Sinclair Q1 2026 Earnings Report

Sinclair EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.28
• Consensus EPS: -$0.68
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.96
• One Year Ago EPS: -$2.30

Sinclair Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $807.00 million
• Expected Revenue: $792.63 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$14.37 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +4.00%

Sinclair Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 4/30/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 4:30PM ET

Sinclair (NASDAQ:SBGI) (NASDAQ: SBGI) is a diversified media company focused primarily on local television broadcasting in the United States. Through its television stations, the company provides local news, weather, sports, entertainment and syndicated programming to audiences in markets across the country.

Sinclair also develops and distributes content through national and regional networks, digital platforms and streaming services. Its portfolio has included sports-focused programming, news and information services, and digital products designed to extend the reach of its broadcast content across connected televisions, websites and mobile devices.

The company was founded in 1986 by David D. Smith and is headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Sinclair has expanded over time through acquisitions and affiliations involving local broadcast stations and related media assets. Chris Ripley has served as president and chief executive officer since 2017, while David D. Smith has held a leadership role as executive chairman.

Sinclair Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results — Sinclair reported revenue of $807 million (up 4%) and adjusted EBITDA of $126 million (up 13%) and is reaffirming its full‑year 2026 guidance.
• Positive Sentiment: Core operations gaining momentum — core advertising grew 4% and distribution rose 2%, helped by the Digital Remedy acquisition, improving MVPD subscriber trends, and partner station buy‑ins, with management expecting the full $30 million of annualized buy‑in synergies in 2026.
• Positive Sentiment: Balance‑sheet progress — the company retired about $165 million of term loans in April (saving ~$12 million in annual cash interest), ended the quarter with ~$1.5 billion liquidity and reported STG net leverage of 5.1x (improved 0.2x sequentially).
• Neutral Sentiment: Tennis Channel momentum vs. short‑term costs — Tennis Channel delivered record March viewership and a ~19% year‑over‑year increase in household reach with rising D2C subs, but adjusted EBITDA fell as Sinclair is investing in rights, D2C and FAST expansion.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and M&A uncertainty — state‑level litigation around Nexstar‑Tegna and an FCC inquiry into sports streaming have introduced near‑term timing risk for industry consolidation; Sinclair still favors a broadcast combination concurrent with a Ventures separation but says timing may be delayed.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, everyone. Welcome to the Sinclair first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to hand the floor over to your host, Chris King, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

[Chris King, VP of Investor Relations at Sinclair]

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining Sinclair's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Chris Ripley, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Narinder Sahai, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Rob Weisbord, our COO and President of Local Media. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that slides for today's earnings call are available on our website, sbgi.net, on the Events and Presentations page of the Investor Relations portion of the site. A webcast replay will remain available on our website until our next quarterly earnings release. Certain matters discussed on this call may include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, future operating results. Such statements are subject to several risks and uncertainties. Actual results in the future could differ from those described in the forward-looking statements because of various important factors.

[Chris King, VP of Investor Relations at Sinclair]

Such factors have been set forth in the company's most recent reports as filed with the SEC and included in our first quarter earnings release. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Included on the call will be a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, specifically Adjusted EBITDA. This measure is not formulated in accordance with GAAP and is not meant to replace GAAP measurements and may differ from other companies' uses or formulations. Further discussions and reconciliations of the company's non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures can be found on our website. Please note that unless otherwise noted, all year-over-year comparisons throughout today's call are presented on an as-reported basis. Let me now turn the call over Chris Ripley.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Thank you, Chris. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin on slide three. We delivered a strong first quarter, which results that reflect the consistency of the broadcast business and the growth potential of Tennis Channel. For the quarter, total revenue of $807 million was up 4% year-over-year, while Adjusted EBITDA of $126 million grew by 13%. Distribution revenue increased by 2% year-over-year as modestly improved subscriber trends continued. We're starting to see the benefit of our partner station buy-ins. Net retransmission revenue was also up year-over-year. In addition, we continue to see growth in our core advertising business.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Core advertising grew 4% year-over-year in the first quarter, a result we were pleased with given our underexposure to NBC, which delivered an exceptionally strong quarter due to its affiliates on the back of the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and NBA. Looking ahead, Fox, our largest affiliation, will carry a record schedule of World Cup soccer matches on the broadcast network in June and July, ahead of the political ramp in the fourth quarter. Turning to execution across our broader strategic priorities, we have built real momentum. We've now closed on a substantial majority of our JSA and LMA partner station buy-ins, with only a small number remaining, and we expect the full $30 million in annualized synergies in 2026. We also recently completed two accretive duopoly transactions in Providence and Tulsa, with several smaller portfolio optimization discussions underway.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Our strategic review of the broadcast business remains active. As previously discussed, our ideal path forward is a broadcast combination concurrent with a Ventures separation. We remain Scripps' largest shareholder, and our perspective on the strategic logic of the combination is unchanged from what we shared previously. Within Ventures, the portfolio generated $12 million of cash distributions during the quarter, ending with $451 million of cash. That liquidity provides flexibility as we advance our Ventures separation planning. As a result of our first quarter results and current forecast, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 guidance. Finally, we continue to work to strengthen our balance sheet. Early this month, we retired approximately $165 million in term loans at a discount through an unmodified reverse Dutch auction. As a result, we will save approximately $12 million in annual cash interest expense.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

