GRAY MEDIA, INC — Call Transcript 2026

Great. Thanks so much. Apologies for the slight delay here, but we're going to be moving on to Gray Media now. Gray is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It's the nation's largest owner of top-rated local TV stations and digital assets. As of mid-May, the company serves 117 full power TV markets that collectively reach about 37% of U.S. TV households. You've grown significantly through acquisitions over the years, including Raycom in 2019, Quincy Media and Meredith in 2021, and most recently, a series of tuck-in transactions. You also operate Assembly Atlanta, a major studio and mixed-use development, as well as a production company. Today we have Gray's CFO, Jeff, here with us today, as well as head of Investor Relations, Alan Gould. Thank you both so much for joining us. Thanks for having us. We can go ahead and get started talking about the last 12 months. It's been a very busy one for Gray. As I mentioned, you've closed on a number of, or announced a number of tuck-in acquisitions, resolved the DISH blackout, and hired Alan from the sell side. Hoping you can start high level about setting the stage for Gray, what brought each of you to the company most recently, and frame where we sit today. Yeah, sure. First of all, thank you for having us. A little easier technical when we're all in the room together. We'll get us back on track though. I joined the company just over two years ago after about 20 years in banking. Gray has had a very consistent plan to grow the company through M&A, targeting top-rated stations. That's been the guiding light for the company. I was working from the outside at a bank, helping. When the opportunity came to join the company and, I'd say, make that official, it was too good to pass up. Now two years in, I haven't looked back. It's been, I think, we've continued down the path of what we've been doing. We'll talk about some of the M&A that we've completed now and the stage of that when we get deeper into the discussion, I'm sure. Alan, it was great to bring Alan on board six months ago, and he can explain his decision to join us at this stage. Hi, Hanna. Thanks for inviting us. After a long time on the sell side, I decided to join Gray. I was covering Gray. It was a combination of things, the people at Gray and also the station portfolio. Gray has mostly number one and number two stations. They're the strongest in the market. They over-monetize. The combination of the ability to integrate some of these acquisitions, look at political and delever, I thought it was a great opportunity to join the company. Great. Thanks so much. Moving on to some of the M&A you've done, talk about where things stand with some of the transactions that have closed and what's next on the horizon. Yeah. Look, we've closed everything at this point. Obviously, it took longer than we expected. We were hoping that we would get quicker regulatory approval. None of what we did required external financing. We were able to do all of it off the balance sheet, and in fact, closed all of it without drawing anything on our revolver, which the original plan was to draw on the revolver. At this point, everything's closed. We are deep into the integration of it. Our operations team is vigorously-- It's a little different this time around if you think about what's happened, right? The larger M&A was more predicated on expanding the footprint versus the cap, and we have plenty of cushion against the cap. This was in-market transactions. There's a different integration that happens with in-market relative to buying a new market. If you're buying a new market, it's a standalone station, off you go. Most of the synergy comes from corporate overhead and from retrans in those. In this case, there's retrans synergies, although they are not as significant as they used to be. Then there is in-market savings from consolidating facilities and things like that. We're deep into that. The retrans piece pretty much comes on contractually right away, the day we close, and then call it three to six months after closing, the rest of it will come into place. You can't just turn off a TV station and move it across the street the next day, right? You have to keep both of them running. Everything's on track in that regard, and we're really happy with where things stand and getting everything done. There's still a lot more to do that is interesting to us, but we are going to stick to what we are good at, which is owning top-rated stations, ideally in multiple stations in a market because of the better economics coming from that. There's a lot to do, but I'm not going to commit to anything we will or will not do other than to say that judge what we're going to do based on what we have been doing. At this stage, we have about half of our markets with multiple stations. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. You mentioned in terms of the cap, not an immediate constraint at this point, but believe members of your management team have spoken publicly about the FCC and DOJ now having a much better understanding of the industry after reviewing millions of documents with all the transactions that have been going on. How do you see the regulatory environment unfolding from here, and does the 2.5 or so year window on the current FCC create any sense of urgency to be a little bit more aggressive? Yeah, I think we'll move as fast as opportunities present themselves. We'd love to get things done faster. We have some financial constraints as well, so for us, we're mindful of that as well. We will evaluate each opportunity on its own merits. What you really had happen, you have FCC and DOJ, but now there's the AG piece as well that you have to think about as you look at what you're going to do. On the cap, let me just reiterate. The cap's 39%, we're 37%. We passed 37% of the country, but it's only 25% with the UHF discount, and we would literally have to buy in each of the biggest markets. Buy New York, buy L.A., and buy Chicago to even start approaching the full cap. It's not a huge concern for us. That makes sense. Just in terms of leverage, kind of targets, when you intend to get there, talk us through that a little bit. Yeah. Obviously, leverage is something we need to bring that down. We did a bunch of financing last year that gave us a clearer runway to get through this political cycle and even into the next political cycle before we have any maturities. The market recognized that, we're not going to put a timeframe on it. Longer term, I think 4x is a much more comfortable level to run the company, but it's hard to say 4x when you're sitting in the mid to high fives. That 4x seems like a long way away, but there's a number of things we've been able to do. The capital structure now gives us the runway to operate. On the operational side, resetting all of our retrans, the economics really on both sides, the MVPDs and the networks, getting those contracts reset to a spot where retrans is no longer a drag and now should be a tailwind. Political dollars, the M&A we did was de-levering, which kind of warps everybody's brain when you try to think through it. We're borrowing to de-lever. It's like, wait a minute. No, we can get better economics out of that than the current owners, I think people would like us to keep going on that front, but we're going to be disciplined around what we do there. The combination of those things, and maybe look, the 10.5% notes were, at the time, a necessity. There's a much better cost of capital and maybe a refinancing can also create some additional free cash flow that then accelerates the deleveraging piece for us. Yeah. A lot there I want to unpack a little bit. Political shaping up to be a major driver that should help with that deleveraging in the back half of the year. You have, I believe, all but one competitive Senate and governors races this year. How are you thinking about the range of outcomes there for the full year, and how should we think about that comparing to the last midterm cycle as well as the most recent 2024 presidential? On political, first quarter, we came in, it was $30 million, top of our guidance versus $26 million. Second quarter, our guidance is $60 million-$70 million. We feel good with that estimate. Yeah, we no longer, though, are willing to give a full year guide on political because the numbers can really change a lot. We feel good about it. We feel really well-positioned. We're in the right markets. We're in better markets than we were in the past. We'll leave it at quarter-by-quarter guidance. Understood. Just finishing up on the advertising side of the business. Heard a little bit about the overall advertising landscape from Brad in the last section, but talk to us about what you're seeing in terms of core ads. What are the strongest categories for Gray? Where are you seeing some weakness, and how do you anticipate things will be playing out through the remainder of the year? Yeah. We're seeing a little bit of softness. We mentioned down mid-single digits as our guide for 2Q. Clearly, the consumer areas are an area of weakness. Department stores, discount stores. We're seeing some strength in gambling, and we're looking closely at auto and some of the other categories, but somewhat consistent with what Brad said category-wise. Just one thing to add on that. Brad gave some numbers that were a little higher or, let's say, a little more down than what our guide would imply. I think you got to remember Gray, I'll speak just to Gray, we are very geared to local and less so to national. Half of our advertising sales come during our own locally produced news. I think that differentiates us a little bit from maybe what some of the national trends are. We're not going to avoid some of the national trends, but it does help us, I think. How does the FIFA World Cup this year factor in, especially given your 35 Fox stations and 47 Telemundo affiliates? Yeah, as you said, we have 35 Fox affiliates. That's 20% of our Big Four stations. 