GREEN BAY, Wis.—Sinclair said Jay Zollar, vice president and general manager of WLUK-WCWF here, will retire Dec. 31 after 26 years running the stations. Station Manager Todd Ziegler will continue in his current role, assuming responsibility for the stations’ day-to-day operations, Sinclair said, ensuring continuity across news, sales, marketing and community initiatives.

“Jay’s impact on these stations is immeasurable—his stewardship helped establish WLUK and WCWF as trusted, market-leading brands,” Sinclair Chief Operating Officer and President of Local Media Rob Weisbord said. “We are deeply grateful for his decades of service and confident that Todd, with his strong operational expertise and collaborative leadership style, will continue building on that foundation.”

Zollar, a Green Bay native, began his television career as an intern at WFRV Green Bay while earning his bachelor’s degree in speech communications at the University of Minnesota. He later worked in commercial production and sales at WFRV before moving to WISN Milwaukee. Next, he moved to WXGZ (now WACY) Green Bay as the Fox network was launching in 1987. He later served as sales manager at WLUK and station manager at WGBA-TV before returning to WLUK, Green Bay’s current Fox affiliate, and WCWF, presently an affiliate of The CW, 26 years ago to run the stations, Sinclair said.

“It has been an incredible journey for me over the past 27 years,” Zollar said. “I am so thankful for those who have gone before me and have been with me now, who have worked so hard to make WLUK the community connection that it is. Since I began here, the vision was and still is to be the overall favorite station to the people of NE Wisconsin, and I believe that we have achieved that vision. We are here to serve the public interest, and I hope that my involvement here has helped us do exactly that.”

Ziegler is a native of Hortonville, Wis., and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

Prior to joining WLUK, he spent 10 years as production and creative services director at Sinclair-owned WUCW Minneapolis. He also had a sales leadership post at Green Bay station WIWB (now WCWF) and served as a marketing consultant to WBAY-TV, Green Bay’s ABC affiliate.

He joined WLUK as general sales manager, advanced to director of sales and then to station manager earlier this year. For the past two decades, he has also freelanced with Fox Sports and CBS Sports production crews.

“Jay’s legacy is all about service and connection, and I’m grateful for the path he’s paved,” Ziegler said. “Our goal now is to build on that foundation and continue enriching local lives right here in Northeast Wisconsin.”

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Sinclair said it has elevated Sean LaRose, director of sales at WUHF and partner station WHAM here, to vice president and general manager, effective Dec. 1.

LaRose succeeds Chuck Samuels, who will retire after nearly two decades at the stations.

“After eight years in sales management roles, I am excited to accept this opportunity to guide our outstanding teams into a new phase of growth and success,” LaRose said. “The local media landscape is constantly evolving, and Sinclair is leading that change by delivering exceptional local content for our viewers while offering businesses the most effective and accountable custom marketing solutions to drive growth.”

As director of sales for the Rochester stations, LaRose oversees sales strategy, leads cross-platform revenue initiatives, develops integrated marketing solutions for local and national advertising and builds high-performing sales teams, Sinclair said. Prior to joining Sinclair in Rochester, he held sales leadership roles at WIVB/WNLO-TV Buffalo, Spectrum Reach and Time Warner Cable Media Sales.

Over his nearly two decades at WUHF and WHAM, Samuels guided the stations through digital transformation, expanded news coverage and deepened community engagement, Sinclair said. Prior to becoming VP and GM in Rochester, Samuels had served as WHAM’s news director for nearly a decade, also served as news director at WKBW Buffalo, N.Y., and served in newsroom leadership roles at KDKA-TV Pittsburgh; WTSP Tampa, Fla.; and WLTV Jacksonville, Fla.

“Chuck has been a steady and trusted leader who helped strengthen our Rochester operations and deepen our connection to the community,” Sinclair Chief Operating Officer and President of Local Media Rob Weisbord said. “We are grateful for his commitment, professionalism and years of service. Sean is a highly respected leader with a strong track record in sales strategy, client partnerships, and team development. We’re confident he will continue to elevate our efforts in Rochester and advance our mission of Enriching Local Lives.”

Added Samuels: “It has truly been a pleasure to live and work in the Rochester community for nearly 30 years. I have been incredibly fortunate to collaborate with so many talented people throughout that time. As I conclude my career, I feel confident knowing that the next generation of talent is here and off and running.”

IRVING, Texas—Nexstar Media Group, Inc. has announced that its television stations helped raise nearly $1.4 million to assist the victims of flooding in Central Texas earlier this month.

In addition, the Nexstar Media Charitable Foundation has donated $25,000 each to two organizations (The San Angelo Area Foundation and The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country), for a total of $50,000 to assist with relief efforts in Tom Green County, Kerr County, and the surrounding areas.

In addition to live around-the-clock news coverage of the catastrophic flooding provided by Nexstar’s Texas television stations and the company’s national cable news network, NewsNation, several of the company’s television stations across the country initiated fundraising drives to assist with relief efforts, the broadcaster reported.

Led by Nexstar stations in San Angelo, Abilene, and Austin, Texas, those fundraising efforts included an hour-long flood-relief telethon that aired simultaneously on KLST-TV in San Angelo and KTAB-TV in Abilene on July 10 and raised nearly $1.4 million.

In Austin, KXAN-TV aired continuous coverage of the flooding and its aftermath and launched a custom made microsite, KXAN.COM/FloodRelief, where viewers could find more information about a variety of resources and relief organizations aimed at helping those in need.