As evidenced by this transaction, deleveraging remains a top priority. We ended the quarter with total debt of $4.4 billion and total liquidity of approximately $1.5 billion, including total cash of $844 million. We are pleased with our first quarter financial and operational results. Our team is executing with discipline across multiple priorities, and we are well-positioned for the remainder of 2026. The industry continues to await several important decisions that are now in front of the Federal Communications Commission. While the recent California litigation involving the Nexstar Tegna transaction took up much of the broadcast regulatory headlines over the past few weeks and has introduced some near-term uncertainty on timing, we believe the broader environment remains constructive for local broadcasters, and we continue to feel optimistic about the direction of significant issues.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Both the FCC and the Department of Justice approved the Nexstar acquisition of Tegna with no material conditions, and we remain pleased with the overall deregulatory tone from Washington. I won't rehash most of those other issues which we discussed on our fourth quarter call in February, but one development is worth noting. In late February, the FCC launched an inquiry into the sports media marketplace, examining how streaming exclusives affect consumers, broadcasters, and free over-the-air access. Turning to slide five. Since the launch of the FCC inquiry on February 25th, well over 10,000 comments have been submitted on the FCC's sports media marketplace inquiry, making it one of the most commented on inquiries in commission history.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

As every television viewer and sports fan knows all too well, the fragmentation of live sports programming is causing increasing customer frustration with both higher costs and confusion around where the games are televised. With 96 of the top 100 most watched telecasts last year being live sports broadcasts, including record ratings across almost every major sport, this has become an increasingly important topic for both consumers and regulators. Broadcast delivers what no other platform can, the widest reach and the lowest cost to the consumer. The numbers make the point. The NFL Thanksgiving game on November drew 57.2 million viewers, the most-watched regular season NFL game ever on Fox. The Amazon NFL game the very next day drew only 16.3 million. Same league, same week, roughly 3.5 times the audience on broadcast.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Meanwhile, last year, NFL games aired on 10 different services, which according to some estimates, could cost a consumer over $1,500 to watch all of the games, even though the large majority of those games aired free over-the-air on broadcast networks. Live sports is the cornerstone of the broadcast ecosystem. It drives mass audiences, and it underwrites the financial model that sustains local television stations and the local journalism they produce. The migration of major sporting events behind streaming paywalls is not just bad for consumers, it risks eroding one of the last shared viewing experiences we all have, and it pressures the very business model that funds local news and community programming.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Maintaining broad and free access to live sports should remain a top priority for policymakers as they continue to examine this issue that has clearly struck a nerve with viewers and policymakers across the country. With that, let me turn the call over to Rob to discuss operational highlights in the quarter.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me walk through our operational performance and how we're positioned heading into the remainder of 2026, starting on slide six. We delivered solid growth in core advertising, with first quarter core revenue up 4% year-over-year, driven by the strength in digital and our acquisition of Digital Remedy. Advertisers continue to prioritize platforms that provide scale, interactivity, and live engagement. Broadcast consistently delivers on all three. Notably, our NBC affiliates delivered very strong results, benefiting from the convergence of major live sporting events. The Super Bowl was the second most-watched telecast of all time in the U.S. The Winter Olympics were the most-watched Winter Olympic Games in 12 years on broadcast television, and the NBA continues to deliver solid ratings for the network.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

While we are underweight NBC, we are overweight Fox, which is our largest network affiliation, and we are already seeing strong demand for the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament on Fox this June and July. Notably, 70 of the 104 total matches will air live on the linear Fox broadcast stations, with 40 matches scheduled for Prime Time. This is exactly the kind of appointment viewing broadcast is built for, delivering mass audience with unmatched reach across the country. Our core advertising continues to benefit from Digital Remedy, our programmatic digital advertising platform. Ad dollars increasingly shift across linear, connected TV, and digital, Digital Remedy allows us to capture demand across all those channels rather than being limited to linear. That matters in the political cycle too. Beyond linear, we continue to see engagement growth across podcasts and social platforms.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Recent activations like the Tailgate Tour and The Block demonstrate our ability to engage audience beyond traditional broadcast, while creating meaningful opportunities for our advertising partners. Our next activation will be at the World Cup, hosted by Unfiltered Soccer stars Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, two of the most capped players in the U.S. national team history. In summary, Sinclair continues to execute well on its core broadcast business. Broadcast differentiated role is strengthened in a year like this, political and sports-heavy 2026, with both ratings and subscriber trends showing positive momentum. Turning to slide seven, Tennis Channel continued the momentum around live sports and delivered an exceptional quarter and a historic month of March. March 2026 was Tennis Channel's most watched month ever, led by the Indian Wells and Miami Open tournaments, attracting record audiences.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Miami Open women's final between Sabalenka and Gauff was the most watched women's match in Tennis Channel history, breaking a viewership record set just two weeks earlier at the Indian Wells women's final. In fact, four of the top five most watched matches of all time for Tennis Channel occurred in March as Tennis Channel household viewership increased by 19% year-over-year in the quarter. In addition, Tennis Channel has hit record D2C subscriber numbers in recent weeks, driven in large part through its recent launch with Amazon Prime Video. Tennis Channel 2, the network's FAST channel, which launched on Peacock in January, will continue to feature Women's Day every Tuesday, a programming day exclusively dedicated to women's tennis, reinforcing our leadership in women's sports programming.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

While we remain disciplined on expenses, we are also making thoughtful, high-return investments to support the long-term growth of the franchise. Expanding our content rights portfolio, scaling our direct-to-consumer platform, and building out Tennis Channel 2, as well as our digital platforms. Tennis Channel is a differentiated premium sports asset, and we are investing behind it accordingly. We are fully bullish on the network. Lastly, we continue to build out Amazing America 250. From neighborhood to nation, a multi-platform celebration of U.S. history, culture, innovation, and community spirit. Programming will expand as we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding on July 4. Let me now turn the call over to Narinder to discuss the first quarter financial results in more detail.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Thank you, Rob, good afternoon, everyone. Turning to slide eight, I'm pleased with our first quarter results that reflect strong execution across the business. At the total company level, revenue was $807 million, up 4% year-over-year. Distribution revenue of $458 million grew 2%, supported by lower subscriber churn across key MVPDs and incremental benefit from our partner station buy-ins, both of which also contributed to growth in net retransmission revenue. Core advertising revenue of $305 million also grew 4%, reflecting the contribution from Digital Remedy acquisition that closed in March of last year, continued strength in live sports, including the Winter Olympics and NFL playoffs. Adjusted EBITDA was $126 million, up 13% year-over-year.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