47, we're the largest Telemundo affiliates with 47 affiliates, although a lot of them are in smaller markets. It should be a tailwind to us, but yeah, we'll see mid-June to mid-July how it comes out. Mm-hmm. What are you anticipating in terms of crowd out from political towards the back half of the year? I think the comment that you heard in the last presentation, there will be crowd out later this year. We'll have to see how crazy things get later this year. We might be really happy that there's crowd out if it means that there's so much political coming in, right? We'll just have to see how that plays out. Our team does a really nice job of managing, making sure we have inventory to address all of our customers, our every other year customers, as well as our everyday customers. Great. That's helpful. Touching on your earlier comment about retrans, I guess both from the MVPD side as well as the network comp, can you unpack a little bit more the dynamics there and what's leading you to think that that'll start to stabilize moving forward? Yeah. It's been a multi-year effort to get that stabilized for Gray. We had some longer-term contracts that were caught at a time when sub-trends were projected to be different than what we actually experienced. As we have renegotiated both sides of the equation, it's not just one side. Our numbers on retrans are a little bit more impacted because of the one station in Atlanta that went independent. That actually hits the revenue side and the network compensation side. We're very transparent on those numbers when we are reporting. We have completed all of our negotiations for this year, and we don't have any network negotiations until the back half of next year. We've got visibility now for about 18 months that give us more confidence that we're going to be able to get that to flatten out and that the realities of the marketplace are being acknowledged by all the parties involved. Yeah. I just want to point out that we did guide that we will have an increase in our net retrans on our organic or legacy Gray stations for this year, despite our blackout with DISH, which is very unusual for us to have a blackout. We will have an increased inflationary on the organic despite that blackout, plus then you'll have the growth from the new stations. Just touching on the DISH dispute specifically. I believe Gray described it publicly as kind of unprecedented. Are you confident that that was a one-off? How should investors think about risk for blackouts going forward? I don't want to comment more on what we've already said on DISH. It's behind us. Looking forward, again, we think that the contracts. We're not going to sign a contract that doesn't work for us, and they're not. We found common ground with DISH, even at a time where there was no event. We didn't have to play hostage-taking with the Super Bowl or any of that kind of stuff. I think everybody's looking at the marketplace, and look, there have also been some things in the marketplace that have been done, not by us, but by others, where there's a rationalization of a lot of the content that's out there and how that's being delivered. When we look at the overall marketplace, I think we view that as a one-off. It certainly is a one-off for Gray. Going forward, we're optimistic we'll be able to continue to find common ground. Just on the network side, how are you thinking about potential NFL rights step up in the calculus, I guess? Talk about cost of sports rights going up and how that'll trickle down to the affiliates. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, the NFL is premium content. We all realize that. There'll be a paying up of premium content, but that's going to be shared between the network, the affiliates, and the streaming side of the networks. At the end of the day, I think the network's going to want broad [audio distortion] want broad reach. I think, yeah, we'll continue. Yeah, I think it's equally interesting, Hanna, that the local sports rights are coming back to broadcast. That's not just happening for no reason, right? The reach, the ubiquitous delivery of the market, we were the first to do that when we did the Phoenix Suns deal, and the Phoenix Suns have been one of the best salespeople that we've had. We've had teams that aren't in our footprint call us and say, "Hey, we've heard good things. Can you guys help us?" We're confident that, again, there's real value that broadcast delivers to the team beyond just a check that we send them. They're seeing the teams that have come back to broadcast have new interest and another generation of fans that gets butts in seats and sells concessions and the whole thing works better. Yeah, you've been expanding your local sports programming significantly. I think now 16 broadcast sports networks on 19 MLB, 13 NBA, eight NHL, and six WNBA, Braves partnership and INTENNSE Tennis at Assembly. Can you just talk us through kind of the economics of the local sports rights? Is this something that you're going to be investing in further, or how you view? Look, I think we'd love to do more, but we're only going to do it on terms that work for us. We model out each opportunity. It gets into the weeds in terms of who's doing the selling and who owns the inventory, all of those things. Anything that's in our footprint is of interest to us as we can make money doing it. Okay. That makes sense. I guess in terms of capital allocation priorities overall, maintaining the dividend, CapEx, some of these additional opportunities that you see here, you'll be using the political cash flow primarily for debt reduction. Talk about how you balance these priorities, how we should think about. The M&A piece is newer. The idea that we can allocate capital to M&A to delever the company is a newer concept in the last, call it year or so. I think we'd love to do more of that, but I would also like to take some quantum of debt off the company. The interest expense is a big drag. The dividend is modest. At this point we've continued paying it even with the heavy interest burden. CapEx, we don't want to under-invest in our stations. Like I said, we're number one and number two, and I think it's 87%, to be precise, on the number of markets. We feel like that's the core of our business, and we don't want to under-invest in our stations either. We'll spend more in a political year than we would in a non-political year. That's a long pattern for the company, try to match the cash coming in and going out. I'm hopeful that unless we find a bunch of other M&A. Yeah. It's going to be debt paydown and let's get the balance sheet to a better spot. Then related to that, in terms of AI deployment and automation, kind of talk to us about how that's factoring into, I guess, the cost side of things, what the most tangible productivity gains are so far, and how you see this playing into your operations moving forward. Yeah, we're using AI for content repurposing. We're using it on our advertising business for targeting. We've used our connected TV. We use a service called Quickplay, which is backed by Google right now for better targeting. It'll be a longer-term process, but we are starting to already see some benefits from AI. I think some of it's productivity for our journalists to do what they do best. If you think about somebody going out and shooting a story, they used to have to manually change it to put it on the website to make it vertical video friendly for the social media platforms and things like that. Now you can do that with a touch of a button, and they can get on to the next story. At this point, a lot of it's the productivity side of it. Salesperson getting ready to go pitch a new client. Give me a two-page summary of the company and the market, and they get it right away. It lets people do what they're best at rather than some of the administrative tasks. That's how we're using it thus far, and we're looking at how do we pull it into more things over a longer period of time. That's helpful. Then I want to touch on Assembly Atlanta. I think you've invested over $600 million or so to date. Just for those newer to the Gray story, talk a little bit about what that is, how it's being used, and what you anticipate from it moving forward. Yeah, sure. The numbers are in that zip code, $630-ish million of investment. It is a mixed-use real estate project that is anchored by a studio project that is on the north side of Atlanta. Total property is about 120 acres. For those who know Atlanta, it's adjacent to the Doraville MARTA station just inside the perimeter. It's a prime piece of property in Atlanta. The first phase of development was to take 40 acres, build 22 soundstages. The bulk of those are leased to NBCU. They manage the site for us in a partnership. At this point, the studio piece is complete and we're looking at what comes next on the other 80 acres. There's a public park component to it. Over time, Gray does not need to own some of these, but we may want to own some of whatever comes next. We don't need to own an apartment building, so we'll find a partner to monetize by selling the land to experts to do that piece of it, and we'll find other ways to monetize the rest of the land. At this stage, the heavy CapEx is complete. There's not plans for massive additional investment from Gray. At this point, Gray can monetize by contributing land into partnerships and letting the experts on the real estate side do their thing. That's helpful. I guess before we start to get to closing and key takeaways for the group, talk to us about what you think as the major risk or what keeps you up at night about broadcast, Gray specifically. On the flip side, what you're most excited about. I'd say that keep me up at night would be if there were some kind of a significant recession while we're carrying this much leverage. It's just the reality of it, right? If we have a big deep recession, I say keeps me up at night, I can't really control that. I guess the point of that is there's some urgency to getting our leverage to a more comfortable spot so that if and when something happens, we're in a better spot to capitalize on that. On the opportunity side, we are in a stronger position than a bunch of others, and there are a bunch of assets out there that could really enhance our portfolio, and that is exciting. I think there's a lot of folks who would like us to own more given the quality of our station portfolio. When I look at those things, it's give us some time to get the leverage down a little bit and opportunistically deploy capital to grow the company. I guess, what do you think is the market's most misunderstanding about the Gray story and key catalyst besides bringing the leverage down, that could unlock value? I'll let Alan answer that one as a research analyst. A recovering research analyst. I think the key thing is the value of having number one and number two ranked stations. If you're a political advertiser, you want to be advertising on that number one news station in a marketplace. If there's a recession, you're going to cut from the number four, number three. If you look at our monetization per household, it shows the numbers behind what makes it special being number one and number two. Second thing, the stabilization of net retrans. I think that's critical. You said besides the leverage, but the leverage coming down will be the third. I want to see if there's any questions from the audience. If not, we will see if there's any closing thoughts. We have one over here. My brother has a law firm across the street from the Braves stadium. I'm curious if there's any desire to collaborate with the really great franchises and content that is already in Atlanta. I know you guys are focused on local, but, yeah, I'm curious if there's any strategic plan to engage with the great content there. Yeah, I think everybody can hear the question. In terms of engaging with some of the great content that's already in Atlanta, we don't have very specific plans on that. There are interesting things that we are doing through the studio complex. One of our soundstages has been converted to an indoor tennis facility. We're going to be broadcasting. There's a tennis league called INTENNSE Tennis. You can find it. There's actually some pretty cool pictures out there right now on Instagram inside our studio. It'll have a live studio audience, and some of those games will be broadcast on our independent station in Atlanta. We're getting very creative with being embedded in the Atlanta ecosystem. You have a presenter later who knows the Braves pretty well, who we've had a number of discussions with and have a partnership with. That content in particular, we do have 25 Braves games. Yeah, look, we're always looking at ways, especially now that we have an independent station in Atlanta where we want to be the voice of Atlanta. Things like that are very interesting to us, and it gets really back to our local in every market we try to do that. It's not unique to Atlanta, although because we're headquartered there and have a significant investment in the city, it's maybe more pronounced there. Great. Well, I think that that will bring us to a close. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having us.