The station also developed and aired 22 different public service announcements spotlighting different relief organizations throughout the area, and directed viewers to ten different charitable entities assisting the residents of Central Texas. Throughout the crisis, KXAN-TV employees have volunteered with local relief organizations, helping to gather and distribute supplies. Finally, dozens of Nexstar TV stations across the country, including properties in Chicago; Buffalo, N.Y.; Las Vegas; Denver; and Bakersfield, Calif., aired a QR code linking viewers to the KXAN website and ways to donate to local relief and charitable organizations helping with the recovery in Central Texas.

“This is what being a local broadcasting company is all about—continuous live news coverage of an event affecting tens of thousands of people, assisting in the recovery efforts, bringing people together, and giving back to the communities we serve,” Nexstar Chairman and CEO Perry Sook said. “In addition to the fundraising and volunteer efforts of our television stations, the Nexstar Media Charitable Foundation is honored to be contributing $50,000 to two organizations directly involved in helping the residents of Central Texas to rebuild their lives.”

WASHINGTON—Tegna has shut down Verify, the station group’s national fact-checking operation, laying off around 18 journalists, producers, researchers and other staff, according to published reports.

Tegna set up Verify in 2015 at local stations and expanded it in 2021 to help combat disinformation.

A statement on its website indicated that those efforts would now be handled by fact-checking efforts at local stations. “Our purpose is to help local communities, and our thousands of journalists across 48 newsrooms are committed to delivering trustworthy, accurate information, including impactful Verify work to help our audiences be better-informed news consumers,” the website stated. “Please visit your local Tegna station, including its streaming and mobile apps, for the latest local news, weather and information."

“Over the last several years, we’ve learned that the most impactful VERIFY work we’re doing is at our local stations.," a Tegna spokesperson said in response to questions about the shutdown from TV Tech. "We’re going to continue that work. Our top priority is to deliver trustworthy, accurate information to local audiences.” 

The shutdown comes at a time when fact-checking efforts have come under fire from Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr. The FCC is also investigating complaints about bias at three local stations, including one complaint that involves how the ABC presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was fact-checked in real time.

In a Dec. 2 interview with NewsNation, Carr signaled he might have the regulator examine fact-checking efforts as part of a larger effort “to smash” the “censorship cartel.”

“Look, at the end of the day, trying to draw the lines between disinformation and misinformation is very fraught,“ Carr said during the interview. “At the end of the day, more often than not, people are slapping those labels on political speech they disagree with. I think what we should try to protect is core political speech, religious speech, scientific speech. I don't think we want, you know, the FCC or any entity to be sort of superintending a lot of these decisions. But we have a lot of these fact-checkers out there that are really just narrative checkers.”

Carr also said, “I sent a letter recently to a company [involved in fact-checking] called NewsGuard that, in my view, has been at the forefront of this censorship cartel.”

The E.W. Scripps broadcast group recently appointed Kerry Oslund and Christina Hartman to lead the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) strategies. Oslund is the group’s new vice president of AI strategy and Hartman was named vice president of emerging technology operations. Both are new positions and will report to Chief Transformation Officer Laura Tomlin.

In addition, Keith St. Peter, the new director of newsroom artificial intelligence, will lead AI strategy for news and report to Hartman.

TV Tech recently sat down with Kerry to discuss Scripps’ approach to AI.

TV Tech: Congratulations Kerry on the new appointment. Were you asked, or did you lobby for this position?
Kerry Oslund: Both, actually. I’ve been training for this position for over two years now through self-studies, being an evangelist and advocate for where we are moving right now in terms of our company’s AI journey, so yeah, I raised my hand, jumped up and down, and finally, I was given the opportunity, along with a couple of other peers.

TVT: This is the first type of C-level appointment on AI leadership we’ve seen in a station group. What do you hope to accomplish?
KO: This is about everything everywhere all at once, but doing everything everywhere all at once at different speeds with different guardrails. However, depending on what you do, your guardrails are probably going to be a little bit different, and the speed at which we attack the opportunity is going to be different as well, depending on what you do and what the guardrails are. And obviously, you know that the biggest guardrails are going to be around our journalism and our trust and our brand.

TVT: How would you describe how Scripps is using AI right now?
KO: Well, sure, AI is a pretty big and all-encompassing word that’s like the same as physics, right? So what broadcasters haven’t been using is generative AI as part of their everyday business, but that’s changing now, but certainly AI machine learning, all of that has been part of things that we’ve been doing for a long time.

Now, we’re going to generative AI and things change. Obviously, these tools are just remarkable and the speed at which these tools are emerging makes your head spin.

TVT: A lot of people chararcterize generative AI as in its ‘Wild West’ phase. How is Scripps getting out in front of this?
KO: Some would say that, ‘yeah, we’re getting out ahead,’ and others would say that we’re way behind, and we’d both be right, depending on what we're talking about. Scripps has always been an innovative company and we certainly pride ourselves on being on the leading edge. And I think when it comes to responsible use of AI tools, you’re going to see us being on the leading edge of that as well.

TVT: Does Scripps have a mission statement to describe its approach to AI?
KO: Yes, sort of. We certainly started first off with guardrails and guidelines, so there weren’t any missteps, so good people didn't make bad decisions because there hadn’t been guardrails fully explained.

But it all starts with public trust and we’re doing nothing to diminish what we have and what we’ve earned over 140 years in respect to intellectual property—ours and that of others—in terms of accuracy; I don't think you can have public trust without being accurate.

So obviously, there are some challenges, and we are fully behind humans in the loop to make sure that the output is accurate, and for those humans that are in the loop, they are accountable for what happens. And those things are protected; they don't change. Obviously we care deeply about the privacy of our customers and proprietary information—these are important virtues and values.

