Progress Partners: TV Broadcasters and the Long-Term Strategy

Read more about how can Broadcasters navigate this Early Arc of Digital Media

TV Broadcasters, Video, and the Long-Term Strategy

Major M&A deals in broadcast television have grabbed headlines over the last 6-12 months. This is largely due to the outstanding vote set to take place in November on easing FCC regulations on broadcast station group ownership caps currently under review as reported in the Wall Street Journal. In anticipation of this ruling, some of the largest station group owners – who should increasingly be thought of as diversified media companies – have begun to leverage local-regional advertisers with cross-channel and bundled market media solutions. One example is Sinclair Broadcast Group's (NASDAQ:SBGI) acquisition of Bonten Media. In tandem, the contemporaries of broadcast (leading MVPDs) have manifested a will to marry distribution assets with premium content as evidenced through AT&T Inc.'s (NYSE:T) pending acquisition of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) which would allow a leading MSO to leverage premium video assets across its ownership of spectrum bandwidth. PROGRESS PERSPECTIVE: Short term tactics do not always indicate the fullness of a long-term strategy. In the short-term, broadcasters should take advantage of deregulation and benefit from station ownership consolidation, especially when you consider the opportunities of audience data and understanding; multi-market advanced TV offerings are approaching local-regional and expanding into network budgets. As technology accelerates the ability of a content producer and/or distributor to understand audiences, media sales allow for new premiums to be created in the legacy spot market. For both broadcast and cable networks, the ability to reach the shifting consumption habits of new TV audiences will determine capacity for leaders in either category. Namely, IT-based distribution of TV content creates not only a challenge of reaching audiences in aggregate, but also allows for new monetization models and opens the blue ocean opportunity for advanced advertising tactics in this new era. These will be characterized by the ability to sell audiences and bundled media solutions in real-time across all possible media vehicles regardless of end device.

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It's this kind of discourse within the TV ecosystem that we debate at our quarterly Progress Connect dinners and receptions in Boston, New York City, Chicago, and beyond. Senior executives in strategy, finance, content, and data converge at our curated events to continue dialogues started in the boardroom. If you have a unique opinion or perspective on the future of broadcast TV, we'd be interested learning more:

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Progress Partners is a Boston and New York-based M&A advisory firm working with emerging technology companies within media, marketing, advertising sectors, serving SMB through Enterprise. Progress Partners works high growth companies to complete buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions, raise debt or equity capital, as well as, develop and implement strategic growth plans. The firm's high standards of excellence, in-depth industry experience, extensive network, and entrepreneurial background give Progress Partners the ability to build and realize superior value for its clients. Securities offered by Applied Capital, LLC, member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, visit: www.progresspartners.com.

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