Speaker 2: Great. Thanks so much. Apologies for the slight delay here, but we're going to be moving on to Gray Media now. Gray is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It's the nation's largest owner of top-rated local TV stations and digital assets. As of mid-May, the company serves 117 full power TV markets that collectively reach about 37% of U.S. TV households. You've grown significantly through acquisitions over the years, including Raycom in 2019, Quincy Media and Meredith in 2021, and most recently, a series of tuck-in transactions. You also operate Assembly Atlanta, a major studio and mixed-use development, as well as a production company. Today we have Gray's CFO, Jeff, here with us today, as well as head of Investor Relations, Alan Gould. Thank you both so much for joining us. Great. great Thanks so much. thanks so much Apologies for the slight delay here, but we're going to be moving on to Gray Media now. apologies for the slight delay here but we're going to be moving on to gray media now Gray is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. gray is headquartered in atlanta georgia It's the nation's largest owner of top-rated local TV stations and digital assets. it's the nation's largest owner of top-rated local tv stations and digital assets As of mid-May, the company serves 117 full power TV markets that collectively reach about 37% of U.S. as of mid-may the company serves 117 full power tv markets that collectively reach about 37% of u.s TV households. tv households You've grown significantly through acquisitions over the years, including Raycom in 2019, Quincy Media and Meredith in 2021, and most recently, a series of tuck-in transactions. you've grown significantly through acquisitions over the years including raycom in 2019 quincy media and meredith in 2021 and most recently a series of tuck-in transactions You also operate Assembly Atlanta, a major studio and mixed-use development, as well as a production company. you also operate assembly atlanta a major studio and mixed-use development as well as a production company Today we have Gray's CFO, Jeff, here with us today, as well as head of Investor Relations, Alan Gould. today we have gray's cfo jeff here with us today as well as head of investor relations alan gould Thank you both so much for joining us. thank you both so much for joining us

Speaker 3: Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. thanks for having us

Speaker 2: We can go ahead and get started talking about the last 12 months. It's been a very busy one for Gray. As I mentioned, you've closed on a number of, or announced a number of tuck-in acquisitions, resolved the DISH blackout, and hired Alan from the sell side. Hoping you can start high level about setting the stage for Gray, what brought each of you to the company most recently, and frame where we sit today. We can go ahead and get started talking about the last 12 months. we can go ahead and get started talking about the last 12 months It's been a very busy one for Gray. it's been a very busy one for gray As I mentioned, you've closed on a number of, or announced a number of tuck-in acquisitions, resolved the DISH blackout, and hired Alan from the sell side. as i mentioned you've closed on a number of or announced a number of tuck-in acquisitions resolved the dish blackout and hired alan from the sell side Hoping you can start high level about setting the stage for Gray, what brought each of you to the company most recently, and frame where we sit today. hoping you can start high level about setting the stage for gray what brought each of you to the company most recently and frame where we sit today

Speaker 3: Yeah, sure. First of all, thank you for having us. A little easier technical when we're all in the room together. We'll get us back on track though. I joined the company just over two years ago after about 20 years in banking. Gray has had a very consistent plan to grow the company through M&A, targeting top-rated stations. That's been the guiding light for the company. I was working from the outside at a bank, helping. When the opportunity came to join the company and, I'd say, make that official, it was too good to pass up. Now two years in, I haven't looked back. It's been, I think, we've continued down the path of what we've been doing. We'll talk about some of the M&A that we've completed now and the stage of that when we get deeper into the discussion, I'm sure. Yeah, sure. yeah sure First of all, thank you for having us. first of all thank you for having us A little easier technical when we're all in the room together. a little easier technical when we're all in the room together We'll get us back on track though. we'll get us back on track though I joined the company just over two years ago after about 20 years in banking. i joined the company just over two years ago after about 20 years in banking Gray has had a very consistent plan to grow the company through M&A, targeting top-rated stations. gray has had a very consistent plan to grow the company through m&a targeting top-rated stations That's been the guiding light for the company. that's been the guiding light for the company I was working from the outside at a bank, helping. i was working from the outside at a bank helping When the opportunity came to join the company and, I'd say, make that official, it was too good to pass up. when the opportunity came to join the company and i'd say make that official it was too good to pass up Now two years in, I haven't looked back. now two years in i haven't looked back It's been, I think, we've continued down the path of what we've been doing. it's been i think we've continued down the path of what we've been doing We'll talk about some of the M&A that we've completed now and the stage of that when we get deeper into the discussion, I'm sure. we'll talk about some of the m&a that we've completed now and the stage of that when we get deeper into the discussion i'm sure Alan, it was great to bring Alan on board six months ago, and he can explain his decision to join us at this stage. Alan, it was great to bring Alan on board six months ago, and he can explain his decision to join us at this stage. alan it was great to bring alan on board six months ago and he can explain his decision to join us at this stage

Speaker 1: Hi, Hanna. Thanks for inviting us. After a long time on the sell side, I decided to join Gray. I was covering Gray. It was a combination of things, the people at Gray and also the station portfolio. Gray has mostly number one and number two stations. They're the strongest in the market. They over-monetize. The combination of the ability to integrate some of these acquisitions, look at political and delever, I thought it was a great opportunity to join the company. Hi, Hanna. hi hanna Thanks for inviting us. thanks for inviting us After a long time on the sell side, I decided to join Gray. after a long time on the sell side i decided to join gray I was covering Gray. i was covering gray It was a combination of things, the people at Gray and also the station portfolio. it was a combination of things the people at gray and also the station portfolio Gray has mostly number one and number two stations. gray has mostly number one and number two stations They're the strongest in the market. they're the strongest in the market They over-monetize. they over-monetize The combination of the ability to integrate some of these acquisitions, look at political and delever, I thought it was a great opportunity to join the company. the combination of the ability to integrate some of these acquisitions look at political and delever i thought it was a great opportunity to join the company

Speaker 2: Great. Thanks so much. Moving on to some of the M&A you've done, talk about where things stand with some of the transactions that have closed and what's next on the horizon. Great. great Thanks so much. thanks so much Moving on to some of the M&A you've done, talk about where things stand with some of the transactions that have closed and what's next on the horizon. moving on to some of the m&a you've done talk about where things stand with some of the transactions that have closed and what's next on the horizon

Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, we've closed everything at this point. Obviously, it took longer than we expected. We were hoping that we would get quicker regulatory approval. None of what we did required external financing. We were able to do all of it off the balance sheet, and in fact, closed all of it without drawing anything on our revolver, which the original plan was to draw on the revolver. At this point, everything's closed. We are deep into the integration of it. Our operations team is vigorously-- It's a little different this time around if you think about what's happened, right? The larger M&A was more predicated on expanding the footprint versus the cap, and we have plenty of cushion against the cap. This was in-market transactions. There's a different integration that happens with in-market relative to buying a new market. Yeah. yeah Look, we've closed everything at this point. look we've closed everything at this point Obviously, it took longer than we expected. obviously it took longer than we expected We were hoping that we would get quicker regulatory approval. we were hoping that we would get quicker regulatory approval None of what we did required external financing. none of what we did required external financing We were able to do all of it off the balance sheet, and in fact, closed all of it without drawing anything on our revolver, which the original plan was to draw on the revolver. we were able to do all of it off the balance sheet and in fact closed all of it without drawing anything on our revolver which the original plan was to draw on the revolver At this point, everything's closed. at this point everything's closed We are deep into the integration of it. we are deep into the integration of it Our operations team is vigorously-- It's a little different this time around if you think about what's happened, right? our operations team is vigorously-- it's a little different this time around if you think about what's happened right The larger M&A was more predicated on expanding the footprint versus the cap, and we have plenty of cushion against the cap. the larger m&a was more predicated on expanding the footprint versus the cap and we have plenty of cushion against the cap This was in-market transactions. this was in-market transactions There's a different integration that happens with in-market relative to buying a new market. there's a different integration that happens with in-market relative to buying a new market If you're buying a new market, it's a standalone station, off you go. Most of the synergy comes from corporate overhead and from retrans in those. In this case, there's retrans synergies, although they are not as significant as they used to be. Then there is in-market savings from consolidating facilities and things like that. We're deep into that. The retrans piece pretty much comes on contractually right away, the day we close, and then call it three to six months after closing, the rest of it will come into place. You can't just turn off a TV station and move it across the street the next day, right? You have to keep both of them running. Everything's on track in that regard, and we're really happy with where things stand and getting everything done. If you're buying a new market, it's a standalone station, off you go. if you're buying a new market it's a standalone station off you go Most of the synergy comes from corporate overhead and from retrans in those. most of the synergy comes from corporate overhead and from retrans in those In this case, there's retrans synergies, although they are not as significant as they used to be. in this case there's retrans synergies although they are not as significant as they used to be Then there is in-market savings from consolidating facilities and things like that. then there is in-market savings from consolidating facilities and things like that We're deep into that. we're deep into that The retrans piece pretty much comes on contractually right away, the day we close, and then call it three to six months after closing, the rest of it will come into place. the retrans piece pretty much comes on contractually right away the day we close and then call it three to six months after closing the rest of it will come into place You can't just turn off a TV station and move it across the street the next day, right? you can't just turn off a tv station and move it across the street the next day right You have to keep both of them running. you have to keep both of them running Everything's on track in that regard, and we're really happy with where things stand and getting everything done. everything's on track in that regard and we're really happy with where things stand and getting everything done There's still a lot more to do that is interesting to us, but we are going to stick to what we are good at, which is owning top-rated stations, ideally in multiple stations in a market because of the better economics coming from that. There's a lot to do, but I'm not going to commit to anything we will or will not do other than to say that judge what we're going to do based on what we have been doing. At this stage, we have about half of our markets with multiple stations. There's still a lot more to do that is interesting to us, but we are going to stick to what we are good at, which is owning top-rated stations, ideally in multiple stations in a market because of the better economics coming from that. there's still a lot more to do that is interesting to us but we are going to stick to what we are good at which is owning top-rated stations ideally in multiple stations in a market because of the better economics coming from that There's a lot to do, but I'm not going to commit to anything we will or will not do other than to say that judge what we're going to do based on what we have been doing. there's a lot to do but i'm not going to commit to anything we will or will not do other than to say that judge what we're going to do based on what we have been doing At this stage, we have about half of our markets with multiple stations. at this stage we have about half of our markets with multiple stations

