingly trust TV news over any other digital media source like search, social or AI. Collectively, potential voters are almost 9 times more likely to trust TV news than social media platforms, while 50% of total respondents rank AI lowest for trust.

In addition, the survey found that audiences turn to TV news sources to stay informed on political issues far more than any other platform. Further, voters are 60% more likely to use TV news to stay informed than they are social media, and twice as likely than non-voters to be pay-TV subscribers.

TV news is also the primary starting point for understanding current events or issues for voters, while social media is viewed as more supplemental. Moreover, voters are much more likely to watch TV news—with 61% typically watching local news and 57% typically watching national news, compared to 38% and 25% of non-voters, respectively.

Social media is far more likely than TV programs to be viewed as a source of fake or misleading information, as potential voters are almost 3x more likely to believe social media platforms are most likely to provide fake or misleading information vs. TV.

Beyond political ads, people are much more likely to purchase products from advertisers in TV news, as potential voters are 42% more likely than not to buy from advertisers adjacent to a breaking news story on local TV news.

"Today's voters, regardless of political involvement or party affiliation, move fluidly across trusted multiscreen TV platforms, spanning both linear and streaming, to stay informed on current events and political issues," said Jason Wiese, executive vice president of strategic insights & measurement, VAB. "TV news delivers the scale, trust, credibility and authenticity that no other media can for both political and non-political advertisers. This creates the opportunity to reach audiences in high-quality viewing environments that are positively perceived and can inform, engage and ultimately drive action."

The full report is available here.

ATLANTA—Kristy Santiago was named general manager of Gray Media stations KFVS Cape Girardeau, Mo., a CBS and The CW affiliate, and WQWQ-LD Paducah, Ky., a Telemundo affiliate.

An experienced television station management and sales operations executive, Santiago most recently served as general manager of CBS affiliate KION, Telemundo affiliate KUMV and The CW affiliate KCBA in Monterey, Calif. She has also worked in station leadership posts in Grand Junction, Colo., and Palm Springs, Calif., Gray said.

Santiago’s community involvement includes serving on the boards of the California Broadcasters Association, Girls Inc. and Goodwill Central Coast, Gray said.

Atlanta, Ga-based Gray owns local TV stations and digital assets in some 113 television markets reaching about 37% of U.S. television homes, the company said.

In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor’s office. Revenue spikes upwards on even-numbered years as a pulse of political advertising pumps into the system and declines in odd-numbered years between the regular cycles of midterm and presidential elections.

Not surprisingly, analysts and top station executives predict a similar pattern for 2026, which will see a burst of spending around the midterm elections, the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. BIA Advisory Services, for example, predicts the $14.51 billion in local TV over-the-air (OTA) ad revenue in 2025 will grow 25.5% to $18.18 billion next year.

Smoothing out the spikes of political advertising, S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Kagan Research predicts a cumulative annual growth rate of 1.48% between 2025 and 2030 for TV station ad revenue.

Even so, most analysts readily admit that the prognosis for a healthy ad market over the next year or two is particularly uncertain. While the rollout of NextGen TV and industry-wide consolidation could boost revenue several years down the road, they are unlikely to have a major impact on the 2026 ad market, which could easily be derailed by a variety of economic issues.

“Who knows what will happen with tariffs?” Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA Advisory Services, explained. “Who knows what will happen with inflation and interest rates? Who knows about employment…and consumer confidence and AI spending, which has been a key driver of the economy?”

“The economy is really a big wildcard,” added Brian Wieser, principal at Madison and Wall and a financial analyst of the global advertising, technology and marketing services sectors. “Unless you believe that everything economists have said in the last 100, 200 years is wrong, there are real risks. And it’s not just uncertainty. It’s the certainty that bad economic policies have consequences.”

Political Uncertainty
Even political advertising, which has been reliably breaking records year after year for decades, is potentially more volatile than ever. Ducey noted that the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in the National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission case, challenging existing spending limits, could increase or tamp down political advertising. Likewise, efforts to gerrymander congressional districts in Texas, California and other states could also have a major impact on spending.

“In terms of political advertising, we are anticipating about $3.8 billion next year, up about 10% from the last midterms,” Justin Nielson, head of Kagan Research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said. “That is not as high as it was in 2024 but relative to the midterms, very healthy.”

BIA is predicting a slightly higher $4.2 billion local OTA TV political ad spend.

Tariffs are another wildcard. “Tariffs have had an impact in terms of consumer spending, but not to the point where it’s made a huge difference in terms of the advertising marketplace,” Nielson said. “Advertising has still been coming in pretty heavily,” and some industries like auto are seeing a spending rebound.

An even bigger worry is the longer-term shift of ad dollars from linear TV and local TV to digital and streaming.

Core Concerns
Excluding political from the 20206 numbers, “we actually have a year-over-year decline [in core OTA TV ad revenue] because dollars are shifting to CTV and digital,” noted Senan Mele, vice president of forecasting and data analysis at BIA. This decline would actually be worse, he added, without the beneficial impact of the Olympics and other special events in 2026 like the World Cup.

“Agencies and advertisers want to be able to report the ROI on ad investments and it’s easier to do that with a digital platform compared to TV over the air,” he concluded.

Reversing that trend is a major priority for broadcasters, both with better measurement tools and revamped cross-platform sales strategies.

“We want to make sure that we bring in unique content to the viewers, and that’s really helping us,” Gray’s Steber said, pointing to efforts like the programming produced by its InvestigateTV unit and the content available on its Local News Now 24/7 free streaming channel. “People are hungry for content that’s unique.”

No Simple Cures
Analysts, however, had mixed reactions to broadcasters’ hopes that the rollout of ATSC 3.0, broadcast ownership deregulation and a wave of M&A activity will have much of an impact on 2026 ad revenue.

Most noted that ATSC 3.0’s impact is several years away, given the limited penetration of sets, and were skeptical that deregulation and the creation of larger station groups would immediately strengthen their ad business.

“Advertisers want to make sure that they’re reaching folks no matter where they are, and they want a very cohesive plan,” Ronna Steber, senior managing vice president at Gray Media, said. “So, we’ve worked really hard to be able to offer them complete plans, linear, digital, social” while deploying better measurement and analytics to “make sure that those ad campaigns are delivering on all the analytics that the advertisers want.”

“While digital spend is going up and spending is shifting away from linear media like radio and TV, some of that shift now goes back in their pockets because they’re selling different inventory,” Ducey added. Efforts by local broadcasters to acquire more sports and boost original programming have helped their ad sales, he added.

“It certainly won’t help them compete with bigger platforms,” Wieser said. “Marketers are shifting away from television because of what digital platforms can offer…The reality is that with less fragmentation, you may even have less diversity in the business model, which is a surefire way to amplify the current trends [of ad market share losses]. Size isn’t what’s causing budgets to shift.”

Mele at BIA agreed that consolidation in itself won’t reverse shifts towards CTV but added that it “could help with ad revenue at a station level in specific markets because…there will be fewer sellers.”

Even so, analysts at BIA and other firms highlighted some positive trends.

“The two big highlights for me in terms of positive impact to the ad market have been local sports rights in certain markets and their increasing ability to offer a full suite of linear, digital and social packages to advertisers,” Nielson said. “Being able to offer [a unified, one-stop] advertising business model and investing in local programming is producing an encouraging ROI.”

NEW YORK—Amid growing concerns about an economic recession and wider media trends that threaten local broadcast TV revenue, a new report from S&P Global Ratings argues that the financial state of local broadcasting is relatively secure and has issued a "stable" credit ratings outlook for local broadcasters. 

The analysis comes at a time when despite widespread cord cutting has increased fears that broadcasters could see declines retransmission fee revenue.

While retransmission revenue growth slowed significantly across the U.S. local TV industry in 2022, to around 3% from around 10% in the previous two years, S&P is predicting growth in retransmission revenue over the next two years. 

S&P remains skeptical, however, that NextGen TV will provide significant new revenue in the near term and downplayed the potential upside from local sports in its financial analysis of local TV. 

“We believe retransmission revenue will increase annually in the mid-single-digit percent area over the next two years,” explained Rose Oberman, credit analyst, S&P Global Ratings. “Our industry forecast assumes total pay-TV subscribers will decline more than 7% per annum over the next two years. This will be more than offset by local TV broadcasters negotiating higher retransmission rates during contract renewals with pay-TV distributors. We believe retransmission revenue growth will flatten after 2024 and potentially turn negative after 2025, as more moderate price increases during contract renewals (given declining TV audiences, weaker broadcast network content, and less exclusive broadcast network content) become insufficient to offset subscriber churn.”

The report noted that beyond 2025, “we expect retransmission revenue will eventually decline. However, we believe revenue declines will be manageable and no higher than in the low-single-digit percent area within the next five years. We believe broadcast TV will remain a key component of pay-TV distributors' video offerings as the broadcast networks will continue to carry key sports programming.”

