Nexstar

Nexstar Media Group announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nexstar Broadcasting, intends to offer, subject to market and other customary conditions, up to $1 billion in aggregate principal amount of new senior notes due 2028 in a private offering. The notes will be Nexstar’s senior unsecured obligations and will be guaranteed by the company, Mission Broadcasting Inc. and “certain of Nexstar’s and Mission’s existing and future restricted subsidiaries on a senior unsecured basis.” Nexstar said it intends to use the proceeds to redeem all of its 5.625% senior unsecured notes due 2024, with the remainder to be used for “general corporate purposes.”

The station group chooses the management, sales, programming and marketing executive with 25 years of local broadcasting experience to lead WIVT, WBGH Binghamton and WETM Elmira-Corning.

Nexstar stations are said to be apoplectic over the decision by CNN to terminate its video sharing agreement with the company’s 197 affiliates. The move came in retaliation for a Nexstar corporate edict that its stations withhold breaking news video from competing networks so NewsNation can have it first.

Perry A. Sook, Nexstar chairman, president and CEO, said: “The expanded repurchase authorization reflects our confidence in the company’s growing free cash flow from operations and our long-term commitment to deploying capital in a manner that can enhance shareholder value.”

The new live daily three-hour newscast features 150 dedicated reporters and staff; will leverage the knowledge of 5,400 local journalists from Nexstar’s 110 newsrooms. It will be available to 75 million U.S. television households.

Nexstar has promised its forthcoming national newscast, News Nation, will be completely absent of bias and that it will bring on rhetoricians to ensure it. The reality of bias in TV news is much murkier to root out, stemming from the industry’s favoring of stories that are quick, easy and inexpensive to produce.

Nexstar will launch a new national newscast this fall, drawing in part from its 110 news-producing stations, but individual stations will have the autonomy to chart their own news course, says Susan Tully, SVP of local content development.

It promotes Mike Lee to VP-GM of its KWKT-KYLE Waco-Temple-Bryan, and chooses Mark Garcia to succeed Lee as leader of KMID Midland.

Everything’s bigger in Texas. Even investigative journalism. Find out why KXAN Austin’s latest investigation involved almost two dozen people in news, digital, production and marketing, and how the station balances that content on TV and digital platforms across all the Nexstar stations in the Lone Star State.

The group’s stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, and Bakersfield, Calif., become the “Official Home of Raiders’ Football” in their markets.

The data being sourced locally by Nexstar, Sinclair and Quincy Media journalists supports more accurate and timely community-focused reporting.

The veteran broadcasting executive with 30 years of experience is promoted by Nexstar to Lead its Raleigh, N.C., CBS affiliate.

Nexstar chooses the veteran broadcasting executive with more than 30 years of sales experience to lead its Fox-MNT duopoly in Springfield, Mo., following the retirement of Leo Henning.

Nexstar moves the veteran television and marketing executive from Lansing, Mich., to lead its Fox affiliate in Sacramento, Calif.

Veteran media industry executive Byron Grandy moves from WNCN Raleigh, N.C.,  to lead KDVR, KWGN and their related websites and mobile applications.

Aided by the acquisition of Tribune Media properties, it reported net revenue of $1.1 billion, with core advertising growing by 76%.

“The category that is phenomenal in its growth — and it continues to be unabated — is the legal category,” the group’s CEO, Perry Sook, told analysts today. He noted that legal is already the top category reported by another group owner in at least two markets, surpassing auto. “We’re not there yet, and there’s a long way to go for us to get there, but legal is now our No. 2 category, supplanting fast food, furniture and some of the other perennially strong categories. They’re strong, it’s just that the growth curve on legal advertising continues unabated,” Sook said.

The quarterly numbers reflect the 12-day contribution and expenses from the acquired Tribune stations. Total spot revenue grew 11% to $290,213,000.

Following other TV groups, Nexstar Media Group’s broadcasting unit, one of the largest owners of U.S. TV stations, will move to a cost-per-impression (CPM) model from household ratings for selling advertising. As with other TV companies, Nexstar says impressions provide more granular data of viewers watching a program or commercial. More importantly, this positions TV stations against increasingly competitive digital media platforms.

The 35-year local broadcast veteran to lead the group’s WFLA-WTTA duopoly and WFLA.com.

“What we do is we peruse through every Nexstar station whether it is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and we are looking for things that are more appealing than just the average, everyday news story that only affects a Little Rock market, a Fayetteville market, or a Birmingham, Alabama market,” says Aaron Nolan, the host of Newsfeed Now. 

The FCC has resolved its investigation into a couple of Nexstar stations that failed to comply with children’s TV reporting requirements, which follows its dismissal of a retrans complaint against the broadcaster that comes in the context of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s circulation of an item approving Nexstar’s merger with Tribune. The commission likes to resolve pending issues with a merger party that could impact its standing as a licensee before deciding whether to let it own more stations.

Hank Price: That crucial point in the long-running retrans standoff will come Sept. 5, the day the regular NFL season kicks off on NBC. If there is one thing that will cause consumers to change providers, it is the loss of NFL football. Should that happen, it will be a boon to the cable light OTT services. And the stakes are just as high for Nexstar since the NFL is a very specific advertising buy.

However, factoring out political results in a 2.7% increase. Retrans grows 13.8% to $314 million.

The new agreement with largest independent operator of CBS affiliates covers nearly six million television households across 15 markets.

Legislators continued to turn up the heat in the ongoing retransmission consent battle between DirecTV and Nexstar Media Group, with representatives from seven states joining Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday in sending letters to DirecTV parent AT&T urging for an end to the blackout as it entered its fifth day.

Those looking for Justice’s decision on whether it has any antitrust issues with Tegna’s purchase of Nexstar spin-off stations will have to wait a little longer. That is because for the sixth business day in a row the Federal Trade Commission has issued no early termination notices on any deal, an unusual hiatus for such announcements.

The Nexstar CEO says while the FCC’s ownership coverage cap is effectively at 78% now, broadcasters would like the Pai FCC to lock it in at that level so that some future FCC with a Democratic majority cannot easily reset it at 39% by once again repealing the UHF discount.