Today's call is being recorded. That will become a problem for Nexstar CEO Perry Sook, who recently signed a deal with LIV Golf to air the tournaments on The CW. Well, I would say, first of all, that embedded in the guidance that we issued this morning is a record political number for 2024, and it is up not inconsequentially from what you saw in both 2022 and in 2020. When the president of the National Association of Broadcasters introduced Sook to banqueters as, more than just a broadcaster with a handsome face and a great tan, it was an inside joke. In 2014, Sinclair gave Mikulski $25,000. When you refer to Bay, who are you talking about? (Bredeson was Blackburns opponent in the 2018 Tennessee Senate race.) And so we are very bullish on political 2024. Please refresh the page and try again. And then, Perry, you mentioned that the recent distribution renewals effectively have paid for the CW deal. And so that means we have to go dark for a little while to make the point. and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), all of whom received $15,000 or more. Nexstar's local TV advertising revenue, which represents approximately 70% of our total core TV ad revenues, excluding the CW, continues to meaningfully outperform national declining just 2% year-over-year despite significant inventory allocations towards political during the quarter. I mean can you generate revenues that are meaningful without that? The -- there are lots of discussions. LIV Golf was viewed by over 1.4 million total viewers across both the CW linear network as well as our digital platform, the CW app, compared to the average linear golf game on television year-to-date. Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. Things got nastyand personal. Sook is also credited for helping Nexstar rise from its founding to earning $4.6 billion in net revenue in 2021 alone. We have always fought hard in negotiations with a number of factors that come into play and levers we can pull. And by the end of April, we will have a program schedule that will be News 24/5. I'm very proud of the folks we have on the air and the job that they do, and we look to add to that as we continue to fill out these other hours and other dayparts. Just some nitpick questions, if I could start off with on the CW. Could you talk a little bit about how else you are going to try to navigate that process of changing the content and publicizing the changes in the content to attract the desired audience since that transition could pose its own challenges? In 2018, their top four recipients were all Minnesota politicians: Republican Senate candidate Karin Housley, Rep. Erik Paulsen, Emmer and Rep. Jason Lewis. Great. Some include the CW and some exclude it, creating some noise in our consensus estimates. And I think when those things begin to line up, I think you'll see development accelerate. In a 2015 article on the announcement that then-Senator Mikulski would receive the presidential medal of freedom, the Fox45 site included a transcript of Mikulskis full reaction from the floor of the Senate. Watch for more news articles, provided throughout the day courtesy of TradingCharts Listen Bloomberg. The company is now the nations biggest player in local television. Mr. Sook, 30, who is from Texas, was then a Broadway performer and is now a sportscaster. Turning to political advertising. Excluding the CW and the impact of going dark and other negotiation settlements, our distribution revenue would have been up low single digits. Category bright spots included Ohio where sports betting was legalized beginning of '23, and Missouri driven by spending in Kansas City for sports betting in Kansas, which was legalized in September of '22. I wondered what the next steps are. While we have higher expectations for growth in this line item for the year, until our partners' ongoing negotiations are resolved, our growth rate will remain near the mid-single-digit area. I didn't give a specific, but it will be higher than the revenue growth. Even if the rip n read world fit him, the environment at the station did not. Washington, SOOK, Perry A. BSC '80 Chairperson Southlake, TX. And most importantly, the affiliates as well as our own stations were thrilled. Sook recalls running commercials with us holding up a penny and asking, Dont you think were worth a penny a day on your cable bill?, The Nexstar CEO felt he was on the right side of things and that cable customers would be willing to pay to get their local news content. Sook reaffirmed Nexstar's commitment to the transformation of the former WGN America into a news channel. They're fielding tons of pitches. He was right. For the '23, '24 cycle, we expect to generate pro forma average annual attributable free cash flow of approximately $1.25 billion, inclusive of our approximate $90 million attributable to the investment losses associated and tax benefits related to our turnaround of the CW. Its important to stay active and connected to the folks who do the work in the business, representing Nexstar in their local communities every day. I know that our affiliates in CW affiliates in the top 10 markets generated about 3x the amount of money that the network generated for this first outing. Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. We have developed these audiences over decades by consistently providing top-rated local news, sports and entertainment content. Witness, a nonprofit blog that tracks homicides. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. This year, we prepared an ESG report, which will be available on our website, outlining key principles, policies and action. During commercial breaks, Id have to get up and adjust my own camera, he says. The weakness we see is in national where national advertisers that obviously aren't as close to the end user and customer have paused or reduced spending due to a potential weakness in consumers going forward. You will receive a verification email shortly. Soon after they met,. I mean do you think you start revenues from that in 2024, Sinclair was saying that. It was up low single-digit percentage on an adjusted basis. Its important that we never lose sight of that, he says. Hubbard Broadcasting owns the radio station that ran the Jason Lewis Show before Lewis became a congressman. Before handing the call over to Tom, I want to briefly touch on a few updates on our organic growth prospects. But not all of his travel is to major metros. In the fourth quarter, yes. ), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Lee Ann for the remainder of the financial review and update process. We want to necessarily put our playbook out there, but I think you'll see as we move toward the upfront level and the programming schedule that gets -- that will be displayed and deployed for the fall. And so I think it's an iterative process. One segment, run by Nexstar-owned WATE in Knoxville, Tennessee, focused on an anti-Phil Bredesen ad that was censored by Facebook. Aerosmith co-founder Joe Perry isn't at all cagey about his political beliefs or his stance on issues. As a percentage of net revenues, our total expenses declined given our focus on controlling expense growth and significant political revenue growth. We grew double digits in the fourth quarter. So you have an inferior offering in the marketplace. In the 24 ensuing years, the founder and CEO of Nexstar Media Group added 195 stations to his corporate quiver to become the nations largest owner of television stations. Sook has just returned from eight days on the road, on business in California and Arizona. Nexstar is "immediately commencing a search" for Busch's successor, according to Perry Sook, Nexstar's CEO. And so yes, our profitability has been enhanced, and we're investing our syndicated programming expense back into journalism. As I said in my remarks, January was the highest cumulative audience for the network since its inception. Positively impacting this revenue category in the quarter was the inclusion of the CW-affiliate fees as well as growth in the virtual MVPD revenue and MVPD rate resets and annual rate escalators. 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 . And I now would like to turn the conference over to Joe Jaffoni, Investor Relations. In January, the network averaged 65,000 viewers from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. according to Nielsen and just 15,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic used to sell ads in news programming. And we're working independently with Sinclair and with other companies to develop business applications that can be used today, given the capacity constraints in enhanced GPS and distributed power and some other use cases that are not very bandwidth-intensive. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Its important that we never lose sight of that, he says. Brings new meaning to the phrase Sunday Funday. Ratings for NewsNations news programming have been dropping all year. We recorded $14.8 million in distributions from equity investments related to our 31% ownership in the TV Food network in the fourth quarter, which represents a 13.5% decrease over prior year quarter. Well, again, I've said for the full year, we expect high single to low double-digit growth. Moving back to Nexstar expenses. To that end, we have recently appointed experienced sales and advertising executive, Michael Strober to the newly created position of EVP and Chief Revenue Officer responsible for leading the execution of a new advertising sales and go-to-market strategy for the company, which is designed to accelerate the monetization of our platform with a focus on the national advertising opportunity which is roughly double the size of the local advertising market that Nexstar has predominantly served historically. I knew the quickest road to management, and management to ownership, was through sales.. Talk of a Dish Network and AT&T Merger Have Started Again Who Owns Dish? Want first access to OpenSecrets' investigations and data features? Jennifer Nettles & Kristian Bush of Sugarland 6. We are seeing some sustained healthy increases off of that lower base. (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Craig Huber with Huber Research Partners. The company was founded in 1996 when Perry A. Sook purchased WYOU, a station in Scranton, Pa. And that and money are the 2 issues here. Thanks, Priscilla, and good morning, everyone. The PAC gave $10,000 to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the same amount to committees associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) ANDERSON, Sandra J. BA '73 Vice Chair But not all of his travel is to major metros. They have given generously to Maryland politicians over the years, including Rep. Andy Harris, Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Nancy Jacobs, a Republican state Senator who lost a race for Marylands second congressional district in 2012. According to Open Secrets, Nexstar Media group gave more money to Republicans in the 2018 election cycle (45% to Democrats, 55% to Republicans). Market Realist is a registered trademark. The ramp-up of sports betting advertising came at a time when automotive was declining and now we see a reversal in the performance of these 2 categories. It was basically like running two newspapers off of a single printing press, Sook says. And obviously, with things like LIV Golf and other programming expansions, we're hoping to create more value so that we can ultimately extract more value as we go. Since NewsNation brands itself as being one that reports the facts in an unbiased manner, many viewers were hopeful when the network launched in 2020. Or is it just like a national game on that national feed? Thanks, Perry, and good morning, everyone. Our capital allocation priorities remain focused on value-enhancing organic initiatives in our business, accretive