Overtime that will reduce the importance of retransmission revenue, which currently represents more than 40% of total revenue for most local TV broadcasters, and make core advertising (excluding political ad spending) an increasing percentage of industry revenues.

The report also addressed the issue of whether NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 will provide a significant revenue boost in the near terms. While NextGen TV could present revenue opportunities for datacasting and targeted advertising, the report said they were “skeptical as to what extent ATSC 3.0 can be monetized and do not expect to incorporate any benefit from it in our analysis until the industry has demonstrated an ability to sign and implement new contracts and generate meaningful revenue from it.”

S&P expects that “local TV broadcasters will benefit from $4 billion in high-margin political advertising revenue in 2024 given the U.S. presidential election to help reduce leverage. While we expect a shallow recession in 2023 will reduce core advertising by about 3% in 2023, we expect it will largely recover in 2024 as economic conditions improve. To the extent that retransmission revenue growth becomes negative over the longer-term, this could trigger a reassessment of our views on the sector.”

Looking ahead, the report also covered other potential revenue opportunities, including local sports. While acquiring sports rights could provide an opportunity to increase local advertising revenues over the next couple of years, the report doubted this would notably boost retransmission fees and noted that the cost of sports rights could hurt margins. 

“Nexstar and E.W. Scripps could be in unique positions to acquire sports content, given Nexstar's 75% ownership of the CW Network and E.W. Scripp's ownership of the ION Television Network because they fully control those broadcast networks' programming,” the report said. 

More information on accessing the report is available here.  

NEW YORK—New forecasts from media agency Magna are predicting that long form video advertising will be down by 9.1% in 2023 while OTT streaming (AVOD and FAST channel) spending will climb by 21.2%.  

In contrast, after record political spending in 2022, the local TV ad spend will plummet by 21.4% and national TV will slip by 6.7%. The declines for national TV ad spending were slightly higher than the earlier 6.3% forecasted drop while the forecast for local TV was slightly better than the 22.9% drop previously predicted.

Overall cross platform video would decline by 5.2%, a worse outlook than the previously forecast 4.4% decline. 

Magna reported that U.S. media owners advertising revenues grew by a decent 6% in 2022 (excluding cyclical ad spend) to reach $315 billion and that the ad spend slowed down significantly through the second half, with fourth quarter ad sales flat year-over-year.

Looking at 2023, there are mixed economic signals (slow but continued GDP growth, receding inflation, resilient job market) while financial turbulence is generating anxiety among consumers and businesses, Magna reported. 

“In a similar economic climate, ten or twenty years ago, the U.S. advertising market would almost certainly fall off a cliff,” explained Vincent Létang, executive vice president, global market research at MAGNA, and author of the report. “Things are different in 2023 because of media innovation fueling marketing demand. The organic drivers that boosted the ad market in 2021 and the first half of 2022 are still around and mitigating the impact of stressful economic signals. Such organic drivers include the rise of retail media networks which are redirecting billions of marketing budgets dollars into advertising formats. In addition, with long-form OTT streaming going mainstream and increasingly ad-supported, brands finally find cost-effective solutions to reconnect with audiences that had become hard and expensive to reach through linear television. These are some of the reasons why advertising spending continued to grow in the second half of 2022, despite economic uncertainty, war, inflation, and very high growth comps. For the same reasons, MAGNA expects advertising activity to continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace, in 2023. An additional growth factor for 2023 is the recovery of the automotive market, a top five vertical for most media types in America”.

NEW YORK—The ongoing economic slowdown and the lack of major cyclical events like the midterm elections has prompted Magna to reduce its overall forecasts for U.S. advertising in 2023 and to predict a 7.5% drop in long-form video advertising.  

For 2023, Magna is predicting a heft 32.7% increase in AVOD, OTT and CTV advertising in the U.S. But that won’t overcome an eye watering 22.1% slump in local TV advertising, which has been buoyed in 2022 by record levels of political advertising, and a 5.8% drop in national linear TV. 

For all advertising, Magna has reduced its growth forecast to +4.8% for 2023 from +5.8% in the previous report.

“Following a strong first half, non-cyclical advertising spending is slowing down as several industries are facing an uncertain economic environment,” explained Vincent Létang, executive vice president of Global Market Intelligence at MAGNA and author of the report. “There are several growth factors that will help stabilize media owner ad revenues in coming months, however. In the short-term (2H22) cyclical factors: Billions of ad dollars will be spent by political campaigns in TV, direct mail, and digital media. In the mid-term (2023) there will be multiple organic growth factors, driven by marketing technology innovation: Retail media networks bringing below-the-line marketing budgets into digital media, programmatic spending in digital audio and digital OOH formats, and the expansion of AVOD and CTV advertising with new ad-supported tiers from Disney+ and Netflix.”

 Magna reported that long-form video advertising increased by 6.0% in the first half of 2022 compared to very strong results in the first half of 2022 and that the sector should be up by 6% for all of 2022. 

Local TV will be up 22% for the year while national linear TV advertising will be down 3.2% for all of 2022 compared to 2021. 

National AVOD, OTT and CTV advertising will be up by 22% for 2022 compared to 2020. 

Based on record fund-raising year-to-date, Magna is predicting that political advertising spending will grow by +63% over the previous mid-term cycle (2018) and generate $7.3 billion in incremental advertising revenue for media owners, with 70% of it concentrated in the second half. 

Local television will attract almost two-thirds of that total, as political ad sales will account for 25% of total local TV ad revenue this year (and more for stations in “battleground” markets), the researchers said. 

Digital media formats will receive $1.3 billion from political campaigns, with sales up between +150% and +200% for search, digital video, and social formats.

With a strong first half and political advertising mitigating the slowdown in the second half, Magna also expects full-year, all-media advertising revenues to surpass the $300 billion mark for the first time and reach $323 billion this year. That represents an increase of $29 billion over 2021 (+9.8%), with non-cyclical underlying growth at +8.1%.

Other key findings in the new Magna ad data and a forecast include: 

• In the wake of a historically strong 2021, U.S. media owner’s advertising revenues grew by +11% to $151 billion in the first half of 2022, based on financial reports.
• Media channel performance varied greatly in the first half with strong revenue growth in out-of-home (+30%), and robust growth in keyword formats (search, retail media) (+19%), contrasted against stagnation in social media (+3%).
• The weaker economic environment will cause several industry verticals to reduce ad spend in the second half, but stronger-than-expected political spending will mitigate the impact on revenues of media owners.
• Full-year media owner revenues will thus cross the $300bn market for the first time, to reach $323bn. That’s +9.8% above 2021 levels (+8.1% if we only consider non-cyclical ad spend and exclude political dollars).
• For 2023, the continued economic slowdown and the lack of major cyclical events led Magna to reduce its growth forecast to +4.8% from +5.8% in the previous report.
• Magna expects Entertainment (Movies, Streaming), Travel and Betting to grow advertising spending next year, possibly joined by Automotive as the car market finally stabilizes.
• Keyword search formats (+13%) and OOH (+8%) will continue to outperform, while long-form AVOD spending will be driven by the addition of ad-supported tiers from Disney+ and Netflix (+33%).

NEW YORK—In an interesting example of how broadcasters are looking to cross-pollinate their TV and digital efforts, Hearst Television’s broadcast stations in 26 markets will be airing a weeklong sample of original, entertaining reality programming courtesy of the company's recently introduced Very Local free streaming service. 

Starting on Labor Day September 5, the Very Local shows will appear during select time slots across the Hearst station footprint in a showcase of the best of the digital service's new original series. Content spans the breadth of Very Local's offerings, with a focus on food, travel, adventure, dating, and true crime. Each one-hour on-air programming block will highlight a different theme and will be hosted by one of Very Local's most popular personalities.

"Very Local Presents: More to Explore is a week-long celebration of the extraordinary talent, passion and resilience found in local communities across America," said Very Local director of programming Laura Ling.  "We're thrilled to share these stories with the broader television audience, and we hope viewers will download the free Very Local app for more."

