Nexstar’s Perry Sook: An Industry Avatar

If you mention the term “avatar” to anyone, it’s likely to evoke the images of the hybrid human-aliens in James Cameron’s blockbuster 2009 film, or one of the on-screen representations selected by players in a video game or virtual world. But if you dig a little deeper, you arrive at a meaning that explains why MFM chose the term to describe recipients of the association’s highest honor.

While these more recent uses relate to humans taking on a non-human form, earlier meanings reflected the opposite transformation: circumstances where a living person would come to represent the embodiment of a known model or category.

It is in this context that the MFM board of directors named the award in 1983 and, in 2017, chose Perry A. Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Media Group, to become its latest Avatar Award recipient. With influence that has spanned far beyond his role at Nexstar, Sook 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.

Sook will receive the award during the opening general session of Media Finance Focus 2017, which gets underway in Orlando, Fla., next Monday morning, May 22. He has also agreed to deliver an opening keynote address. MFM is very grateful for the opportunity to provide this year’s attendees the chance to hear his thoughts concerning the industry’s next chapter, which is already unfolding among the Nexstar properties.

Members of MFM and BCCA, the media industry’s credit association, received a preview of our reasons for honoring Sook as part of the conference edition of MFM’s The Financial Manager magazine. It was prepared by TFM Editor Janet Stilson, who has held editorial positions at several of the industry’s leading trade publications over the past 25 years and continues to publish her analysis for a number of trade journals and national publications. Since these are characteristics worth recognizing, I would like to share a few of the reasons behind Sook’s selection.

Commitment And Vision

One of the first attributes is the dramatic growth that Nexstar has experienced under Sook’s leadership. Over the past 21 years, Nexstar Media Group has grown from one TV station in Scranton, Pa., to 171, complemented with an array of digital properties. All told, Nexstar serves up more than 185,000 hours of local content a year.

That growth is far from over. “We are eagerly anticipating a potential rollback of regulations from the FCC. We look forward to any opportunity that would create,” Sook said in a conversation this spring. He added that his company is interested in “aggregating more [broadcast properties] in individual markets that we’re already in, or growing our footprint in markets that we’re not in.” As TVNewsCheck’s Harry Jessell pointed out, recent moves by the FCC, which include restoring the national ownership cap’s UHF discount, allow Nexstar (and other station groups) to push well beyond the group’s current reach of 39% of all U.S. households.

Sook and his team began the year by closing its $4.6 billion deal for Media General’s assets. The acquisition helped to boost 1Q net revenue by 111% to $540 million, driving record operating income of $110.1 million. Commenting on the results, Sook said: “Nexstar’s record first quarter results highlight our expanded scale, ongoing diversification and unwavering commitment to localism.”

Industry Leadership

Adapting to consumer shifts that will affect the future of traditional broadcasting, Nexstar has also been leading the way in adoption of the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology standard. The company recently formed a consortium with Sinclair Broadcast Group to promote spectrum aggregation, which might result in the creation of virtual MVPD (multichannel video programming distribution) platforms, multicast channels or automotive applications. Sook said the consortium is open to other broadcasters, and it aims to have “a single point of contact for those that might have ideas about spectrum usage.”

This kind of forward thrust is what the industry has come to expect from Sook. “His real genius is his ability to see what’s coming down the pike in three or four years and take advantage of it,” said Steve Lanzano, president-CEO of the TVB, where Sook, an active board member, was recently elected to serve as chairman.

In addition to citing Nexstar’s early and aggressive moves in the digital space, when speaking with TFM Editor Stilson, Lanzano provided the example of Sook and Nexstar’s landmark “win” for the entire station business with retransmission consent fees.

“For the longest time broadcasters were not utilizing the retransmission consent system to get paid subscriber fees for their signals. Perry broke the logjam,” Tegna Media President Dave Lougee recalled for our TFM readers. “He had the courage to go dark for many, many months. That started the trend of broadcasters starting to get paid, as they should, for the value of their signals.”

A Deep Commitment To The Media Community

As these examples demonstrate, the decision to present Sook with our Avatar Award is not only because of the growth of his own company and contributions to the economic health of the entire industry, but also because of his commitment to industry organizations like the TVB and NAB, where he serves on the association’s board of directors.

In pointing to some reasons why he’s been so successful, Sook said, “Broadcasting was the only business I was ever in, since high school, when I was in radio. A significant portion of my net worth is in Nexstar stock. So my drive has always been making the company more valuable and essential. I have this and I have three children that are all grown, and those interests occupy the lion’s share of my day.”

This snapshot of someone who is truly an industry exemplar illustrates why Sook is well paired with past Avatar Award honorees such as Joshua Sapan, president-CEO, Rainbow Media Holdings (now AMC Networks), Kenneth Lowe, president-CEO (and now chairman), The E.W. Scripps Co.; Johnathan Rodgers, president-CEO of TV One; former FCC Commissioner James Quello; Lucie Salhany, UPN Television president-CEO; Stanley S. Hubbard Sr., chairman-CEO, Hubbard Broadcasting/USSB; Jim Dowdle, president-CEO, Tribune Broadcasting; Turner Broadcasting founder R.E. “Ted” Turner, and former Cox Communications Chairman Clifford Kirkland, MFM’s first Avatar honoree.

We will also use next week’s conference to recognize several individuals for contributions that, like those of Perry Sook, have had an industry-wide impact. They include, Entercom CFO Steve Fisher, who will receive the Distinguished CFO Award; Ralph Bender, CFO of Manship Media, who will receive the Chairman’s Award, which is given in honor of Edward H. Deichman; BCCA Contributor Award recipient Ed Mockus, director of credit and collections at Scripps Networks Interactive, and this year’s Working Capital and Rainmaker Awards honorees, whose profiles also appear in the May-June edition of TFM.

A digital copy of the publication will be available for viewing on the MFM website until late June. I do hope you will give it a read. Like our Avatar Award recipient Perry A Sook, each of these individuals possess qualities that we should all want to embody.

Mary M. Collins is president and CEO of the Media Financial Management Association and its BCCA subsidiary, the media industry’s credit association. She can be reached at[email protected] and via the association’s LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.