Chief executives from some of the television industry’s top broadcast station groups participated in a panel today at the NAB Show New York.
The conversation dipped into on the future of subscription, advertising and revenue streams on the local level, the impact of live sports as well as how station groups are beefing up its regional programming efforts and local news.
Fox Television Stations ceo Jack Abernethy, who is also being honored with TVNewsCheck’s 2018 Station Group of the Year Award later today, was asked for his thought about “New Fox” and the greater emphasis that’s being put on broadcasting, live sports and news, post-Disney agreement.
“The basis of it is that live viewing is still the best opportunity for advertisers, people watch the commercials,” said Abernethy, formerly a Fox News co-president. “It creates an opportunity for broader distribution, and it’s, in many cases, with news it’s cost control free, and those ratings have held up pretty well recently, as some of the entertainment properties have dropped.”
Abernethy said that he expects that to be really important going forward.
The Fox Stations chief then recalled a story he recently had told someone who asked what “New Fox” really meant?
Again, it’s that “live” and the ” event” aspect.
“Two Thursdays ago, we had Thursday Night Football, which was around the same time as the contentious [Justice] Brett Kavanaugh hearings…on those two channels, Fox Broadcast and Fox News, we had 70 percent share of live viewing on television, and who knows what we got online,” said Abernethy. “So that’s what we’re about.”