The increase reflects both revenue strength and operating leverage, with operating expenses absorbing the cost base from the Digital Remedy acquisition, while core operating costs remained well controlled. In the Local Media segment, total revenue of $701 million benefited from the same distribution and advertising trends. Distribution revenue of $402 million and core advertising revenue of $261 million both showed modest growth year-over-year. Segment Adjusted EBITDA of $117 million reflects lower programming and production costs, lower network compensation related to prior year station sales, and disciplined SG&A expenses. Within the Tennis segment, total revenue of $70 million was also up year-over-year.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Adjusted EBITDA of $20 million was below last year's first quarter, reflecting an increase in sales and programming expenses as we continue to invest behind the network's growth that Rob referenced earlier. Capital expenditures on a consolidated basis are $15 million. Overall, the quarter reflects broad-based execution, improving subscriber trends and solid advertising demand across the company. Turning to slide nine, I'd like to provide an update on Sinclair Ventures. Consistent with the strategy we previously outlined, Ventures continues to shift from passive minority investments towards majority-controlled operating businesses with a focus on durable, non-discretionary and recurring revenue streams that convert strongly to free cash flow. Ventures generated $12 million in cash distributions during the quarter, primarily from the secondary market monetization of one of our minority investments, following the $104 million for the full year 2025.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

These distributions demonstrate our ability to monetize investments while preserving upside in the broader portfolio. We also remain selective on new capital deployment with incremental investments of $6 million in the quarter. Ventures ended the quarter with $451 million in cash and cash equivalents. That liquidity provides meaningful optionality as we advance separation planning and continue to evaluate capital allocation opportunities. Overall, as we advance our work towards a potential separation, Ventures continues to generate meaningful cash while repositioning the portfolio toward greater operational control and long-term value creation. Turning to slide 10. As Chris referenced earlier, in early April, we settled an unmodified reverse Dutch auction for our term loans, retiring $165 million in par value at a discount. The de-levering transaction is expected to reduce our annual cash interest expense by approximately $12 million.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Including borrowings under the AR facility, total Sinclair Television Group, or STG debt, was $4.4 billion. Our nearest material maturity, excluding the AR facility, continues to be in December of 2029. At quarter end, as defined in our credit agreement, STG net first-out first lien leverage was 1.5x. Net first lien leverage was 3.8x, and net leverage was 5.1x. Net leverage fell by 0.2 of a turn sequentially, and these figures do not yet reflect the April term loan retirements that I referenced earlier. We ended the quarter with $844 million in consolidated cash, including $392 million at STG and $451 million at Ventures. Including revolver availability, total liquidity was approximately $1.5 billion.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Before turning the call back to Chris, let me briefly frame our first quarter results and outlook in the context of the broader operating environment. When we introduced 2026 full-year financial guidance in February, we planned for stable core advertising trends supported by a sports-heavy broadcast calendar while remaining appropriately cautious given macro headwinds in certain categories. Since then, given the conflict in the Middle East, the external environment has evolved. Consumer sentiment has moved meaningfully lower, inflation expectations have ticked higher, and advertiser visibility in select areas is somewhat more measured than a quarter ago. At the same time, the drivers underpinning our full-year outlook remain firmly intact.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

A record midterm political cycle with competitive races across several of our key markets, the FIFA World Cup anchoring a sports-heavy broadcast calendar in the second and third quarters, and steady distribution supported by moderating subscriber churn and expected benefit from our partner station buy-ins that are now substantially complete. Based on that balance, we are reaffirming our 2026 full-year guidance today. Let me now turn the call back over to Chris for closing comments before we open the call to questions.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

As we wrap up on slide 11, let me briefly summarize our quarter. First, we continued to execute and build momentum on our core broadcast business. We delivered strong results across the board that translated into meaningful cash generation with stable core advertising trends, audience strength anchored by live sports, and improving subscriber churn across key MVPD partners. Live sports continues to drive the kind of appointment viewing audiences that no other platform can match. Both the FCC and DOJ are now examining facets of the live sports broadcasting marketplace, and we believe they are asking the right questions. Tennis Channel further reinforced this dynamic during the quarter, delivering four of the top five most-watched matches in network history, alongside record growth in our direct consumer product.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We also continued to advance our deleveraging priorities with STG net leverage improving in the quarter by 0.2 of a turn sequentially to 5.1x. We also allocated capital to retire $165 million in par value of our term loans at a discount. Looking ahead, we reaffirmed our 2026 guidance, anchored by a resilient revenue mix, strong midterm political revenue expectations, a sports-heavy broadcast calendar headlined by the World Cup, and continued cost discipline. With that, operator, we are ready to open the line for questions.

[Operator]

Certainly. Everyone at this time will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you're listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone. Your first question's coming from Steven Cahall from Wells Fargo. Your line is live.

[Steven Cahall, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Thank you. Chris, it seems like with Nexstar Tegna, a big win for the broadcast, I think far more expanded definition of come into the 21st century. On the other side, we're seeing Nexstar and Tegna tied up in some legal issues. What do you feel like you glean from watching them go through these processes as you think about potential for M&A for Sinclair? Just a related one on this topic. You know, you mentioned that you're still Scripps' number one shareholder. My sense is that there's not-

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We lost you there, Steve, on, not a lot of. You still there?

[Steven Cahall, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Hey, can you hear me?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Okay. Well, we'll wait for. Yes, we can hear you now.

[Steven Cahall, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Sorry. Let me try that again.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Okay.

