Retrans Revenues to Peak in 2025, S&P Says

Local TV broadcasters' retransmission revenues will likely peak in 2025 at just shy of $9 billion, followed by slight declines the following five years, S&P said Monday. It said price increases during contract renewals will be relatively moderate and not offset elevated subscriber churn. "It will be increasingly difficult for local TV broadcasters to increase prices given the already high cost of pay-TV, declining TV audiences, weaker broadcast network content, and less exclusive broadcast network content (as the parent companies of the broadcast networks prioritize their owned streaming platforms versus their owned broadcast networks)," the report said. S&P said local broadcasters' retrans revenues should be up 2.8% this year, driven by Nexstar and Sinclair, with gross retransmission revenues for most of the other local TV broadcasters likely flat to down in the low single-digit percentages.