FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This report includes or incorporates forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange
Act), and the
COVID-19 risks • Requirement of our RSNs to pay professional sports team minimum rights fees, regardless of the number of games played in a season; • potential need to reimburse vMVPD and MVPD affiliation fees related to canceled professional sporting events; • loss of advertising revenue due to postponement or cancellation of professional sporting events; • loss of advertising revenue as advertisers may be more reluctant to purchase advertising spots due to reduced consumer spending as a result of shelter in place and stay at home orders; and • cybersecurity and operational risks as a result of work-from-home arrangements. General risks
• The impact of changes in national and regional economies and credit and
capital markets;
• loss of consumer confidence;
• the potential impact of changes in tax law;
• the activities of our competitors;
• terrorist acts of violence or war and other geopolitical events;
• natural disasters and pandemics that impact our advertisers, our stations and networks; and • cybersecurity breaches. Industry risks • The business conditions of our advertisers, particularly in the political, automotive and service categories; • competition with other broadcast television stations, radio stations, multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs), internet and broadband content providers, and other print and media outlets serving in the same markets; • the performance of networks and syndicators that provide us with programming content, as well as the performance of internally originated programming; • the loss of appeal of our sports programming, which may be unpredictable, the impact of strikes caused by collective bargaining between players and sports leagues, and increased programming costs may have a material negative effect on our business and our results of operations; • the availability and cost of programming from networks and syndicators, as well as the cost of internally originated programming; • our relationships with networks and their strategies to distribute their programming via means other than their local television affiliates, such as over-the-top (OTT) or direct-to-consumer content; • the effects of theFederal Communications Commission's (FCC ) National Broadband Plan, the impact of the repacking of our broadcasting spectrum, as a result of the incentive auction, within a limited timeframe and funding allocated; • the potential for additional governmental regulation of broadcasting or changes in those regulations and court actions interpreting those regulations, including ownership regulations limiting over-the-air television's ability to compete effectively (including regulations relating to Joint Sales Agreements (JSA), Shared Services Agreements (SSA), cross ownership rules, and the national ownership cap), arbitrary enforcement of indecency regulations, retransmission consent regulations, and political or other advertising restrictions, such as payola rules; • the impact ofFCC and Congressional efforts which may restrict a television station's retransmission consent negotiations; • the impact ofFCC rules requiring broadcast stations to publish, among other information, political advertising rates online;
• the impact of foreign government rules related to digital and online assets;
• labor disputes and legislation and other union activity associated with film, acting, writing, and other guilds and professional sports leagues; 38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
• the broadcasting community's ability to develop and adopt a viable mobile digital broadcast television (mobile DTV) strategy and platform, such as the adoption of a next generation broadcast standard (NEXTGEN TV), and the consumer's appetite for mobile television; • the impact of programming payments charged by networks pursuant to their affiliation agreements with broadcasters requiring compensation for network programming; • the potential impact from the elimination of rules prohibiting mergers of the four major television networks; • the effects of declining live/appointment viewership as reported through rating systems and local television efforts to adopt and receive credit for same day viewing plus viewing on-demand thereafter; • changes in television rating measurement methodologies that could negatively impact audience results; • the ability of local MVPDs to coordinate and determine local advertising rates as a consortium; • the ability to negotiate terms at least as favorable as those in existence with MVPDs and others; • changes in the makeup of the population in the areas where stations are located; • the operation of low power devices in the broadcast spectrum, which could interfere with our broadcast signals;
• OTT technologies and their potential impact on cord-cutting;
• the impact of MVPDs, virtual MVPDs (vMVPDs), and OTTs offering "skinny" programming bundles that may not include television broadcast stations, regional sports networks, or other programming that we distribute; • the effect of a potential decline in the number of subscribers to MVPD services;
• fluctuations in advertising rates and availability of inventory;
• the ability of others to retransmit our signal without our consent; and
• the ability to renew media rights agreements with various professional
sports teams which have varying durations and terms that are at least as favorable as those in existence.
Risks specific to us
• The effectiveness of our management;
• our ability to attract and maintain local, national, and network advertising and successfully participate in new sales channels such as programmatic and addressable advertising through business partnership ventures and the development of technology; • our ability to service our debt obligations and operate our business under restrictions contained in our financing agreements; • our ability to successfully implement and monetize our own content management system (CMS) designed to provide our viewers significantly improved content via the internet and other digital platforms; • our ability to successfully renegotiate retransmission consent and distribution agreements for our existing and acquired businesses; • the ability of stations which we consolidate, but do not negotiate on their behalf, to successfully renegotiate retransmission consent and affiliation fees (cable network fees) agreements;
• our ability to secure distribution of our programming to a wide audience;
• our ability to renew our
• our ability to obtainFCC approval for any future acquisitions, as well as, in certain cases, customary antitrust clearance for any future acquisitions; • our exposure to any wrongdoing by those outside the Company, but which could affect our business or pending acquisitions; • our ability to identify media business investment opportunities and to successfully integrate any acquired businesses, as well as the success of our new content and distribution initiatives in a competitive environment, including CHARGE!, TBD, Comet, STIRR, Marquee, other original programming, mobile DTV, and our recent acquisition of and investments in the RSNs; • our ability to maintain our affiliation and programming service agreements with our networks and program service providers and at renewal, to successfully negotiate these agreements with favorable terms; • our joint venture arrangements related to our regional sports networks are subject to a number of operational risks that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition;
• our ability to generate synergies and leverage new revenue opportunities;
• our ability to renew contracts with leagues and sports teams;
• our ability to effectively respond to technology affecting our industry and to increasing competition from other media providers;
• our ability to deploy NEXTGEN TV nationwide;
• the strength of ratings for our local news broadcasts including our news sharing arrangements; and
• the results of prior year tax audits by taxing authorities.
39
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
Other matters set forth in this report, including the Risk Factors set forth in
Item 1A of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended
The following table sets forth certain operating data for the periods presented:
© Edgar Online, source