The CW’s first upfront since being acquired by Nexstar Media Group was “pretty good,” according to Nexstar CEO Perry Sook, who also said the broadcaster was in talks with DirecTV about ending a massive blackout that started in July.
Speaking on Nexstar’s second-quarter earnings call Tuesday, Sook said The CW’s upfront volume was basically flat compared with last year. Unit rates for commercials were up in the mid-single-digit range.
“The absolute dollars are not going to change our style of living,” Sook said, but the upfront was “an important marker for us” because of the reaction to the new programming the CW would be airing under Nexstar.
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Sook added that The CW was adding some dollar volume because of the sports properties coming onto its schedule, including LIV Golf, NASCAR Xfinity Cup racing and ACC college football and basketball.
Nexstar chief financial officer Lee Ann Gliha added that the CW sold a bit less of its inventory in the upfront. That was done in a “calculated way because that will provide us more opportunity in the actress market,” she said. "Hopefully the economy will continue to increase and the national market will come back and that will benefit us on the back end.”
Nexstar is in the process of creating a consolidated sales team, and Sook mentioned that the company was looking to hire a new head of local sales.
Sook also said that Nexstar’s negotiation team has been in Los Angeles since Sunday meeting with DirecTV.
Nexstar’s stations have been blacked out on DirecTV since the beginning of July.
“I'm not going to predict the outcome here,” he said, adding “we fully expect that we'll be able to reach an agreement, as we have historically with every other significant MVPD, both past and future on commercial terms that are acceptable to both parties.”
He noted that Nexstar and DirecTV also had a two-month blackout during the summer of 2019 that ended in late August of that year..
“Four years ago went off the air in July and we were able to reach an agreement by the end of August, which is coincidentally about the time when college and professional football kicks into high gear,” he said.
