Gray Media Inc (GTN) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Gray Television Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call.

歡迎參加精信電視 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。

I will now turn the call over to today's speaker, Chairman and CEO, Mr. Hilton Howell. You may now begin.

現在我將把電話轉給今天的發言人、董事長兼執行長希爾頓·豪厄爾先生。你現在可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. As our operator mentioned, I am Hilton Howell, the Chairman and CEO of Gray Television, and I want to thank each and everyone of you for joining our third quarter 2023 earnings call.

謝謝你，接線生。大家，早安。正如我們的營運商所提到的，我是 Gray Television 的董事長兼執行長希爾頓·豪威爾 (Hilton Howell)，我要感謝大家參加我們的 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。

With me today in Atlanta are all of our executive officers, Pat LaPlatney, our President and Co-CEO; Sandy Breland, our Chief Operating Officer; Kevin Latek, our Chief Legal and Development Officer; and Jim Ryan, our Chief Financial Officer.

今天與我一起在亞特蘭大的是我們所有的執行官，我們的總裁兼聯合首席執行官 Pat LaPlatney； Sandy Breland，我們的營運長； Kevin Latek，我們的首席法律與發展長；以及我們的財務長 Jim Ryan。

We will begin, as usual, with the disclaimer that Kevin will provide.

像往常一樣，我們將從凱文提供的免責聲明開始。

Thank you, Hilton. Good morning, everyone. Gray uses its website as a key source of company information. The website address is www.gray.tv. We will file our quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the SEC later today.

謝謝你，希爾頓。大家，早安。葛瑞將其網站作為公司資訊的主要來源。網站地址是www.gray.tv。我們將於今天稍後向 SEC 提交 10-Q 表格季度報告。

Included on the call may be a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, and in particular, broadcast cash flow, operating cash flow, free cash flow and certain leverage ratios. These metrics are not meant to replace GAAP measurements, but are provided supplements to assist the public in their analysis and valuation of our company. Included in our earnings release as well as on our website are reconciliations to the non-GAAP financial measures to the GAAP measures reported in our financial statements.

電話會議可能會討論非公認會計準則財務指標，特別是廣播現金流、營運現金流、自由現金流和某些槓桿。這些指標並不是取代 GAAP 衡量標準，而是作為補充，幫助大眾對我們公司進行分析和評估。我們的收益發布以及我們的網站上包括非公認會計原則財務指標與我們財務報表中報告的公認會計原則指標的調節表。

Certain matters discussed on this call may include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, future operating results. Those statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results in the future could differ from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, that have been set forth in the company's most recent reports filed with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and our most recent earnings release. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

本次電話會議討論的某些事項可能包括有關未來營運績效等的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述存在許多風險和不確定性。由於各種重要因素，未來的實際結果可能與任何前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果有所不同，這些因素已在公司向 SEC 提交的最新報告（包括我們最新的年度報告）中闡述。10- K，以及我們最近發布的財報。該公司不承擔更新這些前瞻性陳述的義務。

And I now return the call to Hilton.

我現在回電給希爾頓。

Thank you, Kevin. Gray Television began 2023 by predicting that we would continue to operate prudently and to grow our business positively. With 3 quarters behind us and another strong guide for the fourth quarter, it is now abundantly clear that Gray Television is delivering for 2023.

謝謝你，凱文。 Gray Television 在 2023 年伊始就預測我們將繼續謹慎營運並積極發展業務。距離我們已經過去 3 個季度了，第四季度又迎來了強勁的指引，現在非常清楚的是，Grey Television 的 2023 年業績將非常明顯。

In the first half of this year, we posted year-over-year growth in core revenue and in retransmission revenues and in growth in political advertising revenues over 2019, the last year before a presidential campaign. The third quarter of 2023 continued this trend with strong year-over-year growth in core revenue and retransmission revenue and a 4-year growth in political revenue.

今年上半年，我們公佈了 2019 年（總統競選前的最後一年）核心收入、轉播收入以及政治廣告收入成長的同比增長情況。 2023年第三季延續了這一趨勢，核心收入和轉播收入較去年同期強勁成長，政治收入實現四年來的成長。

Our guidance for the fourth quarter illustrates that we currently anticipate that these trends will continue throughout the rest of this year. In fact, our guidance today increases the full year political advertising total to $80 million from the $60 million full year guide that we offered in early August.

我們對第四季度的指導表明，我們目前預計這些趨勢將在今年剩餘時間內持續下去。事實上，我們今天的指導將全年政治廣告總額從 8 月初提供的 6,000 萬美元全年指引增加到 8,000 萬美元。

We announced a number of exciting developments in the third quarter that Pat and Sandy will address in a few minutes. However, I'm personally pleased to share 2023's singular most historic achievement for our company. That occurred in September when Gray Television turned over to NBCUniversal, all of the sound stages, offices, mill space and warehouses, parking and security facilities in the Assembly Studios project that we constructed. The facilities are world-class and impressively constructed in less than 16 months from the announcement of our long-term lease and management agreement with NBCUniversal.

我們宣布了第三季的一些令人興奮的進展，帕特和桑迪將在幾分鐘內討論這些進展。不過，我個人很高興能與大家分享我們公司 2023 年最重要的歷史性成就。這發生在 9 月份，當時 Gray Television 將我們建造的 Assembly Studios 專案中的所有攝影棚、辦公室、工廠空間和倉庫、停車場和安全設施移交給 NBCUniversal。這些設施是世界一流的，自從我們與 NBCUniversal 簽署長期租賃和管理協議以來，不到 16 個月的時間就建成了，令人印象深刻。

We anticipate the actor strike, which we hope will end soon, and our venues, which will host their first film and television series and live television productions should begin shortly. We do not know exactly what productions will be coming to Assembly Studios, but we are certain that the thousands of creative workers soon will be working at Assembly Studios will prove to all what a wise investment this project will be over the years and decades to come.

我們預計演員罷工將很快結束，而我們將舉辦第一部電影和電視劇以及現場電視製作的場館也將很快開始運作。我們並不確切知道Assembly Studios 將製作哪些作品，但我們確信，很快就會有數千名創意工作者在Assembly Studios 工作，這將向所有人證明，這個項目在未來的幾年和幾十年裡將是多麼明智的投資。

In 2024, Assembly Studios will no longer require significant capital investments by us. Instead, Assembly Studios will be generating cash revenues from our leases to both NBCU and other parties of our sound stages and related facilities that Gray retains.

2024 年，Assembly Studios 將不再需要我們進行大量資本投資。相反，Assembly Studios 將從我們向 NBCU 和其他方租賃格雷保留的攝影棚和相關設施中產生現金收入。

As we now look ahead to completing 2023 and beginning a new political cycle in 2024, we could not be more excited about our company's future.

現在，我們展望 2023 年即將結束並在 2024 年開始新的政治週期，我們對公司的未來感到無比興奮。

Our TV stations continue to perform at the top of their game. While our value is reaffirmed daily, audiences, clients, political campaigns, sports teams, sports fans, the broadcast networks and distributors.

我們的電視台繼續表現出色。雖然我們的價值每天都在得到觀眾、客戶、政治競選活動、運動隊伍、運動迷、廣播網和發行商的重申。

Next year, we'll see us continue to build on the consistent and stable and prudent management that Gray has demonstrated before, during and now after the pandemic.