Highlights of the digital programming making its way to broadcast include: 

• On Monday, September 5th, Ashley Adams, the host of Very Local's "Maker Nation", introduces viewers to some of the hottest crafters across the U.S., and then presents an episode of "Eat Play Stay", a Very Local flagship series featuring the best of what to do, where to dine, and where to stay in cities around the country, Hearst Television reported. 
• Tuesday, September 6th is hosted by Kinga Philipps, Shark Week's Tiger Queen, who is guide and guru behind Very Local's "Finding Adventure". After a "Finding Adventure" episode in which Kinga helps a young mother conquer her social anxiety and face her fears, Kinga introduces a new Very Local series, "Local Love", which features a single going on three blind dates -- while discovering a love of new things to do in her hometown. 
• Wednesday, September 7th takes viewers on a search for justice -- with two episodes of Very Local's popular true crime series "Hometown Tragedy", developed in collaboration with Hearst TV news teams around the country.
• On Thursday, September 8th, "Survivor" all-star Rob Mariano, host of Very Local's "Boston Rob Does Beantown", takes viewers through some of his favorite Boston hot spots and then tees up an episode of "My Amazing Cheap Date", in which couples compete to see who can make the most of a date-on-a-budget.
• The week-long on-air special programming showcase wraps on Friday, September 9th, with host Bime Cruz of "Blind Kitchen Boston". The charismatic chef hosts a blind-folded culinary battle, then spotlights the cooking series, "Plate it, Pittsburgh!" where sandwiches get the gourmet treatment in a creative culinary competition, the company reported. 

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit has announced the latest release of WO Traffic, the company’s flagship broadcast media ad sales and commercial operations platform with new features that include an automated addressable ad replacement solution for live streams.

As viewing continues to grow on connected TVs and streaming platforms, the new automated addressable ad replacement solution for live streams is designed to help stations and station groups monetize streaming via OTT/CTV and NextGen TV. 

“WideOrbit has a long tradition of continuous innovation and investment in our clients’ success. We’re excited to introduce our addressable ad replacement solution with the release of WO Traffic v22.0,” said Will Offeman, WideOrbit chief product officer. “Over 80% of our customers today are streaming their over-the-air content and addressable ad replacement will make it easier for them to take full advantage of revenue opportunities on the stream.”

The company noted that streaming via over-the-top and connected TV (OTT/CTV) now accounts for 24% of total TV consumption, up from 19% in 2019, and ad spend in 2022 will exceed $19 billion,. a 32% increase over last year, according to Insider Intelligence. In addition, Nielsen’s 2022 Global Marketing Report found that 61% of North American marketers are planning to increase their OTT/CTV ad spend this year.

WO Traffic’s addressable ad replacement solution enables a single playlist to be sent to both airtime (over the air) automation and streaming ad servers, with Spot and Material level data. 

As a result, broadcast spots on the live stream can either achieve extended reach or be replaced with addressable ads. The digital playout system uses data from WO Traffic to make dynamic ad replacement decisions at the Spot and/or Material level. 

By monetizing ads replaced on the stream, stations can maximize the revenue potential of live streaming their broadcast content via OTT/CTV, while also ensuring they’re fully prepared for the addressable capabilities of NEXTGEN TV (ATSC 3.0).

Other features and enhancements in WO Traffic v22.0 include: 

• Efficiency improvements to the Electronic Material Instructions module, based on customer feedback;
• An all-new application area for compiling and analyzing Instructions Sets across Material bundles, Advertisers, and Properties;
• The ability to exclude Agency Commission and/or Tax on Order Lines, allowing for commissionable, non-commissionable, taxable, and non-taxable lines on an order;​
• Log efficiency enhancements, including an option for improved spot placement in swing breaks.

WO Traffic v22.0 is now available for general release. 

More information on WO Traffic v22.0, is available in a recent webinar, “One Platform, Multiple Solutions: What’s New in WO Traffic v22.0.”

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group (CMG) has announced that it has closed separate transactions for the acquisitions of KLSR (Fox) and KEVU (My Network TV), two television stations in Eugene Oregon previously owned by California Oregon Broadcasting Inc. (COBI).

“We look forward to combining our rich legacies as we work together to improve lives and elevate our communities,” said Dan York, CEO of CMG. “Both stations have outstanding talent and have been exceptionally managed. They’re well-positioned to increase our competitiveness as we evolve our television footprint, drive revenue, and grow our ratings.”

COBI owned KLSR since 1993.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed but TVNewsCheck has reported that the acquisitions totaled $7.2 million. 

“It’s been an honor to work with the dedicated teams at these great stations,” said Patricia C. (Patsy) Smullin, COBI’s President. “I’ll very much miss being part of this region and want to thank both stations for their commitment to their viewers and the community.”

KLSR and KEVU will join CMG’s 31 TV stations group.

“These stations will fit perfectly into our CMG TV portfolio, where our primary focus is serving our communities; informing, entertaining and engaging our audiences; and providing our customers with the best-in-class linear and digital platforms to help grow their businesses,” said Paul Curran, executive vice president of TV for CMG. “I’m thrilled they are part of the CMG family.”

WASHINGTON—Local TV found an increased role during the Covid-19 pandemic, and surprisingly, despite financial troubles across many industries from 2020, local TV news ended 2020 with both a record high in employment and increased salaries. However, 2021 has already seen some of those gains be erased.

Local TV news added 500 jobs during 2020, more than making up for the 300 jobs lost in 2019. With the 500 news jobs (a 1.8% increase), total full-time jobs in local TV news rose to 28,000, beating out the previous high set in 2009.

The specifics as to how the local TV industry got their aren’t simple though. More stations loss staff than added in 2020, with a record 30.2% making staff cuts; 22.9% grew. The growths were enough though to have the job total increase overall.

Staffing averages were up across most market sizes, regions and network affiliations. The big four networks were most likely to have gained staff. Stations in bigger markets, non-network affiliates and stations in the Northeast were most likely to have made cuts.

Digital staffing was up on average, with many news managers saying they have more staff dedicated to digital. Other newsroom roles saw gains as well, including photographer, producer, editor and social media producer/editor.

Solo journalists are being used more at least some of time, per RTDNA, but fewer newsrooms “mostly or only rely on solo crews.” Small markets overwhelmingly use solo journalists, with mid-markets doing so increasingly.

Solo journalist and producer roles were the most in demand positions in 2020, with nearly a quarter of created jobs for solo journalists. Solo journalists, digital roles and producers made up about three-quarters of new hires.

As the number of jobs went up, so did the salaries. After falling for the first time in seven years in 2019, local TV news salaries were once again on the upswing, increasing on average by 3.5% (2.1% after accounting for inflation). This represented the largest increase since 2016, RTDNA says.

Salary increases were made for 70% of local news position; 20% saw decreases and 10% stayed the same. Increases were mixed across markets, but those in markets 101-150 faired the best, with the top 25 seeing salaries for most positions falling.

Average and median starting salaries both rose to the highest they’ve been in the history of RTDNA’s survey. Average starting salaries increased $2,100 to $32,600, and media starting salaries were up $1,200 to $31,200. However, the starting salary for a college graduate ($50,944) was well below average, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employees.

Despite all the growth in 2020, the start of 2021 has been rough. RTDNA says that more than 400 jobs were lost through March of 2021.

For more information, visit RTDNA’s website.

WASHINGTON—Local TV news had its biggest year ever, as RTDNA reported a record number of local TV stations aired local news in 2020. According to a survey, 1,116 TV stations shared local news with its viewers.

The data comes from a survey conducted by RTDNA and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

The 1,116 TV stations airing local news content is up 18 from the previous all-time high, which was set in 2019. Of the 1,100+ stations, 710 produced their own news content, up five from 2019; 406 stations, meanwhile, aired local news, up 13.

Stations also set a record for hours of local news aired. Stations saw an increase in weekday news that, even with a slight decrease in weekend news, resulted in an overall net gain in average hours of local TV news. A little more than a third (34.5%) of TV stations reported they increased the amount of news they aired in 2020, up 7.3 percentage points from 2019.

Increases in the amount of news produced occurred in all market sizes. All staffs of 21 or more also increased their amount of news in minutes. Among the network affiliates, CBS stations were the most likely to increase their output, while Fox stations actually did not see an overall increase in news output.

All of this came in a year where budgets were mostly cutback because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Only 16.3% of stations reported a budget increase in 2020, compared to 36.8% in 2019. Inversely, 29.3% of stations saw budget cuts, up from 2019’s 9.1%. Stations in the top 50 markets were most affected by budget cuts.

Related, fewer news departments were profitable in 2020, according to news directors, with more reporting losses. However, the percentage of station revenue generated by the news department remained steady.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Pew Research Center reported that despite losses in ad revenues, gains in retransmission revenue helped lead to double-digit year-over-year revenue increases in the second half of 2020, with several groups setting record revenues.

The impact of Covid went beyond the financials, though. More than 90% of TV news directors said their newsrooms were still being significantly impacted by the pandemic at the end of 2020. More than 80% say at least some staff remain remote, which in some cases may become permanent. For 30%, there were budget cuts and reduced staff sizes, particular among stations in the Northeast. Seven of 10 news directors expect long or permanent changes in their workflow.

For more information, view RTDNA’s full report.

CLEVELAND—Local broadcast TV streaming service Locast is now being offered in the Cleveland market, with the ability to deliver 70 local TV channels to 4 million residents, per Locast. Cleveland also marks the 30th market that Locast is serving.