Has that manifested itself in a strategy statement, yet? No, but I’m working on it. I’ve got a lot of help and we do have the bones of a strategy that are shaping up that I think are going to be pretty easy to understand and will help us move both swiftly and responsibly.

TVT: How are Scripps employees reacting to the company’s approach to AI, especially in terms of job security?
KO: Everybody is super-sensitive to it, but the truth of the matter is that AI is going to affect everybody’s job, whether they lose a job or not. That’s pretty extreme in my mind, but when we are bringing tools that will certainly help with speed and quantity, as long as it doesn’t impact quality, then we’re going to have a balance of time. And what are we going to do with that time? We can either use it to create topside opportunities—which is our preference—take this new time and these new tools and create new products and businesses and services, or find efficiencies in other ways.

And that’s the part that scares everybody—that we don’t initially think that we can create new products, services and new revenue streams. We don’t go there automatically, we go to the other extreme, automatically. But the bottom line is the bottom line, and we’re responsible to it. And it would be super irresponsible not to embrace these tools and see what we can do with them in a way that fits our mission and our brands.

TVT: Do you think, as an industry, broadcasters should work together in regards to their approach towards AI? Or do you think it’s really up to each broadcaster?
KO: It doesn’t always have to be broadcasters, right? I mean, sure, we have some of the same challenges, and it makes sense to work together. We’re working together differently and better than we probably have in the past, and there will be opportunities with AI that we can collaborate on.

Beyond my role at Scripps, I am stepping down from the board of Pearl TV (advocacy group for NextGen TV) to make more time for the ATSC board. And AI is now a new healthy part of the discussion at ATSC, where we’re talking about how we can use that standards body to make it easier for creators and manufacturers—especially when we combine artificial intelligence and ATSC 3.0, all of the magic that can happen and is newly enabled. Some of the stuff we could have done maybe a year ago or two years ago, but we couldn't afford the content expense.

Take translation services, for example. We can do Spanish translation, and we know there’s a large market, and that means that there’s probably a large financial opportunity. But did we do Mandarin? No. Did we do Italian? No. Did we do Polish? No, but it’s from here we can start thinking about that, because that content is readily available to us through AI translation services and that creates really interesting accessibility opportunities for us, and I do believe new revenue opportunities as well.

TVT: Companies like OpenAI are starting to partner with publishers—including Future US, our parent company. Broadcasters have expressed concerns over not being compensated when their intellectual property is being used to train large language models. What’s your response?
KO: That horse has left the barn. The same groups that were asking us to do content deals 6-8 months ago, now, all of a sudden say they don't need it. Why? Well, I think it’s because they already have it. that's what I think.

Look, we’ve had great conversations with some of the large players in the AI space and I do think that there is an opportunity for us, and I would assume with GPT Search, they promise that they want to have a new deal with publishers. We assume that the new deal would be in the form of remuneration, but we’ll see.

We'll talk to consortiums as they want to talk, but we want to be good listeners and seek to understand and then be understood. I just don’t think you can start with a knee-jerk opinion that our content is everything and, and they can't live without us. They've done a pretty good job so far and can live without us.

So I think we have to be realistic: We’ve got great content, it’s worth a bunch, and I do think that we’ll have more opportunities when it comes to to search and surfacing fresh content, than perhaps we will have with our archives and surfacing our archives—although I do believe that there’s a great opportunity to use AI in surfacing our content in our archives and providing that and licensing that to those who want to use it for whatever and it meets our terms of services, and we do a handshake and everybody wins.

TVT: The FCC made an attempt last year to require broadcast political ads that used some form of AI be labeled as such. Where does Scripps come down on this policy?
KO: I don’t know if we’ve put out a policy or a guideline, but I think that clear labeling and transparency is great for trust and therefore we would be fine with that—it’s something we would do without being forced to do it. And I think it’s something we will do. When it comes to our local news and that trust that we’ve gained over the decades, we’re not ceding that to anything by being stupid with the use of AI. Those guardrails are going to be super high, and we're going to be super careful.

Now, where it gets fuzzy is when we have entertainment products; networks like Court TV that do documentaries. In documentaries, particularly in dramatizations when you’re doing graphic recreations, AI does that for us in a better, cheaper way and it’s clearly labeled. When I want to just watch a TV show, that’s all right. But when I’m watching my local news, my guardrails are different; I have a different expectation of my local news operation than I do of one of our entertainment networks.

TVT: Can you tell us how Scripps is implementing AI within its internal operations?
KO: We’ve created something called “The Engine Room,” which basically allows our employees to go and pick a model, either ChatGPT or or Claude—OpenAI or Anthropic. We’ve created our own environment where an employee can go in and they can do prompts and they can get the responses, and that is not going to go out to the LLMs or in any way be leaked to outside of our company.

So we can upload our proprietary documents, and we can then cross-examine our own work using the AI tools in a very safe environment. But here’s the good and bad news in a company like ours that has over 5,000 employees: Most of them are really curious, and they’ve been out there and they’ve been banging on the tools already, right? And so we’d rather give them a safe environment to bang on the tools then say, “Oh man, I could take a shortcut here, I could take this proprietary document, and I could run it through my personal version of ChatGPT, and I could get the answers, get my work done, blah, blah, blah.”

This has been released to fewer than 200 people for the last few months to just sort of get a feel for it, and today, I would say we put it in the wild for the entire company. It’s a great first move for us, but it’s not the last move for us in terms of tool sets, because the tool sets that we'll add in 2025 will be more towards the agentic AI sort of tool sets that are human assistance, pre-prompt populated zones and even some automation. But right now it’s about getting hands on keyboards. If I could do one thing in my first year on this job, it would be taking those who express skepticism into curiosity—I think that would be a huge win. And by the way, skeptics live everywhere, including in the C-suite.

