Gray Television

The country music/lifestyle channel will debut in more than 50% of U.S. TV households on stations from Gray and CBS. A companion OTT premium service is slotted to launch in late spring 2020.

News organizations are increasingly using breakthroughs in technology to allow journalists to remotely, yet quickly, deliver more content over multiple platforms. The advances range from improved cellular networks that speed transmission of content from the field to the newsroom and cameras capable of streaming and providing remote video, to a host of tools available for journalists to remotely edit and produce content while collaborating with their newsrooms. Above, Grass Valley’s new GV Alyve, released at this year’s IBC Show, gives reporters a “virtual control room in the cloud” for production and distribution of video and livestream content. (Source: Grass Valley)

After the company reported third quarter results at the high end of its guidance to Wall Street today, the stock price opened at $18.15 and stayed above $18 for most of the day’s trading. Political advertising has outpaced expectations for Gray every quarter this year, despite the lack of a national election.

An increase in retransmission consent revenue of $26 million, or 15%, to $196 million couldn’t quite offset lower advertising dollars. The company also authorizes a $150 million share repurchase.

Broadcasters have natural revenue opportunities in business lines like OTT, podcasting and ATSC 3.0, said executives from Sinclair, E.W. Scripps, Gray and Bonneville Salt Lake at TVNewsCheck’s TV2020 conference.

With these additions, Arc greatly expands its work in the broadcast industry, powering digital experiences and content creation for more than 200 broadcast stations in the U.S and Europe.

Gray gets the go-ahead to buy the NBC affiliate and operate it with the ABC affiliate it already owns in the South Dakota market. The action, in essence, constitutes a waiver of the FCC’s local ownership rules barring ownership of two stations in small markets and of two top-rated stations (typically network affiliates) in all markets.

The Raycom acquisition doubled the size of Gray Television — and CEO Hilton Howell says it may get even bigger.

Five takeaways from newsrooms that are starting to re-invent local TV journalism.

Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren debutes Sept. 8. It’s cleared in over 76% of the country in major markets including New York, Washington, Los Angeles and all of Gray’s 93 markets.

Gray Television on Tuesday reached an agreement with the Fox Television Network that extends and renews the network affiliations for all of Gray’s Fox affiliated television stations across 21 markets.

Social media platforms are fast evolving, and newsrooms that have come to rely on them are turning to new tools to keep up. From more granular analytics to better tools for incorporating social content into stories, newsrooms — and the vendors they work with on social — are moving along a sharp learning curve.

Gray Television’s deal to buy KDLT Sioux Fall, S.D., and create a precedent-setting affiliate duopoly in the market has been hung up at the FCC for 15 months without any explanation. For the sake of buyers and sellers, large and small, the FCC needs to act.

But the outlook of non-political national spot remains gloomy. C0-CEO Pat LaPlatney said the company remains “disappointed with the weakness in national ad revenue, especially the auto sector.”

Retrans revenue rose 23% to $201 million in the quarter, just enough to push total revenue for the station group into the black. Dragging down the top line was spot. Political took a big downturn as it always does in odd-numbered years, but core was also off.

Broadcasting company Gray Television is well placed to profit from an anticipated deluge of political advertising ahead of U.S. elections in 2020, according to Barron’s, which says good ratings in its local TV markets would be attractive to congressional, senatorial, gubernatorial and presidential campaigns looking to place campaign spots.

ACA Connects says Gray Television’s contractual prohibition on granting carriage of a TV station to MVPD C Spire Fiber makes a mockery of the FCC’s good faith retransmission consent negotiations and market modification process. That came in comments to the FCC on C Spire’s retrans complaint and request for declaratory ruling.

The FCC should not levy the same user fee on satellite stations that it does on their mother ships.  That is according to station group owners Nexstar and Gray Television in comments filed at the FCC on the commission’s proposed revise of its user fees per a congressional mandate to revisit them. They said to “obliterate” that distinction would boost satellite TV user fees “drastically.”

Television stations traditionally ended each day with the anthem until the switch to 24-hour broadcasts. Beginning June 18, all 93 Gray stations across the nation will begin to feature the national anthem shortly before 4 a.m. each day, which signifies the switch to a new broadcast day.

After reporting first quarter revenue of $518 million that included $280 million from Raycom, the company is still eyeing potential future acquisitions.

The increase was driven by the company’s merger with Raycom. Excluding that and year-ago Olympics contributions, 1Q revenue rose 3%.

The still unnamed country music service — comprising a broadcast diginet and an OTT streaming platform — will operate from offices and production facilities in Nashville. Drew Riefenberger has been tapped to head the joint venture as general manager. The OTT version, a mix of linear and on-demand programming, will not simulcast the multicast version, although there will be some overlap.

Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren will focus on how policy actions, political decisions, and national events impact local communities across the country. It will debut in September across Gray’s footprint of 93 markets plus stations in Chicago and Milwaukee with additional clearances expected before then.

Sinclair’s Scott Ehrlich, Cox’s Ian Stinson, CBS’s Adam Wiener and Gray’s Erin Overstreet will offer insights they’ve gained into local news audience behavior, optimal OTT content and programming decisions, backend tech challenges and monetization opportunities at TVNewsCheck’s OTT News Summit on June 11.

It’s selling its CBS-Fox affiliate WCAV and ABC affil WVAW to Lockwood Broadcasting and buying the market’s NBC affiliate WVIR from Waterman Broadcasting.

The cable news veteran is named the station group’s chief national political analyst. Gray’s Sandy Breland: “With her decades of covering current events and legal issues, Greta will provide an in-depth look at issues that matter the most to our viewers.”

The increase to $328.2 million comes from higher retrans revenue and increased political ad money. Both local and national revenue were again down by single digits.

Gray Television today announced appointments of two new leaders for the television stations it is acquiring from United Communications. With this announcement, Gray fills both open positions with managers who […]

The sale of two stations and related licenses in Minnesota and New York by United Communications to Gray Television tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

The $45 million acquisition comprises CBS affil WWNY and WNYF-CD (Fox) Watertown, N.Y., and CBS-Fox affiliate KEYC Mankato, Minn.

The group says that since the DOJ blocked its acquision of a CBS affiliation in Casper that would have given it essential retrans revenue, it’s merging news operations at its NBC affiliate KCWY Casper, Wyo., with those of its KGWN in Cheyenne and cutting back in Casper.

Gray Television’s OTT strategy extends to its newly-acquired Raycom stations. With this expansion, SBTV reaches 102 DMAs, including 41 of the top 100 markets across all station groups, reaching 30% of the US population.

Broadcasters thinking of plunging into OTT have big decisions to make, the biggest of which is settling on an OTT platform. They can turn to a turnkey provider or build their own. In either case, here are some vendors that can help.

CEO Hilton Howell and other execs will ring the exchange’s closing bell on Jan. 11 to mark the company’s purchase of Raycom Media. Gray has been traded on the exchange since 1995.