• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 20, 2007

With private equity firms seemingly chomping at the bit to acquire local TV stations, the top executive at station owner Belo Corp. on Tuesday either reaffirmed the company's faith in the business for the long haul or attempted to stoke interest in a sale.

Robert Decherd, Belo Chairman-CEO, said at an industry event its 20 stations "are still significantly undervalued" by the market, even as Belo has experienced a bump in its stock price.

And of course, a company's belief that the public markets unfairly value it can be an impetus to sell or take itself private.

A Belo spokesman said there are no immediate plans to sell as the company believes in the strength of its TV business, but it monitors the industry landscape. That landscape has been rife with sales to private equity operations, including one recently by another Texas-based company, Clear Channel.

Decherd did hint that Belo wasn't moving toward an ownership change and would look toward a climate change, as he said "a rational market will, over time, recognize the value of our television assets."

Decherd said the Belo group--which has the ABC affiliate in Dallas, the country's sixth-largest market and the CBS station in Houston, the 10th-largest--has "the overall best-performing group of television assets by a non-network television operator."

Belo's first-quarter results showed that TV revenues jumped 2.1% to $178.3 million versus a year ago, particularly impressive since last year was an Olympics year and included both federal elections and a Governor's race in Texas--where Belo has stations in the state's four largest markets and a duopoly in San Antonio. Belo brought in nearly $12 million in Olympic and political revenues in first-quarter 2006.

Belo also runs the Dallas Morning News and Providence Journal. Revenue at its newspaper group dropped 11% in Q1.