In the company’s quarterly conference call with analysts, officials of Barrington Broadcasting Group claimed success with its “D2 strategy” – that’s adding a major network affiliate on a digital multicast channel to an existing station.
“In Marquette, MI, we added a Fox station to our primary NBC station and launched a 10 pm news on the Fox digital channel. In Quincy, IL, we added an ABC station to our primary CBS station and in Kirksville, MO we added a CBS station to our primary ABC station and launched a 6:30 pm news on the CBS digital channel, which serves the Ottumwa, IA side of the market. Both the Fox and ABC D2s are already generating ratings, revenues and retransmission revenues. We expect the same success with our newly-launched CBS D2 in Kirksville,” said COO Chris Cornelius.
The stations cited are KHQA-TV Quincy, WLUC-TV Marquette and KTVO-TV Kirksville – along-established powerhouse operations in their markets.
RBR-TVBR observation: Quite a good move in markets where it is possible. Of course, not too many markets still have one of the Big Four networks available.