Speaker 2: Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. You mentioned in terms of the cap, not an immediate constraint at this point, but believe members of your management team have spoken publicly about the FCC and DOJ now having a much better understanding of the industry after reviewing millions of documents with all the transactions that have been going on. How do you see the regulatory environment unfolding from here, and does the 2.5 or so year window on the current FCC create any sense of urgency to be a little bit more aggressive? Yeah. yeah That makes sense. that makes sense Okay. okay You mentioned in terms of the cap, not an immediate constraint at this point, but believe members of your management team have spoken publicly about the FCC and DOJ now having a much better understanding of the industry after reviewing millions of documents with all the transactions that have been going on. you mentioned in terms of the cap not an immediate constraint at this point but believe members of your management team have spoken publicly about the fcc and doj now having a much better understanding of the industry after reviewing millions of documents with all the transactions that have been going on How do you see the regulatory environment unfolding from here, and does the 2.5 or so year window on the current FCC create any sense of urgency to be a little bit more aggressive? how do you see the regulatory environment unfolding from here and does the 2.5 or so year window on the current fcc create any sense of urgency to be a little bit more aggressive

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we'll move as fast as opportunities present themselves. We'd love to get things done faster. We have some financial constraints as well, so for us, we're mindful of that as well. We will evaluate each opportunity on its own merits. What you really had happen, you have FCC and DOJ, but now there's the AG piece as well that you have to think about as you look at what you're going to do. Yeah, I think we'll move as fast as opportunities present themselves. yeah i think we'll move as fast as opportunities present themselves We'd love to get things done faster. we'd love to get things done faster We have some financial constraints as well, so for us, we're mindful of that as well. we have some financial constraints as well so for us we're mindful of that as well We will evaluate each opportunity on its own merits. we will evaluate each opportunity on its own merits What you really had happen, you have FCC and DOJ, but now there's the AG piece as well that you have to think about as you look at what you're going to do. what you really had happen you have fcc and doj but now there's the ag piece as well that you have to think about as you look at what you're going to do

Speaker 1: On the cap, let me just reiterate. The cap's 39%, we're 37%. We passed 37% of the country, but it's only 25% with the UHF discount, and we would literally have to buy in each of the biggest markets. Buy New York, buy L.A., and buy Chicago to even start approaching the full cap. It's not a huge concern for us. On the cap, let me just reiterate. on the cap let me just reiterate The cap's 39%, we're 37%. the cap's 39% we're 37% We passed 37% of the country, but it's only 25% with the UHF discount, and we would literally have to buy in each of the biggest markets. we passed 37% of the country but it's only 25% with the uhf discount and we would literally have to buy in each of the biggest markets Buy New York, buy L.A., and buy Chicago to even start approaching the full cap. buy new york buy l.a and buy chicago to even start approaching the full cap It's not a huge concern for us. it's not a huge concern for us

Speaker 2: That makes sense. Just in terms of leverage, kind of targets, when you intend to get there, talk us through that a little bit. That makes sense. that makes sense Just in terms of leverage, kind of targets, when you intend to get there, talk us through that a little bit. just in terms of leverage kind of targets when you intend to get there talk us through that a little bit

Speaker 3: Yeah. Obviously, leverage is something we need to bring that down. We did a bunch of financing last year that gave us a clearer runway to get through this political cycle and even into the next political cycle before we have any maturities. The market recognized that, we're not going to put a timeframe on it. Longer term, I think 4x is a much more comfortable level to run the company, but it's hard to say 4x when you're sitting in the mid to high fives. That 4x seems like a long way away, but there's a number of things we've been able to do. The capital structure now gives us the runway to operate. Yeah. yeah Obviously, leverage is something we need to bring that down. obviously leverage is something we need to bring that down We did a bunch of financing last year that gave us a clearer runway to get through this political cycle and even into the next political cycle before we have any maturities. we did a bunch of financing last year that gave us a clearer runway to get through this political cycle and even into the next political cycle before we have any maturities The market recognized that, we're not going to put a timeframe on it. the market recognized that we're not going to put a timeframe on it Longer term, I think 4x is a much more comfortable level to run the company, but it's hard to say 4x when you're sitting in the mid to high fives. longer term i think 4x is a much more comfortable level to run the company but it's hard to say 4x when you're sitting in the mid to high fives That 4x seems like a long way away, but there's a number of things we've been able to do. that 4x seems like a long way away but there's a number of things we've been able to do The capital structure now gives us the runway to operate. the capital structure now gives us the runway to operate On the operational side, resetting all of our retrans, the economics really on both sides, the MVPDs and the networks, getting those contracts reset to a spot where retrans is no longer a drag and now should be a tailwind. Political dollars, the M&A we did was de-levering, which kind of warps everybody's brain when you try to think through it. We're borrowing to de-lever. It's like, wait a minute. No, we can get better economics out of that than the current owners, I think people would like us to keep going on that front, but we're going to be disciplined around what we do there. The combination of those things, and maybe look, the 10.5% notes were, at the time, a necessity. On the operational side, resetting all of our retrans, the economics really on both sides, the MVPDs and the networks, getting those contracts reset to a spot where retrans is no longer a drag and now should be a tailwind. on the operational side resetting all of our retrans the economics really on both sides the mvpds and the networks getting those contracts reset to a spot where retrans is no longer a drag and now should be a tailwind Political dollars, the M&A we did was de-levering, which kind of warps everybody's brain when you try to think through it. political dollars the m&a we did was de-levering which kind of warps everybody's brain when you try to think through it We're borrowing to de-lever. we're borrowing to de-lever It's like, wait a minute. it's like wait a minute No, we can get better economics out of that than the current owners, I think people would like us to keep going on that front, but we're going to be disciplined around what we do there. no we can get better economics out of that than the current owners i think people would like us to keep going on that front but we're going to be disciplined around what we do there The combination of those things, and maybe look, the 10.5% notes were, at the time, a necessity. the combination of those things and maybe look the 10.5% notes were at the time a necessity There's a much better cost of capital and maybe a refinancing can also create some additional free cash flow that then accelerates the deleveraging piece for us. There's a much better cost of capital and maybe a refinancing can also create some additional free cash flow that then accelerates the deleveraging piece for us. there's a much better cost of capital and maybe a refinancing can also create some additional free cash flow that then accelerates the deleveraging piece for us