M&A, modest deleveraging and shareholder returns through a mix of dividends and share repurchases. So I was wondering if you could just help us kind of bridge the gap there. Early in 2021, news broke that Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News, had consulted from the beginning on the creation of NewsNation. We attribute our success during the record midterm cycle to the benefits of Nexstar scale and meticulous analysis and planning on a state-by-state and race-by-race basis, which has enabled us to nicely exceed the midpoint of our initial full year net political revenue guidance range between pro forma 2018 and 2020 levels. For example, former President Donald Trump tweeted a good luck message (when his Twitter account was still active) to Compton for the networks launch and later gave an interview in which anchor Joe Donlon didnt challenge his false statements. So, Sook began by figuring out how to benefit financially by operating or managing stations. Were now up to 16%, but that means 84% of the country has no earthly idea. The same banner rotates between the endorsement of Obama, a banner advertising Decision 2008 coverage and links to other stories. But -- so there is revenue flowing from ancillary uses of our spectrum today. We appreciate you joining us today to discuss Nexstar's outstanding fourth quarter and full year financial results. Offsetting these factors were the impact of ours and our partner stations going dark on certain MVPDs during the quarter in connection with the contract renegotiations and the settlement of certain disputes impacting revenue in connection with these new contracts as well as continued MVPD subscriber attrition. And then just a second question here. Before being recruited to run Seaway, he worked in the . Excluding the impact of the CW, our top-performing categories in the quarter were automotive, home repair and manufacturing, entertainment, paid programming and air conditioning and heating. Last month, NewsNation hired former Fox News exec Cherie Grzech as managing editor. Not bad for a guy who first got into the television business as a small-town anchorman. Our position on the matter is not new. Yes. The San Francisco station, KRON4, has run stories on both Pelosi and Feinstein. Nexstar hired ABC News exec Michael Corn as president of news in May. Gregory Raifman, president of Nexstar Digital, gave $2,500 that year. Now you probably want to raise your sights in terms of the margins and the profitability you can generate with that station or the network. The resulting company will own over 200 television stations, giving it incredible access to American homes across the country through their local news programming. His name is Trump. Hear the latest economic, business and market news, as well as global, national, and local news. We also believe it is important to do so since we view the near-term losses of the CW as a proxy for purchase price, and we intend to bring the asset to profitability by 2025. We doubled the size of the company and then doubled it again in the space of about two years. The last double-down made Nexstar worth $13.8 billion. In March 2021, The New York Times reported that NewsNation hadn't lived up to expectations and was seeing low viewership. Since NewsNations launch, several incidents of conservative and/or pro-Trump bias have occurred. Outside of the huge Chicago-based cable network WGN America, most of its 196 stations are ABC, CBS, Fox, CW, and NBC affiliates in small and midsize markets. CEO says Nexstar will spend more than $10 million on promo campaign for news network after Labor Day. Q4 digital revenues increased 10.1% year-over-year to approximately $112 million. Or is that kind of a necessity to free up that bandwidth capacity? We have assumed no material M&A or other onetime or usual transaction these figures. Perry, maybe just to follow up on that a little bit. As we move forward, we will continue to strategically deploy our cash in a manner that is consistent with our commitment to creating the highest shareholder value. There was a problem. Excluding the CW, fourth quarter adjusted net income increased of 32.5% to $662 million, and free cash flow increased from 38.7% to $458.1 million. And then if you get some of the current blackout renewals done, then accelerates into that new guidance. We've seen a number of RSN groups now kind of get into a period of change. South Dakota Senator John Thune received the biggest haul from Sinclair in 2016 (over $30,000). He grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. NewsNation aired an interview with President Donald Trump in September 2020. Perry A. Sook has over 37 years of professional experience in the television and radio broadcasting industries, covering all facets of the business including ownership and M&A, management, sales, on-air talent and news. This continues to be in line with the historical trends with local advertisers maintain more consistent levels of ad spending throughout economic cycles. And if there's any way to kind of, I don't know, directionally size the impact of LIV Golf, just so we have a sense of what these kind of deals could be helpful. We have 1,800 salespeople that call on small and midsize businesses in 63 percent of the country, he says. Got you. NewsNation InSites. So, heres a glance at the owner of NewsNation. However, political ideologies have influenced human society since the dawn of civilization as. So I think that sports, I think adding another hour on Sunday night to the prime time schedule, are all things you can expect in the future. He serves on the Board of Directors of Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), the Board of the Broadcasters Foundation of America, and he is Chairman of The Ohio University Foundation Board of Trustees. Its a publicly-traded company on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol NXST. Nexstar operates traditional media