明年，我們將繼續在大流行之前、期間和之後的格雷所展示的一致、穩定和審慎的管理基礎上繼續發展。

I would like now to introduce Pat LaPlatney, who will add more color to our operations. Pat?

現在我想介紹 Pat LaPlatney，他將為我們的營運增添更多色彩。拍？

Thank you, Hilton. Gray Television stations continued executing well in the third quarter of 2023. We again grew year-over-year core revenue and expect that momentum to carry us through the end of the year as Sandy will explain next.

謝謝你，希爾頓。 Gray 電視台在 2023 年第三季繼續表現良好。我們的核心收入再次同比增長，並預計這一勢頭將帶領我們度過今年年底，桑迪接下來將對此進行解釋。

We're continuing to see strong growth in our digital platforms and digital sales. In the third quarter, we set a new all-time record of 225 million video plays across Gray digital properties, which is a 45% increase over the third quarter of '22. In September, we passed 630 million video plays on Gray-owned digital platforms for the year, which is the previous record for a full calendar year that we set in '22.

我們的數位平台和數位銷售持續強勁成長。第三季度，我們在葛瑞數位資產中創造了 2.25 億次影片播放的新歷史記錄，比 2022 年第三季成長了 45%。 9 月份，我們在葛瑞擁有的數位平台上的影片播放量全年突破了 6.3 億次，這是我們在 22 年創下的完整歷年記錄。

While we do not break out digital sales in our financial results, I'm pleased to report that our stations are continuing to grow digital revenues at an annual double-digit rate. Meanwhile, Gray continues to expand its connected TV footprint. We currently have a few dozen fast channels of our local TV stations carried across Samsung TV Plus, Tubi, Xumo Play and VIZIO WatchFree.

雖然我們沒有在財務業績中列出數位銷售，但我很高興地報告說，我們的電台正在繼續以每年兩位數的速度增長數位收入。同時，葛瑞繼續擴大其連網電視業務。目前，我們在 Samsung TV Plus、Tubi、Xumo Play 和 VIZIO WatchFree 上播放了幾十個本地電視台的快速頻道。

In the coming weeks, additional channel launches that are in the works now could nearly double the total number of fast channels that our stations have on CTV platforms. The broadcasting industry continues to make progress rolling out next-gen technology.

在未來幾週內，目前正在進行的其他頻道推出可能會使我們電視台在 CTV 平台上擁有的快速頻道總數幾乎增加一倍。廣播產業在推出下一代技術方面不斷取得進展。

During the third quarter, the main broadcast stations in New York, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, began broadcasting their programming in the ATSC 3.0 standard. Other large markets, including Chicago, will soon follow. While Gray does not operate in those markets, we are continuing to roll out the new technology in our markets, too, including most recently, Reno, Nevada. As of today, Gray has participated in next-gen launches in 27 markets.

第三季度，紐約、費城和明尼阿波利斯的主要廣播電台開始按照 ATSC 3.0 標準播放節目。包括芝加哥在內的其他大型市場也將很快跟進。雖然葛瑞不在這些市場開展業務，但我們也繼續在我們的市場中推出新技術，包括最近在內華達州里諾市的市場。截至目前，葛瑞已參與 27 個市場的下一代產品發布活動。

The industry's full commitment to next-gen, including by the network O&O stations in the largest markets, will allow the industry to deliver programming and services to over 75% of U.S. households within the next few months. We believe that milestone is actually a tipping point, and we should begin seeing apps and innovative uses of next-gen technology rolling out next year.

該行業對下一代的全面承諾，包括最大市場中的網路 O&O 電台，將使該行業能夠在未來幾個月內向超過 75% 的美國家庭提供節目和服務。我們相信這一里程碑實際上是一個轉捩點，我們應該開始看到明年推出下一代技術的應用程式和創新用途。

We continue to pursue local broadcast packages for professional basketball, hockey and baseball. This fall, we're broadcasting local games for the Phoenix Suns throughout our Arizona footprint. We're also broadcasting games for the Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon NBA G League teams on our local stations in those markets. If and when the Diamond Sports Bankruptcy Court permits additional teams to negotiate with local broadcasters, we'll be ready in several markets to provide compelling opportunities for the teams to expand their reach and grow their fan bases by partnering with their strong local TV stations in their home market and beyond. We're cautiously optimistic that Gray will have some exciting announcements in this space prior to our next earnings call.

我們繼續尋求職業籃球、曲棍球和棒球的本地轉播套餐。今年秋天，我們將在整個亞利桑那州轉播菲尼克斯太陽隊的本地比賽。我們也在這些市場的當地電視台轉播亞特蘭大、拉斯維加斯和俄勒岡州波特蘭 NBA G 聯賽球隊的比賽。如果鑽石體育破產法庭允許更多球隊與當地廣播公司進行談判，我們將在多個市場做好準備，為球隊提供令人信服的機會，透過與當地實力雄厚的電視台合作來擴大影響力並擴大粉絲群。他們的國內市場及其他市場。我們謹慎樂觀地認為，葛瑞將在下一次財報電話會議之前在這一領域發布一些令人興奮的公告。

In the meantime, we've launched Peachtree Sports Network on our stations in Georgia. We've also launched similar statewide sports channels across our stations, statewide in Arizona, Connecticut and Nevada. These channels offer live, local and regional professional, college and high school level sports from their respective states, along with other sports themed programming owned by our production companies, Raycom Sports and PowerNation Studios.

同時，我們在喬治亞州的電視台推出了 Peachtree Sports Network。我們也在亞利桑那州、康乃狄克州和內華達州的全州各電視台推出了類似的全州體育頻道。這些頻道提供來自各自州的現場、本地和區域專業、大學和高中水平的體育賽事，以及我們的製作公司 Raycom Sports 和 PowerNation Studios 擁有的其他體育主題節目。

We believe these networks and a couple of others that we may launch in the near term also provide a foundation for Gray to secure more professional sports packages as they become available over the next several months. Yesterday, Circle Network, which is a 50-50 joint venture between Gray and Opry Entertainment Group announced it will shut down at the end of this year. The Circle Networks country lifestyle content was very good, and it was well supported by the country music industry. Each week, Circle provided more original programming than nearly all other cable and multi-cast entertainment networks. It also achieved significant broadcast and MVPD clearance throughout the country. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, Circle does not have a clear path to meet the financial expectations that our partner and we require for the venture. Accordingly, we took an $8.3 million pretax charge in miscellaneous expense line of the income statement in the third quarter of 2023 for the pending shutdown of Circle.

我們相信，這些網路以及我們可能在短期內推出的其他幾個網路也為葛瑞提供了基礎，以便在未來幾個月內提供更多專業運動套餐。昨天，Grey 和 Opry Entertainment Group 以 50:50 比例組成的合資公司 Circle Network 宣布將於今年底關閉。 Circle Networks 的鄉村生活方式內容非常好，並且得到了鄉村音樂產業的大力支持。每週，Circle 都會提供比幾乎所有其他有線電視和多播娛樂網路更多的原創節目。它還在全國範圍內獲得了重要的廣播和 MVPD 許可。不幸的是，由於多種原因，Circle 沒有明確的途徑來滿足我們和我們的合作夥伴對合資企業的財務期望。因此，我們在 2023 年第三季損益表的雜項費用項目中計入了 830 萬美元的稅前費用，以應對 Circle 即將關閉的情況。

In a related development, a new multi-cast company launched yesterday that will fill essentially all of Gray's channels that currently carry the Circle Network. The new company, Free TV Networks or FTN, is founded and led by Jonathan Katz. Jonathan is a pioneer of multi-cast networks who partnered with Raycom to launch Bounce Network and other diginets before Scripps acquired Katz Networks.