Locast delivers local TV stations via the internet to phones, tablets, laptops and streaming media devices at no cost to the consumer (though donations are welcomed). This gives consumers who may have opted to cut the cord access to their local news, storm coverage, emergency information, sports and entertainment programming.

In Cleveland, Locast is offering the market’s ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates, PBS station and more for a total of 70 channels.

The counties covered by Locast in the Cleveland market include Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Holmes, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas and Wayne.

Locast operates as a non-profit organization, which the company claims puts it under the Copyright Act of 1976 so they do not need a copyright license. This has been a point of contention for broadcasters.

To date, Locast has more than 2.5 million registered users across its 30 markets nationwide. Locast says that its service is available to half of the U.S. population.

For more information, visit www.locast.org.  

ORLANDO, Fla.—Locast, the free local broadcast TV streaming service, has launched for the Orlando TV market, making more than 70 local TV channels available to the market’s more than four million residents over the internet.

Locast delivers streams of local TV stations via the internet onto phones, tablets, laptops or streaming media devices at no cost so that viewers in the markets it serves can have access to local news, storm coverage, emergency information, health and safety updates, sports and entertainment. Locast is able to do this as a nonprofit, under the Copyright Act of 1976.

The launch of Locast in the Orlando market comes ahead of the NFL’s conference championship games taking place on Jan. 24, which will include the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Green Bay Packers. The other game is the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Buffalo Bills.

Locast will be accessible to viewers in nine counties in the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne DMA, including Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia.

Orlando is the fourth Florida market to offer Locast. The service previously launched in Miami, Tampa Bay and West Palm Beach. Locast is now available 28 markets across the country.

For more information, visit www.locast.org.  

WASHINGTON—Local TV stations had a saving grace during the height of the coronavirus earlier this year as ad revenue was dropping, retransmission fees. According to a Pew Research Center report on the second quarter of 2020, local TV stations’ gain from retrans fees outperformed what they lost in ad revenue.

Studying the revenue reports from Sinclair, Tegna, Nexstar, Gray and E.W. Scripps—which together own or operate more than 600 stations in the U.S.—Pew found that their ad revenue fell by a median of 24% (Nexstar’s year-over-year numbers do not include former Tribune stations as the companies merged post Q2 2019). Even in a presidential election year, for all station groups but Gray, ad revenue was down from the mid-term elections in 2018.

But retransmission fees paid by cable providers negated these losses, as the median year-over-year increase for the five companies was 37%, helped by an increase in viewership during the early days of the pandemic. Pew says that this equates to a median increase of $87.3 million in revenue; Pew estimates that ad revenue dropped $67.9 million during Q2.

Sinclair was reported to have the biggest jump, earning more than $1 billion in retransmission fees in Q2 2020, compared to $367 million in Q2 2019.

TV news media overall actually saw general increases in its ad revenue for Q2 2020. Pew found that network TV (ABC, CBS and NBC) saw an 11% increase in ad revenue during the quarter. Cable networks, meanwhile, combined netted a 2% year-over-year increase, but it was a different story for each network, with Fox News Channel seeing an increase of 41%, CNN decreasing 14% and MSNBC dipping 27% in ad revenue.

For the complete study, visit Pew’s website.

WASHINGTON—Earlier this month, Syncbak, a developer of technology for live local OTT, announced the launch of VUit, an OTT platform for local broadcasters that provides a free,  ad-supported national streaming service built in partnership with local television station groups, including Gray Television, Meredith and others. 

TV Technology recently sat down with Syncbak founder Jack Perry and Mike Braun, senior vice president of digital media for Gray TV, a major investor in Syncbak, to discuss how VUit could change the OTT landscape for local broadcasters.  

TV Technology: Jack, how did this come together, can you kind of give us the genesis of this?

Jack Perry: Yeah, I think it really came together last winter. [Gray CEO] Hilton Howell and the executive leadership team of Gray invited me to give a talk to all of their general managers in Miami. Mike and I have a shared vision that there is a ton of opportunity in the OTT space for local and hyperlocal and giving their viewers something more to watch.

Five minutes after the talk about what the future could look like for OTT we're on a roll and ready to go and the leadership team at Gray said, “we like this we want to go.” And so we developed VUit.

Mike Braun: Like Jack said, we've been talking about what the future holds for not only OTT, but local broadcasting in general, and from Gray’s perspective, we always felt Jack and his team saw the vision, usually before anybody else. That meeting just sort of brought it all together, but it was multiple years of planning to get to this stage. We needed to be ready to go to that next level, to make sure that we as broadcasters were ready, but we wanted to make sure our audience was ready for it as well, and we feel that time is right now.

TVT: So when you say this was “years in the making,” you're talking about the concept and then Jack helped bring it to reality?

MB: Yeah, absolutely. Gray and Syncbak have been working together now since 2013, so it's evolved quite a bit. It started with finding the tech partner for us to be able to bring our live streams to multiple platforms. That work started all the way back then and to me VUit has just become sort of the “cherry on top” of everything else that we've done, and it starts a whole new roadmap for us.

TVT: Jack, would you say that this kind of is like the logical evolution of SyncBak and what you originally intended it for?

JP: Yes, it really is getting back to the original vision of connecting every broadcaster to every viewer and we're very proud to power, live on many of the MVPDs. We’re equally as proud to have the ability to give broadcasters really a “sandbox,” if you will, to experiment and get their viewers something else to watch, but you're absolutely right, this is the realization of the original vision for Syncbak.

TVT: When I was reviewing VUit, the first thing that came to mind was “this is to local television like what iHeartRadio or TuneIn is for radio.”

JP: I think it is. We’re aggregating the content and giving viewers the ability to watch unique programming from across the country, but perhaps most important is it’s connecting in advertisers as well, who have really needed an on ramp to OTT for a long time. This gives the kind of level playing field for the smaller advertiser, it gives them the ability to get out and reach a viewer. If they're watching a dirt track race in Cadillac Mich., they can put their ad into that, if they're watching a snowmobile race or if they're watching a local parade or they're watching the news, now the local advertiser knows how to find the viewers and that really is kind of the essence of the deal—it is connecting broadcasters to viewers, and then advertisers into the mix as well.

TVT: Were there changes in FCC rules over the years that helped spur this along?

JP: Well you know when I originally started Syncbak I went to Capitol Hill and said “I'm going to be the first cable company that uses the internet in a private way.” And Congress kind of looked at me and said “well why don't we just let the free market work that out.” 

So that's what really caused the whole notion. I don't know if it's as much as what's happening with the FCC as much as it's the technology enabling the local broadcaster to really create special and unique offerings to reach viewers. I think that's more the driver. The proof is in the pudding when you start running advertisements, and revenue is going up and the small advertisers are able to get into the mix. That's what's driving it, the technology and the ability to monetize viewing.

MB: We're now allowing our viewers to decide where is local. With us and the OTT space in general, the viewer is now deciding what's local to them. And that's the key I think about this whole thing is, we're not limited anymore to certain channels and TV grids. This allows us to have multiple channels live at all times on VUit. And it could be channels that are there forever, but it also could be what we call “pop up channels,” which become local not only in your market, but they become local for anyone that is interested in that event.

TVT: How, if any will this impact the relationship between the local station and the network when the networks themselves have launched their own OTT services?

MB: Here's the thing with that—there's going to be a lot of players in the space, there's going to be our peers in local broadcasting, and then there's going to be the national networks. 

The OTT space is very big, and there's a lot of room for all of us to be in that field. I think the important part for us and local broadcasting is to focus on what we do best and not really worry too much about what the others around us are doing. There's nobody that's going to do live and local better than we will, in our marketplace. So that's where our focus is, regardless of what the national networks are doing. 

We know what our viewers are looking for, and that's the way I think we have to look at it. Sure, anytime there's new programming in the space it's going to impact you in some manner, but that's why I think we really need to stay focused and stay the course on live and local. 

TVT: Mike, how has Gray weathered the events of the past six months? Have there been any layoffs at your stations? And if stations are making cuts, how is that going to help you in your efforts to ramp up your local live production for VUit?

MB: At Gray, we are not downsizing our staffs. We did not do any furloughs and I'm very proud of that. I believe we are the leaders in the broadcast space, not only because of the markets we're in and how we lead in those markets, but because of our leadership and our people. I'm very proud of the fact that our senior leaders have made it very clear that they are giving back and believing in our people. 

We are doing things differently due to the pandemic. After 20 years in the business, I can't believe  how many Zoom meetings that we're having, and I never thought I wouldn't be traveling as much as I have in years past and that's not just me personally, but also as a company. 

The thing that concerns me the most is our local advertiser. We only exist in our communities because of the strength of our advertising. And I think this is what separates us at times from national news networks. For our advertisers, they live in the same communities that we live in, right? We don't get to go in after a big event and then leave. So we're always mindful of that. 

