MDP
#Sure, <UNK>, I think we've said this pretty publicly.
About 30% of the TV revenue is now from ---+ by that we're including the acquisitions we did from Gannett in St.
Louis and Phoenix, as well as Springfield and Mobile.
So, about a 30% lift in TV ad revenue.
Just a second correct.
We go to a different place in the data.
As <UNK> mentioned, we are actually seeing national strengthening.
As we mentioned in Q3, we were down about 1%, in total, local was down and national was up.
Local down single digits.
National up single digits.
In the fourth quarter, we are seeing a similar trend, I think as a Steve mentioned.
We expect fourth quarter to come in flat to up slightly or down slightly, it's a little early to tell.
Right now local is pacing down 1%.
National is pacing up 2%.
Similar trend, maybe a little bit closer to flat in the fourth quarter, right now, versus the third quarter, we are a little bit more spread between local and national.
<UNK>, do you want speak to what you feel about auto in the marketplace.
I think particularly on the local side what we experienced in the last quarter, particularly in many of our markets who experienced some bad weather, we were just seeing, not that budgets were cut, but they just stopped completely.
In those East Coast markets and markets where they had a lot of bad weather, we saw the automotive business drop off pretty dramatically.
We are starting to see that come back now into this quarter as the weather has gotten better.
But, yes, I don't think there's any question that there is a shift to some digital spending.
In our cases, though, we're very actively trying to save those dollars and move them into some of our digital products.
So, traditional core television viewing or television advertising for automotive is moderating, or it's down just a little bit, but then we're certainly increasing our digital presence with our automotive advertisers.
And it is a lot stronger, <UNK>, in the digital pacings in Q4 than in Q3.
So, there may just be a bit ---+ it's always so hard to tell in the early goings of a calendar year, we may have a bit of shifting between the quarters as we get a little further out here.
There's not really anything on the table at the moment with Time, Inc.
I want to be very clear about that.
But absolutely, <UNK>, we would be very open-minded to a larger transaction.
Now, you have followed us a long period of time, you know that we took a number of runs at the Gruner & Jahr properties and finally brought those on board.
And at that time, we actually doubled the size of that business.
The challenge is, there is not a lot of scale players, and it always takes an agreeable buyer and an agreeable seller.
So, we are the agreeable buyer, but there haven't been those kinds of scale opportunities available in the marketplace.
We continue to be active.
We continue to be in dialogues, and I would say dialogues that are very broad ranging as long as we can deliver shareholder value.
So, the arrangements with Martha is a little bit unusual, but I think if you follow Martha and you follow Meredith, it's been good for both, and so we are in all kinds of discussions.
We would love to do a scale transaction.
But, there's not a whole lot of them in the marketplace.
The vast majority of that, <UNK>, is the CW station in Phoenix.
You may remember we tried ---+ we did acquire KTVK, the independent, and we were trying to acquire KASW, which was the CW.
That was right around the time where the FCC came out and tightened, clamped down on ownership rules, and so we were forced to sell it.
We luckily and felt very good about finding a buyer with Nexstar, and I wouldn't say all, but it's for sure the bulk of those proceeds.
Thanks, <UNK>.
Hi, <UNK>.
I would say couple of things in that regard.
You're very spot on with what is going on in the marketplace.
And, we really look at that video content in all sincerity very similar to we would look at other digital print or television content.
Can we find a scale opportunity that we think we can monetize against our female audience.
And, we have a monthly meeting, a monthly strategy meeting, and actually had a couple players in, in the last couple of months that we are considering.
At the same time, we are aggressively ramping up the content that we create, and it is a high-class problem that we continue to be fully monetized on that video content.
So that is where a lot of our resources are focused at this point.
We think Kim will be able to help us in that regard.
But, <UNK>, we would also be very interested in a bolt-on acquisition that would accelerate that trend.
Because, at the moment, we are able to monetize all of the audience, and as you know, better CPMs than some of our other digital traffic.
Well, first of all, most of our sites are in responsive design, so we don't have that Google issue right at the moment today.
But I will tell you, as you are, I'm sure, clearly aware, that we have an aggressive effort on keeping a close watch on how Google continues to adjust those algorithms, because that's clearly an important part of the traffic generation.
So, I think that's the answer to the first piece of your question, which is a good one.
And then, again, with the acquisition of Selectable Media, that also allows for a much, much more aggressive move into native, which is clearly an important part of what is going on in the marketplace.
And, that's all about the ongoing transition of moving from larger run of network opportunities at much lower CPMs, to much more targeted advertising in a better context that we can get a higher CPM for.
And, that's really why we did that acquisition, that was really more of a technology play than it really was a traffic play.
Thank you.
I'll start, and then certainly ask <UNK> and <UNK> to comment here.
On the advertising question you had, really, it's at all levels.
And the sophistication varies a lot from dealer to dealer.
But, the most important and most powerful part of the local television brand, and that is really a combination of what happens over the air and what happens digitally, is that it continues to be, without a doubt, the most successful mechanism that is used by the auto industry to cause the consumer to come into the showroom.
And, the consumers are ---+ the dealers, rather, that we work with have a very sophisticated conversion mechanism.
If they have a consumer in the showroom, they know how many cars that they're going to sell on a Saturday.
