Execs See Solid Year For Broadcast Groups

With fewer cars on the lots following last March’s tsunami in Japan, car manufacturers and dealers are dropping a portion of their TV ads this quarter.

But broadcast executives, speaking at the SNL Kagan TV and Radio Finance Summit in New York Wednesday, said they are not overly concerned about the cancellations.

“Right now what we anticipate most of those dollars will be picked up in the second half of the year,” said David Amy, VP-CFO of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

“It’s a supply issue, not a business issue,” he said. “It doesn’t have to do with us as TV, but auto dealers simply don’t want their lots to be become empty.”

Amy’s fellow panelists — the top executives from Nexstar, Fisher and LIN Broadcasting — echoed his optimism for the rest of the year.

“The industry is seeing a pretty good first quarter; second quarter looks fairly stable although I think we’re all starting to see automotive softness,” said Fisher Communications President-CEO Colleen Brown. “However, I think it’s still going to be a good solid year for the industry. I don’t think there are any big surprises coming up. I think 2012 is going to be a very good year,” she added.

Vincent Sadusky, president-CEO of LIN Media, said he hoped 2011 “would be better coming off a terrific 2010.”

“2011 has been choppy,” he said, adding, though, that even that is relative when weighing it against the recent years during the Great Recession. “Considering the fact that the economy continues to sputter along … I’d say that market to market being up a little, or even being flattish, feels pretty good,” he said.

Perry Sook, Nexstar’s chairman, president and CEO, in the last weeks has been focusing some of his efforts on helping the Nexstar employees and businesses in Joplin, Mo., rebuild following the devastating tornado there more than a week ago. Nexstar owns one station, and operates another for Mission Broadcasting in that city.

Financially, though, Nexstar is also having a relatively good year so far, with its Rochester, N.Y., station taking in an unexpected $1 million in political money in May from a congressional race there.

“All in all I’d say things are pretty good and pretty positive,” Sinclair’s Amy summed up. “The business isn’t going in the wrong direction. It’s going in the right direction.”