PROVIDENCE – Despite scattered hopeful signs for the economy, LIN TV Corp.’s top executive says he has yet to see evidence of a rebound for the hard-hit broadcast television business.
“I’ve heard some reports of business picking up, but I’m not seeing the lift now,” Vincent Sadusky, LIN TV’s president and CEO, told Broadcasting & Cable, a trade publication. “I just don’t know what there is to point to it.”
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The magazine said Sadusky’s sentiment is shared by many of his fellow local TV executives as the second half of 2009 gets under way. The Television Bureau of Advertising predicts station revenue will be down 10 to 15 percent in the third quarter and flat in the fourth compared with last year – itself a rough year for the TV business.
In May, LIN disclosed in a regulatory filing that it was considering layoffs and other cost-cutting measures to deal with the advertising slump.
David Bank, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told the magazine: “I don’t think we’re looking at recovery in the back half of 2009.” He predicts a double-digit revenue decline in the third quarter and warns the same result is possible in the fourth.
Broadcasting & Cable pointed to some good signs for broadcast stations, including the likelihood of a major marketing campaign by General Motors to trumpet its exit from bankruptcy and the continued growth of digital businesses.
Sadusky also said LIN TV is getting a revenue boost from the higher retransmission fees it began charging cable companies last year to carry its stations on their systems.
If nothing else, Sadusky said, he takes comfort in the knowledge the recession will end someday. “We’re closer to recovery today than we were yesterday,” he told the magazine. “Every day we’re closer to the finish line.”
LIN TV Corp. (NYSE: TVL) owns or operates 27 television stations and Web sites in 17 midsize U.S. markets, including WPRI-TV (CBS 12) and WNAC-TV (Fox 64) in the Providence market. Additional information is available at LINTV.com.