But to answer your question about investing in new local programming beyond news to fill the grid in viewing. Absolutely, you know, I don't think there's ever a cap on programming. That's what makes it very interesting here. We can have multiple programs going without the need for millions in viewership. What I mean by that is, at primetime, it's all about the ratings, how many viewers do we have sitting watching any of the networks at any given time during let's say 7-9 p.m., on a night right? When it comes to VUit, we can have thousands of programs going with just thousands of people watching what they are interested in. At that moment, and together accurately, we are talking about millions, it just it's a much different model than it is on the linear side.

JP: For years viewers have become accustomed to seeing 16 minutes of avails per hour. If we translate that into the OTT space where 15 second ad spots are dominant, 16 minutes is approximately 64 15-second ads running per hour. We're testing a lot of things here, we're not sure if 16 is the optimal maybe it's 10 but when you're taking a live broadcast the ad paths are part of the ad pods. If you take 16 minutes worth of advertising-supported programming, just for one viewer watching one hour, that one viewer is worth $3.20 per hour. 

So, you look at somebody with the scale of Gray Television. One viewer watching one hour, generating $3.20 of gross revenue and you then move that against what the whole U.S. would be for them, it doesn't take long to build a massive, massive revenue machine that is serving its community and communities, outside with really great programming.

My point is, what Gray had an opportunity here with getting behind VUit and really deepening their relationship with us is they now have access to their own ‘Bamtech’ [now “Disney Streaming Services”]. We’re on the clock now, we're going to be doing the Super Bowl in February, but  we've done it before, we're doing it again and every time CBS has it, we’ve got to pull 208 signals out of the affiliates pointed to the cloud and hand them off to Hulu and Fubo and others so we have the ability to scale.

But most importantly is we have the ability to keep costs very, very low. So if you might see on VUit that one of the channels we have that runs 24/7 is something called “Prospect Meadows” [a Marion, Iowa-based sports complex] during the day when there's no games going on there it's, you know, you're just watching the corn grow over the top of a baseball field.

Our costs are so low that if one viewer tunes in and watches that and we queue up 16 minutes of ads, we've just generated somewhere between $1 and $3 per hour, off of that view or watching the corn grow. And our net income on that I can tell you is in the neighborhood of 99 cents off of that $1.

So, because we have the scale, because we have the technology, we offer Gray the ability to experiment and do all kinds of different things and not have to worry about the cost and the complexity of going OTT. The reason Disney took Bamtech in house was to control the costs and control the complexity and to speed their time to market when they came up with new initiatives. And with Gray strengthening their relationship with us and getting behind VUit, it puts them in that exact same position as Disney.

TVT: Will the programming that local stations produce be exclusive to VUit, or will they also be able to show it on the local linear feed?

JP: The broadcasters have made significant investments in their news apps on their websites and they can put whatever programming to those that they want, it's all VUit-powered programming. Are we going to open it up to others? Probably not because one thing that broadcasters know is exclusivity, and they understand it, they can go to their local advertiser and say, “I'm the only game in town.” But we're not going to tell viewers that are accustomed to using websites and news apps, “hey you can't, you got to go here for now.” That wouldn't be the spirit of broadcasting so we let them pick their device, pick their destination but it'll all be VUit-powered. That’s the best way to think about it.

MB: One of the reasons this really excites us from the advertising perspective is that we're not limited to having to be a set standard across the platform. Each channel that we have on VUit, we can change on the fly, we can have a channel where we want ad pods at a certain length, and then realize by that afternoon that maybe that’s not working, we need to either scale back or scale up the changes literally instantly, there's no delay, there's no waiting. 

We're not limited to what “standards” are on the linear side. 

TVT: Mike, how are your member stations promoting VUit?

MB: Our stations are mentioning it at the end of their newscasts, “to stay with our digital channel, head over to VUit.” They’re also running 15 and 30-second ads. And that was really a big part of this launch, is with Gray and Heritage, and Morgan Murphy and Meredith and their stations saying, “Hey, we're on VUit!” Who better to tell the viewers to tune in than the local broadcasters?

TVT: Where does ATSC 3.0 fit into this?

JP: If there's a way to integrate with ATSC 3.0, we'll do that. 

TVT: Including 4K?

JP: Yes, it's always a math problem. But of course, we can solve that.

TVT: Your new platform AdSync is also  going to play an important role in VUit. Can you  elaborate?

JP: AdSync is pretty simple. We start out by embedding into the station, we get hooks into traffic and automation and when we see the ad pod coming, we pull out the over-the-air ads and we put in the highest-paying ads from our dynamic ad insertion, and who will have the ads—which is what AdSync manages.

AdSync was a big part of why we're doing this with Gray because it works. The idea is that, in real time, we find the highest-paying possible ad, but let me put one caveat on that.

We tap into all of the ad networks, we are embedded with the stations to work on their ads, but the most important piece of AdSync is that it gives the local broadcaster the ability to sell ads locally that are then put into AdSync and then become central to the local viewers experience, and those are the highest paying possible ads. 

TAMPA, Fla.—Locast, a nonprofit streaming provider of local broadcast TV, has added Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Fla., to its list of TV markets where it is available. Locast says that it will offer more than 45 local TV channels for free via the internet for viewers in these areas.

Locast’s goal is to provide access to important local news and other information. For the Tampa market that includes hurricane and storm coverage as hurricane season officially begins and updates on the coronavirus pandemic as beaches re-open in Florida.

The more than 3 million viewers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market will be able to watch local TV content for free through the Locast app or website, available as long as local TV stations continue to broadcast, said David Goodfriend, Locast founder and chairman.

The addition of the Tampa market brings Locast’s total number of markets served to 19 in the U.S., with more than 1 million reported users.

Locast is still in the middle of a lawsuit over its ability to stream local TV channels for free. Locast maintains that it is able to rebroadcast local stations without a copyright license from broadcasters because of the Copyright Act of 1976 provision for nonprofit translator services. However, the major networks—ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC—are challenging Locast on this argument. Goodfriend ultimately believes that Locast will prevail in court.

For more information on Locast, visit www.locast.org.  

NEW YORK—Broadcasting+Cable, a sister publication of TV Technology, is now accepting nominations for the B+C 2020 Awards, the publication’s annual honors for local TV stations. This year, B+C is expanding the awards to include the best news, programs and people in local TV.

The B+C Awards recognize the local TV industry’s most powerful, innovative or engaging content, programming and special projects in news, public affairs and community relations, as well as the people who produce it. There are 25 categories that will name a winner for each DMA (1-25, 26-50 and 51+). Categories include Best Independent Station, Best News Coverage, Best Producer and the GM of the Year.

Entry guidelines are available online.

All winners will receive coverage on B+C’s website, in the magazine and newsletter. All nominees will receive a digital nominee badge that can be used in marketing; winners will receive an additional digital winner’s badge and a branded B+C award.

The deadline to enter is July 22. For more information, visit the B+C Awards website. 

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters said it is time for the FCC to recognize that broadcast competition—for both television and radio—has reached a new height and that actions must be taken to level the playing field.

This viewpoint comes from comments filed by the NAB to the 2020 Communications Marketplace Report. Specifically, it wants the FCC to adopt broad definitions of competitive markets and to reform local TV and radio ownership rules that are consistent with the current landscape.

It has been well reported that the trend for broadcast TV stations and traditional pay-TV providers has been the loss of viewers and subscribers to online, streaming options. From 2014-2019, NAB said that the number of OTT video services has increased 140%, and as of summer 2019, 74% of all U.S. households had either Netflix, Amazon Prime and/or Hulu. It said analysis shows that linear TV viewing has declined “in near-perfect correlation to Netflix’s rising penetration.”

The rise of digital devices that can display this content has also increased and exceeds the weekly reach of live + time-shifted television, per NAB.

This has also impacted the ad market, which has only been compounded by the current coronavirus pandemic, even as traditional TV has seen increased gains in audience during the pandemic.

“Given all these profound changes in the media and advertising markets, the FCC cannot maintain its woefully outdated view that broadcast radio stations compete only with other radio stations and that broadcast TV stations compete only with other TV stations,” the NAB said. “In a media landscape marked not by scarcity but by unprecedented abundance of platforms and content, all outlets—whether traditional or digital, audio or video—fight for consumers’ limited time and attention for advertisers’ limited dollars.”

NAB makes the case that for TV to remain meaningful in the digital marketplace, broadcasters must achieve greater economies of scale. To do so, NAB argues the FCC ownership restrictions and the Department of Justice merger review process should be modernized “to reflect competitive realities.”

Even as broadcasters serve the public during this current crisis as the most trusted source of news and critical information, COVID-19 is still going to raise the challenges of competing with digital companies for ad revenue.