Speaker 2: Yeah. A lot there I want to unpack a little bit. Political shaping up to be a major driver that should help with that deleveraging in the back half of the year. You have, I believe, all but one competitive Senate and governors races this year. How are you thinking about the range of outcomes there for the full year, and how should we think about that comparing to the last midterm cycle as well as the most recent 2024 presidential? Yeah. yeah A lot there I want to unpack a little bit. a lot there i want to unpack a little bit Political shaping up to be a major driver that should help with that deleveraging in the back half of the year. political shaping up to be a major driver that should help with that deleveraging in the back half of the year You have, I believe, all but one competitive Senate and governors races this year. you have i believe all but one competitive senate and governors races this year How are you thinking about the range of outcomes there for the full year, and how should we think about that comparing to the last midterm cycle as well as the most recent 2024 presidential? how are you thinking about the range of outcomes there for the full year and how should we think about that comparing to the last midterm cycle as well as the most recent 2024 presidential

Speaker 1: On political, first quarter, we came in, it was $30 million, top of our guidance versus $26 million. Second quarter, our guidance is $60 million-$70 million. We feel good with that estimate. Yeah, we no longer, though, are willing to give a full year guide on political because the numbers can really change a lot. We feel good about it. We feel really well-positioned. We're in the right markets. We're in better markets than we were in the past. We'll leave it at quarter-by-quarter guidance. On political, first quarter, we came in, it was $30 million, top of our guidance versus $26 million. on political first quarter we came in it was $30 million top of our guidance versus $26 million Second quarter, our guidance is $60 million-$70 million. second quarter our guidance is $60 million-$70 million We feel good with that estimate. we feel good with that estimate Yeah, we no longer, though, are willing to give a full year guide on political because the numbers can really change a lot. yeah we no longer though are willing to give a full year guide on political because the numbers can really change a lot We feel good about it. we feel good about it We feel really well-positioned. we feel really well-positioned We're in the right markets. we're in the right markets We're in better markets than we were in the past. we're in better markets than we were in the past We'll leave it at quarter- by- quarter guidance. we'll leave it at quarter- by- quarter guidance

Speaker 2: Understood. Just finishing up on the advertising side of the business. Heard a little bit about the overall advertising landscape from Brad in the last section, but talk to us about what you're seeing in terms of core ads. What are the strongest categories for Gray? Where are you seeing some weakness, and how do you anticipate things will be playing out through the remainder of the year? Understood. understood Just finishing up on the advertising side of the business. just finishing up on the advertising side of the business Heard a little bit about the overall advertising landscape from Brad in the last section, but talk to us about what you're seeing in terms of core ads. heard a little bit about the overall advertising landscape from brad in the last section but talk to us about what you're seeing in terms of core ads What are the strongest categories for Gray? what are the strongest categories for gray Where are you seeing some weakness, and how do you anticipate things will be playing out through the remainder of the year? where are you seeing some weakness and how do you anticipate things will be playing out through the remainder of the year

Speaker 1: Yeah. We're seeing a little bit of softness. We mentioned down mid-single digits as our guide for 2Q. Clearly, the consumer areas are an area of weakness. Department stores, discount stores. We're seeing some strength in gambling, and we're looking closely at auto and some of the other categories, but somewhat consistent with what Brad said category-wise. Yeah. yeah We're seeing a little bit of softness. we're seeing a little bit of softness We mentioned down mid-single digits as our guide for 2Q. we mentioned down mid-single digits as our guide for 2q Clearly, the consumer areas are an area of weakness. clearly the consumer areas are an area of weakness Department stores, discount stores. department stores discount stores We're seeing some strength in gambling, and we're looking closely at auto and some of the other categories, but somewhat consistent with what Brad said category-wise. we're seeing some strength in gambling and we're looking closely at auto and some of the other categories but somewhat consistent with what brad said category-wise

Speaker 3: Just one thing to add on that. Brad gave some numbers that were a little higher or, let's say, a little more down than what our guide would imply. I think you got to remember Gray, I'll speak just to Gray, we are very geared to local and less so to national. Half of our advertising sales come during our own locally produced news. I think that differentiates us a little bit from maybe what some of the national trends are. We're not going to avoid some of the national trends, but it does help us, I think. Just one thing to add on that. just one thing to add on that Brad gave some numbers that were a little higher or, let's say, a little more down than what our guide would imply. brad gave some numbers that were a little higher or let's say a little more down than what our guide would imply I think you got to remember Gray, I'll speak just to Gray, we are very geared to local and less so to national. i think you got to remember gray i'll speak just to gray we are very geared to local and less so to national Half of our advertising sales come during our own locally produced news. half of our advertising sales come during our own locally produced news I think that differentiates us a little bit from maybe what some of the national trends are. i think that differentiates us a little bit from maybe what some of the national trends are We're not going to avoid some of the national trends, but it does help us, I think. we're not going to avoid some of the national trends but it does help us i think

Speaker 2: How does the FIFA World Cup this year factor in, especially given your 35 Fox stations and 47 Telemundo affiliates? How does the FIFA World Cup this year factor in, especially given your 35 Fox stations and 47 Telemundo affiliates? how does the fifa world cup this year factor in especially given your 35 fox stations and 47 telemundo affiliates

Speaker 1: Yeah, as you said, we have 35 Fox affiliates. That's 20% of our Big Four stations. 47, we're the largest Telemundo affiliates with 47 affiliates, although a lot of them are in smaller markets. It should be a tailwind to us, but yeah, we'll see mid-June to mid-July how it comes out. Yeah, as you said, we have 35 Fox affiliates. yeah as you said we have 35 fox affiliates That's 20% of our Big Four stations. 47, we're the largest Telemundo affiliates with 47 affiliates, although a lot of them are in smaller markets. that's 20% of our big four stations 47 we're the largest telemundo affiliates with 47 affiliates although a lot of them are in smaller markets It should be a tailwind to us, but yeah, we'll see mid-June to mid-July how it comes out. it should be a tailwind to us but yeah we'll see mid-june to mid-july how it comes out

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. What are you anticipating in terms of crowd out from political towards the back half of the year? Mm-hmm. mm-hmm What are you anticipating in terms of crowd out from political towards the back half of the year? what are you anticipating in terms of crowd out from political towards the back half of the year

Speaker 3: I think the comment that you heard in the last presentation, there will be crowd out later this year. We'll have to see how crazy things get later this year. We might be really happy that there's crowd out if it means that there's so much political coming in, right? We'll just have to see how that plays out. Our team does a really nice job of managing, making sure we have inventory to address all of our customers, our every other year customers, as well as our everyday customers. I think the comment that you heard in the last presentation, there will be crowd out later this year. i think the comment that you heard in the last presentation there will be crowd out later this year We'll have to see how crazy things get later this year. we'll have to see how crazy things get later this year We might be really happy that there's crowd out if it means that there's so much political coming in, right? we might be really happy that there's crowd out if it means that there's so much political coming in right We'll just have to see how that plays out. we'll just have to see how that plays out Our team does a really nice job of managing, making sure we have inventory to address all of our customers, our every other year customers, as well as our everyday customers. our team does a really nice job of managing making sure we have inventory to address all of our customers our every other year customers as well as our everyday customers

Speaker 2: Great. That's helpful. Touching on your earlier comment about retrans, I guess both from the MVPD side as well as the network comp, can you unpack a little bit more the dynamics there and what's leading you to think that that'll start to stabilize moving forward? Great. great That's helpful. that's helpful Touching on your earlier comment about retrans, I guess both from the MVPD side as well as the network comp, can you unpack a little bit more the dynamics there and what's leading you to think that that'll start to stabilize moving forward? touching on your earlier comment about retrans i guess both from the mvpd side as well as the network comp can you unpack a little bit more the dynamics there and what's leading you to think that that'll start to stabilize moving forward

Speaker 3: Yeah. It's been a multi-year effort to get that stabilized for Gray. We had some longer-term contracts that were caught at a time when sub-trends were projected to be different than what we actually experienced. As we have renegotiated both sides of the equation, it's not just one side. Our numbers on retrans are a little bit more impacted because of the one station in Atlanta that went independent. That actually hits the revenue side and the network compensation side. We're very transparent on those numbers when we are reporting. We have completed all of our negotiations for this year, and we don't have any network negotiations until the back half of next year. Yeah. yeah It's been a multi-year effort to get that stabilized for Gray. it's been a multi-year effort to get that stabilized for gray We had some longer-term contracts that were caught at a time when sub-trends were projected to be different than what we actually experienced. we had some longer-term contracts that were caught at a time when sub-trends were projected to be different than what we actually experienced As we have renegotiated both sides of the equation, it's not just one side. as we have renegotiated both sides of the equation it's not just one side Our numbers on retrans are a little bit more impacted because of the one station in Atlanta that went independent. our numbers on retrans are a little bit more impacted because of the one station in atlanta that went independent That actually hits the revenue side and the network compensation side. that actually hits the revenue side and the network compensation side We're very transparent on those numbers when we are reporting. we're very transparent on those numbers when we are reporting We have completed all of our negotiations for this year, and we don't have any network negotiations until the back half of next year. we have completed all of our negotiations for this year and we don't have any network negotiations until the back half of next year We've got visibility now for about 18 months that give us more confidence that we're going to be able to get that to flatten out and that the realities of the marketplace are being acknowledged by all the parties involved. We've got visibility now for about 18 months that give us more confidence that we're going to be able to get that to flatten out and that the realities of the marketplace are being acknowledged by all the parties involved. we've got visibility now for about 18 months that give us more confidence that we're going to be able to get that to flatten out and that the realities of the marketplace are being acknowledged by all the parties involved