在一項相關的進展中，昨天成立了一家新的多播公司，該公司基本上將填補目前承載 Circle Network 的所有 Gray 頻道。新公司 Free TV Networks 或 FTN 由 Jonathan Katz 創立並領導。 Jonathan 是多播網路的先驅，在 Scripps 收購 Katz Networks 之前，他與 Raycom 合作推出了 Bounce Network 和其他數位網路。

With FTN, Jonathan is partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate and Gray Television to launch this business. The first 2 networks will go live on New Year's Day, and we are particularly excited to reunite with Jonathan Katz in the Diginet business.

喬納森 (Jonathan) 透過 FTN 與華納兄弟探索頻道 (Warner Bros. Discovery)、獅門影業 (Lionsgate) 和 Grey Television 合作推出這項業務。前 2 個網路將於元旦上線，我們特別高興能與 Diginet 業務部門的 Jonathan Katz 重聚。

I'll close with a quick follow-up on our Telemundo initiative. Recall that we acquired Telemundo Atlanta in the spring of 2022. And soon thereafter, announced that we would launch the first-ever local Telemundo affiliations on Gray's TV stations in 22 markets. Today, we have Telemundo affiliations in a total of 42 television markets with an estimated Hispanic population of nearly 4.5 million people. These stations, especially in Atlanta worked closely with our existing local news and sales operations, to expand the audience for our news and sales opportunities.

最後，我將快速跟進我們的 Telemundo 計劃。回想一下，我們在 2022 年春天收購了 Telemundo 亞特蘭大。此後不久，我們宣布將在 22 個市場的 Gray's 電視台上推出首個本地 Telemundo 附屬機構。如今，我們在 42 個電視市場擁有 Telemundo 附屬機構，估計西班牙裔人口接近 450 萬人。這些電台，特別是亞特蘭大的電台，與我們現有的當地新聞和銷售業務密切合作，以擴大我們的新聞和銷售機會的受眾。

In terms of sales, our Telemundo group of stations are performing well. The group led by Atlanta Telemundo station collectively posted double-digit increases in ad revenues in the first 3 quarters of this year compared to the first 3 quarters of last year. We have high hopes for our local Telemundo affiliates, and they're off to a strong start with very talented leadership.

在銷售方面，我們的 Telemundo 電台群表現良好。以亞特蘭大 Telemundo 電視台為首的集團今年前 3 季的廣告收入與去年前 3 季相比整體實現了兩位數的成長。我們對當地的 Telemundo 附屬公司寄予厚望，他們憑藉才華橫溢的領導力取得了良好的開端。

I now turn the call to Sandy.

我現在把電話轉給桑迪。

Thank you, Pat. Across Gray, we see the current advertising environment as particularly stable. Our core revenues continue to grow, and our political revenues continue to impress. In terms of our core business, the automobile advertising category continued improving in the third quarter with an 18% year-over-year increase overall and a 26% increase in the national automobile ad category. Home improvement also continues to do very well. The biggest decrease came from sports gambling, which was expected as that category cycles through heavy market share spending at launch and then steps down to maintenance level spending.

謝謝你，帕特。在格雷，我們認為目前的廣告環境特別穩定。我們的核心收入持續成長，我們的政治收入繼續令人印象深刻。核心業務方面，第三季汽車廣告類別持續改善，整體較去年同期成長18%，全國汽車廣告類別成長26%。家居裝修也繼續表現出色。降幅最大的是體育博彩，這是預期的，因為該類別在推出時會經歷大量市場份額支出，然後下降到維持水平支出。

New businesses from local customers who previously did not advertise on our platform continues to exceed our expectations. In the first quarter, new local direct grew 9% on a year-over-year basis. In the second quarter, new local direct grew in excess of 15%. And in the just completed third quarter, new local direct grew 16% over the third quarter of last year.

來自以前未在我們平台上做廣告的本地客戶的新業務繼續超出我們的預期。第一季度，新本地直銷年增9%。第二季新增本地直營成長超過15%。而在剛結束的第三季度，新增本地直銷比去年第三季成長了16%。

As we said on prior calls, we believe that new local direct business is our best leading indicator of the economic health of our markets, and we are thrilled to see local businesses clearly exhibiting real signs of strength.

正如我們在先前的電話會議上所說，我們相信新的本地直接業務是我們市場經濟健康狀況的最佳領先指標，我們很高興看到本地企業明顯展現出真正的實力跡象。

Political advertising has been very strong in the first 3 quarters of 2023. As mentioned previously, our guidance for full year political revenue is now $80 million, which is up 33% from the $60 million full year guide from our August earnings call. This strong result reflected significant spending in the Governor's races this year in Louisiana, Kentucky and Mississippi, which we believe will exceed presidential primary spending this year, as was also the case in 2019. We also had a good deal of spending on Virginia State House races, the Wisconsin Supreme Court races and a number of valid initiatives.

政治廣告在 2023 年前 3 季表現非常強勁。如前所述，我們對全年政治收入的指導現在為 8000 萬美元，比我們 8 月份財報電話會議的 6000 萬美元全年指導增長了 33%。這一強勁的結果反映了今年路易斯安那州、肯塔基州和密西西比州州長競選的大量支出，我們相信今年的支出將超過總統初選支出，2019 年也是如此。我們還在弗吉尼亞州議會大廈上投入了大量支出競選、威斯康辛州最高法院競選和許多有效的倡議。

Our strong political revenue flows from our leading news operations and Gray won 5 National Murrow Awards in September. The impressive achievements were attained by our news professionals in St. Louis, Missouri; Ryan, Texas, Augusta, Georgia, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Roanoke, Virginia.

我們強大的政治收入來自我們領先的新聞業務，格雷在 9 月贏得了 5 項國家默羅獎。我們密蘇裡州聖路易斯的新聞專業人員取得了令人矚目的成就；德州瑞安、喬治亞州奧古斯塔、路易斯安那州巴吞魯日和維吉尼亞州羅阿諾克。

Gray's stakeholders should be particularly impressed with the incredible work that our Hawaii News Now team demonstrated in the aftermath with a horrible wildfire this summer and especially the tragedy of the fire that destroyed the town of Lahaina in Maui that personally impacted many members of our Hawaii team.

格雷的利益相關者應該對我們的Hawaii News Now 團隊在今年夏天的一場可怕的野火之後所展示的令人難以置信的工作印象特別深刻，尤其是摧毀毛伊島拉海納鎮的火災悲劇，這場火災對我們夏威夷團隊的許多成員產生了個人影響。

In the 3 weeks after the Lahaina fire, Hawaii News Now had 450 unique linear hours of dedicated news coverage and 7 fundraisers.

在拉海納火災發生後的 3 週內，Hawaii News Now 進行了 450 個獨特的線性小時的專門新聞報道和 7 場籌款活動。

The team also produced an amazing 33 hours of Maui-focused specials for broadcast television, CTV and podcasts. Hawaiian News Now demonstrates again the critically important and valuable service that local broadcasters provide to local communities throughout the country.

