Borrell: Online Revenue a Drop in the Bucket

Among the interesting tidbits in the Borrell Associates report "Benchmarking TV Web Site Revenues"–and there are a lot of them–is the one showing just how tiny Web revenue is at TV stations. The report says LIN leads the pack with 3.6% of its 2007 revenue coming from online, ahead of well-respected groups such as Gannett (3.5%), Belo (3.4%) and Hearst-Argyle (2.7%). 

Whether that reflects an ineffective Web strategy or vast digital potential, I’m not sure. Perhaps a bit of both. 

"Many GSMs are still struggling with the desire to make the Web a ‘value-added’ perk for their precious broadcast customers," writes Borrell, who reports that Internet sales typically represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue at stations, compared to tens of millions in broadcast biz.