as well as digital and mobile media platforms. Some of my most fun days, my best days, are when I go visit one of our local TV stations. We think the CW was undervalued for any number of reasons, mostly related to predecessor owners and parent company priorities and agendas. Thank you very much for your participation, and have a good day. Okay. Why? So we believe the first half will be more like mid-single digits, and then it will grow again to the full year expectations in the back half of the year. We continue to believe the investment case for Nexstar is very simple. For those with a cable subscription package, NewsNation might be included in the subscription offerings, and NewsNations channel finder can locate the correct channel. Mikulski also gave the Fox station an interview on receiving the medal. According to the Washington Post, Sinclair stations ran fifteen exclusive interviews with Trump and did none with Hillary Clinton. Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images Tyler Perry, who's stayed largely apolitical throughout his career, is breaking the tradition to endorse a candidate in the 2020 presidential election. Our ability to generate record results and excellent shareholder returns underscores the benefits of our unique scale, the strength of our operating model and our ability to consistently generate substantial free cash flow. Revenue growth was driven by the inclusion of the CW and year-over-year increases in Nexstar's local digital advertising and agency services businesses, offset in part by softness in national advertising and e-commerce. Perry A. Sook-- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thanks very much, everyone for joining us. . It was a kind of a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, but it also energized me to go out and find a real job. That meant television sales, which led to the purchase of WYOU in Scranton, taking us back to the beginning of Sooks story. Sook spends a great deal of time sorting through financial matters in New York and meeting with regulators in Washington, D.C. And in our recent distribution and renewal negotiations, our ownership of the CW positively impact the outcomes of those discussions by an amount that already effectively paid for the investment that we'll make in the network. They also gave $5,000 to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Our ability to attract top-tier talent and make good progress on ratings, with January 2023, marking NewsNation's highest-rated month to date, all only reinforces that view. Thomas Carter, the CFO, did the same. So it will be a record year. Dennis Miller and Brad Schwartz and their teams are hard at work putting that together. A Texas native and University of Oklahoma Alum, Perry now lives in New York City. Nexstar's consistently strong free cash flow generation remains one of our most powerful differentiators not only from our peers but from larger diversified media companies as well. Sorry. Many Americans rely on stations owned by companies like Sinclair, Tribune Media and Nexstar Media Group to stay informed on local politics. Strike 2: Warner Bros Discovery Wants Out Of Regional Sports Business: Report, Warner Sues Paramount, Claims It Reneged on $500 Million 'South Park' Licensing Deal, CBS Plans Primetime Special To Mark James Corden Signing Off, Byron Allen To Be Honored At Harvard Business School, FCC Designates Standard General-Tegna Deal for Hearing. Okay. And I would tell you, without it, wed be in worse shape than the newspaper business.. The network's current lineup of TV hosts now include Elizabeth Vargas, Dan Abrams, Chris Cuomo, and Ashleigh Banfield. But we're very bullish on the prospects and think these things are in the queue and on the way. I think, again, if we had a sunset for 1.0, even if it was several years, hence, that would cause the set manufacturers to begin to build to that standard, lessen the backward compatibility problem with those that don't have sets -- compatible sets that need dongles or receivers and all of that has to be dealt with and the consumer issues have to come first and foremost. It's high-teens number of -- amount of revenue related to the CW. And again, I tell people, I don't care what the ratings are 3 months from now. And they see the customer at the checkout counter or at the cash register, and they know that local consumers are spending and have factored in 7% mortgages and $3 and $4 gasoline into their daily lives. Okay. I want my commission salespeople to be the, Nexstars $7.1 billion purchase of Tribune Media changed everything. Consistent with our capital allocation priorities and focus on enhancing shareholder value, in January, the Board of Directors increased Nexstar's quarterly cash dividend by 50% to $1.35 per share per quarter, substantially exceeding our historical compound annual dividend growth rate of 25%. We had two separate studios for local news, two different on-air staffs, and two separate sales forces. Their political giving has since plummeted to $13,034 by 2018, all but $500 of which went to Democrats. Lee Ann? And are we talking about the affiliates effectively drawing the line in the sand here, which could see and could create spillover and impact these relationships with other vMVPDs as well? Our programming continues to be recognized by watchdog group for its independence, and we believe this is the type of content that journalists want to report and audiences want to watch. Sinclair-affiliated PACs and individuals supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 with $3,804. I'm wondering how auto is performing when you look back relative to those pre-COVID levels, are we bearing full normalization here? Were going to represent those who are underrepresented.. But yes, that is what people want us for is the local content. Perry Sook is a performer that lives by these words. 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