Has COVID-19, and now the delta variant, crippled broadcast transaction values forever? It’s a tough question asked to top media brokers by RBR+TVBR in our Fall 2021 Special Report.
For some, station valuations for radio were sliding before the coronavirus cratered the marketplace. For others, there’s green on the horizon for both radio and TV broadcasters. Will the green — specifically, greenbacks — come in 2022?
A Forecast 2022 panel session featuring Guggenheim Securities Senior Advisor Drew Marcus could offer some clarity on the subject. Marcus will moderate a panel of investment specialists who are poised to take a hard look at 2021 and what lies ahead in 2022 and beyond for broadcast investments. It’s a “fact-based, tire kicking” session you won’t want to miss.
What did some of the nation’s leading media brokers have to say?
“A better story needs to be told about radio,” said Lou McDermott of Kalil & Co. “The only story I can tell is what I’m seeing transactionally, and that is radio groups that are successful and recovering from the pandemic are continuing to annualize growth. They are looking at properties that make sense for them. Offers are being made. And we’re positive.
We see signs of life. We have activity, and that activity is growing.”
Dick Foreman, President of media brokerage and consultancy RAFAMEDIA, like McDermott, believes the television dealmaking landscape is full of buyers. The problem, like in the automotive industry, is simple. “There is no inventory,” Foreman says. “That’s it.
Period. And the prices being paid for television are eight to nine times trailing cash
flow. But you can’t find anything.”
Media broker Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co. sees the TV transactions landscape in a slightly different manner. “The traditional TV deal is dead,” he lamented when interviewed for RBR+TVBR’s Fall 2021 Special Report. “It’s just all about fill-ins. Everything is consolidated. If your livelihood is about being a TV station broker, you’re on thin ice.”