The one thing that I think that happens when you give people the tools is that they start experimenting with this themselves, they become better prompt engineers themselves. They have a ‘light-bulb’ moment—and when that light-bulb moment happens, then the human curiosity is just unleashed.

And so the goal is to take skeptics and turn them into novices. Novices turn then into practitioners, and practitioners turn then into experts. And if we have any experts in our company right now, then my job will be to re-recruit them, because we already have too few, I’m quite certain.

And by the way, we can’t let our customers get out ahead of us when it comes to knowledge, or else we’re going to look like fools. We know that they’re using AI and they know that we’re using AI. We’re already using it in sales, production, like creating spec ads to take out on a first sales call. And I don’t think that we’re being silly or stupid and suggesting that we put in days and days and months and months of work in production. We’re basically saying, ‘This is a rough draft of what your message might look like.’

So I think you can see a lot more on the sales side. I think that every salesperson is going to have an AI sales assistant. I think that is going to be high-priority for us, when it comes to our highest-value content and those revenue pillars you’re going to see us probably focusing on AI first.

BALTIMORE—As it announced new debt offerings, Sinclair, Inc. released released preliminary unaudited Local Media segment fourth-quarter 2024 media revenues and certain media operating expenses that show the company will product slightly lower than expected local media revenue. The preliminary figures show distribution revenue higher than expected while non-political ad revenue indicated a weakening ad market.

Most 2025 projections of local broadcast-TV ad revenue have indicated that core advertising excluding political will decline for the industry in 2025.

Sinclair expects Local Media segment media revenues to be $931 million to $933 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, down modestly from the company’s previously disclosed guidance of $936 million to $945 million. This includes political advertising revenue of approximately $203 million (versus previously disclosed guidance of $204 million), core (nonpolitical) advertising revenue of $300 million to $301 million (versus previously disclosed guidance of $307 million to $315 million) and distribution revenue of $392 million to $393 million (versus guidance of $386 million to $388 million), as well as other media revenue of approximately $37 million (versus previously disclosed guidance of $38 million), the company reported.

In addition, the company expects fourth-quarter 2024 Local Media segment combined preliminary media programming and production expenses and media selling, general and administrative expenses of $580 million to $582 million, which compares favorably to the company’s previously disclosed guidance of a total of $589 million to $590 million for the total of these two expense line items.

The company plans to report its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings results at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, followed by a conference call to discuss the results at 4:30 pm ET. The preliminary results are unaudited estimates only and are subject to revision, the company stressed.

Less than a week after announcing that it would replace local weathercasters at its local TV stations, Allen Media Group decided on Thursday to scrap its plans after viewer outcry.

Last Friday, a number of meterologists with AMG’s 27 stations—mostly in small to midsize markets—began announcing their departures to viewers. On Saturday, in what looks like an attempt to get ahead of the bad press, AMG officially made its announcement of its “groundbreaking format” to use meteorologists from AMG-owned The Weather Channel for its live forecasts, replacing local weather forecasters.

“We are proud to announce that Allen Media Group is leveraging the full resources and expertise of The Weather Channel to make our local weather news the very best,” said Tom O’Brien, President of Weather Group/The Weather Channel. “We are one hundred percent committed to delivering next-level weather news to our local television stations 24/7.”

Viewer feedback was immediate and overwhelmingly negative.

“Remember when #SinclairBroadcastGroup tried ‘NewsCentral’ and what a complete out of touch sh*tshow that was?”, user “cantnot” posted on X earlier this week. “That’s exactly what will happen here with #AllenMediaGroup removing all local meteorologists. We need owners that want to run tv stations, not bean counters.”

“Laying off Weather People in tornado prone areas is very dangerous,” posted LeeWatson_357. “People based in Atlanta don’t know the local areas in markets like Tupelo, Mississippi.”

AMG gave its stations a canned statement on Thursday, announcing its plans to rescind the move.

KEZI, the ABC affiliate in Eugene, Oregon, issued this statement: “After receiving significant feedback across various markets, Allen Media has decided to pause and reconsider the strategy of providing local weather from the Weather Channel in Atlanta, and KEZI will continue to provide market-leading coverage from your StormTracker 9 Meteorologists.”

The same statement was also posted by ABC affiliate KDRV Medford, Oregon.

Craig Ford, news anchor for ABC affiliate WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi, said, “We cannot speak to what the future holds months or years down the road, as we certainly could not have predicted how the past few days have unfolded, but what we can say is that your severe weather coverage is here to stay … coming from our studio, coming from our team … and for that, we thank you.

“Your calls, emails, texts … every word spoken in support of our team was heard, and without your outpouring of messages that rang so loud, this change may not have been possible.”

Mike Wright, vice president and general manager of WAAY-TV Huntsville, Alabama, agreed, saying viewer feedback made all the difference.

"While The Weather Channel is consistently voted one of the most trusted weather brands in the country, this decision was about keeping local meteorologists who have a deeper understanding of the unique weather patterns and challenges of our region,” Wright said. “We understand our viewers rely on timely, in-depth coverage of our communities, especially during severe weather events. Our commitment to providing that expertise remains steadfast.

“The overwhelming feedback from our viewers—through calls and emails—has been instrumental in guiding this decision,” Wright continued. "We appreciate the loyalty and trust of our audience, and remain committed to delivering the high-quality, localized coverage they expect."

The change elicited cheers from viewers online, with Brad Mitchell (aka @BallCoach2009), posting: “Heck yeah!!! I can respect @AllenMGroup for admitting their mistake and making it right, but mainly for listening to their viewers!”