該團隊還為廣播電視、CTV 和播客製作了長達 33 小時的精彩毛伊島特別節目。 Hawaiian News Now 再次展示了當地廣播公司為全國各地的當地社區提供的至關重要且有價值的服務。

In terms of programming, we launched a new daily news show called InvestigateTV+ on September 11. The program leverages one of the largest collections of investigative journalist in the nation to provide even more investigations that not only uncover problems, but reveal and often lead to solutions. The initial ratings from the first few weeks are impressive in many markets exceeding the ratings of syndicated talk shows and court shows that previously aired in those time periods, which confirms that local audiences are looking for something different and something impactful from their local stations.

在節目製作方面，我們於9 月11 日推出了一個名為InvestigateTV+ 的新每日新聞節目。該節目利用全國最大的調查記者群體之一提供更多的調查，不僅發現問題，而且揭示並常常帶來解決方案。前幾週的初始收視率在許多市場上都令人印象深刻，超過了之前在該時期播出的聯合脫口秀和法庭節目的收視率，這證實了當地觀眾正在尋找來自當地電視台的不同且有影響力的東西。

We made a big investment this year to fill out Local News Live, which is our 24/7 OTT news network that originally aired curated news content from across our 113 markets. This year, we have added exceptional talent and began programming premier news hours out of our Washington DC Bureau. This fall, several of our stations replaced syndicated programming with the LNL on their broadcast schedule and the response from the audience has been just as encouraging as our initial success with InvestigateTV+.

今年我們投入大量資金來完善 Local News Live，這是我們的 24/7 OTT 新聞網絡，最初播放來自 113 個市場的精選新聞內容。今年，我們增加了傑出的人才，並開始在華盛頓特區分社安排重要的新聞時段。今年秋天，我們的幾個電視台在其廣播時間表上用 LNL 取代了聯合節目，觀眾的反應與我們在 InvestigateTV+ 上取得的初步成功一樣令人鼓舞。

The lesson from both of these initiatives is that Gray can leverage its leading local news and investigative teams into stand-alone properties that better serve broadcast and OTT audiences while further reducing our dependence on third-party content providers.

從這兩項措施中學到的教訓是，葛瑞可以利用其領先的本地新聞和調查團隊建立獨立的資產，更好地服務廣播和 OTT 受眾，同時進一步減少我們對第三方內容提供者的依賴。

I now turn the call to Kevin.

我現在把電話轉給凱文。

Thank you, Sandy. In the third quarter, our retransmission revenue grew 3% on a year-over-year basis as a result of contract repricing in the first half of 2023. Our total subscriber trends continue to be consistent with the broadcast industry as a whole, which makes sense given that Gray's portfolio is now more or less evenly split between large markets and medium-sized markets.

謝謝你，桑迪。由於 2023 年上半年合約重新定價，第三季我們的轉播收入同比增長 3%。我們的總用戶趨勢繼續與整個廣播行業保持一致，這使得鑑於格雷的投資組合現在或多或少均勻地分佈在大型市場和中型市場之間，這是有道理的。

Our network compensation expense in the third quarter was essentially the same as both the first and second quarters of 2023. And is projected to remain flat in the fourth quarter despite the summer's new network affiliation with CBS for the former Meredith markets, plus the FOX annual escalator hitting as well as the renewal and repricing of all of our CW affiliation agreements in the legacy Gray markets.

我們第三季的網路補償費用與2023 年第一季和第二季基本相同。儘管今年夏天與哥倫比亞廣播公司(CBS) 在前梅雷迪思市場建立了新的網路聯繫，再加上福克斯年度電視網，但預計第四季度將保持持平。自動扶梯撞擊以及我們在傳統灰色市場中所有 CW 附屬協議的更新和重新定價。

We will be renewing the bulk of our traditional MVPD retrans contracts next year, covering about 38% of our MVPD subscribers in the first quarter and 23% of those subscribers in the second half of 2024.

我們將於明年續簽大部分傳統 MVPD 轉播合同，覆蓋第一季約 38% 的 MVPD 用戶，並在 2024 年下半年覆蓋 23% 的用戶。

Last month, we provided our views on the network and retransmission landscape in an investor deck, attempted to dispel what we frankly believe was unfounded negativity in some quarters. In that deck and in number of investor conferences and meetings since early September, we explain why we believe the broadcast retransmission rates remain significantly undervalued and have new momentum for growth going forward. Our main themes support this conviction. First, broadcast programming, especially local news and professional sports remain tent-pole programming. Viewer impressions are clearly increasing on streaming platforms, but those impressions are mostly coming from cable channels, leaving total broadcast ratings generally stable over the last few years.

上個月，我們在投資者平台上提供了對網路和轉播前景的看法，試圖消除我們坦率地認為在某些方面毫無根據的負面情緒。在該簡報以及自 9 月初以來的許多投資者大會和會議中，我們解釋了為什麼我們認為廣播轉播率仍然被嚴重低估，並且具有未來成長的新動力。我們的主題支持這一信念。首先，廣播節目，尤其是地方新聞和職業運動節目仍然是支柱節目。串流平台上的觀眾印像明顯增加，但這些印象主要來自有線頻道，使得過去幾年的總廣播收視率整體穩定。

Broadcast programming is not only very popular, but broadcast stations also have among the most intense and loyal viewers of any programming channel available anywhere. Second, broadcast affiliates are aligned with the broadcast networks of protecting the network affiliate distribution model, our collective stations abilities to grow retrans revenue.

廣播節目不僅非常受歡迎，而且廣播電台也擁有任何地方的任何節目頻道中最強烈和最忠實的觀眾之一。其次，廣播聯盟與廣播網絡保持一致，保護網路聯盟分銷模式，我們的集體電視台有能力增加轉播收入。

The networks in short need their affiliates to survive, succeed and flourish in order to profit from the unparalleled reach provided for the networks advertising business and to profit from the affiliates-owned retransmission revenues.

簡而言之，網路需要其附屬公司生存、成功和繁榮，以便從為網路廣告業務提供的無與倫比的覆蓋範圍中獲利，並從附屬公司擁有的轉播收入中獲利。

Third, the Charter/Disney deal structure confirmed the most -- that most premium content such as ABC and ESPN will continue to be key drivers of value for distributors. That deal also provides new ways to help lessen pay-TV subscriber churn through DTC offerings and apparently additional flexibility and distributors' ability to tier cable channels, both of which should make the most -- should make the basic cable bundle more attractive to more households.

第三，Charter/迪士尼的交易結構最證實了——ABC 和 ESPN 等最優質的內容將繼續成為發行商價值的關鍵驅動力。該交易還提供了新的方法，透過DTC 產品幫助減少付費電視訂戶流失，顯然還提供了額外的靈活性和分銷商對有線頻道進行分級的能力，這兩者都應該發揮最大作用，應該使基本有線電視套餐對更多家庭更具吸引力。

Finally, secondary cable channels -- secondary cable networks and regional sports networks are experiencing the undeniable decline in ratings fees and industry support. As they collect fewer fees and lose distribution, premium content can be better compensated by simply reallocating distributors' programming budgets away from the declining channels in favor of the increasingly important premium content and especially to broadcasters who are still paid a fraction of the value that we deliver to the pay-TV bundle. These industry-wide trends have been highlighted by our peers recently, and we believe these trends will be validated by all broadcasters as we continue to successfully negotiate traditional MVPD retrans agreements in the coming year-end crunch.

