John Wallace and Perry Sook Ponder Station Business 2018

Prompted to envision the TV station business ten years out at the TVB conference in New York today, NBC Local Media chief John Wallace and Nexstar boss Perry Sook stressed that the various media platforms of tomorrow must all provide unique value. "For there to be success in 2018, there needs to be equivalent value in the platforms we take on," Wallace told moderator Gordon Borrell. "You can’t half-ass it." 

Much like Wallace tweaking the NBC station group’s name to its current moniker, Sook described the station of the future as a "local advertising services organization that superserves the local market." He spoke of "a TV revenue channel, an online revenue channel, a mobile revenue channel, and a distribution revenue channel" making up four distinct revenue streams.

"That’s the kind of company investors–public or private–will be interested in," said Sook. 

While Google’s Mike Steib was to explain Google’s TV Ads program to the broadcast community two hours later, Sook said the pureplay Internet outfits that are currently eating local TV’s lunch online are ill-suited to compete long-term with local television’s toehold in individual markets. "It’s impossible for Google or Yahoo to match the infrastructure of 100-200 [station] people in the market," he said.