Speaker 1: Yeah. I just want to point out that we did guide that we will have an increase in our net retrans on our organic or legacy Gray stations for this year, despite our blackout with DISH, which is very unusual for us to have a blackout. We will have an increased inflationary on the organic despite that blackout, plus then you'll have the growth from the new stations. Yeah. yeah I just want to point out that we did guide that we will have an increase in our net retrans on our organic or legacy Gray stations for this year, despite our blackout with DISH, which is very unusual for us to have a blackout. i just want to point out that we did guide that we will have an increase in our net retrans on our organic or legacy gray stations for this year despite our blackout with dish which is very unusual for us to have a blackout We will have an increased inflationary on the organic despite that blackout, plus then you'll have the growth from the new stations. we will have an increased inflationary on the organic despite that blackout plus then you'll have the growth from the new stations

Speaker 2: Just touching on the DISH dispute specifically. I believe Gray described it publicly as kind of unprecedented. Are you confident that that was a one-off? How should investors think about risk for blackouts going forward? Just touching on the DISH dispute specifically. just touching on the dish dispute specifically I believe Gray described it publicly as kind of unprecedented. i believe gray described it publicly as kind of unprecedented Are you confident that that was a one-off? are you confident that that was a one-off How should investors think about risk for blackouts going forward? how should investors think about risk for blackouts going forward

Speaker 3: I don't want to comment more on what we've already said on DISH. It's behind us. Looking forward, again, we think that the contracts. We're not going to sign a contract that doesn't work for us, and they're not. We found common ground with DISH, even at a time where there was no event. We didn't have to play hostage-taking with the Super Bowl or any of that kind of stuff. I think everybody's looking at the marketplace, and look, there have also been some things in the marketplace that have been done, not by us, but by others, where there's a rationalization of a lot of the content that's out there and how that's being delivered. When we look at the overall marketplace, I think we view that as a one-off. It certainly is a one-off for Gray. I don't want to comment more on what we've already said on DISH. i don't want to comment more on what we've already said on dish It's behind us. it's behind us Looking forward, again, we think that the contracts. looking forward again we think that the contracts We're not going to sign a contract that doesn't work for us, and they're not. we're not going to sign a contract that doesn't work for us and they're not We found common ground with DISH, even at a time where there was no event. we found common ground with dish even at a time where there was no event We didn't have to play hostage-taking with the Super Bowl or any of that kind of stuff. we didn't have to play hostage-taking with the super bowl or any of that kind of stuff I think everybody's looking at the marketplace, and look, there have also been some things in the marketplace that have been done, not by us, but by others, where there's a rationalization of a lot of the content that's out there and how that's being delivered. i think everybody's looking at the marketplace and look there have also been some things in the marketplace that have been done not by us but by others where there's a rationalization of a lot of the content that's out there and how that's being delivered When we look at the overall marketplace, I think we view that as a one-off. when we look at the overall marketplace i think we view that as a one-off It certainly is a one-off for Gray. it certainly is a one-off for gray Going forward, we're optimistic we'll be able to continue to find common ground. Going forward, we're optimistic we'll be able to continue to find common ground. going forward we're optimistic we'll be able to continue to find common ground

Speaker 2: Just on the network side, how are you thinking about potential NFL rights step up in the calculus, I guess? Talk about cost of sports rights going up and how that'll trickle down to the affiliates. Just on the network side, how are you thinking about potential NFL rights step up in the calculus, I guess? just on the network side how are you thinking about potential nfl rights step up in the calculus i guess Talk about cost of sports rights going up and how that'll trickle down to the affiliates. talk about cost of sports rights going up and how that'll trickle down to the affiliates

Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, listen, the NFL is premium content. We all realize that. There'll be a paying up of premium content, but that's going to be shared between the network, the affiliates, and the streaming side of the networks. At the end of the day, I think the network's going to want broad [audio distortion] want broad reach. I think, yeah, we'll continue. Yeah. yeah I mean, listen, the NFL is premium content. i mean listen the nfl is premium content We all realize that. we all realize that There'll be a paying up of premium content, but that's going to be shared between the network, the affiliates, and the streaming side of the networks. there'll be a paying up of premium content but that's going to be shared between the network the affiliates and the streaming side of the networks At the end of the day, I think the network's going to want broad [audio distortion] want broad reach. at the end of the day i think the network's going to want broad [audio distortion] want broad reach I think, yeah, we'll continue. i think yeah we'll continue

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's equally interesting, Hanna, that the local sports rights are coming back to broadcast. That's not just happening for no reason, right? The reach, the ubiquitous delivery of the market, we were the first to do that when we did the Phoenix Suns deal, and the Phoenix Suns have been one of the best salespeople that we've had. We've had teams that aren't in our footprint call us and say, "Hey, we've heard good things. Can you guys help us?" We're confident that, again, there's real value that broadcast delivers to the team beyond just a check that we send them. They're seeing the teams that have come back to broadcast have new interest and another generation of fans that gets butts in seats and sells concessions and the whole thing works better. Yeah, I think it's equally interesting, Hanna, that the local sports rights are coming back to broadcast. yeah i think it's equally interesting hanna that the local sports rights are coming back to broadcast That's not just happening for no reason, right? that's not just happening for no reason right The reach, the ubiquitous delivery of the market, we were the first to do that when we did the Phoenix Suns deal, and the Phoenix Suns have been one of the best salespeople that we've had. the reach the ubiquitous delivery of the market we were the first to do that when we did the phoenix suns deal and the phoenix suns have been one of the best salespeople that we've had We've had teams that aren't in our footprint call us and say, "Hey, we've heard good things. we've had teams that aren't in our footprint call us and say "hey we've heard good things Can you guys help us?" We're confident that, again, there's real value that broadcast delivers to the team beyond just a check that we send them. can you guys help us?" we're confident that again there's real value that broadcast delivers to the team beyond just a check that we send them They're seeing the teams that have come back to broadcast have new interest and another generation of fans that gets butts in seats and sells concessions and the whole thing works better. they're seeing the teams that have come back to broadcast have new interest and another generation of fans that gets butts in seats and sells concessions and the whole thing works better

Speaker 2: Yeah, you've been expanding your local sports programming significantly. I think now 16 broadcast sports networks on 19 MLB, 13 NBA, eight NHL, and six WNBA, Braves partnership and INTENNSE Tennis at Assembly. Can you just talk us through kind of the economics of the local sports rights? Is this something that you're going to be investing in further, or how you view? Yeah, you've been expanding your local sports programming significantly. yeah you've been expanding your local sports programming significantly I think now 16 broadcast sports networks on 19 MLB, 13 NBA, eight NHL, and six WNBA, Braves partnership and INTENNSE Tennis at Assembly. i think now 16 broadcast sports networks on 19 mlb 13 nba eight nhl and six wnba braves partnership and intennse tennis at assembly Can you just talk us through kind of the economics of the local sports rights? can you just talk us through kind of the economics of the local sports rights Is this something that you're going to be investing in further, or how you view? is this something that you're going to be investing in further or how you view

Speaker 3: Look, I think we'd love to do more, but we're only going to do it on terms that work for us. We model out each opportunity. It gets into the weeds in terms of who's doing the selling and who owns the inventory, all of those things. Anything that's in our footprint is of interest to us as we can make money doing it. Look, I think we'd love to do more, but we're only going to do it on terms that work for us. look i think we'd love to do more but we're only going to do it on terms that work for us We model out each opportunity. we model out each opportunity It gets into the weeds in terms of who's doing the selling and who owns the inventory, all of those things. it gets into the weeds in terms of who's doing the selling and who owns the inventory all of those things Anything that's in our footprint is of interest to us as we can make money doing it. anything that's in our footprint is of interest to us as we can make money doing it