As a result, “agency regulation and oversight must be updated to reflect competitive marketplace realities,” the NAB concluded.

The full NAB comments are available online. 

WASHINGTON—Many local TV stations are attempting to help commercial advertisers that are being economically impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) by offering free ad space on-air. According to guidance from the FCC Media Bureau, such actions will not be penalized in regards to lowest unit charges during this national emergency.

The lowest unit charge relates to a political advertising regulation in the Communications Act of 1934. The law requires that broadcasters charge legally qualified candidates who advertise their campaigns on-air no more than the lowest unit charge for the same ad class and time.

As broadcasters have attempted to air free advertising for commercial customers that in some cases had to cancel their advertising contracts because of current financial issues related to the coronavirus, they were unsure whether or not those free ads would have to be part of the calculation for lowest unit charge.

Based on the current circumstances and what the FCC says is the public interest, broadcasters can exclude free time provided to commercial advertisers in the lowest unit charge, “provided the free time is not associated with an existing commercial contract for paid time or otherwise considered bonus spots,” says the FCC.

FCC does anticipate, however, that this will only be applicable during the current national emergency and is likely not to continue when normal conditions are restored.

“Broadcasters are committed to helping Main Street businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis,” said NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton in a statement regarding the FCC’s decision. “With this decision, the commission ensures that radio and TV stations won’t be penalized in our effort to support local jobs and local commerce. We thank the FCC for its flexibility in this proceeding and others as we work together to get American business back on its feet.”

The full FCC guidance is available online. 

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Entravision and Nielsen have inked a deal for the ratings service to provide comprehensive measurement services to all of the station group’s local TV stations.

Entravision, which operates stations in 22 markets, will rely on Nielsen for local TV ratings, Nielsen Local TV View, audio ratings and digital ad ratings.

The broadcaster is the largest affiliate group for the Univision and UniMás TV networks. It operates 42 Spanish-language stations, including Univision, UniMás and AZA affiliates, as well as 11 English-language stations, including independent and NBC, Fox and CW affiliates.

"As Entravision continues to engage Hispanic and Latino consumers, it is imperative that our television stations are well equipped to provide measurement of Spanish language audiences as we execute our multiplatform strategy," said Karl Meyer, chief revenue officer of Entravision. "Nielsen's ability to measure Spanish-language audiences was a critical factor in this decision, as no other company directly measures over-the-air audiences or has the commitment to full representation of Hispanic viewership."

The broadcaster also credited Nielsen’s efforts to measure audiences in a fragmenting media landscape and its commitment to improving methodology as factors in its decision.

“Nielsen is committed to measuring the total audience and ensuring full viewer representation. Nielsen shares Entravision's dedication to diversity, and has made significant recent investments in the local television business that support this,” said Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Nielsen Local TV Catherine Herkovic.

In October 2019, Nielsen completed an effort to transform its local TV business by combining advanced meter technology, big data and people-powered panels into its service.

More information is available on the Nielsen website. 

NEW YORK—Locast, the non-profit streaming service that offers local TV channels to viewers at no cost, is calling on the U.S. people to help fight the major broadcasters angling to shut it down by launching a GoFundMe page to raise legal funds.

In July 2019, the parent companies of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC filed a lawsuit in New York arguing that Locast does not fall under the copyright provision from the Copyright Act of 1976 that allows non-profit translator services to rebroadcast local stations without a copyright license from the broadcasters.

“Locast is not a public service devoted to viewers whose reception is affected by tall buildings. Nor is Locast acting for the benefit of consumers who, according to Locast when promoting its purportedly free service, ‘pay too much,’” the lawsuit reads. “Locast is not the Robin Hood of television; instead, Locast’s founding, funding and operations reveal its decidedly commercial purposes.”

Locast followed by countersuing, accusing the group of illegal collusion to undermine them.

While the case is ongoing, the courts have allowed Locast to continue streaming local broadcast channels where it is operational. It has also added additional markets in the months since the lawsuit, including in Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle.

“What Disney and the giant broadcasters don’t want the public to know is that they are attacking a tiny non-profit serving the public interest with free local broadcast channels over the internet, and that these companies just want to protect their billions of dollars in profits and fees for channels that are supposed to be free to the public in the first place,” said David Goodfriend, Locast founder. “Now that technology can deliver local broadcast channels over the internet without costing consumers an arm and a leg, Disney and these huge broadcasters will go to any length to shut us down, including through baseless claims, using expensive New York City and Washington, D.C., law firms.”

Locast launched the GoFundMe page on Dec. 18. To date it has raised $9,759 of its $500,000 goal from more than 300 donors.

WASHINGTON—Speaking today during The Media Institute’s Communications Forum luncheon, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith took aim at AT&T and DISH, suggesting they and other pay-TV providers may be “purposefully withholding” local TV signals from customers to create a crisis and goad Congress into reforming retrans consent.

“Is their goal to manufacture the appearance of a ‘broken system’ to encourage Congress to intervene just as it deliberates the upcoming STELAR [Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization] expiration? If so, that is a dangerous game, and one that hurts viewers—their customers—the most,” said Smith.

Smith framed his argument in the context of the importance of local TV news to democracy, particularly in a time when social media is transforming political discourse. While the number of social media users continues to grow, it is becoming harder for them to sort fact from fiction on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, he said.

“Though the rise of social media can be seen as democratizing, giving a greater number of people the opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions in an open forum, I believe it has also been a destabilizing force that has impacted our society in troubling ways. The paradox of social media—democratizing, yet destabilizing,” said Smith.

The antidote is the coherence local broadcasters give their communities, he explained, pointing to surveys that find local residents trust their stations to provide accurate news without bias.

“Local stations’ investigations protect consumers from scams, and their reporting of local elections help voters make informed decisions,” he said. Smith also gave a hat tip to broadcast network news shows, such as “60 Minutes,” “Meet the Press” and “This Week” as well as presidential debates that inform citizens and keep officeholders accountable.

“It’s unfortunate that at a time when this trusted information is so critical to our communities, some of our pay-TV partners, like AT&T and Dish, seem to be purposefully withholding broadcast signals from viewers—making them pawns in a political game that aims to upend the retransmission consent system,” he said.

Without the compensation broadcasters receive for retrans from AT&T, DISH and others, it would be impossible for stations to pay for “investigative journalism and expensive sports coverage and invest in sophisticated weather operations that save lives and provide in-depth local news coverage,” he said.

Turning to Next-Gen TV, Smith said ATSC 3.0 will converge over-the-air and over-the-top to enhance the viewing experience. Developing Next-Gen TV and other platforms will give broadcasters more outlets “to deliver the stories our communities rely on every day for free,” he said.

To enable new platforms to thrive, broadcasters need the ability to develop new products and services quickly without “unnecessary regulations,” Smith said.

“Lawmakers can enable broadcasters to better compete and to support journalism in this challenging landscape by modernizing outdated broadcast regulations that prevent us from competing on a level playing field with these behemoth tech and pay-TV companies,” said Smith.

While the technology of broadcasting will change over the years, one thing will remain the same: “Our communities will always turn to their local TV and radio stations to follow the inspiring events that have shaped our nation,” said Smith.

“They will always count on us to be their eyes and ears … to guide them to safety during times of crisis … to share life’s greatest moments … and to connect to families, friends and neighbors.

“They will always count on us to be the megaphones for freedom and democracy,” said Smith.

BALTIMORE—Sinclair Broadcast Group’s STIRR OTT linear channel has reached a milestone, achieving one million app downloads in the first six months of its operation, the group announced last week.

"We launched STIRR with the base premise that all of the national OTT services were ignoring the value of local programming, and in particular live local news," said Sinclair President and CEO Christopher Ripley.

STIRR, a free, ad-supported over-the-top streaming service delivers live, local news, TV shows and digital-first content to viewers.

“Hitting the one million download milestone, combined with the immediate success of the STIRR City channel, has confirmed our strategy, creating the foundation for continued growth.”

Sinclair attributes the popularity of STIRR to its focus on giving viewers access to live, local news and free linear TV channels.

While the STIRR OTT lineup offers more than 30 channels, including Buzzr, Comet, Charge, Stadium, Dove Channel, Dust, Con TV and Shout Factory, it is STIRR City that has garnered the service’s highest viewership.

The 24/7 STIRR City program lineup is based on a viewer’s city. It includes local news, syndicated TV shows, movies, sports and city-focused lifestyle shows.

Along with Sinclair’s announcement that STIRR has reached the one million app download milestone, the station group released other related metrics, including:

• 76% of app downloads were done via connected TV devices, such as Roku, Fire TV and tvOS;
• 85% of viewership is on connected TV devices;
• On average, viewers watch STIRR twice a week, a 50% jump since its launch;
• Viewers watch for an average of one hour at a time, a 200% increase since launch;
• STIRR City is the service’s top watched channel; and
• Live, local newscasts are the most watched programming.