[Steven Cahall, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

In the Nexstar, the DOJ's much more expansive view of the TV ad market, but now Nexstar is going through, you know, an interesting legal process. What do you think watching them go through this merger that informs your thinking on potential mergers and acquisitions? You mentioned you're the number one shareholder of Scripps. Do you think there's a path there to continue to engage in the future?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Okay. I think I've got your questions, Steve. The first one as it relates to what's going on with Nexstar Tegna, I think what you first said, I think is very important. We have seen an approval of that transaction from both the FCC and the DOJ with no conditions and no divestitures required from the DOJ. That is a huge change in the way the DOJ has historically looked at our market, which was defined as just competition amongst local broadcasters. They have finally come up to date with the realities of the current marketplace, which is, you know, that we compete across, you know, many different mediums, including cable and connected TVs.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

That's a huge win, you know, and it's been a long time in coming, and it will be tremendously helpful to the industry going forward in pursuing a much needed consolidation. As I've talked about before, we firmly believe under this rule set, which has now essentially been, you know, verified at both the FCC and the DOJ with a new large precedence.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

You know, we're gonna head towards, you know, a marketplace where you've got two large groups, you know, that, you know, the industry consolidates up to, which still will be relatively small in the TMT landscape, but will be much better competitors within that broader landscape, as they, you know, improve on efficiencies and gain more access to better talent and open up new business opportunities. That's very exciting. Obviously, you noted the downside here is some of the issues coming up at the state level and specifically in California for Nexstar Tegna. We do think that the case brought against that deal is very flimsy in terms of the merits.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We believe that, you know, now that we've seen the playbook, any future transactions we can, you know, significantly mitigate a similar playbook in future transactions. I think just there's a lot of unique features in the Nexstar Tegna deal. Like it was essentially a number one and number two coming together, which certainly wouldn't be what you would expect and, you know, sort of mathematically can happen in the next combination. There was a bunch of optics around the deal, which didn't look great, which, you know, were very unique to this situation. We, of course, didn't want to see that happen, would rather, you know, Nexstar just proceed forward on a clean basis.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We have a lot of faith that they'll play through this. We don't think the merit of the lawsuit is really there. We do think future large transactions will learn a lot from this process and be able to significantly mitigate the risk. As it relates to Scripps, you know, the industrial logic is still there. You know, our position on the deal is still the same. As I mentioned in my remarks, we'd be happy to, you know, pick up discussions again around such a transaction, but we are not standing still. We are looking at multiple other opportunities to achieve similar levels of benefits and synergies.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

You know, we'll keep moving and, you know, if something were to materialize with Scripps, great, but, if not, we're moving forward.

[Steven Cahall, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Aaron Watts from Deutsche Bank. Your line is live.

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Hi, guys. Thanks for having me on. Just a couple of questions. One follow-up on the line you were just addressing. Given the noise or pushback that's being generated with getting the Nexstar transaction across the finish line, do you still expect the FCC to press ahead with trying to officially change or abolish the national ownership caps so that future deals don't have to rely on waivers?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Well, I do think that will happen. Of course, we, you know, that's up to the FCC, and certainly, as an industry, you know, we have been lobbying for that. It is something that I do expect will happen in the future, so that you don't have to rely on waivers.

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. I wanted to ask for a bit more detail around Local Media core advertising. Your rate of growth slowed down sequentially from 4Q into 1Q. I'm guessing Olympics played a key role there. Can you talk about other puts and takes? How is Q2 core tracking relative to what you saw in first quarter? Has the war had any discernible impact yet on your bookings, particularly in the auto vertical?

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Yeah, it's definitely was sports-laden in fourth quarter, Aaron. Being underweight on NBC, and based on our NBC performance, we know the market still was delivering on the core advertising. Fortunately or unfortunately, a lot of the weight moved to NBC. That's why as we head into World Cup and how we're overweighted on Fox, we're bullish on the end of second quarter going into third quarter by carrying 70 games on the Fox network. We're still comfortable with our guidance that we've given for the year on core. We will remain watching these headwinds, as mentioned in the scripts, that consumer confidence is starting to wane. The gas prices are increasing, the cost of goods being shipped most likely will be going up, and we'll see that domino effect.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

We remain confident in our annual guidance that we will still achieve that guidance.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Aaron-

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Got it.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

... just to add on to-

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Yeah.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Aaron, just to add on to what Rob just mentioned, also remember that these are as-reported numbers. We did have station divestitures to Rincon and Yakima, Spokane, which, you know, impacted the reported number on core. I'd keep that in mind.

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. Overall, it sounds like your full-year view on core hasn't changed despite kind of these moving parts that you've outlined.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Yeah. We are still comfortable with the full-year view. As Chris mentioned and I mentioned, we're coming off of record or very high growth in live sports. Live sports between all our platforms drive significant revenue, so we're still comfortable with the annual outlook.

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. If I could squeeze one last one in, I appreciate the time. Just around political, sounds like still a lot of optimism on that front for the year. CTV was the big mover in terms of share in 2024, expected to grow further this year. Where do you think the share shifts will come from going forward? Do you expect that broadcast TV can maintain its share? Can you also discuss the campaign finance limit case that's currently being debated in court? Help us understand how the potential outcomes could impact your political ad revenues, particularly related to lowest unit rate or cost, if not for this midterm cycle, then potentially, as we think ahead to 2028. Thank you again.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Yeah, Aaron, I'll take the first part. We're comfortable. We think the shift to CTV, which is a natural shift that's coming from search and social and going into CTV. We have some TVB research which showcases on an 18+ demo, which is the voting demo, that if you extrapolate Amazon and Prime, which don't take political ads, as well as YouTube, which is short video, that broadcast delivers 78% of the commercial inventory. Just recently, as we were talking earlier, I indicated that the faucets have now opened on broadcast political spend. We've seen significant buys from the GOP and the Democratic PACs in North Carolina just started to have their expenditures. They have a billion-dollar estimated political funds. We think we're situated in the markets where there are highly competitive races to capture those dollars.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Aaron, in terms of your question around some of the back and forth on lowest unit rate cost, you've got this court matter. There's also a petition for reconsideration by the TVB around the recent FCC interpretation. Look, I think that all is important to some extent. You know, I think there is a real case to question whether something like a lowest unit rate should, you know, is even constitutional. But that will all take some time to play out. But I think what you should know is that we're not particularly concerned about that affecting the outcomes that we expect for the year. That really plays into the dynamics of what goes on on political ad spend.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