最後，二級有線頻道——二級有線電視網絡和地區體育網絡正在經歷收視率費用和行業支持無可否認的下降。由於他們收取的費用較少並失去了發行權，因此只需將發行商的節目預算從日益減少的頻道中重新分配到日益重要的優質內容上，特別是對於那些仍獲得我們所支付的價值一小部分的廣播公司來說，優質內容可以得到更好的補償。交付到付費電視捆綁包。我們的同行最近強調了這些全行業趨勢，我們相信，隨著我們在即將到來的年終緊要關頭繼續成功談判傳統 MVPD 轉播協議，這些趨勢將得到所有廣播公司的驗證。

In terms of Gray in particular, I encourage all of you to review the last 2 pages of our recent investor deck that is posted on our website and was distributed via press release last month. Therein, we demonstrated through comScore ratings data, the incredible popularity of Gray's local newscast during the recent ratings week in September 2023. The data illustrates a Gray's local newscast deliver more household viewership in the market than the total of all network prime viewership on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX combined. Gray's local newscast deliver more viewership than the total of all NFL games on ABC for Monday Night Football, CBS, FOX and NBC combined. Gray's local newscast deliver more viewership than the total of all 3 major cable news networks combined. And finally, Gray's local newscast, by a factor of nearly 6 times, deliver more household viewership in a total of all 15 top cable sports networks in their markets.

特別是就葛瑞而言，我鼓勵大家查看我們最近發佈在我們網站上並於上個月透過新聞稿發布的投資者資料的最後兩頁。其中，我們透過comScore 收視數據展示了格雷的本地新聞廣播在2023 年9 月最近的收視週期間令人難以置信的受歡迎程度。數據表明，格雷的本地新聞廣播在市場上提供的家庭收視率比NBC 所有網絡主要收視率的總和還多。 CBS、ABC 和 FOX 合併。格雷的當地新聞廣播的收視率比 ABC 週一橄欖球之夜、哥倫比亞廣播公司、福克斯和 NBC 的所有 NFL 比賽的總收視率還要高。格雷的當地新聞廣播的收視率比所有三大有線電視新聞網的收視率總和還要多。最後，格雷的當地新聞廣播在其市場上總共 15 個頂級有線體育網絡中提供了近 6 倍的家庭收視率。

In conclusion, our local community as well as our network relationships remain mutually strong. Meanwhile, retransmission revenue is continuing to grow and its prospects for future growth remain as bright as ever.

總之，我們的在地社區以及我們的網絡關係仍然相互牢固。同時，轉播收入持續成長，未來成長前景依然光明。

This concludes my remarks. I now turn the call to Jim Ryan.

我的發言到此結束。我現在把電話轉給吉姆·瑞安。

Thanks, Kevin. Hilton, Pat, Sandy and Kevin have covered the key highlights for the quarter and year-to-date. And as such, my remarks will be very short.

謝謝，凱文。希爾頓、帕特、桑迪和凱文介紹了本季和今年迄今為止的主要亮點。因此，我的發言將非常簡短。

First of all, for Q3 '23, again, we're very pleased with our Q3 results, especially with our core revenue up 1% in the third quarter. For our fourth quarter guidance, we are again very pleased that we're seeing continuing strong performance demonstrated in our core advertising, and we expect that to be up low single digits. We've heard some chatter that some people thought the expense guide for Q4 was a little heavy. So let me address that.

首先，對於 23 年第三季度，我們再次對第三季的業績感到非常滿意，特別是第三季我們的核心營收成長了 1%。對於我們的第四季度指導，我們再次非常高興地看到我們的核心廣告表現出持續強勁的業績，並且我們預計該業績將實現低個位數成長。我們聽到一些傳言，有些人認為第四季的費用指南有點沉重。那麼讓我來解決這個問題。

On the broadcast line, there's about $15 million to $20 million of discretionary compensation expense. We don't actually accrue for that until we're confident that it's going to be paid out. And so that expense falls into the fourth quarter of the year. So you can think of it more as a timing difference. Actually, if you look at our full year guidance for broadcast expense going all the way back to our February call when we first gave out 2023 full year guidance, we said broadcast expenses would be about approximately $2.3 billion. As of today, based on our year-to-date results and our Q4 guide, it would say that our broadcast expenses are tracking to end up somewhere around $2.275 billion.

在廣播線上，大約有 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元的可自由支配補償費用。在我們確信這筆錢會得到支付之前，我們實際上不會為此累積費用。因此，這筆費用屬於今年第四季。所以你可以將其更多地視為時間差異。實際上，如果你看看我們對廣播費用的全年指導，一直追溯到我們 2 月份的電話會議，當時我們首次給出 2023 年全年指導，我們說廣播費用約為 23 億美元。截至今天，根據我們今年迄今的業績和第四季度指南，我們的廣播費用最終將達到 22.75 億美元左右。

So all in, we've been very consistent. Same with the Q4 corporate expense guidance. There's about $7 million to $10 million of professional fees that were falling into the fourth quarter. Again, if you look at our full year guidance, going back to February, we said corporate expenses for the full year would track to be about $120 million, and that's consistent with where we're tracking again today.

總而言之，我們一直都非常一致。與第四季企業費用指引相同。第四季的專業費用約為 700 萬至 1000 萬美元。同樣，如果你看一下我們的全年指引，回到 2 月份，我們表示全年的企業支出將約為 1.2 億美元，這與我們今天再次追蹤的情況一致。

Moving on to the rest of the full year expected results, our total revenue will be approximately $2.75 billion. I'm sorry, let me clarify that. I misspoke. Total revenue of approximately $3.275 billion. Again, it's expected to be approximately $3.275 billion. Core revenue of about $1.51 billion, retransmission revenue of approximately $1.53 billion. And again, both of those line items are up in the low single-digit area, and we're very pleased with those results.

展望全年剩餘的預期業績，我們的總收入約為 27.5 億美元。抱歉，讓我澄清一下。我說錯了。總收入約32.75億美元。同樣，預計約為 32.75 億美元。核心收入約15.1億美元，轉播收入約15.3億美元。同樣，這兩個訂單項目均位於低個位數區域，我們對這些結果非常滿意。

Political revenue, we've moved up to $80 million for the year from our previous guide of $60 million. Our total broadcast revenue, again, is still approximately $3.2 billion, which is consistent with what we've said every quarter since February. Broadcast expenses will be approximately $2.275 billion with network compensation of about $938 million, noncash stock comp of $5 million and 401(k) noncash expense of about $10 million. And I've already mentioned the corporate expenses for the year, somewhere between $115 million and $120 million, consistent with our original guidance at the beginning of the year. And in that number, there's about $14 million of noncash stock comp.

