TV Station Groups Witness Stock Dip, Blame Lower Political Spend

TV station groups witnessed notable stock-price declines on Thursday -- including Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar Broadcasting, Tegna, and Gray Television -- partly due to continued political advertising concerns.

Mid-day Thursday stock market trading of Sinclair Broadcast Group was down near 3.2% to $26.21; Nexstar Broadcasting was down 2.6% to $54.37; Gray Television slipping 1.5% to $9.62; Tegna was off 1.7% to $19.97. Tribune Media was spared some from the sector decline -- losing 0.6% to $34.09.

By way of comparison, major stock market Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 were down around 0.20%.

Recent estimates suggest there will be less political advertising revenue going to local TV stations for this presidential election -- largely due to lower spending from Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Kantar Media/CMAG now says TV stations will get $2.8 billion for political advertising -- down 15% or $500 million -- from its $3.3 billion estimate made in July 2015.

A report from Politico on Thursday said the Republican National Committee has spent zero dollars when it comes to TV commercials supporting Donald Trump.

All this comes as TV station groups in a few weeks will be reporting third-quarter financial results starting in the first few weeks in November -- right around election day.

1 comment about "TV Station Groups Witness Stock Dip, Blame Lower Political Spend".
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  1. Robert Barrows from R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising & Public Relations, October 14, 2016 at 12:30 p.m.

    Yet, almost every ad I see on local TV stations in the San Francisco Bay Area is a political ad for a variety of ballot propositions. What is political advertising like in your market?

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