Beasley: Standard/Tegna Gave Broadcasting 'Black Eye'
Broadcasting has “a black eye on Wall Street” after the FCC blocked the private equity-backed Standard/Tegna deal, said Beasley Media CEO Caroline Beasley at a Media Institute lunch Thursday. Beasley said the FCC should relax local ownership caps on radio to preserve local broadcasting: “We need interest from private equity, we need investment in our space.”
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“From an outsider’s perspective looking in,” the Standard/Tegna deal should have been approved, Beasley said. “I’m sure there are a lot of things the FCC looked at that I’m not aware of,” she said, but she thought a transaction involving a minority-owned company overseen by a female CEO would be approved. Banks told her the deal’s failure will discourage further investment from private equity in broadcasting, she said. “Broadcasting had challenges beforehand with investment,” but now they're worse, Beasley said.
FCC action on local ownership subcaps could reignite interest in investing in radio, Beasley said. Beasley endorsed the NAB subcap proposal, which would allow common ownership of up to eight FMs and unlimited AMs in the top 75 markets, and remove ownership limits in the remaining markets. Allowing that sort of consolidation in radio wouldn’t lead to broadcasting becoming less local, she said: “We are broadcasters and we focus on our local communities.” Though Beasley owns 14 AM stations, rule changes to relax subcaps only for AM radio stations wouldn’t be enough to spur investment in radio, she said in an interview. Beasley said she hopes the FCC will act on the 2018 quadrennial review and subcaps once the agency has five commissioners. "Let's hope they do review these ownership caps" she said. The local ownership rules haven't been addressed since "The Macarena" was a trendy dance, Beasley said.
The radio industry is “challenged on the audience side” by satellite and streaming and “on the revenue side” by digital advertising “taking more and more of traditional advertising away.” Beasley sought to diversify its revenue with forays into digital media and esports, and an increasing number of listeners get their content from Beasley’s radio stations via app, she said.
Beasley has an AI task force and is looking at multiple use cases for the technology, she said. The broadcaster is using AI to create video commercials for advertisers, and is considering limited use of AI disc jockeys, she said. AI DJs shouldn’t replace human workers but could be used overnight when many stations don’t have a DJ, she said.