According to the group, STIRR is on track to add 10 more national channels and new STIRR City channels not covered by Sinclair’s footprint over the next six months.

More information is available on the STIRR website.

WASHINGTON—As the expiring provisions of the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 is up for reauthorization, broadcasters and satellite operators are on opposing ends over certain elements, specifically the distant signal license. In a letter to members of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce and House Committee on Judiciary, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) came down on the side of broadcasters, believing that it is time to let the expiring provisions sunset.

The digital signal license in STELAR allows satellite TV providers to pipe in distant TV network programming into a local TV market rather than the local TV stations. This license was first instituted 30 years ago with the goal of allowing the young satellite industry to compete with cable companies.

This has impacted Rep. Golden’s constituents, as he points out in his letter that AT&T/DirecTV subscribers in Presque Isle, Maine, do not have access to local broadcast channels despite no technological limitations that would prevent AT&T/DirecTV from delivering them. “Instead, these subscribers receive distant network signals, thereby denying communities in my district from accessing critically important local news, weather and emergency information,” Golden says.

Golden continues: “... [O]ver the past three decades, the satellite industry has grown into a viable competitor to cable television service.

“It is clear that the distant signal license has outlived its usefulness and now disincentivizes AT&T/DirecTV from offering local programming to viewers in Northern Maine.”

Golden joins fellow Maine representatives Sens. Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) addressing the license’s impact on local broadcasting, as well as Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), who also represents one of the 12 “neglected markets,” as Golden described them in his letter.

Politicians running in the 2018 elections spent a record amount of money on advertising for mid-term campaigns, with more than $4 billion between local broadcast, cable and online. The vast bulk of the dollars went to local television, at just over $3 billion, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising. Cable brought in $1.1 billion and $900 million went to online advertising. Although local television reaped the biggest windfall, the numbers represent a 29 percent increase for local TV, 75 percent for cable and a whopping 260 percent increase for online, when compared to the 2014 mid-terms, according to Axios.

The biggest spenders in the campaign, according to Axios were Political Action Committees (PACs), including Priorities USA and House Majority PAC on the left, Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund on the right, as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The figures for digital online political advertising were debateable, with advertising research firm Borrell touting $1.8 billion and Kantar Media/CMAG estimating $900 million. In 2014, an estimated $250 million was spend in online campaign ads.

Nevertheless, with 3 out of every 4 dollars spent on local TV ads, TVB touted the figures as proof that political campaigns continue to view local television as the primary venue for political advertising.

“Campaigns, PACs and other entities spent over $3 billion dollars on local broadcast television advertising in the 2018 midterm cycle,” commented TVB President & CEO, Steve Lanzano. “There is no doubt that local broadcast TV delivers for political campaigns. Candidates continue to derive tangible, winning results from local broadcast television. Tuesday’s dominant reliance on TV, over all other media platforms, demonstrates that voters rely on local broadcast TV to inform their voting decisions.”

“2018 was uncertain in every way; the volatility this cycle was unprecedented,” said Kyle Roberts, President and CEO of Advertising Analytics. “It’s why we saw candidates and campaigns go back to what is tried and true: if you use TV, it reaches voters and they listen. TV works.”

CHANTILLY, VA.—There’s a common notion that media consumption is fragmenting as the public reaches for smart phones and tablets, tunes into TVs and accesses programming from such diverse sources as over the top, MVPDs, social media and over-the-air TV.

A new report from BIA Advisory Services throws that notion into question. What if consumers can actually access content seamlessly—regardless of the platform—therefore providing a more unified media consumption experience?

What if it is actually the marketers who experience the fragmentation, not the public? That’s one of the key assertions of the new BIA report “Local TV and Location: How Targeted Mobile Intelligence Creates High Impact Campaigns.”

“While consumers have found it relatively easy to find and view their preferred content across platforms, it has been harder for marketers to develop integrated campaigns to reach consumers,” the report says. “The reason is that marketers typically plan and activate their media channels in separate silos.”

As media consumption patterns evolve, TV and mobile have proven to be twin “pillars of consumer media engagement and marketer reach,” the report says.

[Read: BIA: 2018 TV Station Revenue To Reach $27.68B]

Spending on advertising bears that out. According to the report, advertisers this year will shell out $20.8 billion on local television, which makes it “the largest segment of video advertising by far.” The BIA report attributes the popularity of local television advertising to it being “viewed as the primary reach and frequency medium.”

Spending on location-targeted mobile to targeted audiences in 2018 is expected to reach $22.1 billion, the report says.

“For marketers using both platforms, local television and location-targeted mobile advertising, there is great power in unifying these platforms to reach, target, and engage consumers,” the report says.

BIA Managing Director Rick Ducey says a powerful synergy is available to marketers who know how to leverage both. “TV and mobile are two of the most powerful platforms that audiences are using daily in a unified, not fragmented, experience,” he says. “Advertisers who integrate audience targeting on TV with location targeting on mobile can achieve an incredibly powerful one-two marketing punch.”

The year 2017 will go down in the record books as one of the most deadly — and expensive — years ever in terms of damage caused by natural disasters.

In one of the most active hurricane seasons ever, Harvey, Irma and Maria left a trail of wreckage in their respective wakes. Fires ripped through California, killing people and devouring more than 1.3 million acres, according to the state’s Department of Forestry. The bill in the U.S. alone is more than $300 billion, according to federal estimates.

In all this mayhem, viewers turned faithfully to one source with resources to provide visual updates and predictions: local TV weather.

Investors are paying attention, and stations are beginning to not only change the way they report the weather, but making investments in new digital strategies to deliver better weather news, faster. Just this month, comedian and entrepreneur Byron Allen acquired The Weather Channel in March for $300 million from Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast NBCUniversal, further affirming weather’s importance as a content draw across TV, digital and mobile platforms.

At a time when consumers want on-demand weather on a myriad of devices, local TV stations are doubling down on their weather investments. New technology, such as augmented reality, drones and sophisticated mobile apps, creates new ways to cover weather and deliver information. On social media, meteorologists can deliver live updates and intimate videos. It all plays to stations’ real edge in weather: market ties and beloved personalities.

“Local meteorologists have the weather knowledge,” Rodney Thompson, The Weather Co.’s VP of systems and software operations, said. “If it is sunny and nice, I can get that information many places. But when I need it broken down, I trust a hyper-local source.”

The Forecast: More Digital, Mobile and Social

As mobile devices become go-to sources for weather, local broadcasters say digital doesn’t cannibalize their audience, but rather creates new touch points. “Digital is a gift. It allows us to connect with viewers in ways traditional TV never allowed us to do,” Pete Delkus, chief meteorologist for Tegna-owned ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth, said. “So many people just want short bursts of information.” Delkus hosts a weekly Facebook Live session on Friday mornings previewing weekend weather from his home, giving viewers a peek into his off-screen life.

In Portland, Ore., Meredith-owned Fox affiliate KPTV chief meteorologist Mark Nelsen pens a weather blog and hosts a weather-themed podcast. “We do these things to peel back the curtain and share the process behind the forecasting,” KPTV executive news director Corey Hansen said. “We need to give our viewers options to get weather anywhere they want it.”

[Read: Driving Station Workflows in the Field]

Social media is a critical distribution channel, particularly during extreme weather. Univision said about 60% of its digital audience comes through social. “We go heavily with events and regular updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. … People are riveted by it,” digital managing editor Selymar Colon said. The stations often simply post live radar images and webcams, drawing large audiences, according to Colon.

In Los Angeles, social media even influences coverage of natural events. Before social, KNBC VP of news Todd Mokhtari said, stations typically reported earthquakes that registered a 4.0 or higher on the Richter scale. Now, he said, even small trembles prompt residents to post on social media, and KNBC will report a tremor as low as 2.5. Information may come from a news crawl or a push notification, or, for stronger shakes, live on-air. “If one person felt it, they all want to hear about it,” Mokhtari said.

During extreme conditions like tornadoes, Griffin Communications-owned CBS affiliate KWTV Oklahoma City dedicates a meteorologist to updating all social accounts. “Social allows us to have a two-way conversation with viewers and to provide them the most up-to-date weather and safety information no matter where they are,” chief meteorologist David Payne said. “We can spend an unlimited amount of time talking about the forecast and answering viewer questions in real time.”

In the last six months, CBS owned-and-operated TV stations have ramped up digital video production for both extreme weather and for more light-hearted fare, like a look inside the weather office. “These aren’t things you’d see on the broadcast side, but we can do on digital,” CBS Television Stations senior VP of news David Friend said. “It takes us beyond the realm of regular newscasts and breaks out of that straight jacket.”

