Gray Television, Inc. Announces Significant Progress in Retransmission Consent Negotiations
December 15 2008 - 5:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
ATLANTA, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gray Television, Inc.
(NYSE: GTNNYSE:andNYSE:GTN.A) announced today that it has reached
agreements in principal on the basic economic terms of
retransmission consent agreements with twenty large cable operators
involving approximately 2.4 million in-market cable subscribers. In
addition, the Company has reached numerous agreements in principal
with smaller cable operators. These agreements in principal are
subject to the completion and execution of definitive agreements.
These agreements in principal and certain definitive agreements
completed earlier in 2008 represent approximately 75% of the
Company's total in-market cable subscribers with large cable
operators. The completed cable and satellite agreements mentioned
below and the agreements in principal with large cable operators
discussed above are currently anticipated to provide approximately
$8.4 million of incremental cash retransmission consent revenue
during 2009. Completed agreements with numerous small cable
operators will further increase the expected incremental cash
retransmission consent revenue for 2009. The Company currently
anticipates that total retransmission consent revenues will
approximate $3.0 million for 2008. The Company is currently in
active negotiations with an additional ten large cable operators
representing approximately 1.0 million in-market subscribers as
well as numerous small cable operators. Previously in 2008 the
Company had reached definitive agreements with EchoStar and Cox
Cable covering a total of approximately 1.2 million subscribers.
Gray Television, Inc. is a television broadcast company
headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Gray currently operates 36 television
stations serving 30 markets. Each of the stations are affiliated
with either CBS (17 stations), NBC (10 stations), ABC (8 stations)
or FOX (1 station). In addition, Gray currently operates 39 digital
second channels including 1 ABC, 5 Fox, 7 CW and 16 MyNetworkTV
affiliates plus 8 local news/weather channels and 2 "independent"
channels in certain of its existing markets. DATASOURCE: Gray
Television, Inc. CONTACT: Bob Prather, President, +1-404-266-8333,
Jim Ryan, Chief Financial Officer, +1-404-504-9828 Web site:
http://www.gray.tv/
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