Nexstar Takes Controlling Stake of The CW

Nexstar has a cable news station called News Nation, which almost no one watches.

Now, the company is taking controlling interest in a broadcast network that again, almost no one watches.

Nexstar now controls 75% of The CW.

Nexstar’s CFO admitted what most in the TV world know. The CW is not profitable and never has been.

But Nexstar thinks that they can make it profitable by 2025 by throwing a bunch of money at it.

It is also likely that Nexstar will use it’s stations around the country to air promos for The CW, just as they have been doing for News Nation.

The problem with that is, every promo that they run for News Nation or The CW is a promo that is not airing for that local station.

Nexstar President-COO Tom Carter said that they will run The CW in a way that it has not been run before.

When combined with our synergies, cost-savings and efficiency initiatives, we believe this strategy will create a foundation for new levels of profitability for the network,” Carter said. He then added, “The CW is currently the lowest-rated broadcast network, which we believe largely reflects the fact that its programming is targeted for an 18-34 audience demographic, while the average of The CW broadcast viewer is 58 years. So, over time, we will be taking a different approach to our CW programming strategy and we will leverage our experience in spending approximately $2 billion a year on programming, attracting and monetizing viewers, as well as our experience transitioning NewsNation — our national cable news network — from WGN America, while maintaining a strict focus on cash flow.”

If you’re using News Nation as an example, I think the road to the success of The CW is going to be a very bump one.

Just saying….