You know, number one is I like to always say that politicians don't return the money to their donors once the elections are over. So there's a real incentive to get advertisement on the air in the right places where it can impact voting leading up to the elections. That is unequivocally on broadcast television, more specifically on our stations, which are in a lot of the battleground states and have a very large independent voter viewership that has a high propensity to vote. Our local news audience is highly coveted when it comes to political advertising. Political advertisers tend, as things heat up, they tend to move into inventory categories which, you know, have more protection in terms of their ability to be preempted.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Those categories, you know, come with higher prices. Those don't tend to be where your general advertisers, you know, play. We think that in terms of the yield component of this and the total demand, you know, these things matter around the edges, but they will not have a meaningful impact on the outcomes.

[Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Appreciate all that. Thanks, Chris.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question's coming from Craig Huber from Huber Research. Your line is live.

[Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research]

Great. Thank you. My first question is, you mentioned a few times that you're seeing modestly improving subscriber trends. Can you maybe quantify that? I mean, on a same-station basis, are you down, say, roughly 4% year-over-year on your subs? Is that reasonable?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Our overall subscriber churn in Q1 was mid-single-digits. That did have a very modest overall improvement. More importantly, on the traditional MVPD side, we did see, you know, over 100-basis point improvement in churn there sequentially. That is, you know, one of our biggest contributors. You know, it is improving and, you know, being driven by some of the larger MVPDs like Charter leading the way with its streaming bundling strategy. We think we've talked a lot about it in the past. It's a great strategy. It's working. You can see it in their numbers publicly. We are increasingly seeing it in what they report to us.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Comcast, it has also been doing better as well, and really they're the two bellwethers of the space.

[Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research]

Great. Thank you for that. My next question, if I could, can you maybe touch on what your outlook is for your net retransmission this year, or if you want to do it on a two-year basis, can you share that with us?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We do expect net retransmission to grow over the long term. We haven't given any more specific guidance on net retransmission. We do feel with the trends that we're seeing, as we talked about earlier, on subscribers, seeing modest improvement there, on our network affiliation costs, which we're about to have a big year on. The balance of power that we've talked about this in the past, and we feel like this trend is solid and intact, that the balance of power has been swinging back towards the affiliates, as the networks have, you know, played catch up on retransmission. The dollars there are very significant to the networks, really irreplaceable. Now, you see all the networks stream all of their content. Even Fox now streams its content.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Really it's just a simple equation when you think about they're monetizing their content on both broadcast and streaming, but the cost is almost exclusively bear or borne by broadcast. Just as there's a rebalancing that's happening within pay TV, where broadcast audience well exceeds its share of the pay TV pie, and, you know, our growth in gross retransmission is being driven by that rebalancing. The cost of our network affiliations is also imbalanced, and the streaming components of our streaming divisions of the networks, need to be paying a lot more of the cost of the programming, relative to the network divisions. That rebalancing, I think, is going to be tremendously helpful in reducing the cost of our network relationships going forward.

[Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research]

I'm sorry, and to be clear on that point, I think you said earlier your network comp expense was down. I assume that was on an apples to apples basis, same station basis. It was down in the quarter year-over-year?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

I didn't, I did not say specifically. We don't have, we don't disclose network comps specifically. What I was saying is generally, the balance of what is paid for the content between the streaming divisions and the network divisions at the networks. You know, the payment balance needs to be skewed much more towards streaming than the networks in terms of, you know, equitably sharing between those two.

[Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research]

Okay, very good. In other words, over time, you think it'll evolve that direction favorably to your cost base. I think what you're saying, over time.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Yes. That's right.

[Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research]

Great. Thank you.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

That's right.

[Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is coming from Ben Soff from Deutsche Bank. Your line is live.

[Ben Soff, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Good afternoon. Thanks for the question. I had a couple, but first I wanted to ask a follow-up. You made a comment that you might have some strategies to mitigate potential challenges in future transactions. I was hoping you could unpack that a little bit.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Well, look, I think, yeah, I can't get into specifics in terms of how a transaction would play out and what specifically we would do. Just the setup alone, I think would be different. Here you had a number one and number two, essentially coming together. You had, you know, a transaction that got closed almost immediately after the approvals. You know, certain optics wouldn't be the same just naturally. I think, you know, being the first large transaction where a new market definition has been defined by the DOJ, but yet not having anything on paper about that, I think is something that could be addressed more proactively.

[Ben Soff, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. Got it. If there are divestitures from other deals, what's your appetite for buying station assets? Do you think you'd be allowed to create duopolies, and how should we think about potential synergies in those types of deals?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Sure. You know, we're very interested in double ups. Anywhere we can add stations within a market, that's where we get the biggest efficiency gains. Also, you know, it really does improve the news product that we supply to the marketplace. It both expands the number of stories that we cover, differentiates the products being offered to the marketplace. In the areas where we can have multiple affiliates in a market, those are the ones that are gonna be most interesting to us, where we can have an accretive transaction and also be de-leveraging as well.

