Updated Top 30 Station Groups: Nexstar Retains Top Spot, Gray Now No. 2 As FCC-Rejected Standard General Drops Off

This year’s Top 30 looks different than expected.

Upon approval of its $8.6 billion takeover of the Tegna group, Soo Kim’s Standard General was to be ensconced in the top echelon of TVNewsCheck’s annual ranking of station groups.

But that approval never came. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel effectively killed the deal by drawing out the approval process until Standard General’s financial backing disappeared.

So, this year’s Top 30 (by revenue) reverts close to what it was prior to all the Standard General fuss.

Nexstar remains at the top with total revenue of $5.2 billion with Gray in the second spot with $3.5 billion and Tegna coming in third at $3.2 billion, just ahead of Sinclair .

When this chart was first published on June 28, it was based solely on revenue estimates from BIA Advisory Services. It is being reposted today after BIA and TVNewsCheck revised figures to reflect actual revenue taken from the annual reports of the six publicly traded companies on the chart that break out their TV broadcasting financials: Nexstar, Gray, Tegna, Sinclair, Scripps and Entravision.

The principal effect of the new figures is that Gray moves up from No. 4 to No. 2. Scripps, with $1.5 billion in revenue, drops from No.9 to No. 10. Hearst is the new No. 9.

BIA, a Chantilly, Va.-based research and investment firm, provides the coverage percentage (of total TV homes) as well the revenue figures upon which the ranking is based (comprising both advertising and retrans money). The revenue figures are estimates except in the case of the six public companies.

BIA maintains Cunningham Broadcasting and stations owned by Stephen Mumblow as distinct groups. But because the groups function essentially as subsidiaries — duopoly partners — of Sinclair, TVNewsCheck lumps their revenue in with Sinclair’s. Other groups operate similar entities, but they combine their numbers with those of the corporate parent. For instance, Nexstar’s figures as shown in its annual report include Mission Broadcasting’s.

In all, the Top 30 account for $32.5 billion in revenue. That’s 83% of the $39.1 billion in revenue that BIA says the entire TV broadcasting industry produces.

BIA tracks station group ownership and uses information from individual stations and markets — in addition to historical data — to generate its ad revenue estimates.

For the six public companies that break it out, the retransmission consent revenue comes directly from their annual reports. For the rest, BIA makes estimates by modeling of public companies and checking the estimates against other public information.

So, although the revenue figures are estimates for most of the groups, they are close enough for ranking purposes.

The chart lists the aggregate coverage of the groups’ stations in two ways using BIA estimates of TV households based on data from research firm Woods & Poole Economics. Actual coverage is the percentage of the estimated 130.7 million TV homes the group actually reaches. It’s the relevant one for all practical business purposes.

The FCC coverage is for regulatory purposes. The FCC rules cap the aggregate reach of station groups at 39% of TV homes, but discounts the coverage of UHF stations by half. That allows groups to extend their reach to as much as 72% of homes depending on a group’s mix of VHF and UHF stations. However, the current FCC is generally opposed to station consolidation and is unlikely to approve any merger that exceeds 39%, despite the discount. It may even eliminate the discount.

Since the FCC rules use Nielsen household numbers that may differ from those of Woods & Poole, the percentages on this chart cannot be relied upon for precisely determining compliance with the FCC’s 39% cap.

TVNewsCheck’s Top 30 TV Station Groups

Data courtesy of BIA Advisory Services

Editor’s note: A version of this story was originally published on June 28.