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Coming off of 2024 — which has been boosted by the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the presidential election year — 2025 revenue will either be slightly up or slightly down, but TV station groups aren’t expecting it to fall off a cliff, group leaders said at TVNewsCheck’s Local Television Strategies conference at NAB New York on Wednesday.
In fact, the executives on the panel were optimistic about the year to come.
Valari Staab
“Local stations have relationships in local markets that no one else has. That relationship is monetizable in a lot of ways now and will be in the future,” said Valari Staab, chairman, NBCUniversal Local. “We also have the strongest advertising medium. Linear ad sales is the No. 1 reach vehicle. To reach massively large audiences, you still need linear television.”
The NBC Owned Television Stations (and NBC affiliates) are coming off of the Olympics, while CBS in 2024 had the Super Bowl and major sports, including the NFL.
“2025 will have its challenges. No one will be surprised about the national spot declines we’ve seen over the last couple of years,” said Andy Alford, president, broadcast at Nexstar. “But we’ve also seen double-digit growth from our digital products, including our websites and streaming apps. There is plenty of opportunity in 2025.”
“When we look at the state of the business, obviously declines are happening,” said Jennifer Mitchell, president, stations and digital for CBS News and Stations. “But we continue to make investments in our strategic priorities and initiatives, investing in people,