[Ben Soff, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Got it. My last question is just on ATSC. What are your latest thoughts there on the business opportunity, and can you remind us where we are on the path to commercializing it? Thank you.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We have been making good progress on ATSC 3.0 with the founding of EdgeBeam. You know, it is off and running. The team is assembled. There is significant work being done up in Boston where they're based. They're having a lot of traction around digital signage. The GPS product is up and running in several markets. Automotive is another area that we're very bullish on. Believe it'll be a lot longer term. I would put streaming offload as well in that same bucket. BPS, which is outside of EdgeBeam, but it's a sort of industry-wide effort led by the NAB, has a lot of traction. There is a pilot going on right now in the energy sector, which we're expecting a readout from shortly.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We already know the answer, and that BPS is the only practical solution to a backup to GPS. You know, a lot of the experts have already weighed in, including government agencies, that if we want a credible backup, that can be rolled out on a timely basis, that is not space-based and not vulnerable to jamming and disruption from our enemies, it needs to be BPS. That's a very, you know, unique opportunity for the entire industry powered by 3.0, you know, and contributes to, vitally contributes to American safety and security. You know, I'm as more bullish than I've ever been on the opportunities around 3.0.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Of course, it improves picture quality, consumer experience, interactivity, et cetera, and there'll be more content, better content put out to our audiences. The real incremental revenue opportunities are gonna be around datacasting and other use cases, and that will be dramatically enhanced through the sunset of ATSC 1.0, which will unlock a lot more capacity to do these use cases and is in front of the FCC as we speak.

[Ben Soff, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question's coming from Dan Kurnos from StoneX. Your line is live.

[Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX]

Thanks. Afternoon. Chris, I'm sure you're super excited to answer another M&A question, but I just want to be crystal clear. Obviously, from timing, you know, we have to kind of see how that plays out. I mean, do you think with that court case ongoing and sort of the concentration ramifications, market definition ramifications and your, your previous answer, do you believe that you could put up a transaction or someone you could find a willing participant in this environment at this time? Given your current stance on your preference to spin Ventures in conjunction with M&A, does that mean that you're sort of willing to bide your time until you find the right transaction and this cleans up, and you find the path forward? We're not saying it won't happen, but it may just take longer than we anticipate.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Dan, I think it's fair to say that the Nexstar Tegna transaction and what's going on at state level is not ideal in terms of creating a good environment for M&A. It certainly creates questions in people's minds, including your own, or you wouldn't be asking the question. Certainly, players within the industry are not immune to that. I do think as they dig in, and as we have, they will get more and more comfortable that this can be mitigated. We have confidence that this deal should not hold up progress on M&A, we think we'll be able to play through that.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

As it relates to the Ventures separation, you know, there's a lot of work that goes into a spin. We're doing that work now. We're working on the carve-out audits. We are proceeding on getting ready. You know, we're not, you know, just letting time sort of waste away here. At the same time, as we've said pretty consistently, the ideal outcome is a separation of Ventures alongside a broadcast combination. There isn't a rush to separate Ventures. We are going to make sure that we've got everything ready to go to do that.

[Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX]

Okay. That makes sense. As we think about tennis, you guys spent a good amount of time talking about it today, sort of the strength that it has. I know, Chris, in the past, you've talked about like, hey, you know, anything could be core, not core. It's having a moment. Are you guys leaning more into tennis? How are you thinking about it sort of as a long-term asset within the portfolio, especially in the consideration of, you know, if you were to do transformational M&A on the local side?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Yeah. We are leaning into Tennis Channel. That is, you know, right in thinking that. About a year ago, we hired Jeff Blackburn, who, you know, is a legend in the streaming industry, who had an amazing career at Amazon, he's doing wonderful things at Tennis Channel. You know, the ratings this last quarter up about 20%, subs up over 30%. The product's getting better. The moment, as you pointed out, you know, there's sort of a tennis momentum and interest in tennis is at an all-time high and continues to grow. There's a lot to like about what's going on at Tennis. We are investing in the product.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We're upgrading the rights, we're upgrading the programming, and we're upgrading the direct consumer experience. A lot of that investment has been over the last year, it really hasn't even come to light yet. Over the course of this year, you're gonna see more and more upgrades to the product, to the experience. When we hired Jeff, that was a commitment to invest in Tennis Channel. I think it's gonna be an amazing asset. It already, you know, is incredible, but as it translates its business more and more onto the streaming side, where it already has all the rights it needs, it's going to be a really interesting asset.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

We believe that over time that the asset right now, 20% of the audience is through digital, the goal for Jeff and his team is to get to 50%. We're making those crossroads. What helps those crossroads are—We were asked the question a little over a year ago, what about with Rafa's retirement, Fed's retirement. Now, we have the next generation rivalry with Sinner and Alcaraz. Even though Alcaraz is out short term, that rivalry isn't going anywhere. Now, in the women this year, the rivalry has evolved between Rybakina and Sabalenka, which will cause even further tune in. As you see in the 1,000s that took place at Indian Wells, the BNP Paribas, and Miami Open, was followed in Monte Carlo with record ratings.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

When we increase this tech next generation and America has the next star on the horizon with Igor Jokovic, it bodes well for the sport and for the network.

[Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX]

Rob, can I stick with you for a second and just talk a little more World Cup? Is there any way to kinda think about-

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Yeah.

[Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX]

... the incremental that we should expect from World Cup, number one? Number two, given how much Olympics sort of sucked the oxygen out of the room in Q1, could we see that kind of event, especially in what is a particularly, you know, lackluster viewing time for, you know, television since we're in between seasons? You also mentioned in your prepared remarks just around the digital acquisitions adding, you talked a little bit about getting prepared for cross-sell with your digital assets, especially when you have this marquee event coming up. Maybe you could flesh out your thoughts there just so we can get a little bit more sense on how you're going into this or game planning for it.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

We're super bullish, and we've had large advertising query already or in the early phase of the selling. 40 games are in prime time, and as you indicated, it's normally a weaker viewing as we head into the summer months. With it, most of the games on the finals happening here in the U.S., we're totally bullish. What's great is we're set up cross-platform, as you indicated, and we have Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, who played the most men's caps. At the end of June, we are launching a female soccer team with Julie Ertz and Kealia Watt, which has got great because it also leads into the NFL season. Julie's married to Zach Ertz, and Kealia is married to J.J. Watt. They have a very competitive household that will play out on audio as well as soccer.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