今年的政治收入從先前的 6,000 萬美元增加到了 8,000 萬美元。我們的總廣播收入仍然約為 32 億美元，這與我們自 2 月以來每個季度所說的一致。轉播費用約為 22.75 億美元，其中網路薪酬約為 9.38 億美元，非現金股票補償為 500 萬美元，401(k) 非現金費用約為 1000 萬美元。我已經提到了今年的公司支出，大約在 1.15 億美元到 1.2 億美元之間，與我們年初的最初指導一致。在這個數字中，大約有 1400 萬美元的非現金股票補償。

Our operating cash flow as defined in our senior credit agreement, we are expecting approximately $800 million, and that's consistent with what we said over the last couple of quarters. Full year uses of cash, full year interest -- cash interest expense about $435 million. I'll remind everybody again that we have 5% SOFR interest rate caps on most of our floating rate debt. And currently, about 95% of our debt, including that, which is on the rate caps is at fixed rates. Cash taxes of about $50 million this year. That does not include a pending refund of $21 million that we have had pending from the IRS for a while now, and we're hopeful that we will be coming in sooner than later.

根據我們的高級信貸協議中的定義，我們的營運現金流預計約為 8 億美元，這與我們在過去幾個季度中所說的一致。全年現金使用情況、全年利息—現金利息支出約為 4.35 億美元。我要再次提醒大家，我們的大部分浮動利率債務的 SOFR 利率上限為 5%。目前，我們約 95% 的債務（包括利率上限的債務）均為固定利率。今年現金稅約5000萬美元。這還不包括美國國稅局 (IRS) 等待一段時間的 2,100 萬美元退款，我們希望能早日收到。

Routine CapEx of $110 million. Of course, our preferred dividends are $52 million, and we have $15 million of required amortization on our term loan D. So our free cash as we define it, we still expect approximately $150 million before any acquisitions, investments and our common dividends. We're very well positioned in 3 quarters through '23. We think we have a very good fourth quarter shaping up, and we're looking forward to a strong political in 2024.

常規資本支出為 1.1 億美元。當然，我們的優先股股息為5,200 萬美元，我們的定期貸款D 需要攤銷1,500 萬美元。因此，按照我們的定義，我們的自由現金在任何收購、投資和普通股息之前仍預計約為1.5 億美元。截至 23 年的 3 個季度，我們處於非常有利的位置。我們認為第四季的表現非常好，我們期待 2024 年的政治表現強勁。

I'll turn the call back to Hilton.

我會將電話轉回希爾頓。

Thank you, Jim. Operator, at this time, we'd like to open up the call for any questions that anyone may have.

謝謝你，吉姆。接線員，此時，我們願意撥打電話詢問任何人可能有的任何問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is going to come from Aaron Watts with Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自德意志銀行的 Aaron Watts。

I just had 2 questions. I guess, first one, most of the local broadcasters have painted a picture of relative -- relatively stable core advertising revenues, perhaps even some green shoots of turning a corner to improvement rolling into '24. That's a bit of a contrast on commentary some of the more large market, national focused media companies have talked to. Do you see the bifurcation between national and local continuing? Any warning signs that local confidence is wavering and anything you're seeing or hearing that makes you feel better on the core ad outlook rolling into '24?

我只有兩個問題。我想，第一，大多數當地廣播公司都描繪了一幅相對穩定的核心廣告收入的圖景，甚至可能在 24 世紀出現一些轉機改善的萌芽。這與一些較大市場、全國性媒體公司所接受的評論形成了鮮明對比。您認為國家和地方之間的分歧是否仍在繼續？是否有任何表明當地信心正在動搖的警告信號，以及您所看到或聽到的任何讓您對進入 24 世紀的核心廣告前景感覺更好的事情？

Yes. Thanks, Aaron. It's Pat. Local is strong, and it's been strong. The national ad market has struggled pretty much the entire year, but we see no weakness locally, and I think Sandy covered that. With the automotive category coming back with a vengeance, I mean that's been huge, not just in local but also national spot, which is different than national advertising. So we are -- we think we'll have a good fourth quarter and feel like we're in very good shape going forward.

是的。謝謝，亞倫。是帕特。本地很強大，而且一直很強大。全國廣告市場一整年都在苦苦掙扎，但我們沒有看到本地廣告市場的疲軟，我認為桑迪彌補了這一點。隨著汽車類別的捲土重來，我的意思是，這不僅在當地而且在全國範圍內都是巨大的，這與全國廣告不同。所以我們——我們認為我們將有一個良好的第四季度，並且感覺我們未來的狀態非常好。

All right. That's helpful. And then just secondly, maybe this is pointed at Jim. I saw the commentary in the release that you don't anticipate any material capital projects at Assembly in '24, that said, can you remind us what additional cash capital will be required for Assembly near term? And with regards to the evaluation of opportunities to unlock value of the real estate, could any of those opportunities happen over the near- and medium-term horizon to help you accelerate your deleveraging process?

好的。這很有幫助。其次，也許這是針對吉姆的。我在新聞稿中看到評論稱，您預計 24 年的 Assembly 不會有任何實質資本項目，也就是說，您能否提醒我們，Assembly 近期需要哪些額外現金資本？關於評估釋放房地產價值的機會，這些機會是否會在近期和中期發生，以幫助您加速去槓桿化？

So for the fourth quarter, actually, on a net cash basis, we expect to receive cash. We do have a cash outlay but we are expecting cash in from the quasi-governmental agency that's paying for the public infrastructure. And as we've said before, those funds are in a trust account at U.S. Bank. It's just a case of very slow, but paperwork to get the cash in. So on a net basis, we actually expect to receive money in the fourth quarter and not have to outlay anything which is the good news. I'll let Hilton take the second half of your question.

因此，實際上，在第四季度，以淨現金計算，我們預計將收到現金。我們確實有現金支出，但我們期望從支付公共基礎設施費用的準政府機構獲得現金。正如我們之前所說，這些資金存放在美國銀行的信託帳戶中。這只是一個非常緩慢但文書工作來獲得現金的情況。因此，從淨值來看，我們實際上預計在第四季度收到資金，而不必支出任何費用，這是個好消息。我請希爾頓回答你問題的後半部。

Well, on this call, I'm not going to commit to anything publicly that we intend on doing. But Aaron, let me emphasize something. We start getting revenue from what we have built at Assembly Studios in 3 weeks. And it will turn out to be if it is not already the single largest and most important asset that this company owns. The way I look at it is as if we had simply purchased a mid-market television station that will deliver about 4x the free cash flow that, that station would have otherwise provided. But yet it does it through film and television productions.

好吧，在這次電話會議上，我不會公開承諾我們打算做的任何事情。但是亞倫，讓我強調一件事。三週內，我們就開始從 Assembly Studios 建構的產品中獲得收入。如果它還不是該公司擁有的最大、最重要的單一資產，那麼事實就會證明這一點。我的看法就好像我們只是購買了一家中階市場電視台，該電視台將提供約 4 倍的自由現金流。但它卻透過電影和電視製作來做到這一點。

So I know that you and our company are viewed based on our cash flow not necessarily on the inherent value of the assets that we own. But this particular asset has a huge inherent value and will begin within a short period of time before I can blink, generating revenue at a larger percentage capacity than any individual TV station that we own in our portfolio. And that's actually saying a lot. And Aaron, I will tell you, I'm exceptionally proud of that.

