Nexstar

The veteran media executive with more than 25 years of experience in broadcast sales, marketing and management will oversee WJZY and WMYT in North Carolina

The new diginet from Nexstar begins airing classic TV programming from the 1980s and 1990s in markets covering 40% of the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The growing broadcast group’s leader, Perry Sook, is spending $130 million on D.C.-based political news operation The Hill in his latest bid to expand into national news. I’m guessing that Sook is not done with his news-empire building. And what he needs (other than a dual revenue stream for The Hill) is a business site.

Nexstar Media and SportsGrid Inc., this morning unveiled SportsGrid Network, a diginet devoted to sports wagering and fantasy sports. SportsGrid Network will debut Sept. 1. Nexstar will distribute it in nine of its markets where it has space on subchannels: San Francisco, Washington, Tampa, Portland, Nashville, Norfolk, Grand Rapids, Knoxville and Des Moines.

Stephen Eaton, a media executive with more than 25 years of local broadcast experience, will oversee KSVI and Mission Broadcasting’s KHMT in Montana.

The increase to $1.1 billion from 2Q 2020 was boosted by core ad revenue growth of 42%, higher distribution fee revenue (up 15%) and digital revenue growth of 57%.

NewsNation, Nexstar Media’s nascent cable network, is set to launch a new promotional campaign across the country in September. “What you hear and see in this campaign is very much a decidedly different tone of voice,” says Jonathan Killian, NewsNation’s VP of creative marketing and brand communication.

Nexstar Media Group’s board of directors today announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.70 per share of its Class A common stock. The dividend is payable on Friday, Aug. 27, to shareholders of record on Friday, Aug. 13.

The finance executive with more than 20 years of experience in media, broadcasting and entertainment investment banking joins the company on Aug. 9.

Some journalists responsible for digital content on Nexstar’s TV stations’ websites got a company-wide nod, thanks to Austin Kellerman, Nexstar’s director of digital content.

Beginning Sept. 27, the Nexstar cable network will feature 55 hours of live news, analysis and talk each week. Abrams will host Dan Abrams Live and Adrienne Bankert will anchor its new live national weekday newscast Morning in America.

In an extraordinary on-air move, Nexstar-owned CBS affiliate WCIA Champaign, Ill., ran a segment apologizing to viewers for the station’s coverage of the death of police officer Chris Oberheim who was killed in the line of duty in May.

Nexstar Media Inc. filed a suit against Comcast Cable Communications charging that the cable company was breaching its retransmission contract by failing to pay fees for carrying WPIX New York. In the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, Nexstar is seeking unspecified damages, interest and other costs, including attorney’s fees.

The broadcast executive with nearly 30 years of leadership experience will oversee Nexstar’s KVEO, valleycentral.com and Mission Broadcasting’s KGBT.

The veteran sales executive with more than 30 years of experience will oversee KXRM and KXTU as vice president and general manager.

Comcast wants the FCC to issue a ruling that Nexstar should be attributed ownership of WPIX New York , which would make it in violation of the commission’s 39% cap on broadcast national audience reach. The cable operator claims Nexstar’s divestiture of the station to meet FCC requirements in its acquisition of Tribune was a “sham.”

NewsNation, Nexstar Media’s cable network reaching 75 million U.S. television households, today announced that veteran news executive Cherie Grzech will join the network as vice president of news, managing editor, effective July 19. She will oversee the network’s day-to day news gathering and production process and supervise a staff of more than 100 reporters, producers, […]

The broadcast executive with nearly 20 years of leadership experience will oversee the broadcast and digital operations of Nexstar’s KSNT, KTMJ and the company’s operational agreements with Vaughan Media’s, KTKA.

The company says her promotion signifies a significant investment in growing Nexstar’s data capabilities.

Mission intends to use the net proceeds from the new loan to pay down borrowings under its existing revolving credit facility, pay shared service fees to Nexstar and for general corporate purposes.

The news executive with more than 20 years of experience in New York City newsrooms, most recently as assistant news director at WCBS, will oversee journalism at Nexstar’s CW affiliate in the Big Apple.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a senior vice president and regional manager at Nexstar, a media analyst opening that can be done from anywhere, and a GM/sales manager opening in a beach location.

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook weighs in on NewsNation’s struggles; the prospect of increasing reverse comp fees for less programming exclusivity; NextGen TV’s monetization horizon; the industry’s need for a single, impressions-based currency and much more in this exclusive TVNewsCheck interview. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Just in time for the unveiling of its 2021-22 schedule next week, The CW has secured its largest affiliate group for the next season and beyond. The broadcast network and Nexstar Media Group (as well as its operating partners) have reached multi-year agreements to renew CW affiliations in 37 markets across the country (28 Nexstar- and 9 partner-owned television stations), which cover more than 31% of the U.S. audience, serving more than 38 million television households.

Nexstar taps the award-winning former ABC News senior executive producer of Good Morning America and ABC World News for a new executive position at its nascent cable news network.

“Looking ahead, we’re encouraged by the overall acceleration in economic activity and the improved trajectory of ad spending across our footprint as market conditions continue to improve,” CEO Perry Sook told analysts this morning.

The increase to $1.1 billion from 1Q 2020 was boosted by a higher distribution fee revenue (up 13%) and digital revenue growth of 18%. Core ad revenue was down 1.4%.

The new multicast network will air classic TV hits from the 1980s and 1990s designed to attract Gen X viewers, much like its Antenna TV does for baby boomers with its 1960s and ’70s programming.

Sports wagering has invigorated station groups’ core revenue, climbing to the second-biggest ad sales category for many of them and angling to knock automotive from its top spot in the next few years. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Kimberly Byrd, Ben Oldham and Robert Raff move up in Knoxville, Tenn.; Roanoke, Va;  and Myrtle Beach, S.C., respectively.

Facebook overwhelmingly is the most important social media platform for TV stations, say executives for CBS stations, E.W. Scripps, Nexstar, NBCU stations, Fox stations and Meredith. Broadcasters’ relationship with the platform once widely viewed as a “frenemy” continues to evolve, though the opacity of its all-important algorithm still frustrates. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Jennifer Lyons, the VP of news at Nexstar’s rebranded cable news channel NewsNation resigned Tuesday amid concerns it will take a right-wing turn because of low ratings.

The 36-year broadcasting veteran is stepping down on June 1. He served in multiple leadership roles over 20 years as Nexstar grew to become the nation’s largest broadcaster.

Blake Russell, EVP of stations operations and content development for Nexstar, has spent the past pandemic year building out a new newsroom, studios and infrastructure for NewsNation. Along the way, he’s been eliminating holdover technology from the company’s Tribune acquisition and built a novel, enterprise-level content sharing tool. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.