TV station revenue in 2006 was $22.5 billion, up 8.2% from the year before, according to financial advisor BIA Financial Network
Spanish-language TV beat the average by rising 10.3%. They attributed the gain to more widely available programming and predicting it would beat the average in 2007 "and beyond."
BIA analyst Mark Fratrick was attributing much of that gain to the cyclical boost in ad spending from the elections and Olympics. ""There is no denying that the industry has benefited greatly from those two variables despite the erosion of viewers to cable, Internet and other competition," he said in announcing the release of BIAfn's first Investing in Television quarterly market report.
Not surprisingly, BIA was predicting 2007 revenue to be down, but then rebound by more than 10% in 2008, driven by the presidential race.
BIA also said that TV stations transactions were at an eight-year high of $18.1 billion in 2006 for 182 stations, driven by the sale of Univision and four NBC stations.
