Perry Sook

The trade group’s chairman and CEO of Nexstar Media Group says “local broadcast television remains the most powerful place to be within the media and advertising ecosphere. Our local news programming touches the daily lives of our viewers and connects people to their communities.”

On Monday, May 22, Perry A. Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Media Group Inc., becomes MFM’s latest Avatar Award recipient. He joins the associations’ former Avatar honorees as an exemplar of leadership who demonstrates a commitment to the media community as well as someone who has led his or her company to greater success.

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook told analysts today: “We made an appraisal of Tribune at some point,” he said. “I think you can safely assume since we weren’t announced as the winning bidder yesterday it’s because the price crossed our walking-away threshold.”

The station group’s CEO will receive the organization’s highest honor at Media Finance Focus 2017, which will be held May 22-24 in Orlando.

The head of Sinclair Broadcast Group makes a powerful argument for ATSC 3.0. He believes it will spawn many enhancements and businesses that will more than justify the “immaterial” cost of implementation, especially the ability to deliver targeted advertising. There’s room for skepticism, but not enough to stop broadcasters from moving briskly ahead with the technology.

At last week’s TV2020 conference, TVNewsCheck Editor Harry Jessell sat down with station group heads Jack Abernethy of Fox, Pat LaPlatney of Raycom, David Smith of Sinclair  and Perry Sook of Nexstar for a nuts-and-bolts discussion of the money-making potential of ATSC 3.0. Abernethy liked the technology, but was skeptical about the business models. However, the other three said adopting the new technology is a no-brainer. Said Sook: “It’s the next technological evolution of our business. I think it’s just a matter now of how fast we can roll things out.” Watch the session above.

But three other major stations group heads led by David Smith of Sinclair expressed unqualified enthusiasm for implementing the new broadcast standard, saying it will transform broadcasting into a fast-growing business again. “It’s essential for this industry to survive to have ATSC 3.0 in the marketplace as fast as possible,” said Smith.

Nexstar Broadcasting Group has already has taken orders for more than two thirds of its 2016 political ad spending target, CEO Perry Sook said on Wednesday, but he stopped short of raising the goal. The company planned to tell investors at an investment conference later in the day that it was standing by the target for $100 million in political revenue for the year.

One highlight of TVNewsCheck’s Nov. 9-10 TV2020 conference on the prospects for Next Gen TV will be the CEO panel featuring David Smith of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Perry Sook of Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Pat LaPlatney of Raycom Media.

It’s in the network affiliates’ interest to nurture some of these new skinny bundles by supplying them with their signals, even if it is on terms dictated by their networks. It’s a hedge against cord cutting and it’s another avenue into the OTT and mobile world where younger audiences await. Here’s the caveat: the affiliates’ revenue from the OTT providers — their end of whatever the networks negotiate — must be comparable to the net retrans they are getting from cable and satellite.

The proposed next-gen TV standard is endorsed by Wells Fargo securities analyst Marci Ryvicker and her S&P Global panelists: Sinclair’s David Amy and Nexstar’s Perry Sook. Said Ryvicker: “For me, I only see it as a good thing. I can’t put a cash flow on it. I can’t put a multiple on it. I just know it’s better than staying at 1.0.”  Amy: “It will forever change the way viewers consume our product.” Sook said he was especially interested in the potential for datacasting.

“I’m not sure [OTT] will be a bigger thing in five years than it is today,” the broadcast group CEO says. He adds that he’s focused on providing marketing services in all forms to local business. “At our base, we are a local service business,” he said. “Local businesses are crying out for help here” and Nexstar wants “a larger share of their wallet than just their ad dollars.” Read full coverage of the Borrell Local Online Ad Conference here.

The CEOs of GateHouse Media, Townsquare Media and The Dallas Morning News framed out their companies’ respective futures at Borrell Associates’ conference on Tuesday, and digital was the cornerstone common denominator. A look at how Kirk Davis, Steven Price and Jim Moroney see digital diversification as fundamental to their long-term strategies.

The founder, CEO and chairman of Nexstar Broadcasting Group received Borrell’s Award of Merit in recognition of his aggressive approach to building out Nexstar’s digital operations, including the acquisition of various digital publishing, video advertising, mobile and programmatic platforms.

Now that Nexstar has signed a definitive agreement to absorb Media General for $4.6 billion, Nexstar joins Sinclair in having hit the FCC ceiling on station ownership. The groups CEOs — Perry Sook and David Smith, respectively — have a lot in common, but their post-consolidation strategies are diverging. Smith wants Sinclair to be a national programmer; Sook simply wants to get the most out of what he’s got.

NATPE’s only broadcast TV panel featured (l-r after moderator Paige Albiniak of B&C): Jack Abernethy of  Fox Television Stations on the state of network-affiliate relations, Nexstar’s Perry Sook on why station groups shouldn’t be in national syndication; and Tribune’s Larry Wert on the on-going feud between CW and Tribune in which the network is demanding higher reverse comp fees from Tribune.

The president of Bonneville International takes the seat formerly held by Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications.

CEO Perry Sook believes there is far more potential for growth in digital than in spot advertising so his company has been expanding its digital footprint through acquisitions. And more are likely to come. He’s on the lookout for specialized or “vertical” websites and tech companies that would help Nexstar exploit social media and native advertising.