As the Men's World Cup, we're gonna get a female perspective, then that bodes well leading into 2027 and the Women's World Cup. The way we've set this up to be able to take advantage with our stars on the audio side, 'cause you're going to see Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady doing an activation at the NBA draft, is we have natural tie-ins between our audio and our broadcast. The third element is activations at these events. It is a 360 offer to our advertising clients, and that's why we're seeing this early inquiry from the advertisers.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Maybe I'll just add to that. Undoubtedly, there's a great synergy between what we're doing on audio and video, as Rob mentioned. This is the—We haven't had a World Cup, you know, in this time zone for quite some time. Obviously, being in partially in the U.S., this is a bigger World Cup than we've seen. The comps, that's certainly different. We are gonna do way better than we did, say, four years ago. I don't think it'll be as big as the Olympics, unfortunately. I wish it was, but in terms of, you know, total impact, but it's definitely gonna be a nice incremental pickup for us.

[Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX]

If I could just tie this all together, and maybe bring Narinder into it too. Just as I look at your year right now, you guys are pacing towards the high ends of your prior revenue guide and towards the lower end of the imputed expense guide, especially based off of Q1. Obviously, we have, you know, political and there's a lot of uncertainty out there. I just wanna be clear on what you guys are saying. It sounds like you guys are just being cautious given the macro. You're not necessarily seeing anything yet. You know, in all other circumstances, it feels like you guys would be potentially raising guidance at this point, but you just want to see how things play out, given clearly the uncertainty out there, which I think is logical.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Yeah. Dan, thanks for the question. Nice, nice question to set me up here. You know, I think you captured the puts and takes there properly. Look, if I look at core, as I mentioned, there are, you know, headwinds that have picked up from what we anticipated when we issued the guide. The visibility is, you know, a little bit less than what we had before, but nothing, you know, that changes our view that will be outside the ranges we gave you. On the distribution side, you know, clearly pleased with all the things the traditional MVPDs are doing with their packaging. You know, we are clearly seeing those results translate into our numbers now. We are monitoring that trend going forward.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Nothing, you know, there, you know, a few months does not create a long-term trend. Obviously, we wanna make sure that we see that consistently, you know, repeat itself before we say, okay, we have seen enough, and now is the time to, you know, update our guidance. Look, on the, on the cost side of the equation, I mean, you know us very well. You know, expense management and expense control, you know, it's built into our DNA. You know, it's an ongoing process, and we continue to, you know, look at any and all efficiency measures. We are also investing in the right assets. You know, we talked about, you know, Tennis Channel. You know, we are, you know, putting energy behind it.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

We think it's a great differentiated asset, and we are gonna continue to do that where it makes sense for us. If you take all of those things together, you know, sitting here today too early in the year, you know, same with political. There's no reason to say, you know, let's go ahead and change the ranges. Obviously, you know, we'll continue to monitor it and, you know, if there's a good reason to change that, we'll come back and tell you next quarter.

[Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX]

Awesome. Thank you guys for bearing with me. Appreciate all the color.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Thanks, Dan.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is coming from David Hamburger from Morgan Stanley. Your line is live.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Thank you. I was wondering, could you just articulate why the separation of Ventures is contingent upon a broadcast station transaction? Have you provided any guidance at all as to how Ventures would be capitalized upon a spin-off or a separation?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Ventures is not contingent. It's just our preference. I think at some point in time, if we are unsuccessful getting a combination on Broadcast, we would just move forward with the Ventures separation, with the thinking that, you know, Broadcast would then, you know, combine at some point on its own. There is optionality that Ventures gives us when we think about, you know, various combinations. It has a decent amount of cash. It obviously has some other assets as well, which could be more or less attractive to very varying partners that we're in discussions with. That's really the main reason is that it's having that those various levers to ensure that a combination gets done that, you know, maximizes the outcome for all shareholders.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

In terms of the capitalization question, Ventures does not have any debt currently. The four walls of Ventures is already very well-defined. It's in our financials. There is no debt on any of the Ventures wholly-owned subsidiaries. It does sit on about $450 million of cash currently. That is how it will be capitalized if you just spin Ventures today. That could obviously change a little bit if it's done in conjunction with a combination on Broadcast.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

To clarify, you're saying a combination on Broadcast or a combination of Ventures with another company?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

No, I'm just saying tying back to what I said earlier and that some of the assets that Ventures may play a role in a Broadcast combination that you could see the mix within Ventures change depending on what happens on the Broadcast side.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Okay. How might that change the kind, have you provided any sort of guidelines or guardrails around how that, the complexion of that business might change or?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

No, I just went through there's cash, there's other assets. You know, there are, you know, in its simplest form, if more cash was needed in the combination, we could use some cash from Ventures in order to complete. That's as an example. Since there is no specific transaction to talk about on Broadcast, I can't give you any guidelines.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Sure. At what point would you potentially make that determination that that's, you know, you would just proceed with a spin in the absence of effectuating a Broadcast deal?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Yeah, we're not going to lay out a specific timeline on that at this point. As I mentioned, we are doing work to get the necessary items in place to do the spin, like a carve-out, for instance. That will play into the ultimate timing.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

I think the-

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Just a quick. Oh, sorry.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Go ahead, David.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Oh, I was just gonna ask a balance sheet question, but I don't know if you had a follow-up.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Yeah, what I was going to say is, look, if you take a step back and go back to the rationale for entertaining a Ventures separation. You know, Ventures has, and you can do the math, you know, close to $1 billion of assets that we don't feel are fully reflected in our valuation. How do we do that? We can provide enhanced disclosures for investors to take a look at it and determine, you know, how they want to value those assets. If that's not happening, we look at, you know, would these assets be fairly valued in the hands of other investors? That was the thinking we had to separate Ventures. As that conversation continues, as Chris outlined, there's some optionality we want to preserve.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

We are not under a specific timeline to make that happen. We have started the work on Ventures separation, and we are gonna be very thoughtful about it. We are pursuing Broadcast transaction in parallel, and we don't know what the contours of those are gonna be sitting here today talking to you about this. We wanna preserve that optionality. As that picture starts to come into focus, we'll provide you more color.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

On what that separation timeline and what the capitalization, et cetera, would look like. It's too early for us to give you a firm read on that today.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Okay, thanks. Just one quick question around the balance sheet. Can you just talk about how you sized the $165 million of loan buyback? You know, why specifically that amount, or was there any specific goal you were looking to achieve? How can we think about that going forward, your appetite to do more of that?

