Station group Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., has reached a deal with Local Solutions Network Mobile (LSN Mobile), an Altanta-based mobile media and marketing company, to bring news video and other content from its 33 local community Web portals to mobile users through LSN Mobile's Local Wireless media-to-mobile platform.
LSN Mobile, which already counts groups like Raycom and Telemundo as customers, provides technology to deliver local news content to a variety of cellphones as well as handling mobile display ads and text-messaging-based marketing campaigns. Irving, Tex.-based Nexstar, which operates 63 stations, will use LSN Mobile's platform to deliver its portal content to Web-enabled mobile handsets and to deliver video clips to video-enabled mobile phones, either within a news story or through a video menu. Nexstar will offer local wireless "apps" for the iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and other smartphones as well as SMS/Text messaging delivering geo-targeted mobile alerts for breaking news, weather and sports scores.
Nexstar says that its "e-MEDIA" community web portal strategy has enjoyed steady growth since its 2007 launch; in the first nine months of 2009, the group's e-MEDIA revenue rose by approximately 13% over the comparable 2008 period. Research firm Borrell Associates estimates Nexstar grew its overall online revenues 15% in 2009.
"Since 2007 we've extended Nexstar's record for pioneering industry innovation through our differentiated e-MEDIA strategies which are driving double-digit new media revenue growth," said Nexstar SVP Marc Montoya in a statement. "Our new mobile offerings align Nexstar with the tremendous growth of smart phone users which will allow us to further increase brand loyalty and grow additional revenue streams, including national and local advertising."
"Nexstar Broadcasting is an industry leader and their selection of LSN Mobile is a great endorsement of our capabilities for launching mobile applications," added Lee Durham, founder and CEO of LSN Mobile, in a statement. "LSN Mobile is experiencing first hand the growth of mobile, and in 2009 we had more than 1.2 billion page views, or about 61% more than 2008. Our affiliates are reporting similar growth. We are confident that Nexstar will greatly benefit as they launch their latest platform for advertisers to reach targeted audiences."
