TGNA
#Sure.
We are in close conversations with all of our channel partners and we've spent more time with the partners that have had the worst performance year over year because we're seeing many markets improve their performance year over year.
So we're working from the bottom up, and in those discussions we identified several territories where they just didn't have the sales pressure that we felt that we could provide in the market and they agreed to relinquish those territories to us.
It wasn't a full-on takeover of an entire channel partner but rather them relinquishing a handful of markets and territories.
And we're going to continue, <UNK>, to keep the pressure on our affiliate partners, and if they are unable to generate the results we're having active discussions about us stepping in and taking over.
Yes, <UNK> just to add to what <UNK> is saying.
We are looking at all the alternatives.
As <UNK> has indicated, to the extent that the affiliate performance, particularly in a one affiliate or two affiliates worsens, then obviously we're going to be talking to them before they get to that point where we are going to take away the market and see if there's some logical conclusion we can come to that one, benefits them but two, benefits us and gets us control of those markets.
There's a number of things going on that we really can't comment on specifically.
Rest assured that we are not sitting by and not taking actions in a variety of different ways.
I would say that all the channel partners have expressed an intent to grow this year, and given us plans that show how they are going to attain it.
We're backing their plans, and in the event that they are failing to achieve them, that's when we are immediately engaging with them.
I think the good news is over 2015 and 2016, we've got far more channel partners more engaged this year than we have had in the past as they see the growth opportunity in front of them.
I think this is the year where we are going to be having those more creative conversations because if this year you don't see that kind of improvement, in 2019 and 2020 which is when they come up, then the results will be inevitable.
Yes, we're relatively stable.
We've just saw very mild declines consistent with other quarters that's really specific to one provider, so we're feeling ---+ .
M&A activity.
Yes, and due to some M&A activity in the sector.
We continue to see them being relatively stable.
And one thing I'd call out, when you see public reports, individual cable networks are seeing some significant gaps but that's different than what's happening with the overall MVPD subs.
And as I mentioned [going forward] too, OTT is over time going to become replacement and possibly even additive.
Yes, I think, again, what we would say <UNK>, is that it's incredibly early in the year.
As <UNK> said, the year I think almost universally across the broadcast group, you've heard folks talking about the fact that the year got off to a much slower start than anticipated.
In part we all should have gone back and looked at what happened after Presidential election years, and would have seen that there's not ---+ there's some pattern to that.
This year's going to be an interesting year because when you think about some of the actions that could happen around the economy this year around taxes, around other things, this year could go in a variety of different ways.
If you saw tax relief for the middle class actually happening this year, et cetera, that could be a positive.
So it's really ---+ you've got to ---+ this is one of those unusual years where there's a lot of things at play, and we're just going to have to see how it all unfolds during the course of the year.
No, initiatives have nothing to do retrans.
<UNK>, it's just that the actual gap between what we pay our networks, right, that we were going to have this year with retrans because of the NBC hit, that's the gap.
And it went down simply because of the retrans revenue growth.
Yes, I think that's a good way to think about it.
I think that we're on track to do that.
What buckets the revenue will come in will probably change a little bit through the course of the year as more of it will move to digital.
But probably about a half of that is in core and maybe about a third in core in digital and other all-in for the year.
But the mix will change and it will be at a margin consistent with the rest of our business.
No, we didn't talk about it because frankly we see that literally as a product.
We had already at Cars unmasked some number of reviews.
It was a business that we wanted to get into.
We basically bought them and got access to 3 million reviews.
Then what we did, is we have a salesforce which they did not have.
We're bringing the salesforce to bear, and that's something that will ramp up during the course of 2017.
The contribution is modest, but really it's a product extension, as we see it, rather than an M&A activity.
Thank you, <UNK>.
For the fourth quarter, core excluding the four days was down high-single digits.
As far as categories go, auto was strong, it came back in March, after the crowd-out in November.
On the flip side of that, media and telecom down a little bit.
First of all, I don't have the media allocation numbers in front of me but manufactures have been aggressively shifting their dollars towards digital over the past few years, and importantly with a flattening new car sales year, or SAR, predicted for 2017, I think you're seeing manufactures increase their focus on in-market sites, where they can capture incrementally.