所以我知道人們會根據我們的現金流來看待您和我們的公司，而不一定是根據我們擁有的資產的內在價值。但這項特殊資產具有巨大的內在價值，並且將在我眨眼之前的短時間內開始產生收入，其收入百分比比我們投資組合中擁有的任何單一電視台都大。這實際上說明了很多。亞倫，我會告訴你，我對此感到非常自豪。

One of these days, everyone on this call, I would love to host you as an Investor Day at Assembly Studios. We do not anticipate large capital expenditures, I'm sure, during the course of 2024, there may be some that arise. But the demand for the real estate that is not yet developed that Gray Television owns debt free is stunning. And so we will see what comes from that. And so on this call, I don't want to commit the company or to evidence to others, what we are willing or not willing to do. But we have an asset that few companies have, and we're very proud of it.

有一天，參加本次電話會議的各位，我很樂意在 Assembly Studios 舉辦投資者日活動，接待你們。我相信，我們預計 2024 年期間不會出現大量資本支出，但可能會出現一些情況。但格雷電視台無債擁有的尚未開發的房地產的需求是驚人的。所以我們會看看會發生什麼。因此，在這次電話會議上，我不想讓公司或向其他人證明我們願意或不願意做什麼。但我們擁有很少公司擁有的資產，我們對此感到非常自豪。

Aaron, just as a quick follow-up to just kind of put a little bit better number on the net impact in Q4. You'll see in the Q when it gets filed a little later today that our outflow in Q4 we expected in the range of $20 million to $25 million, but we're still expecting approximately $85 million to $90 million inflows, primarily from the quasi-governmental entity for the public infrastructure.

亞倫，就像快速跟進一樣，只是對第四季度的淨影響給出了更好的數字。您將在今天稍後提交的 Q 中看到，我們預計第四季度的資金流出在 2000 萬至 2500 萬美元之間，但我們仍然預計大約有 8500 萬至 9000 萬美元的流入，主要來自準- 公共基礎設施的政府實體。

And again, that inflow from that entity, a lot of the public infrastructure is done, but the paperwork involved and the red tape involved to get it out, getting multiple municipal entities to check off the appropriate boxes is I would just say from my standpoint, it's frustratingly slow, but the good news is the money is in the bank, and we just got to keep processing the paperwork.

再說一遍，從該實體流入，許多公共基礎設施已經完成，但從我的角度來看，涉及的文書工作和涉及的繁文縟節，讓多個市政實體勾選適當的框是我想說的，速度慢得令人沮喪，但好消息是錢存在銀行里，我們只需繼續處理文書工作。

Our next question is going to come from Steven Cahall with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題將來自富國銀行的史蒂文·卡霍爾。

So Kevin, I think retrans revenue is going to be up around 2% this year based on the Q4 guide. It slowed down quite a bit from the last couple of years. I know there's a lot of timing in there with fewer renewals. It's a lot more complex these days between the mix of streaming and traditional, and you just have higher rates overall. But as we look out into 2024, between some of the constructive view on what's happened with Disney Charter, plus I think just more subscribers up for renewal, is it reasonable to expect that retrans revenue should accelerate next year versus this year?

凱文，我認為根據第四季的指南，今年的轉播收入將成長 2% 左右。與過去幾年相比，速度放緩了很多。我知道那裡有很多時間，但續訂卻很少。如今，串流媒體和傳統媒體的混合變得更加複雜，而且整體費率更高。但當我們展望 2024 年時，人們對《迪士尼憲章》所發生的事情提出了一些建設性看法，再加上我認為更多的訂戶願意續訂，那麼預計明年的轉播收入比今年加速是否合理？

And then Pat, I just want to go a little deeper into the core ad outlook that you talked about, things sound pretty positive. I was a little surprised that the guidance isn't a little higher. I think that there's probably a fair amount of crowd out benefit in Q4 on the core side and the guidance isn't a lot higher than Q3. So can you just maybe help me understand is that just a bit of conservatism and there could be some upside there or anything else in the core guide?

然後帕特，我只想更深入地了解您談論的核心廣告前景，事情聽起來相當積極。我有點驚訝指導方針並沒有高一點。我認為第四季核心方面可能有相當多的擠出效益，而且指導並不比第三季高很多。那麼，您能否幫助我理解，只是有一點保守主義，核心指南中可能有一些好處或其他內容？

Steven, on the first point, yes, we would anticipate retrans would be higher next year and just simply the volume of contracts that are being renegotiated, and we expect those will go forward as all of our retrans agreements really almost without exception for 20-some years have gone meaning they won't be fun. They won't be easy, but they'll get done quietly in the background with no noise or disruption and continue to move the needle closer towards full value of our stations. So yes, we do expect retrans to be higher next year. And with that, I'll let Pat address core.

史蒂文，關於第一點，是的，我們預計明年的重轉會更高，只是重新談判的合約數量會增加，我們預計這些將繼續進行，因為我們所有的重轉協議幾乎無一例外地持續了20-有些年過去了，這意味著它們不再有趣。它們並不容易，但它們將在後台安靜地完成，沒有噪音或乾擾，並繼續使我們的電台更接近充分價值。所以，是的，我們確實預計明年的轉播率會更高。接下來，我將讓帕特談談核心問題。

Yes. I think the simplest way to answer is there was some crowd out last year. It wasn't a ton of crowd out. And could there be a little bit of upside in Q4? Potentially. So historically, we've been conservative, and I'm not telegraphing anything, I just -- I think that the market is pretty strong, and I think you'll see that reflected in our results.

是的。我認為最簡單的答案是去年有一些人被擠走。外面並沒有很多人。第四季是否會有一點上行空間？有潛力。所以從歷史上看，我們一直很保守，我沒有傳達任何訊息，我只是——我認為市場相當強勁，我想你會在我們的業績中看到這一點。

And maybe if I could ask a quick follow-up. I know that for competitive reasons, giving revenue or EBITDA related to your new anchor tenant and Assembly is not possible. But as we think about the contribution in 2024, could it be a material contributor to either EBITDA or free cash flow next year?

也許我可以要求快速跟進。我知道，出於競爭原因，不可能提供與新的主力租戶和組裝相關的收入或 EBITDA。但當我們考慮 2024 年的貢獻時，它是否會對明年的 EBITDA 或自由現金流產生重大貢獻？

Steven, as Hilton commented, the Assembly Studios obviously is primarily a long-term lease annuity to the company with obviously, with the 5 sound stages, we're keeping. There's some shorter-term leases as well. Hilton commented that because there's minimal operating expense for the facility and actually we only have less than 10 people of our own employee at Assembly. Everybody else is either NBCU or a contractor for NBCU. It will be an extremely high-margin business for us. And as Hilton said, it would be akin to a nice performing television station. But in the context of a company that's doing in $3.3-ish billion of revenue, material becomes a fairly large number in my mind. So is it nicely additive at a high margin? Yes. And is it a long-term annuity? Yes. Again, materiality on a $3.3 billion revenue company is a little bit different.

史蒂文，正如希爾頓所評論的，裝配工作室顯然主要是該公司的長期租賃年金，顯然，我們保留了 5 個攝影棚。還有一些短期租賃。 Hilton 評論道，因為該設施的營運費用極低，而且實際上我們 Assembly 的員工不到 10 人。其他人要么是 NBCU，要么是 NBCU 的承包商。這對我們來說將是一項利潤率極高的業務。正如希爾頓所說，這就像一個出色的表演電視台。但對於一家年收入約 33 億美元的公司來說，材料在我看來是一個相當大的數字。那麼它的附加價值很高嗎？是的。它是長期年金嗎？是的。同樣，對於一家營收 33 億美元的公司來說，其重要性也略有不同。

Our next question is going to come from Paul Farrell with Mayborn Partners.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Mayborn Partners 的 Paul Farrell。

I was looking through the disclosures in the press release that I couldn't tell if the CapEx on Assembly was cumulative or additive, but it looks like the total gross investment there is something close to $500 million. Is that correct? And if so, doesn't that imply that any kind of reasonable return on that actually generates something that is meaningful to the company's net income or free cash flow?