Online and on mobile apps, station executives said live radar is a popular draw. “Even if we’re not on the air with news, it will give you a live sweep that includes where you work and where you live,” Ric Harris, president and GM of NBC-owned Philadelphia stations WCAU and WWSI, said.

On the TV screen, graphic innovations are improving forecasting as well. Outlets including ABC’s KABC Los Angeles, Tegna’s WFAA and Univision’s central weather operation, have introduced augmented reality graphics, which rise up from the studio floor and can simulate hard-to-visualize dangers, like flooding and tornadoes. “It is amazing new technology. It is eye candy to some degree, but also valuable info that you can’t get on your phone,” WFAA’s Delkus said.

Univision used similar imaging to depict Hurricane Harvey and Northeast snowstorms. “Our chief meteorologist can explain things not just by saying it or showing video, but also with graphics,” Colon said.

At Hearst Television, new graphics alert viewers to major upcoming weather events, like a yellow caution or a red animated image for severe weather. “We’re trying to do a better job of laying out to the audience to call their attention to things that will make them safe,” Hearst senior VP of news Barbara Maushard said.

“We could have the fanciest trucks and radar, but at the end of the day, it’s about communicating with folks at home … the technology is extremely important and you have to be able to communicate to the people at home and bring it home to the people,” WFAA’s Delkus said.

The 2017 Hurricane Season

Last year’s hurricane season tested TV stations’ ability and resolve. When Hurricane Harvey lashed Houston with heavy rain and flooding, local broadcasters struggled to stay on the air and cover the market.

ABC-owned KTRK used boats equipped with Dejero cell-sat technology to report live, show emergency conditions and assist stranded viewers. The station deployed a drone to survey conditions overhead until the station’s helicopter could resume flying, and simulcasted its TV broadcast on Facebook Live.

Also in Houston, Tegna-owned CBS affiliate KHOU leaned on its corporate cousin WFAA. After KHOU’s building flooded, knocking it off the air, WFAA stepped in as the temporary Houston affiliate and newsroom. Its ex-tended coverage was simulcast in Houston and streamed on Facebook Live.

“We became the Houston news operation,” WFAA’s Delkus said.

Weeks later, as Floridians braced for Hurricane Irma, broadcasters across that state activated disaster plans. With stations in Tampa, West Palm Beach and Orlando, Hearst Television held daily, group-wide calls to coordinate resources and coverage. Reporters from 11 different markets were sent to the state to assist.

WPBF, Hearst’s West Palm Beach ABC affiliate, launched into hurricane mode first, with more than two days of extended coverage. When the storm turned away from the Southeast coast, Hearst’s team pivoted, sending teams to Tampa and Orlando, although its crews avoided the Florida Keys.

NBC affiliate WESH Orlando’s weather team forecasted the storm would shift westward and travel up the central part of the state, which shaped its plans. “We have great tools and great people who understand markets and have watched storms for years,” Hearst’s Maushard said.

At Fox’s TV station group, new drones allow the stations to cover weather disasters sooner and from fresh perspectives. WTVT Tampa used its drone to capture lake flooding after Hurricane Irma, while WAGA Atlanta’s surveyed tornado damage. Nearly all of Fox’s markets now have drones, which have flown more than 600 missions to date and are manned by highly-trained pilots.

When Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico Sept. 20 and devastated the island, Univision deployed reporters from its TV stations and digital team across 78 towns, and also connected about 100 families with their relatives on the mainland. With all three hurricanes, Univision stations leaned heavily on their digital assets, including live updates on station websites, YouTube and Facebook.

Western Wildfires

As fires burned across California, broadcasters across the state worked desperately to cover the fast-moving blazes and keep viewers informed and safe. In Los Angeles, stations used their own radars, as well as National Weather Service radar, to track smoke, fire conditions and wind patterns.

To cover the Los Angeles-area fires and their aftermath, KABC dispatched its drone to fly over Ventura neighborhoods devastated by the Thomas fire and broadcast live images. The station’s helicopter deployed its augmented reality mapping system to show before-and-after pictures, including dramatic images of the Montecito mudslide.

Advanced weather vehicles, some equipped with mobile radar, also assisted in difficult conditions. KNBC Los Angeles’ Storm Ranger sports utility vehicle, built by Accelerated Media Technologies, is equipped with radar that has a range up to 90 miles and can distinguish between smoke and smog. “You can put a radar truck someplace outside of L.A. and see a fire before anyone knows it is happening,” AMT president Tom Jennings said.

For KNBC executives, the Storm Ranger provided more coverage and security. “We need to be within 30 miles of a fire and we can pick up the smoke very accurately, and then we are not worried about truck and crew being near danger,” KNBC’s Mokhtari said. Meteorologists also traveled in a Jeep equipped with sophisticated weather tools and cameras, providing “a new tool to get meteorologists involved in fire coverage since so much of it is driven by weather,” Mokhtari added.

Similarly, in Sacramento, Hearst-owned NBC affiliate KCRA relied heavily on its weather technology to track air quality, smoke, fires and even mudslides. “The technology allows them to be engaged from a weather perspective,” Maushard said.

Sophisticated vehicles can help in smaller markets, too. In Montana, remote locations and mountains often make it difficult for stations cover fires. Accelerated Media Technologies is building a new Ford Explorer for Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned NBC affiliate KECI equipped with IP LiveU, combined with a Viasat Ka Band satellite that will allow the station to travel closer to fires and broadcast live. “The coverage wasn’t done before because the technology wasn’t available yet,” Jennings said. “Now they will be able to get high-resolution images and informations out of the mountains.”

Winter 2018 Nor’easters

Across the Northeast in March, storms blanketed the region under wet, heavy snow. After one storm, CBS O&O WCBS New York deployed its drone to survey damage in Westchester County, where downed power lines and trees “looked like Lincoln Logs,” Friend said, adding, “The drones were an incredible news gathering tool.” Anchor Chris Wragge set out in WCBS’ “Mobile2” vehicle and reported exclusively for digital outlets, a shift in strategy.

“It is an example of the importance we put on the digital portion of our coverage,” Friend said.

With varied conditions across the New York market, WCBS also relied on its user-generated content assets, including the Weather Watcher Network and Social Snow Patrol. All CBS O&Os have a select group of local weather aficionados who report conditions and share photos and video.

“That’s another way to drill down and make coverage as local and personal,” Friend explained.

In Philadelphia, NBC’s WCAU deployed its Storm Ranger vehicle to track storm conditions, one feature of its wall-to-wall storm coverage. With Storm Ranger’s mobile radar, “We were able to see different micro-climates, like where the snow was more intense and where it was beginning to taper off,” president/GM Harris said.

In Boston, no stranger to extreme winter weather, TV stations have relied on their well-crafted advanced preparations. At Hearst’s WCVB, Maushard said: “They were on with extended coverage in advance and that is more important than anything. They were aggressive early and they had people in place.”

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CHANTILLY, VA.—Local TV broadcasters take heed; now is the time to innovate in order to compete effectively with new local digital platforms for advertising dollars.

That’s one of the takeaways from a new BIA/Kelsey report, “Advanced TV: Industry Views on Progress & New Directions,” looking at advanced television and the thoughts of top executives from various media enterprises.

A July BIA/Kelsey forecast indicates the spend for local linear television and digital video platforms will grow from $31.9 billion in 2017 to $38.3 billion by 2021. Linear TV, which includes broadcasters and MVPDs, will account for 82 percent of spending on local video and 54 percent of the growth.

Digital platforms, including local mobile video, local online video and out-of-home video spending, will account for the rest. However, broadcasters have the ability to challenge the flow of these ad dollars into local digital platforms, particularly if they choose to innovate.

“Agencies and marketers and their data scientists and planner[s] are becoming more sophisticated in their matching and uses of disparate database[s] to develop strategic profiles of their consumers,” the report says.

They have built “data-driven strategic consumer profiles,” and buyers want to bring that into the media domain, it says. So far, digital has a leg up on linear TV in this regard.

However, “interesting innovation” is happening in cross-platform solutions, local data management platforms, audience targeting and greater campaign accountability. “These innovations may bend current trend lines in the media mix if linear video can become competitive,” the report says.

The advanced television report presents the insights of several media executives, including an executive from Sinclair Broadcast Group, on these trends.

 “We need to become easier to buy,” the report quotes the Sinclair executive as saying. “Local TV systems and buying protocols were designed for simple local sales around single stations—the ecosystem has evolved far beyond the traditional spot based, single station sales paradigm, as consolidation has spawned larger broadcast groups.”

The next-generation TV standard will add even greater complexity and present new opportunities requiring its own automation, the Sinclair executive is quoted as saying.

BIA/Kelsey predicts “a relatively volatile future” for the local video market as traditional media players, new pure plays, audiences and advertisers “settle into a panoply of new options and start creating new habit.”

To learn more about the report, visit the BIA/Kelsey website.