Research — 14 Dec, 2023
Top 50 US TV station groups 2023 update
Highlights
Based on our ranking, The E.W. Scripps Co. retained its top position in terms of total non-UHF discounted Nielsen TV households, including broadband-only, at 88.8 million or 71.1% national coverage.
While the traditional multichannel sub overlap declined year-over-year for the top 50 TV station group owners, the majority witnessed gains in their over-the-air audience, highlighting the continuing trend of consumers canceling higher-priced pay TV packages in favor of over-the-air and/or streaming packages.
In addition, this consumer shift has led to the dismantling of the regional sports TV network business model and created new opportunities for TV station owners to add live sports rights to their channel lineups, including Scripps' local broadcast rights deals with the WNBA and Las Vegas Golden Knights, Gray TV's rights deal with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury and Sinclair's rights deal with the Utah Jazz.
S&P Global Market Intelligence updated the ranking for the top 50 US commercial TV station groups for 2023. This includes MediaCensus' traditional video subscribers and over-the-air household estimates, as of third-quarter 2023, and Nielsen TV households (TVHH) with broadband-only homes for the 2023-24 season.
This updated analysis of the US TV station industry now provides a station owner-level analysis of their traditional multichannel video subscriber overlap and estimated over-the-air reach from MediaCensus. It also includes combined Nielsen TV household reach, including broadband-only, using its market-level TV household estimates. In addition, the top 50 TV station group ranking includes US TV household reach on a UHF discounted basis, which is used to calculate the Federal Communications Commission's 39% national ownership cap.
Our updated ranking of the top 50 US TV station groups includes only full-power commercial TV stations and reflects all pending and completed TV station deals as of Dec. 6, 2023. While the baseline TV household estimates differ between MediaCensus and Nielsen based on the exclusion or inclusion of broadband-only homes, the percentage of total TV households for the station groups is fairly consistent on a UHF-discounted and nondiscounted basis.
Access the top 50 commercial TV station groups and TVHH reach data in Excel format.
Based on our ranking, The E.W. Scripps Co. retained its top position in terms of total non-UHF discounted Nielsen TV households, including broadband-only, at 88.8 million or 71.1% national coverage. When applying the 50% UHF discount, Scripps' total TVHH reach against the 39% FCC national ownership cap was 36.3%. Scripps also had the largest traditional multichannel sub overlap at 39.5 million, or 51.1% household penetration, and reached an estimated 15.8 million over-the-air homes, or 20.4% of total TVHHs, based on MediaCensus third-quarter 2023 estimates.
While the traditional multichannel sub overlap declined year-over-year for the top 50 TV station group owners, the majority witnessed gains in their over-the-air audience, highlighting the continuing trend of consumers canceling higher-priced pay TV packages in favor of over-the-air and/or streaming packages.
In addition, this consumer shift has led to the dismantling of the regional sports TV network business model and created new opportunities for TV station owners to add live sports rights to their channel lineups, including Scripps' local broadcast rights deals with the WNBA and Las Vegas Golden Knights, Gray TV's rights deal with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury and Sinclair's rights deal with the Utah Jazz.
Applying the FCC 50% UHF discount, Nexstar Media Group Inc. was just below the 39% FCC national ownership cap at 38.0%, using Nielsen TV household estimates, including broadband-only, and it ranked second on a non-UHF-discounted national reach basis, at 62.4%. Nexstar also had the second-largest traditional multichannel sub overlap at 32.7 million, or 42.3% household penetration, and reached an estimated 14.7 million over-the-air homes, or 19.0% of total TVHHs, based on MediaCensus third-quarter 2023 estimates.
TelevisaUnivision Inc., TEGNA Inc. and Fox Corp. ranked among our top five, following Scripps and Nexstar, and Comcast Corp., Paramount Global, Gray Television Inc., Sinclair Inc. and Weigel Broadcasting Co. were among our top 10 TV station group owners.
Back on May 22, TEGNA terminated its proposed $24-per-share acquisition by an affiliate of Standard General LP after regulatory delays led to financing commitments expiring. As of Dec. 1, TEGNA has been embroiled in a retrans dispute with DIRECTV Group Holdings LLC that led to a blackout of 68 TEGNA-owned TV stations in 52 markets, impacting approximately 3.1 million DIRECTV video subscribers.
Our top 50 commercial TV station group table counts MediaCensus TV households for the third quarter of 2023 and Nielsen TV households, including broadband-only homes estimates for 2023-2024, in a market only once for each full-power TV station. Duopolies are not double-counted in the total US TV household reach estimates. The table also excludes local marketing agreements and joint sales agreements/shared services agreements/local sales agreements in the station group totals. For our ranking, full-power, spectrum-less TV station licenses with channel-sharing agreements are counted in our TVHH reach estimates since they have must-carry or retrans status for the entire market.