A number of meteorologists have announced their departures from local TV stations owned by Allen Media Broadcasting in recent days, after the station group announced a partnership with The Weather Channel that would replace local weather personnel with TWC forecasters based from its Atlanta headquarters.

As part of the Allen Media Group owned by media personality Byron Allen, AMB owns and operates 28 TV stations nationwide, covering all four commercial networks. AMG acquired The Weather Channel, part of The Weather Group, in a deal worth $300 million in 2018 and the “groundbreaking format” has been in Beta for several years, according to AMG.

“The new format will dramatically improve reporting capabilities, especially in high-stakes weather situations,” AMB said on Saturday. “This initiative aims to transform the way local weather is reported—ensuring the most accurate, timely, and engaging forecasts for communities across the country.”

AMB announced the move on a Saturday—not a typical day to issue such news releases—most likely in response to the number of news personalities who informed their viewers about their pending departures on Friday.

A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the new arrangement “will impact at least 50 meteorologists,” and that some of them will be offered new positions at the The Weather Channel.

On Friday, WTHI-TV news anchor Patrece Dayton and chief meteorologist Kevin Orpur announced their departure from the station in Terre Haute, Indiana. “For those of you who don’t know, both of our positions are being eliminated here at WTHI-TV,” Dayton said. “The television business in general is changing nationwide and budget cuts are happening everywhere.”

Christina Burkhart, meteorologist with ABC affiliate WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, put the number of layoffs at 100, announcing on her Facebook page: “Allen Media is laying off all local meteorologists company-wide. This is nearly 100 meteorologists at just over 20 stations across the country.

“Mid-Michigan friends, it breaks my heart to say ABC12 is on this list. Please keep these local meteorologists in your thoughts as they navigate big changes in the coming weeks, and their stations as they learn how to provide coverage without them.

“Weather forecasts will be sent from the weather channel in Atlanta. These will be pre-recorded by regional meteorologists recording hits for each Allen station. Live severe weather coverage will also come from them.”

Spencer Dayton, meteorologist with Gray Media-owned CBS station WVLT Knoxville, Tennessee, panned the new move.

“I don’t think this is a good move and I don’t see it being successful,” he said in a Facebook post. “It may save money in the short term, but takes away value and credibility in the long term. I personally know some in this group that were let go. They are wonderful people, employees and meteorologists.

“WEATHER is the number one reason most people watch a local newscast. These folks are more valuable than some companies realize and I am certain they will land on their feet,” Dayton continued. “I’m employed by Gray Media and we are still hiring, so there are no signs of us doing anything like that anytime soon.”

The new partnership comes after AMG announced a restructuring plan last May that impacted about 12% of its workforce, about 2,500 employees.

NEW YORK and BALTIMORE—Sinclair and NBUCniversal said they have struck a major multiyear agreement renewing all 21 of Sinclair’s owned and/or operated NBC affiliates. The stations reach nearly 7 million U.S. TV households.

The deal renews these Sinclair-owned stations: WOAI San Antonio, Texas; KSNV Las Vegas; WJAR Providence, Rhode Island; WNWO Toledo, Ohio; WSTM Syracuse, New York; WCYB Tri-Cities (Tennessee and Virginia); WTWC Tallahassee, Florida; WJAC Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania; WPBN-WTOM Traverse City-Cadillac, Michigan; KCFW-KECI Missoula, Montana; WTOV Wheeling-Steubenville, Ohio; and KTVM and KDBZ-CD, Butte-Bozeman, Montana.

The deal also renewed NBC affiliations on stations Sinclair manages in five markets: Cunningham Broadcasting Group-owned KRNV Reno, Nevada; Deerfield Media’s WPMI Mobile (Alabama)-Pensacola (Florida); Howard Stirk Holdings-owned WPMI Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan; MPS Media’s WNBW Gainsville, Florida; and Roberts Media-owned KMTR, KMCB and KTCW in Eugene, Oregon.

“These agreements reflect the mutual value and shared success between Sinclair and NBC,” said Will Bell, senior vice president, head of distribution and network relations, Sinclair. “It underscores the strength of our partnership and the unique role our stations play in delivering compelling content, trusted journalism, and vital services to local communities. We look forward to continuing to build on this legacy with NBC in the years ahead.”

CINCINNATI—The E.W. Scripps Co. has promoted veteran local television leader Lyn Plantinga to senior vice president of local media, effective immediately. In this role, Plantinga will lead local media operations, overseeing Scripps’ team of regional vice presidents.

Plantinga will also continue to serve as general manager for WTVF, Nashville, Tennessee’s CBS-affiliated local television station owned by Scripps.

She has served as regional vice president and general manager for the last year, overseeing Scripps’ local television stations in Nashville, Lexington, Cleveland, Buffalo and Cincinnati.

Plantinga will report to Dean Littleton, who was promoted to executive vice president of media broadcast operations last month.

“Lyn is a seasoned local media leader, committed to operational excellence, strong financial performance and leading teams to deliver quality, objective journalism,” Littleton said. “This new role will allow her to work closely with all of Scripps’ local stations, our employees and the communities Scripps serves.”

Plantinga got her start in broadcast television as an intern at WTVF more than 30 years ago. She held a number of leadership roles at the station—including assistant news director, national sales manager and station manager—before being named the station’s vice president and general manager in 2015.

WTVF, known on-air as NewsChannel 5, is Nashville’s top-rated station in every local daypart and has generated strong connections in the community, Scripps said. For example, Plantinga’s team has raised money to give more than 40,000 books to children in Title One low-income schools in the area. In addition, after reporting on medical costs and their impact, the station purchased and eliminated more than $1.8 million in medical debt for its neighbors.