Speaker 2: Okay. That makes sense. I guess in terms of capital allocation priorities overall, maintaining the dividend, CapEx, some of these additional opportunities that you see here, you'll be using the political cash flow primarily for debt reduction. Talk about how you balance these priorities, how we should think about. Okay. okay That makes sense. that makes sense I guess in terms of capital allocation priorities overall, maintaining the dividend, CapEx, some of these additional opportunities that you see here, you'll be using the political cash flow primarily for debt reduction. i guess in terms of capital allocation priorities overall maintaining the dividend capex some of these additional opportunities that you see here you'll be using the political cash flow primarily for debt reduction Talk about how you balance these priorities, how we should think about. talk about how you balance these priorities how we should think about

Speaker 3: The M&A piece is newer. The idea that we can allocate capital to M&A to delever the company is a newer concept in the last, call it year or so. I think we'd love to do more of that, but I would also like to take some quantum of debt off the company. The interest expense is a big drag. The dividend is modest. At this point we've continued paying it even with the heavy interest burden. CapEx, we don't want to under-invest in our stations. Like I said, we're number one and number two, and I think it's 87%, to be precise, on the number of markets. We feel like that's the core of our business, and we don't want to under-invest in our stations either. The M&A piece is newer. the m&a piece is newer The idea that we can allocate capital to M&A to delever the company is a newer concept in the last, call it year or so. the idea that we can allocate capital to m&a to delever the company is a newer concept in the last call it year or so I think we'd love to do more of that, but I would also like to take some quantum of debt off the company. i think we'd love to do more of that but i would also like to take some quantum of debt off the company The interest expense is a big drag. the interest expense is a big drag The dividend is modest. the dividend is modest At this point we've continued paying it even with the heavy interest burden. at this point we've continued paying it even with the heavy interest burden CapEx, we don't want to under-invest in our stations. capex we don't want to under-invest in our stations Like I said, we're number one and number two, and I think it's 87%, to be precise, on the number of markets. like i said we're number one and number two and i think it's 87% to be precise on the number of markets We feel like that's the core of our business, and we don't want to under-invest in our stations either. we feel like that's the core of our business and we don't want to under-invest in our stations either We'll spend more in a political year than we would in a non-political year. That's a long pattern for the company, try to match the cash coming in and going out. I'm hopeful that unless we find a bunch of other M&A. We'll spend more in a political year than we would in a non-political year. we'll spend more in a political year than we would in a non-political year That's a long pattern for the company, try to match the cash coming in and going out. that's a long pattern for the company try to match the cash coming in and going out I'm hopeful that unless we find a bunch of other M&A. i'm hopeful that unless we find a bunch of other m&a

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 3: It's going to be debt paydown and let's get the balance sheet to a better spot. It's going to be debt paydown and let's get the balance sheet to a better spot. it's going to be debt paydown and let's get the balance sheet to a better spot

Speaker 2: Then related to that, in terms of AI deployment and automation, kind of talk to us about how that's factoring into, I guess, the cost side of things, what the most tangible productivity gains are so far, and how you see this playing into your operations moving forward. Then related to that, in terms of AI deployment and automation, kind of talk to us about how that's factoring into, I guess, the cost side of things, what the most tangible productivity gains are so far, and how you see this playing into your operations moving forward. then related to that in terms of ai deployment and automation kind of talk to us about how that's factoring into i guess the cost side of things what the most tangible productivity gains are so far and how you see this playing into your operations moving forward

Speaker 1: Yeah, we're using AI for content repurposing. We're using it on our advertising business for targeting. We've used our connected TV. We use a service called Quickplay, which is backed by Google right now for better targeting. It'll be a longer-term process, but we are starting to already see some benefits from AI. Yeah, we're using AI for content repurposing. yeah we're using ai for content repurposing We're using it on our advertising business for targeting. we're using it on our advertising business for targeting We've used our connected TV. we've used our connected tv We use a service called Quickplay, which is backed by Google right now for better targeting. we use a service called quickplay which is backed by google right now for better targeting It'll be a longer-term process, but we are starting to already see some benefits from AI. it'll be a longer-term process but we are starting to already see some benefits from ai

Speaker 3: I think some of it's productivity for our journalists to do what they do best. If you think about somebody going out and shooting a story, they used to have to manually change it to put it on the website to make it vertical video friendly for the social media platforms and things like that. Now you can do that with a touch of a button, and they can get on to the next story. At this point, a lot of it's the productivity side of it. Salesperson getting ready to go pitch a new client. I think some of it's productivity for our journalists to do what they do best. i think some of it's productivity for our journalists to do what they do best If you think about somebody going out and shooting a story, they used to have to manually change it to put it on the website to make it vertical video friendly for the social media platforms and things like that. if you think about somebody going out and shooting a story they used to have to manually change it to put it on the website to make it vertical video friendly for the social media platforms and things like that Now you can do that with a touch of a button, and they can get on to the next story. now you can do that with a touch of a button and they can get on to the next story At this point, a lot of it's the productivity side of it. at this point a lot of it's the productivity side of it Salesperson getting ready to go pitch a new client. salesperson getting ready to go pitch a new client Give me a two-page summary of the company and the market, and they get it right away. It lets people do what they're best at rather than some of the administrative tasks. That's how we're using it thus far, and we're looking at how do we pull it into more things over a longer period of time. Give me a two-page summary of the company and the market, and they get it right away. give me a two-page summary of the company and the market and they get it right away It lets people do what they're best at rather than some of the administrative tasks. it lets people do what they're best at rather than some of the administrative tasks That's how we're using it thus far, and we're looking at how do we pull it into more things over a longer period of time. that's how we're using it thus far and we're looking at how do we pull it into more things over a longer period of time

Speaker 2: That's helpful. Then I want to touch on Assembly Atlanta. I think you've invested over $600 million or so to date. Just for those newer to the Gray story, talk a little bit about what that is, how it's being used, and what you anticipate from it moving forward. That's helpful. that's helpful Then I want to touch on Assembly Atlanta. then i want to touch on assembly atlanta I think you've invested over $600 million or so to date. i think you've invested over $600 million or so to date Just for those newer to the Gray story, talk a little bit about what that is, how it's being used, and what you anticipate from it moving forward. just for those newer to the gray story talk a little bit about what that is how it's being used and what you anticipate from it moving forward

Speaker 3: Yeah, sure. The numbers are in that zip code, $630-ish million of investment. It is a mixed-use real estate project that is anchored by a studio project that is on the north side of Atlanta. Total property is about 120 acres. For those who know Atlanta, it's adjacent to the Doraville MARTA station just inside the perimeter. It's a prime piece of property in Atlanta. The first phase of development was to take 40 acres, build 22 soundstages. The bulk of those are leased to NBCU. They manage the site for us in a partnership. At this point, the studio piece is complete and we're looking at what comes next on the other 80 acres. There's a public park component to it. Yeah, sure. yeah sure The numbers are in that zip code, $630-ish million of investment. the numbers are in that zip code $630-ish million of investment It is a mixed-use real estate project that is anchored by a studio project that is on the north side of Atlanta. it is a mixed-use real estate project that is anchored by a studio project that is on the north side of atlanta Total property is about 120 acres. total property is about 120 acres For those who know Atlanta, it's adjacent to the Doraville MARTA station just inside the perimeter. for those who know atlanta it's adjacent to the doraville marta station just inside the perimeter It's a prime piece of property in Atlanta. it's a prime piece of property in atlanta The first phase of development was to take 40 acres, build 22 soundstages. the first phase of development was to take 40 acres build 22 soundstages The bulk of those are leased to NBCU. the bulk of those are leased to nbcu They manage the site for us in a partnership. they manage the site for us in a partnership At this point, the studio piece is complete and we're looking at what comes next on the other 80 acres. at this point the studio piece is complete and we're looking at what comes next on the other 80 acres There's a public park component to it. there's a public park component to it Over time, Gray does not need to own some of these, but we may want to own some of whatever comes next. We don't need to own an apartment building, so we'll find a partner to monetize by selling the land to experts to do that piece of it, and we'll find other ways to monetize the rest of the land. At this stage, the heavy CapEx is complete. There's not plans for massive additional investment from Gray. At this point, Gray can monetize by contributing land into partnerships and letting the experts on the real estate side do their thing. Over time, Gray does not need to own some of these, but we may want to own some of whatever comes next. over time gray does not need to own some of these but we may want to own some of whatever comes next We don't need to own an apartment building, so we'll find a partner to monetize by selling the land to experts to do that piece of it, and we'll find other ways to monetize the rest of the land. we don't need to own an apartment building so we'll find a partner to monetize by selling the land to experts to do that piece of it and we'll find other ways to monetize the rest of the land At this stage, the heavy CapEx is complete. at this stage the heavy capex is complete There's not plans for massive additional investment from Gray. there's not plans for massive additional investment from gray At this point, Gray can monetize by contributing land into partnerships and letting the experts on the real estate side do their thing. at this point gray can monetize by contributing land into partnerships and letting the experts on the real estate side do their thing