Retention marketing is probably the biggest term we're hearing in 2017 from manufactures as they really seek to hold onto their existing sales and try to take share from their competitors.
Platforms like ours are highly captive, 86% of our audience intends to buy a car within a very narrow window, so manufactures can really use that consumer indifference to there advantage.
So, we continue to see manufactures, as I mentioned.
If you back out the two accounts that had an agency changeover and a switch in their buying process, our manufacture spending would have been up in double-digit growth.
We see those two manufactures have already started to re-engage in their first-quarter spending, so we expect that process to work its way out.
I think on your next question was about new and used trends.
While new is projected to be flat to down for 2017, the used car market is extremely strong and healthy and growing.
And about 75% of our total site traffic comes in looking for a used car.
While we see our users vacillate back and forth between new and used, we've got a massive database of used vehicles in our database, over ---+ nearly almost 2 million used car listings in our database.
So, we're seeing strong growth in the used car market for 2017.
And then the last question, I want to make sure I understand it.
Your question was about service usage on devices.
Sure.
First of all, at a macro level we know intent to buy increases as people move to mobile devices.
Our overall business has a six-month purchase horizon for buying a car.
If you isolate purchase intent just to mobile devices, the purchase horizon shortens to nearly 90 days.
We think, as manufactures and dealers come to realize that mobile is the last word in deciding what and where to buy, they are going to start increasing their investment in mobile, much like they first started increasing their investment in digital several years back.
So there's a learning curve there for the auto industry on how they can use mobile.
There's obviously less room for display advertising and they have to think a little bit more creatively about how they market on mobile devices.
But in 2017 mobile now accounts for over half of our total site traffic, and we don't ever see a day coming back where the balance will shift back the other way.
It's only going to grow in importance in 2017 and beyond.
Marketers, we think, if you follow the narratives in all industries, are viewing mobile as the next battlefield for their marketing dollars.
Well, we are seeing an increase in usage in our mobile devices on dealership lots.
So yes, pricing validation, selection validation, a lot of our mobile usage is happening on dealer lots.
I'd be happy to follow-up with you offline and get you some more detailed statistics on usage patterns.
We've got time for just one more quick question.
Let me take ---+ so on the partnership question first <UNK>, let me say that we do plan to do business in the programming space with lots of folks.
MGM is a good partner but we don't intend to be exclusive, as nor do they.
I think you'll see us partnering with other station groups as well.
From a timing standpoint, I've been talking more about your first question about the nature of the show.
What's going to be unique about it is, it is going to be live.
So if you've got a time slot at 3:00 Eastern or you've got a time slot at 9:00 AM Pacific time, you're on the West Coast, we will, based on the demand from stations, we will be producing multiple half-hour increments so that people will have live on the air.
We think the data shows that live is becoming increasingly important in linear viewing.
We say online, it's also what can be an OTT product, social and digital will drive the content.
Because it's live, we're not constrained by non-topicality of things being four or five hours old or having to be produced a day in advance and pumped out by satellite in the morning.
Trending items, I say like the Oscars last night and how people are responding to that thing, will be embedded into the content of the show in real time.
And we will be ---+ in turn, the producers of the show will be doing content to engage with the viewers on their own mobile devices while they are watching the show.
Yes, on your accounting question, <UNK>, it's still a little early on Bold.
We're going to have to see who gets added to the mix, et cetera, to see whether it will be more on the equity side, operating/non operating, equity, investment.
We'll keep you posted on that as we get ---+ we're really in the nascent stages of it.
We introduced it, we now are looking at other opportunities.
And as soon as we've got that all figured out, we will share with you what the appropriate treatment will be.
<UNK>, not specifically.
I think that ATSC will provide the opportunity for one-to-one broadcasting and advertising and will be IP compatible with other wireless services.
So there's a number of direct businesses that could come out of it.
But the time horizon, we're launching bold here in the fall and the business opportunities with 3.0 are a few years away.
It's not to say there won't be pretty potentially innovative interactions between the technology and content, but no it's not ---+ Bold itself is not set up as a 3.0 initiative.
Thanks, <UNK>, for your questions.
We really appreciate your joining us this morning.
We are very sensitive to your time, so if you have any further questions you can reach out to <UNK> <UNK> at 703-873-6917.
Have a fantastic day.
Thanks.