That's been the beauty in recent years of television, especially with weakness that has been experienced in the newspaper marketplace in most of the markets across the country.
Then, when you talk about the scale question, from a high level, scale, in fact, does matter, without a doubt, on the revenue side of the transaction.
And, we do see that, as we get into different acquisitions and acquisition opportunities, where there can be a variation in revenue depending upon how much clout you have with the provider.
That's an important reason that, in fact, there's been a lot of consolidation in the marketplace.
And, <UNK>, whatever you'd like to add to that conversation on retrans revenue, based on your dealings in the marketplace, but scale matters on that side of the equation for sure.
There is no question that scale does matter.
However, having said that, I think where we are with our portfolio, we are a significant enough player that we're still going to be able to make the deals we need to make and get done what we need to get done.
And it speaks to really the quality of our stations as well.
There is no question scale matters, but it's also incredibly important to make sure that you have a strong portfolio station, so that in each individual markets, you represent a very strong presence in a station that the cable operator feels that they have to have.
Does that help.
I did not, but I think we do have that somewhere.
<UNK>, hold on for just a minute and <UNK> will dig that up.
Going on a comparable basis, which is what you are interested in, it was down about 7% to 8%.
So, kind of high single digits, <UNK>.
Exactly, pacing better in the fourth quarter, but still has brackets around it.
First of all, Shape has no impact on that, and Shape is actually, I don't want to be confusing to anyone, Shape has not gotten off to a slower start than we anticipated at all.
And, by the way, we really only got one issue that we have closed at this point in time, so really doesn't have anything to do with Shape, <UNK>.
We try to do our best and we feel that the total year is really coming in more or less where we thought, and interestingly enough, pretty much where the Street thought.
We had a stronger Q3 than we had anticipated, and we just basically adjusted the range to where we thought Q4 was going to be.
But I don't think we feel like there's been any major shift in the marketplace compared with what we would have said when we started the year.
It's always a little tough to figure out where it's going to be, and probably the only thing that I would say is that as the quarter, the third fiscal quarter for us moved forward, television probably ended up being a little weaker than we might have anticipated.
And then, as we go now into the fourth quarter, I would say that print is maybe weaker than we would have thought when we were at the beginning of the calendar year.
Because, the first quarter of the calendar year, or our third quarter, in print, was so much better than it was a year ago.
But, it kind of looks like the fourth quarter is going to look sort of like a year ago, but again, we've got kind of 1.5 set of issues closed, so that is probably ---+ TV a little weaker in Q3, print a little weaker in Q4.
But, on balance, when we get to the bottom line, not too far off from where we thought.
I guess the only thing I would say, I think across the industry, and <UNK> can certainly comment on that, I think there is a tremendous amount of integration work going on.
There were a lot of really big deals of that were done over the last 12 months.
And a lot of work going on there to bring all of that together.
It feels to me maybe like a bit of a little quiet before the next big storm, while that gets assimilated.
And I continue to believe, and I would really say this, <UNK>, across the entire enterprise, that there will continue to be significant consolidation.
And obviously, we have been and continue to be very aggressive in the marketplace to make sure that we have the opportunity to play when those things make themselves available.
It is pretty quiet night right now, but it might be quiet before the next big round, in my sense.
<UNK>, I don't know if you want to add anything to that.
Yes, I think the only other thing I would add would be that as people look ahead to the potential of a spectrum auction in either the first quarter or perhaps second quarter of 2016, I think people are trying to weigh how important that could be or what role that might play.
And I think, as we get past the auction, I think you will see the flood gates open, relative to deal flow.
<UNK>, do you want to start on TV, and then, <UNK>, I'm going to ask you to comment on the digital side of our national business, where clearly, that's a factor at play.
But, <UNK>, have you seen any programmatic coming forward at this point.
Yes, and the way we're approaching it, we have taken the position that we think it's going to be a part of our future.
We do think, though, that it is important to limit and to restrict the day parts that are going to be put into a programmatic pool so that the inventory that we'll make available, perhaps, would be daytime, late-night, weekends.
And then, we will still keep our premium inventory: local news, primetime, sports, that will be separate.
We really don't want to negotiate that in a programmatic fashion.
But, we do think there's a lot of inventory in each of our stations that would probably benefit from being part of a programmatic mix.
On the national media group side, we're obviously participating now, this fiscal year, in the programmatic marketplace in our digital space, and it's working out very well for us.
We see it as an opportunity to leverage some lower performing revenue inventory and actually increase our yield.
So, we've added it some resources from selling resources, and we think it's going to be a growth area for us in the next couple of years.
Correct, yes.
You know, <UNK>, we'll have to dig that out.
We have all of that data for advertising, but we really don't ---+ I guess <UNK> thinks he does have it.
<UNK>, when you look at the year over year, we are basically flat.
For the most part, it was LHJ going out, Martha coming in.
The organic was down about 3%, largely newsstand.
You are probably hearing about newsstand continuing to be soft.
On the subscription side, it was flat to just down a hair.
Flat overall.
Overall flat.
Down 3% was newsstand.
Thank you.
Thank you, all, for participating today.
We certainly appreciate the questions, the interest and the input.
And, as always, <UNK> and I remain available for the balance of the day.
If anybody has any follow-on questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Thank you very much.
