Local TV’s online woes a “drag on value?”
Broadcasting and Cable tallies up the flurry of TV station sales to private equity firms and comes up with $50 billion in deals. News Corp., LIN, CBS, Nexstar, Pappas, New York Times Co. and Clear Channel have all put some or all of their stations on the block recently. Some analysts wonder if the logjam is just the “flavor of the month” for PE firms - and worry that clouds could be building on the horizon for the business as traditional revenue starts to fall. Are last-minute online efforts at local stations actually a “drag on value” in the face of the Googles (and even newspapers) of the world? Bill Hague, senior VP for Frank N. Magid Associates notes that many stations aren’t seeing big success online: “We can count on one hand the stations who are winning the game online.”
12 comments June 24th, 2007
