Tegna said it agreed to sell a minority interest in Premion, its connected TV and over-the-top advertising business to Gray Television.
Gray will be reselling Premion’s service across its 93 markets, accelerating the advanced advertising business’s growth, the companies said.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Tegna will continue to oversee and control the Premion business.
“Since our launch of Premion in 2016, we’ve quickly scaled the product and business to capitalize on the dramatic shift of audiences to streaming television. The Premion business exceeded $100 million in revenue in 2019, and we expect double-digit growth rates going forward,” said Tegna CEO Dave Lougee. “We’re seeing tremendous growth opportunities in OTT, particularly at the local level. Our partnership with Gray will further accelerate Premion’s already exceptional growth by expanding our local footprint and leveraging Gray’s strong performing stations.”
Premion lets local, regional and national advertisers reach audiences through premium, long-form, live and on-demand video. Premion has direct relationships with more than 125 branded networks including major media networks, virtual MVPDs and OTT aggregators.
“We have been impressed with how Premion has quickly established itself as the premier OTT advertising platform with an unrivaled, trusted brand among advertisers,” explained Pat LaPlatney, Gray’s president and co-CEO. “We are equally excited to invest in Premion, and participate in the high growth OTT business, as well as the ability to resell Premion’s services to local advertisers in our markets.”
Tegna and Gray will each have the right to independently sell Premion in markets where they both operate a local television station. The sale of spot television advertising is not part of this agreement, and Gray and Tegna will continue to sell spot advertising for their respective stations without any involvement from the other party.
