Television stations — the medium’s oldest form of distribution — hardly seem like a sexy acquisition target these days. But the reason TV stations are hot these days, simply put, is they’re still good businesses.
“Local TV still has large audiences,” says James Goss, managing director of Barrington Research and a veteran broadcast analyst. “Even with so much programming chasing [audiences], there’s only so many hours in the day. The strength of local stations that produce local news, weather and sports is that this is the kind of thing that is very personal to people. Even if they have Netflix and Amazon and Hulu, viewers still want their local stations.”