NewsChannel 5’s “Safe Places” initiative also led the way for new storm shelters in 48 Middle Tennessee counties.

Under her leadership, WTVF has been honored with the most prestigious awards in journalism, including national Peabody Awards; Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards; the National Headliner Award; the National Edward R. Murrow Award; and several regional Murrow and Emmy awards.

Plantinga serves on the boards of the Scripps Howard Fund and the General Hospital Foundation, where she is past board chair. She is past board president of the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, past news committee chair of the CBS Affiliates Board and has held board leadership positions with Second Harvest Food Bank, Adventure Science Center and Leadership Nashville. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.

WASHINGTON—The FCC Media Bureau has announced that the filing window to apply for construction permits to launch 12 new noncommercial educational television stations will be open from Dec. 4-11.

As part of the announcement, the Media Bureau also laid out filing procedures and requirements for applying for the stations, to be located in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Virginia.

The move raised questions about whether the FCC would be opening a window for new commercial TV stations, but that window remains closed.

More specifically, the FCC will be accepting applications for these communities:

• Vernon, Alabama (Channel 4)
• Anchorage, Alaska (Channel 26)
• Bethel, Arkansas (Channel 3)
• Colusa, California (Channel 2)
• Fort Bragg, California (Channel 4)
• Tulare, California (Channel 3)
• Filer, Idaho (Channel 18)
• Ames, Iowa (Channel 21)
• Alamogordo, New Mexico (Channel 4)
• Jacksonville, Oregon (Channel 4)
• Waco, Texas (Channel 20)
• Waynesboro, Virginia (Channel 12)

Complete details on the application process and requirements can be found here.

 NEW YORK—Despite cord cutting and record pay TV sub losses in 2022, S&P Global Market Intelligence is reporting that U.S. TV station owners’ retransmission and carriage fees from cable, direct broadcast satellite, telco video operators and virtual multichannel providers reached an estimated $14.46 billion in 2022, up 3% from $14.08 billion in 2021.

Justin Nielson, principal analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence explained that “Although traditional multichannel churn outpaced virtual subscriber gains in 2022, increases in average per-subscriber rates in renewals and annual step-ups kept gross retransmission revenues growing, albeit at a much slower pace than years prior.”

Similar growth is also expected in 2023, as rate hikes in renewals are expected to slightly outpace the cord-cutting trend, resulting in a 3% gain in gross retransmission and virtual subscriber fee revenues to $14.83 billion, the report said. 

Longer term, these revenues will likely grow by percentages in the low single digits, to $15.93 billion by 2027. 

Even so the report highlighted some worrying trends. 

Generally, TV station owners have continued to be successful in securing higher retransmission fees in each renewal period, albeit with some major disruptions at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023. But as consumers shift their viewing habits and subscription dollars to streaming, local TV station affiliates that want to be carried by virtual multichannel operators are beholden to carriage fees set by the networks, with most stations receiving less on a net basis than traditional multichannel operators.

As a result, the share that goes back to the TV stations is expected to decline slightly from about 50% in 2018–20 to 49% in 2021–24 and 48% in 2026–27, the researchers said.

Others have worried that ongoing cord cutting would eventually produce reductions in retransmission fees. 

STAMFORD, Conn.—A new poll brings good news to local TV stations as the U.S. mid-term elections head into the fall. According to a new Spectrum News/Morning Consult poll on sentiments about and trust of local news, nearly 50% cited TV as their most important source of local news, more than any other outlet. In addition, the vast majority of Americans (87%) are satisfied with the coverage of local news in their community, and 83% find local news coverage on television and radio to be most trustworthy. Spectrum News is the brand for a slate of cable news television channels owned by Charter Communications.

More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents think that local news provides viewers with important information about their community, as well as critical national news. And 72% of respondents agreed that local news helps enact positive change in their local community, while 63% feel local news holds businesses and government accountable.

Additionally, the poll found Americans overwhelmingly cited television (48%) as the most important source for local news, and more than half (62%) watch local news on television daily. News apps were second at 40% and social media was far behind, with only 17% of Americans ranking it as the most important news source. Among respondents, 9% rank newspapers as the most important source for local news, with 20% considering it the least important (what was left out of the results is the fact that many of the most popular news apps are from newspapers).

Not surprisingly, social media scored low marks for trustworthiness, with only 46% citing it as a trusted source; television and radio are the most trusted at 83%. In general, people feel more satisfied with their local news coverage because they are more familiar with local anchors in their community—77% of respondents said they feel reporters who live in their local community are more connected to relevant local news and information, and 82% feel local news reporters are trusted.

More than half of Americans (62%) watch local news on television daily, while 55% typically watch national news. Only 19% typically look to their printed local newspaper for news on a daily basis, while 15% seek printed national newspapers.

That trust for local television news is seen from both sides of the political aisle with 91% of Democrats and 79% Republicans citing local TV news as their most trusted source, while trust in social media among Democrats drops to 50%, and among Republicans to 44%.

“We have long known that investing in local journalism empowers and strengthens communities, and this poll demonstrates the vital role we play in the communities we serve,” said Mike Bair, Executive Vice President, Spectrum Networks.  “Over the past few years, we have steadily expanded our reach by launching digital newsrooms in more communities and enhancing our Spectrum News App, along with further investments in our existing newsrooms, making local journalism more accessible to the people who want and need it most. The health of our communities—and by extension, our politics, economy, and cultural life—depends on it.”