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Yeah. I think, look, we had cash in STG, we looked at, you know, how to deploy that cash. We have outlined that de-levering STG balance sheet is a top priority for us. This was a right time for us to go out and see, you know, if there would be any demand for us to take some of the debt investors, you know, out from our term loans. We started the process with a certain, you know, number in mind that would be interesting for investors to participate in. As we went through the process, you know, we looked at how much cash we wanted to deploy at this point, and that's where we drew the line and executed that transaction. Looking ahead, you know, all options for us are on the table.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

You know, de-levering is a top priority. As we generate more cash in a political year, you can expect us to continue to focus on that. No specific timeline to give you here today when the next one is or the one after. As those opportunities arise, we will obviously look at them and execute on those.

[David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Okay. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question's coming from Shanna Qiu from Barclays. Your line is live.

[Shanna Qiu, Analyst at Barclays]

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just, I know you guys don't have any distribution contracts up for renewal this year, but it seems like, you know, some of your peers have been going into blackout, and it's becoming more common. DirecTV filed the private lawsuit against Nexstar Tegna. I guess just curious your thoughts. I know you guys have some in 2027, but do you think this is a sign that renewals are becoming more and more contentious going forward?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Look, we don't think this is anything new. There are some blackouts currently going on. There was last year, there was the year before that and the year before that. We've been very fortunate that we really haven't had any meaningful blackout for, you know, many years now. You know, we see no reason to necessarily change that. You know, the reality is the broadcasters comprise about 50% of the viewership on pay TV and only get about 1/3 of the pay TV pie. You know, the process of right-sizing that to what arguably should be greater than 50%, since we represent the most premium programming on pay TV, is not easy.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

You know, that adjustment, that shift of share away from cable channels that increasingly are becoming completely irrelevant, towards broadcast is a difficult process. I don't see the activity that we're currently witnessing, as really all that unusual from prior years. You know, I think the industry will manage through it as it always has.

[Shanna Qiu, Analyst at Barclays]

Okay, great. Thank you. Just I know you guys have done a good job managing costs and are always looking to, you know, cut costs. I was wondering if you guys have been using any kind of AI tools in helping managing costs, or is there anything in the pipeline that you guys can do that can enhance cost reductions going forward?

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Yeah, AI is a big focus for us, as I'm sure every company gets on calls and says. For us, it is, you know, a true statement, and we've rolled out AI tools to our entire workforce. We have both a bottoms-up organic strategy that we, you know, that's bearing fruit in terms of people in various areas coming up with ways to use AI tools to, you know, improve productivity. We also have a top-down strategy, a group dedicated to working on AI that, you know, is bringing new tools and workflows to the business.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

You know, I think when you consider just from a high level the media business, you know, beyond our newsrooms and our content creators and our reporters, almost everything else you could see, you know, being facilitated or, you know, automated by AI, because we don't, we don't deal in any sort of hard goods or products. It's really just information and bits, going back and forth, and, you know, largely people in front of computer screens. Now, the content creators, you know, those are the differentiators, right? You know, over time, you're gonna see a lot of the other roles within, you know, certainly in Sinclair and, you know, I imagine a lot of other media companies will follow suit.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

We see a lot of potential for that in terms of, you know, creating greater efficiencies, but also opening up capacity for new revenue streams as well.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Yeah. If I can maybe, you know, add on to that a little bit. The application of AI is not just in cost reduction. I think it's fundamentally reimagining and reinventing how we do things, you know, structurally. I think that's the way to look at it for this to be sustainable, and that's how we are looking at it. As Chris also mentioned, there are significant applications of the technology on the revenue growth side of it also. I would, you know, take a very holistic view on it. You know, we have been working with the technology for, you know, several years now. We have iterated on it, we have some interesting, you know, opportunities in the pipeline that we're working with.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Rest assured, like, Chris mentioned at the start of his answer, this is not just a statement for us, it's actually true.

[Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media at Sinclair]

Yeah. I'll just end it, trying to paint a picture of the revenue side is with our podcast, just as one of our content creators, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, they have a big following in China. Using AI tool sets to be able to convert their English language to Chinese and allow it to be distributed in China is just one opportunity that opens up what we're doing on a global basis, not just a United States basis. That's what excites us about some of this technology. While we can put it in, and we'll put it into the operations to make it more efficient, we're gonna get greater velocity from these AI tool sets.

[Shanna Qiu, Analyst at Barclays]

Thank you, guys.

[Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO at Sinclair]

Thank you.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We've reached the allotted time for Q&A. I'll now hand the conference back to Chris Ripley for closing remarks.

[Chris Ripley, President and CEO at Sinclair]

Thank you, operator. We wanna thank everyone for joining us for our Q1 earnings call. To the extent you have any follow-up questions that weren't already answered, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

[Operator]

Thank you. Everyone, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Chris King, VP of Investor Relations
• Chris Ripley, President and CEO
• Narinder Sahai, EVP and CFO
• Rob Weisbord, COO and President of Local Media

Analysts

• Aaron Watts, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Ben Soff, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Craig Huber, Analyst at Huber Research
• Dan Kurnos, Analyst at StoneX
• David Hamburger, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Shanna Qiu, Analyst at Barclays
• Steven Cahall, Analyst at Wells Fargo