Women’s Sports TV Ads More Than Double In 2024 – To $244M 

Top brand advertising fell into a similar top category with that of men’s live TV sports programming — automotive ($27.2 million), pharmaceutical ($26.2 million), internet/telecom ($25.6 million), financial services ($24.5 million), insurance ($20.6 million), food/beverage ($20.5 million) and retail ($14.9 million).

Broadcasters Travel Down Different Paths to IP Migration 

Top engineers from the local broadcast world gathered for the TVNewsCheck webinar IP Networking and ROI in 2025, to discuss their stations’ different approaches to the 2110 migration. The consensus was that 2110 technology is definitely ready to handle all of a broadcaster’s routing needs, but that a station’s decision to invest in it is strongly predicated on its finances as well as the age and condition of existing HD-SDI infrastructure.

Ad Growth Forecast Cut Again: Economic Uncertainty

Looking ahead, ad growth is expected to average around 3.5% annually over the next few years, slightly lower than prior estimates. While this isn’t a major downturn, it does mark a slowdown from the faster growth the industry has come to expect.

AAA Indians Partner With Nexstar In Indianapolis

The Indianapolis Indians (the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates) announced that 15 games from Victory Field will be broadcast live to fans across Central Indiana during the 2025 season in partnership with Nexstar Media’s WXIN (Fox59), WTTV (CBS4) and The Dot in Indianapolis.

Broadcast Is TV’s Primary Reach Engine

The 2025 Media Comparisons Study, conducted by GfK/NIQ and commissioned by TVB, confirms that broadcast television remains the most effective medium for reaching registered voters.

FCC OKs Gray’s Purchase Of KXLT Rochester, Minn

The FCC on Tuesday granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acquire KXLT-TV (Fox) in the Rochester, Minn., television market, where Gray already owns KTTC (NBC). Gray said the action “represents the first FCC approval of a new combination of two full-power, top-four ranked, same-market television stations in over five years.

TV Remains Important Part Of Sales Funnel

According to the report, 68% of consumers said TV is the top platform for exposure to advertising, and TV’s influence is felt across all categories, ages, demographics and ethnicities.

Wards Auto: Winning Customers with Targeted Ads 

Broadcast TV remains valuable, particularly through local news programming. According to Locality’s Local Lift report, 43% of viewers view brands advertised during local news more favorably. This trust and credibility make broadcast an essential component of a dealership’s localized advertising approach.

LeGeyt: Local Broadcasters ‘Are Our Competitive Advantage’

Curtis LeGeyt expanded on the organization’s current full-court press to get the FCC to deregulate ownership rules to allow broadcasters to compete with digital platforms more effectively. “We are prioritizing the need to modernize the FCC’s ownership rules, both national and local, to ensure that broadcasters are not continuing to compete with one arm tied behind our backs,” he explained.

If 2025 M&A Media Market Slows, What Alternatives Might Come Next 

The November election was supposed to have ushered in a brave new world of media and entertainment M&A, but so far not so much. Strategy consultants are always looking at some variation of enhancing the “people, process and technology” infrastructure for their clients. Under that all-encompassing rubric, if there isn’t a short-term megadeal to solve all problems, there are still some significant areas of action we can and should expect to see come to the forefront in the months ahead.