The poll was conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Spectrum Networks from June 17 to July 11, 2022. 5,000 adults were surveyed in the United States, which were the primary focus and target of this report. An additional 7,232 adults were surveyed in 13 different markets (New York City, Upstate New York, Worcester, MA, North Carolina, Orlando / Tampa FL, Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Dallas / Austin / San Antonio / El Paso, Texas, Los Angeles, CA, Maine, Hawaii, and St. Louis, MO) i

NEW YORK—Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, has issued a new report finding that the broadcast deal market for first quarter 2022 hit $11.05 billion, the highest quarterly deal volume since third quarter 2019. 

In the last 40 years, quarterly volumes exceeded $10 billion only eight times, noted Volker Moerbitz, the lead analyst for this report. 

“Most of these mega-volumes were due to one large consolidation deal or privatization deal, and first quarter 2022 was no exception,” Moerbitz wrote. “Standard General LP in partnership with Apollo Global Inc., which owns a majority stake in Cox Media Group Inc., announced a $24-per-share deal on Feb. 22 that would take private Tegna Inc., the third-largest TV station owner by revenue and one of the few remaining publicly traded groups.”

Kagan estimates the value of Tegna’s 64 full power and three low-power TV stations at approximately $8.71 billion, making it the second-largest transaction in broadcast deal history, topped only by the $8.75 billion 1999 Viacom/CBS merger, Moerbitz noted. 

Moerbitz also wrote that the Tegna deal involves several spinoffs that have yet to be filed with the FCC. Cox will acquire a group of four stations currently owned by Standard General affiliate Community News Media LLC, and an unspecified Standard General affiliate will acquire Cox's Fox outlet WFXT in Boston. These two transactions will need to close before the Tegna acquisition, he noted.

“In another transaction following the close of the Tegna acquisition, Cox will purchase the five former Tegna stations in Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas,” Moerbitz wrote. “We estimate the value of these stations at approximately $1.30 billion.”

“Near the end of the quarter, on March 30, Cox announced another large transaction in which it will sell 13 full-power stations in 11 markets to Imagicomm Communications LLC, parent company of the INSP network for $488.0 million,” Moerbitz reported. 

“The top five transactions for the quarter totaled $10.93 billion and accounted for 99% of the quarterly deal volume,” he said. “The other 126 transactions still add up to a respectable $115.9 million.”

Top TV Deals of Q1 2022

CHANTILLY, Va.—The pandemic hammered core local TV revenues in 2020, but record political advertising and burgeoning digital operations helped the industry pull in $19.7 billion, according to BIA Advisory Services’ “2021 Investing In Television Market Report.”

Political advertising ($4.4 billion) and digital revenues ($1.4 billion) masked what was a disastrous year for core advertising revenues, which fell by 23.1%. Thanks to political and digital, industry revenues actually grew to $19.7 billion in 2020 compared to $18.3 billion in 2019.

BIA is predicting a slight rebound this year, with core over-the-air (OTA) advertising increasing by 5.4% to $14.9 billion for 2021. 

In 2022 total local OTA revenues are forecasted at $17.8 billion.

“This past year demonstrated that local television stations are doing the right thing by continuing to strengthen their digital and multimedia sales efforts,” said Mark Fratrik, senior VP and chief economist at BIA Advisory Services. “They also need to continue to develop strategies that incorporate over-the-top (OTT) sales to reach specific audiences, while simultaneously reaching the broader local viewers. OTT increasingly is becoming a competitive and complementary advertising platform for local television station operators.”

In addition to the standard big television advertisers like automotive and general services verticals, growth in core advertising this year will come from business verticals that are hyper-focused on market needs and new entrants like online gambling, according to Fratrik. 

Promising sectors, including spending by consumer lending and mortgages, which BIA predicts will be up 45% in 2021. 

BIA also predicts a growth in clothing store advertising (projected to grow by 45% in 2021), auto and direct property insurance sector (up 33%), direct health and medical Insurance (up 29%) and online gambling. 

BIA is continuing to follow the status of the Summer Olympics in Japan. Fratrik noted that said if they do commence, estimates for television will increase and BIA will report on them.

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.

TV Technology sister publication B&C is looking for nominations for 2020 Station Group of the Year, Station General Manager of the Year, News Director of the Year and Multiplatform Broadcaster of the Year. The deadline is Monday, Nov. 9, at noon ET.

Please send your nominations to Michael.Malone@futurenet.com or Kent.Gibbons@futurenet.com. Please include specific examples of how your nominee stood out and thrived in 2020, and your daytime contact info.

For Station Group of the Year we are looking for the station group that best tackles the challenges of delivering local content to viewers and users, wherever they may be. How did this group meet 2020’s unique challenges?

B&C honors station general managers in markets 1-25, 26-50 and 51-plus. The awards go to those who have demonstrated exemplary innovation, fearless leadership and flawless execution in a challenging time in the television industry and in their community.

For News Director of the Year, B&C is looking for a field general who, amid this fragmented media landscape, has directed the troops to create comprehensive, timely content with the most relevance to their market.

B&C will award the one station or executive that has expertly led the charge across platforms, including mobile TV, streaming and social media, as the Multiplatform Broadcaster of the Year.

The winners will be saluted in the Dec. 14 issue of B&C.

WASHINGTON—Television stations have become a key source for education during the coronavirus pandemic, and now America’s Public Television Stations reports that local public stations in all 50 states are offering remote learning resources. 

A week ago, APTS shared that half of the states were offering remote learning services through public TV stations; since then a number of new initiatives have been launched.

“Public television stations continue to step forward to pursue their mission of education in extraordinary ways under extraordinary circumstances,” said Patrick Butler, APTS president and CEO. “Providing such resources in all 50 states, we are helping millions of students continue their education during the national emergency.”

For details on what some individual states are doing to provide these educational resources, visit APTS’ website. 

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. 

