A new presidential administration could provide a boost to the...
A new presidential administration could provide a boost to the U.S. economy, Gray TV President Bob Prather said Friday on the company’s quarterly earnings call. “If there’s a change in administration, there’s going to be a feeling of optimism here…
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again,” he said. “I think that’s always there when a new president comes in,” he said. “You saw it when Obama came in and I think there will be again if there’s a change,” he said. That could provide a short-term boost for the economy, which could then help local ad sales, he said. Most of the markets where Gray operates haven’t suffered as much as the overall economy since 2008 because they didn’t experience as much of a boom before then, Prather said. The housing market was “extremely hot” prior to 2008 in Reno, Nev., and Colorado Springs, two of Gray’s “toughest” markets, he said. Otherwise, “most of our markets have outperformed the economy in general,” he said. Aereo and services like it don’t pose a big threat to Gray TV, which owns stations in smaller markets, Prather said. Aereo investor Barry Diller “is a big market guy, and I would think it would be a long, long time before he got past the top 25 markets,” he said. For one, it is probably expensive to install the equipment necessary to offer the online video service, which relies on having individual antennas and DVRs for each subscriber who uses it, he said. Second, there may be efforts to get Congress to change Aereo’s legality, he said. However, that’s probably not the best path, he said. “I'm a big believer that it’s hard to fight technology. If there’s a superior technology out there, it’s hard to keep it underground.” Q2 sales at Gray increased 24 percent from a year earlier to $94.7 million. Political ad sales jumped 467 percent from a year earlier to $13.1 million while retransmission consent revenue increased 64 percent to $8.3 million, it said. Profit increased sharply to $9.8 million from $771,000 a year earlier.