Perry Sook will continue as president-CEO of the television station group he founded in 1996 through January 2019 with this new contract.

Wiley Rein attorney Kathleen Kirby will receive the group’s annual First Amendment Leadership Award in the broadcast and digital industries. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook will also be presented with a First Amendment Award.

The group owner’s CEO tells analysts and investors that “if the No. 1 and No. 2 cable entities can merge … why can’t we own and sell inventory of two television stations in Abilene, Texas?” He also says his company has more M&A in the works.

The Broadcasters Foundation of America will present six Ward L. Quaal Leadership Awards on April 9 at the group’s annual breakfast at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The price tag for seven Fox and CW affiliates in four markets — Roanoke, Huntsville, Quad Cities and La Crosse — represents a buyer’s muliple of just 5X, says Nexstar. With the deal, Nexstar’s portfolio swells to 102 stations in 54 markets reaching approximately 15.5% of all U.S. TV homes.

This year’s class of inductees into The New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame include Nexstar’s Perry Sook, WKBW’s Bill Ransom and WXTV’s Rafael Pineda.

According to Nexstar CEO Perry Sook, the digital spectrum represent broadcasters’ “mineral rights” and he believes that most TV stations can be doing more to optimize the value of their digital assets. I suspect that there may be some readers who will disagree. Whether or not you like the analogy, there’s no arguing that broadcast license rights are among the most regulated in this country. I will also say that there are few, if any, other regulated entities that exercise their rights as responsibly as local broadcasters.

“The acquisitions we have pending would get into the relatively low nine-figure amount,” the Nexstar CEO told analysts today. One of those pending deals may be for Granite Broadcasting Corp.’s 10 stations, which include an independent in San Francisco (DMA 6) and an unaffiliated in Detroit (DMA 11).

With new mega-media deals being announced every few weeks, TVNewsCheck‘s Price Colman speculates on how a combination of those two big players might come about and what it could look like.

Serial acquirer Nexstar Broadcasting Group is in talks with several companies to buy TV stations and could spend up to $650 million on acquisitions over the next two years, according to CEO Perry Sook. He said  some stations run by Local TV LLC could fit the bill, but declined to say whether his company was in talks with owner Oak Hill Capital Partners.

While Nexstar is at the forefront of groups actively buying TV stations, CEO Perry Sook says there may come a time when even a buyer like Nexstar becomes a seller. If someone were to offer a big premium on the company’s share price, he says, “that would be a very interesting conversation to have in the board room.”

Perry Sook, chairman and CEO of Nexstar Broadcasting Group, told attendees at the Media Financial Management Association’s conference in New Orleans today that local media companies’ local nature is their greatest weapon in their battle against the Googles and Yahoos of the world. “Local markets cannot be effectively served by an algorithm,” he says.

The Nexstar CEO tells securities analysts to expect more buying and selling of TV stations over the next 18 months as the industry continues to consolidate. Allbritton and Local LLC have declared they are on the block with $3 billion in assets, but many more stations are quietly being shopped, he says. He envisions that six mega-groups will ultimately emerge, with Nexstar being one of them.

Perry Sook, founder, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Broadcasting Group will deliver a keynote address at Media Finance Focus 2013, the 53rd annual conference of the Media Financial Management […]

CEO Perry Sook says that while it will continue to look for acquisitions that make sense, it is also “engaged in discussions to sell some of our smaller, non-strategic assets and believe that can be done at accretive multiples to the company as well.”

A NATPE panel offered predictions on the future of retransmission consent at stations. Deb McDermott of Young Broadcasting said that she was not opposed to sharing the retrans revenue with the networks “as long as it is the right division of revenue — as long as they don’t get greedy.” And Nexstar’s Perry Sook suggested that even sending half of the revenue to the networks is not unreasonable.

A NATPE panel offered predictions on the future of retransmission consent at stations. Deb McDermott of Young Broadcasting said that she was not opposed to sharing the retrans revenue with the networks “as long as it is the right division of revenue — as long as they don’t get greedy.” And Nexstar’s Perry Sook suggested that even sending half of the revenue to the networks is not unreasonable.

In a tip of the old bottlecap to Dos Equis, I say the Most Interesting Man in Broadcasting is Nexstar mastermind Perry Sook. Look at what he’s been doing just this summer: Engaging in a no-holds-barred struggle with Fox over retrans, working to find a new private equity partner to refinance his company and continuing to add stations to his burgeoning portfolio of small and middle-market stations. Cheers.

Factoring out political, the increase jumps to 6.9%. The increases are led by a 4.3% gain in core advertising and double-digit increases in retrans, e-media and trade and barter.

Oak Hill Capital Partners and TPG — or possibly a combination of the two — have emerged as the top candidates to buy out Nexstar majority owner ABRY, a Boston-based private equity firm. However, virtually all private equity firms with broadcast interests are likely giving the Nexstar deal a look.

GoLocal.biz has been providing local business directory, coupon, movie and entertainment listings to all 35 of Nexstar’s local portal websites. Nexstar plans to market its services to other local media. The terms were not disclosed.

After Nexstar wouldn’t agree to its retrans sharing demands, Fox moved its affiliation in Springfield, Mo., from KSFX to Ted Koplar’s MNT affiliate. He plans to run both networks’ primetime programming — Fox at 7-9 p.m. and MNT at 9-11 p.m. — and is seriously considering adding local news to the mix.