WASHINGTON—Coronavirus has shifted education from schools to the home, and local TV stations across the country are helping to adapt to that new reality.

According to America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), a week ago there were seven local public stations that had announced remote learning partnerships with state and local education authorities. Now, stations in 25 states are offering some type of service.

States with stations taking part in this effort include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

APTS has detailed what each state and station is offering during this time to help with remote education.

“This is one of public television’s finest hours,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of APTS. “Working from home and without any financial resources budgeted for addressing a national emergency, public television stations in collaboration with PBS have stood up a broad range of standards-based, curriculum-aligned educational services to help students, teachers and parents continue the learning process under extraordinary circumstances.”

Butler says that some stations are committing their entire daytime schedules to age-appropriate educational programming. Online resources are also being made readily available during this time.

According to Butler, Congress is considering legislation to provide emergency funding to support the effort of these public stations. “[W]e hope our lawmaker will be as generous as possible in helping us help American people, for free, in this hour of special need,” Butler said.

NEW YORK—When Hurricane Dorian approached the Southeastern U.S. in early September, residents from the communities in its path overwhelmingly turned to their local TV stations to find out the latest news about the storm. This was a key finding of the “Hurricane Dorian Media Usage Study” conducted by Dynata and commissioned by the TVB trade association.

Speaking with 861 people in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia from Sept. 3-5, 84% of the respondents said they used TV station news to get the latest information on the hurricane and spent an average of three hours and 24 minutes watching local broadcast TV, more than twice the amount of time for network TV and social media. Local TV was also the top choice for 75% of respondents when it came to preparing for the severe weather.

And finally, 94% agreed that local news TV was the most trusted source of information regarding Dorian, with TV stations news websites and apps being the second most at 88%; social media was least trusted at 57%.

“Local communities continue to rely on their local broadcast TV stations to deliver up-to-the-minute and potentially life-saving coverage in times of emergency,” said Steve Lanzano, TVB president and CEO. “Data from the ‘Hurricane Dorian Media Usage Study’ revealed that local communities overwhelmingly chose TV station news over all other resources to deliver the most accurate weather coverage and critical safety information they need.”

The full report on Hurricane Dorian coverage can be found here.

WASHINGTON—Local TV stations across the country are making sure they aren’t getting left behind in the digital revolution, putting digital at the front of new innovations they are implementing. This comes from the 25th edition of the annual RTDNA/Hofstra University Newsroom Survey.

The 2019 survey asked for just the second time what’s the most innovative thing a newsroom started doing in the last year. Out of the more than 200 responses that answered the question, digital was the top choice. Nearly half, 45.3%, of respondents said they did something that involved digital, with streaming and OTT being the most popular upgrade. Some responses were also given for digital platforms, digital first and digital specific programming. Alexa and AR technology were also mentioned.

Management was the next popular response at 35.8%, though it covered a wide range of answers. Drones was one of the most popular answers from this group, with many stations saying they increased their drone program or added new licensed drone pilots to their staff. Staffing and technical issues rounded out the top three answers under management. Some other answers addressed the addition of new equipment to the station’s toolbox.

Content rounded out the remainder of the responses (18.9%), but there was still a heavier focus on digital content rather than innovation for on-air content.

The survey also asked how these new innovations were working for stations, which touched on the in progress status of stations going digital first; mixed, but positive, results for OTT and streaming; but ultimately that stations were getting out of digital what was put into it.

To read the full RTDNA survey, including how local TV stations improved journalism at their station in the last year, click here.

Just in time for the Super Bowl, online TV station streaming service Locast is announcing its expansion to two new markets--Washington and nearby Baltimore--as it expands its effort to provide free over-the-internet versions of over-the-air TV stations, a model that continues to expand in major markets unchecked by any pushback from broadcasters or TV studios or sports leagues that like to control distribution of their content.

That new Capital connection will put the service in front of lawmakers who hear it from constituents during retrans impasses, particularly ones that happen during must-have sports--football, baseball--playoffs.

In fact, recently, Charter was talking up Locast to its subscribers impacted by retransmission consent impasses. The cable operator told its Spectrum subscribers about the service in markets where Tribune Broadcasting stations had been blacked out and Locast is available, including New York, Houston, Dallas and Denver, before the parties reached a new retrans pact on Friday (Jan. 11).

“Locast is bringing the public mission of free, local broadcast to a new generation of cord-cutters and Internet-only video consumers," said David Goodfriend, chairman of the Sports Fans Coalition, which is behind the no-cost Locast effort. "With the addition of Washington, D.C, and Baltimore, Locast has now provided almost a third of U.S. television households with a way to watch local broadcast TV, even if you do not subscribe to pay-TV or cannot receive an over-the-air signal.”

Locast launched last January in New York, then added Houston and Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Boston and Philly.

To stream the TV signals without payment or permission--though Goodfriend says some independents have sought him out for carriage and provided help--Locast.org (a contraction of “local” and “broadcast”) is relying on Title 17, Chapter 1, section 111 a)5 of the Copyright Act — which, for those without a copy handy, covers exemptions from exclusive rights to broadcast transmissions. It grants that exemption if “the secondary transmission is not made by a cable system, but is made by a governmental body, or other nonprofit organization, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage, and without charge to the recipients of the secondary transmission other than assessments necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs of maintaining and operating the secondary transmission service.”

That is the same provision under which TV translators already boost broadcast signals, Goodfriend pointed out when the service launched, saying it should not matter what the technology is. They are a nonprofit taking a broadcast signal and retransmitting it, period, he says.

Locast asks for a donation to help defray expenses, which it says squares with the law, but it can't turn a profit or charge a sub fee.