The Golden Goose

It used to be that TV stations would strive to get good ratings, which its sales department would turn around and sell.

News ratings were everything, and stations would spend money to try and put on the best newscasts in the market.

But then, retransmission became the goose that laid the golden egg. Each time the cable contract would come up, media companies demanded more money to carry their signal.

Now, retransmission is about half of a media company’s overall revenue.

Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall published just how much these media companies rely on retrans.

Cahall published retrans revenue vs. their overall revenue for some of the biggest media companies.

Nexstar Media -- 54%
Sinclair Broadcast Group -- 53%
Fox Television Stations -- 49%
Tegna -- 47%
Gray Television -- 41%

As streaming continues to grow, people will continue to cut the cord, and the media companies will eventually watch as the golden goose dies.

It will be then that these companies will once again invest in TV news and try and make the product better, to bring in higher ratings.

But the bigger question will be, will anyone still be watching news?

Stay tuned…