Gray Television

Broadcasters widely increased their political revenue guidance for 2022 following an earnings season in which spot saw continued growth across categories except for the still-beleaguered automotive industry.

advertising, political advertising, quarterly earnings analysis

WVLT’s live streaming news coverage of two men trapped in a collapsed trench and a 6-year-old boy lost in the woods earned an award from its owner, Gray Television.

Hilton Howell: “We are increasing our 2022 political revenue guidance by approximately 10% from the $525 million announced on our November 2021 earnings call, to $575 million today. This … represents a whopping 55% increase over the $372 million of political revenue that we achieved on a combined historical basis in the last mid-term election year of 2018.”

The executive producer of Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren will now oversee the various elements of Gray’s operations on Capitol Hill and ensure their close integration with other newsrooms and resources across the company.

However, total core ad revenue (which excludes political) climbed 26% to $359 million from 4Q 2020. Also, retrans money grew 35% to $294 million.

Broadcasters need an arsenal of ways to protect and mitigate against smarter ransomware attacks, particularly targeted against vulnerable CEOs as a “when,” not “if” predicament. These are the questions those CEOs should be asking.

The program, based at its WLBT Jackson, Miss., will prepare students for today’s unique operating environment, while simultaneously improving diversity, equity and inclusion in media, the station group says.

Produced by Gray’s Tupelo Honey; the fast-paced program originates from KVVU Las Vegas with host Dave Hall.

The station group buys the station from Capital Media Group and taps Capital’s Susan Sim Oh (pictured) to lead and expand Gray’s Telemundo station portfolio, while Coline Sim will oversee the station’s operations.

Just 10 days into Gray’s ownership of WGCL, the Atlanta-based company wooed Monica Kaufman Pearson out of retirement to join the CBS affiliate. Pearson is well-known in Atlanta for her 37 years as news anchor on WSB, where she was the first Black female evening anchor in the city.

Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall resumed coverage of Gray Television, giving the broadcaster a positive “overweight” rating. Cahall, in a note Monday, set a target price of $26 per share for Gray, which closed last week at $20.16. After a series of acquisitions, Gray is now a large-scale broadcast player, Cahall said.

It promotes and adds to its InvestigateTV team that provides innovative, original journalism from a dedicated investigative team and partners.

The former news chief at WAVE Louisville, Ky., is tapped to oversee journalism at the Gray NBC affiliate in Tennessee.

The $2.8 billion transaction puts Gray’s portfolio of stations in 113 markets covering approximately 35% of U.S. TV households.

Gray Television said it will be removing its local content from Sinclair’s NewsOn, one of a number of platforms streaming local news to out-of-market viewers. Gray is an investor in VUit, a local news streaming platform launched last year by tech firm Syncbak, and is focusing out-of-market streaming efforts there.

She will take over leadership of the Cincinnati Fox affiliate from Debbie Bush, who moves to head the company’s Phoenix duopoly once the Meredith acquisition closes, expected on Dec. 1.

Gray Television Chairman-CEO Hilton Howell says he’s “extremely bullish” on digital, which he says has become a $300-million business for the company with a 60% profit margin. Part two of a two-part exclusive interview. Read part one here.

Hilton Howell, chairman and CEO of Gray Television, stands by the company’s vaccine mandate as necessary to resuming something closer to operational normalcy. In an exclusive interview with TVNewsCheck, he also weighs in on the FCC’s ownership cap, the prospect of more Gray original productions and where he sees retrans’ future.

The appointments of Matt Moran, Pete Veto, Jim McKernan, David Hughes, Peter Russell and Laura Serbon were chosen to replace personnel promoted earlier to head some of the stations Gray is getting in its Meredith purchase.

It’s moving Erik Schrader, Debbie Bush, Jasmine Hatcher Hardin, Andrew Stewart, Bryce Caldwell and Eric Duncan to oversee some of the stations it’s acquiring from Meredith.

Commission approval clears the way for Gray’s purchase of Meredith’s TV stations, with Meredith anticipating closing on Dec. 1.

The multiyear deal extends relationship across 47 markets.

The veteran Texas broadcast executive is tapped by Gray Television to oversee its NBC-CW duopoly in Lubbock, Texas.

Kevin Latek: “The combined Gray, Quincy, Meredith portfolio, less divested stations, recorded $652 million in total net political revenue in 2020. We anticipate that next year’s revenues will roughly reach 80% of last year’s total in a presidential election year. We are therefore today guiding to total net political revenue for 2022 of approximately $525 million.”

However, total core ad revenue (which excludes political) climbed 23% to $292 million, increasing by $55 million, from 3Q 2020. Also, retrans money climbed 49% to $266 million.

Gray’s Florida NBC affiliate was taken off the air after the cables to its satellite dishes were severed by a vandal.

The streaming service’s new agreements with Hearst, Citadel, Morris Network and others add more than 70 stations from top DMAs including Boston, Baltimore, Orlando and Pittsburgh.

Gray Television says that in connection with its pending acquisition of Meredith Corp.’s TV stations, it wants to amend and restate its existing senior credit facility. Gray also updated some of its previously announced guidance for 3Q 2021.

Gray Television choses the news director of its KTTC Rochester, Minn., to succeed the late Ed Woloszyn as head of its CBS-Fox affiliate.

It chooses John Fiorelli to lead KOLO in Reno and Herb Bruce to oversee KALB in Alexandria.

If WOIO has its way, Northeast Ohio Hispanic residents will wake up and go to bed watching the region’s first Telemundo station. Starting in January, owner Gray is launching a sister station, WTCL, and offering local news in Spanish, starting with newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. Univision has owned a station in the market for 20 years, but it doesn’t produce any local newscasts.