Sales 2023: US$4.933 billion (€4.562 billion)

Overview

The Nexstar Media Group, a leading diversified media companyWith over 200 TV stations in 40 states, it is the largest operator of television stations in the United States, producing and distributing local/national news, sports, and entertainment programming, broadcasting more than 310,000 hours per year. It also owns The CW Network (75%), NewsNation, The Hill, Antenna TV, REWIND TV, and a 33 percent stake in the TV Food Network.

General Information

Headquarters
545 E John Carpenter Freeway
Suite 700
Irving, TX 75062
USA
Telephone 001 972 3738800
Website: http://www.nexstar.tv/investor-relations

Branches of trade:: Television, Pay TV, Radio
legal form: stock corporation
Fiscal yearr: 1.1.-31.12.
founding year: 1996

Basic economic data (in million US$1,000,000)

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
Revenue	4.933	5.211	4.648	4.501	3.039	2.787	2.432
Profit	270	943,5	830	808	230	389	475
Stock price (year end)	160,12	175,03	150,98	109,19	116,51	79,95	78,20
Employees	13.294	12.971	12.473	12.412	16.193	8.959	9.113

Executives and Directors

Management:

• Perry A. Sook, Chairman and CEO
• Tom Carter, President, COO & CFO
• Andy Alford, President, Broadcasting
• Karen Brophy, President, Digital
• Sean Compton, President, Networks
• Brett Jenkins, EVP/Chief Technology Officer
• Blake Russell, EVP, Station Operations
• Elizabeth Ryder, EVP/General Counsel & Secretary
• Gary Weitman, EVP/Chief Communications Officer
• Dana Zimmer, EVP/Chief Distribution & Strategy Officer

Board of Directors:

• Perry A. Sook, Nexstar
• Geoff Armstrong, 310 Partners
• Bernadette Aulestia, HBO
• Dennis J. Fitzsimons, Robert. R. McCormick Foundation
• Jay M. Grossman, ABRY Partners
• Thomas McMillen, LEAD1 Association
• Lisbeth Mcnabb, Linux Foundation
• Dennis Miller
• John R. Muse
• I. Martin Pompadour

History

The Nexstar Media Group has its origins in the regional station WYOU, which broadcast from the small US town of Scranton. In 1996, Perry Sook bought the station from Pennsylvania's fifth-largest city and gradually built a TV empire through acquisitions. In doing so, it skillfully circumvented the media concentration rules that still prohibit companies from operating too many stations in the same regional market. For example, it bought another regional station, WRBE, in the neighboring city of Wilkes-Barre and immediately sold it again, only to use a so-called shared service agreement to continue to control the entire production of WRBE's programs and thus de facto the station.

Through the acquisitions of Quorum Broadcasting (2003), Newport Television (2012), Communications Corporation of America, and Grant Broadcasting (both 2013), Nexstar's portfolio grew to more than 100 TV stations. In addition, other stations outsourced their programming management to Nexstar, including the Four Points Media Group. In this context, the first saber-rattling took place in 2011 with what would become Nexstar's biggest competitor, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which snatched all of Nexstar's Four Points stations.

By 2017, with the nearly five billion dollar acquisition of Media General, it became clear to observers that Nexstar was serious about its aggressive expansion. Media General, a traditional media group with daily newspapers and regional broadcasters in its portfolio, was on the verge of being acquired by Meredith Corporation (which later temporarily owned the famous Time magazine). But Nexstar made a better offer and won the deal.

Finally, in 2019, Nexstar cemented its leading position in the TV market by acquiring Tribune Media—after rival Sinclair's seemingly certain takeover of Tribune was blocked at the last minute by the FCC. Nexstar stepped in for a total of $7.1 billion—and took advantage of a regulatory loophole created by the Trump administration that raised the "critical reach" that TV companies were allowed to have from 38 to 63 percent. Thanks to the Tribune purchase, Nexstar was able to double its size overnight.

management

Because he repeatedly clashed with major US cable companies, Perry Sook is now a legend in the US television industry. In 2003, he convinced satellite providers to pay him for the transmission of his channels, which was unusual at the time. After he also pressured cable providers, and Cox Communications in particular, to pay transmission fees, a classic David versus Goliath dispute ensued, from which Sook emerged victorious after ten years. And, as he emphasizes today, he saved the entire US regional TV landscape from collapse. Nexstar and the other broadcast chains now generate billions in revenue by licensing their programs to cable providers.

Sook's most important employee is Sean Compton, who heads Nexstar's arguably ambitious project: the national news channel NewsNation. Despite the editorial team's claim to objectivity, Compton is a close confidant of Donald Trump and Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, who organized a lengthy exclusive interview with the then-president for NewsNation during the 2019 election campaign. However, the interview was perceived as uncritical and led many Nexstar journalists to leave the channel in protest.

Business segments

Nexstar controls or operates 199 TV stations, 120 regional news websites, and 284 news and weather apps. Nexstar also reaches an additional 75 million households with its nationwide NewsNation Network. Formerly known as WGN America, the Chicago-based station airs reruns of series and movies during the day, followed by a five-hour news segment in the evening, for which Nexstar draws on its nationwide network of regional journalists. The only radio station in Nexstar's portfolio is WGN 720, which is available in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Current developments