Speaker 2: That's helpful. I guess before we start to get to closing and key takeaways for the group, talk to us about what you think as the major risk or what keeps you up at night about broadcast, Gray specifically. On the flip side, what you're most excited about. That's helpful. that's helpful I guess before we start to get to closing and key takeaways for the group, talk to us about what you think as the major risk or what keeps you up at night about broadcast, Gray specifically. i guess before we start to get to closing and key takeaways for the group talk to us about what you think as the major risk or what keeps you up at night about broadcast gray specifically On the flip side, what you're most excited about. on the flip side what you're most excited about

Speaker 3: I'd say that keep me up at night would be if there were some kind of a significant recession while we're carrying this much leverage. It's just the reality of it, right? If we have a big deep recession, I say keeps me up at night, I can't really control that. I guess the point of that is there's some urgency to getting our leverage to a more comfortable spot so that if and when something happens, we're in a better spot to capitalize on that. On the opportunity side, we are in a stronger position than a bunch of others, and there are a bunch of assets out there that could really enhance our portfolio, and that is exciting. I think there's a lot of folks who would like us to own more given the quality of our station portfolio. I'd say that keep me up at night would be if there were some kind of a significant recession while we're carrying this much leverage. i'd say that keep me up at night would be if there were some kind of a significant recession while we're carrying this much leverage It's just the reality of it, right? it's just the reality of it right If we have a big deep recession, I say keeps me up at night, I can't really control that. if we have a big deep recession i say keeps me up at night i can't really control that I guess the point of that is there's some urgency to getting our leverage to a more comfortable spot so that if and when something happens, we're in a better spot to capitalize on that. i guess the point of that is there's some urgency to getting our leverage to a more comfortable spot so that if and when something happens we're in a better spot to capitalize on that On the opportunity side, we are in a stronger position than a bunch of others, and there are a bunch of assets out there that could really enhance our portfolio, and that is exciting. on the opportunity side we are in a stronger position than a bunch of others and there are a bunch of assets out there that could really enhance our portfolio and that is exciting I think there's a lot of folks who would like us to own more given the quality of our station portfolio. i think there's a lot of folks who would like us to own more given the quality of our station portfolio When I look at those things, it's give us some time to get the leverage down a little bit and opportunistically deploy capital to grow the company. When I look at those things, it's give us some time to get the leverage down a little bit and opportunistically deploy capital to grow the company. when i look at those things it's give us some time to get the leverage down a little bit and opportunistically deploy capital to grow the company

Speaker 2: I guess, what do you think is the market's most misunderstanding about the Gray story and key catalyst besides bringing the leverage down, that could unlock value? I guess, what do you think is the market's most misunderstanding about the Gray story and key catalyst besides bringing the leverage down, that could unlock value? i guess what do you think is the market's most misunderstanding about the gray story and key catalyst besides bringing the leverage down that could unlock value

Speaker 3: I'll let Alan answer that one as a research analyst. A recovering research analyst. I'll let Alan answer that one as a research analyst. i'll let alan answer that one as a research analyst A recovering research analyst. a recovering research analyst

Speaker 1: I think the key thing is the value of having number one and number two ranked stations. If you're a political advertiser, you want to be advertising on that number one news station in a marketplace. If there's a recession, you're going to cut from the number four, number three. If you look at our monetization per household, it shows the numbers behind what makes it special being number one and number two. Second thing, the stabilization of net retrans. I think that's critical. You said besides the leverage, but the leverage coming down will be the third. I think the key thing is the value of having number one and number two ranked stations. i think the key thing is the value of having number one and number two ranked stations If you're a political advertiser, you want to be advertising on that number one news station in a marketplace. if you're a political advertiser you want to be advertising on that number one news station in a marketplace If there's a recession, you're going to cut from the number four, number three. if there's a recession you're going to cut from the number four number three If you look at our monetization per household, it shows the numbers behind what makes it special being number one and number two. if you look at our monetization per household it shows the numbers behind what makes it special being number one and number two Second thing, the stabilization of net retrans. second thing the stabilization of net retrans I think that's critical. i think that's critical You said besides the leverage, but the leverage coming down will be the third. you said besides the leverage but the leverage coming down will be the third

Speaker 2: I want to see if there's any questions from the audience. If not, we will see if there's any closing thoughts. We have one over here. I want to see if there's any questions from the audience. i want to see if there's any questions from the audience If not, we will see if there's any closing thoughts. if not we will see if there's any closing thoughts We have one over here. we have one over here

Speaker 4: My brother has a law firm across the street from the Braves stadium. I'm curious if there's any desire to collaborate with the really great franchises and content that is already in Atlanta. I know you guys are focused on local, but, yeah, I'm curious if there's any strategic plan to engage with the great content there. My brother has a law firm across the street from the Braves stadium. my brother has a law firm across the street from the braves stadium I'm curious if there's any desire to collaborate with the really great franchises and content that is already in Atlanta. i'm curious if there's any desire to collaborate with the really great franchises and content that is already in atlanta I know you guys are focused on local, but, yeah, I'm curious if there's any strategic plan to engage with the great content there. i know you guys are focused on local but yeah i'm curious if there's any strategic plan to engage with the great content there

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think everybody can hear the question. In terms of engaging with some of the great content that's already in Atlanta, we don't have very specific plans on that. There are interesting things that we are doing through the studio complex. One of our soundstages has been converted to an indoor tennis facility. We're going to be broadcasting. There's a tennis league called INTENNSE Tennis. You can find it. There's actually some pretty cool pictures out there right now on Instagram inside our studio. It'll have a live studio audience, and some of those games will be broadcast on our independent station in Atlanta. We're getting very creative with being embedded in the Atlanta ecosystem. You have a presenter later who knows the Braves pretty well, who we've had a number of discussions with and have a partnership with. Yeah, I think everybody can hear the question. yeah i think everybody can hear the question In terms of engaging with some of the great content that's already in Atlanta, we don't have very specific plans on that. in terms of engaging with some of the great content that's already in atlanta we don't have very specific plans on that There are interesting things that we are doing through the studio complex. there are interesting things that we are doing through the studio complex One of our soundstages has been converted to an indoor tennis facility. one of our soundstages has been converted to an indoor tennis facility We're going to be broadcasting. we're going to be broadcasting There's a tennis league called INTENNSE Tennis. there's a tennis league called intennse tennis You can find it. you can find it There's actually some pretty cool pictures out there right now on Instagram inside our studio. there's actually some pretty cool pictures out there right now on instagram inside our studio It'll have a live studio audience, and some of those games will be broadcast on our independent station in Atlanta. it'll have a live studio audience and some of those games will be broadcast on our independent station in atlanta We're getting very creative with being embedded in the Atlanta ecosystem. we're getting very creative with being embedded in the atlanta ecosystem You have a presenter later who knows the Braves pretty well, who we've had a number of discussions with and have a partnership with. you have a presenter later who knows the braves pretty well who we've had a number of discussions with and have a partnership with That content in particular, we do have 25 Braves games. Yeah, look, we're always looking at ways, especially now that we have an independent station in Atlanta where we want to be the voice of Atlanta. Things like that are very interesting to us, and it gets really back to our local in every market we try to do that. It's not unique to Atlanta, although because we're headquartered there and have a significant investment in the city, it's maybe more pronounced there. That content in particular, we do have 25 Braves games. that content in particular we do have 25 braves games Yeah, look, we're always looking at ways, especially now that we have an independent station in Atlanta where we want to be the voice of Atlanta. yeah look we're always looking at ways especially now that we have an independent station in atlanta where we want to be the voice of atlanta Things like that are very interesting to us, and it gets really back to our local in every market we try to do that. things like that are very interesting to us and it gets really back to our local in every market we try to do that It's not unique to Atlanta, although because we're headquartered there and have a significant investment in the city, it's maybe more pronounced there. it's not unique to atlanta although because we're headquartered there and have a significant investment in the city it's maybe more pronounced there

Speaker 2: Great. Well, I think that that will bring us to a close. Thank you so much for being here. Great. great Well, I think that that will bring us to a close. well i think that that will bring us to a close Thank you so much for being here. thank you so much for being here

Speaker 3: Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. thanks for having us