我查看了新聞稿中的披露內容，無法判斷裝配資本支出是累積的還是累積的，但看起來總投資接近 5 億美元。那是對的嗎？如果是這樣，這是否意味著任何合理的回報實際上都會產生對公司淨利潤或自由現金流有意義的東西？

So the cumulative amount through the end of this year, netting the repayment of public infrastructure from the governmental entity and also assuming a very small few acres being sold to a residential developer in order to be able to check the box for residential development on the overall acreage probably will have a net investment of probably in the $450 million to $475 million range.

因此，截至今年年底的累計金額，包括政府實體償還公共基礎設施的淨額，並假設將極少的幾英畝土地出售給住宅開發商，以便能夠在總體上勾選住宅開發。面積的淨投資可能在4.5 億至4.75 億美元之間。

So I guess, I'm just curious what you would consider a reasonable return on that investment?

所以我想，我只是好奇您認為該投資的合理回報是多少？

Well, we think it's going to be a very solid return, and we can't speak to you, Paul, on percentages at this time because we have NDAs on that. And assuming the strike end sometime soon, we think it's going to be a very solid and very profitable investment, and you guys will get to see it as each quarter comes out through the course of 2024 and thereafter.

好吧，我們認為這將是一個非常可觀的回報，保羅，我們現在不能就百分比與你交談，因為我們對此有保密協議。假設罷工很快就會結束，我們認為這將是一項非常可靠且非常有利可圖的投資，你們將在 2024 年及之後的每個季度中看到它。

But would you agree that as we sit here today, there's a net investment of -- on your numbers, $450 million to $475 million, which essentially you're getting 0 credit for given that everyone values your company on free cash flow or average to your EBITDA.

但是，當我們今天坐在這裡時，您是否同意，根據您的數字，淨投資為4.5 億至4.75 億美元，考慮到每個人都根據自由現金流或平均價值來評價您的公司，您實際上獲得的信用額為 0您的 EBITDA。

Paul, the value of Assembly Atlanta is worth more than the entire market cap to Gray Television. So I've made it very, very clear that we are grossly undervalued. And yes, you're accurate. We get no credit for what we have been able to create at Assembly Studios, but I think that will all matriculate out as our quarters go forward. So I think our stocks are roaring by.

保羅，亞特蘭大集會的價值比格雷電視的整個市值還要高。所以我已經非常非常明確地表示，我們的價值被嚴重低估了。是的，你是準確的。我們在 Assembly Studios 創造的東西並沒有得到任何榮譽，但我認為隨著我們宿舍的發展，這一切都會被錄取。所以我認為我們的股票正在飆升。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is going to come from Dan Kurnos from Benchmark.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題將來自 Benchmark 的 Dan Kurnos。

Great. Maybe just to follow up on Steve's question, Pat, on core. You've got Phoenix coming on board. I know Scripps gave some numbers around the impact of local sports deals. You obviously message, there could be something else to come that I assume is not in your numbers if you land another one of those deals. And it sounds like National getting better with local stable to kind of up.

偉大的。也許只是為了跟進史蒂夫的問題，帕特，關於核心。菲尼克斯也加入了。我知道斯克里普斯給了一些有關當地運動交易影響的數據。顯然，您傳達的訊息是，如果您達成另一筆交易，我認為您可能會遇到其他事情。聽起來國家隊的情況越來越好，當地的穩定也有所提升。

So I'm just sort of trying to triangulate the impact of some of the stuff that you've signed plus kind of what you're seeing in underlying. And I know you guys have outperformed the industry and gotten no credit for it for the last, I don't know, 3, 4 quarters now. So it's probably more difficult to come...

所以我只是想對你簽署的一些內容以及你所看到的潛在內容的影響進行三角測量。我知道你們的表現優於整個行業，過去（我不知道）已經有三、四個季度了，但沒有獲得任何榮譽。所以可能比較難來...

Probably a year.

大概一年吧。

All right, Hilton. Well, I am trying to keep it maybe a little more shorter and focused. But yes, I know what you're saying. So Pat, in incremental, is there anything else that you can kind of provide around that? Or I don't want to kind of ask this question again, but I guess you, hopefully, see where I'm coming from.

好吧，希爾頓。好吧，我正在努力讓它變得更短、更集中。但是，是的，我知道你在說什麼。那麼帕特，在增量方面，你還有什麼可以提供的嗎？或者我不想再問這個問題，但我想你希望能明白我的想法。

Sure. So look, I think as it relates to sports deals, we have one basically started in October. I think one thing to consider when you talk about the sports deals that they will all likely be different. So the types of deals you do may include a lot of advertising inventory for a station or stations, other deals may have very limited advertising inventory for a station or stations. So that's sort of a big variable there. But the reality is we are -- in terms of core revenue, I think Scripps is somewhere between 40% and 50% of our core revenue. So moving the meter for us is a different thing to moving the meter for Scripps on core.

當然。所以看，我認為因為它與體育交易有關，我們基本上在十月開始了。我認為當你談論體育賽事時要考慮的一件事是它們可能都會有所不同。因此，您所做的交易類型可能包括一個或多個電台的大量廣告庫存，而其他交易可能包含一個或多個電台的非常有限的廣告庫存。所以這是一個很大的變數。但現實是——就核心收入而言，我認為斯克里普斯占我們核心收入的 40% 到 50% 之間。因此，為我們移動儀表與為核心斯克里普斯移動儀表是不同的事情。

And look, at the end of the day, I think there's great opportunities in the sports. We're going to be aggressive in pursuing those opportunities. And we think it's -- at some point, when we acquire a number of franchises, hopefully, there will be some significant impact to us. But right now, there isn't.

歸根結底，我認為體育運動中有很大的機會。我們將積極尋求這些機會。我們認為，在某個時候，當我們獲得一些特許經營權時，希望會對我們產生一些重大影響。但現在還沒有。

Yes. No, that's fair. I think that's a fair statement. Kevin, since you brought it up, this comes up from time to time. You brought up ratings, you brought up local news. I'm just kind of curious, either on an absolute or relative basis how local news in your markets performed.

是的。不，這很公平。我認為這是一個公平的說法。凱文，自從你提出這個問題以來，這個問題時不時就會出現。你提出了收視率，你提出了當地新聞。我只是有點好奇，無論是在絕對或相對的基礎上，當地新聞在你們市場的表現如何。

You just read that paragraph then, Kevin.

那你就讀那一段吧，凱文。

We're very happy with the ratings. As I said, we look at the trend lines, an aggregate basis of viewership of streaming, cable channels and broadcast it's clear broadcast is pretty stable. Streaming is growing and cable is declining. And as you saw in our deck, for us, the strength of our ratings is it's local news, it's local programming. And as Dan you've mentioned, we've been now leveraging our content with a new daily show called Investigate TV and it's product that we're now broadcasting in some markets called Local News Live. So we're actually starting to take this really good content and leverage it and put it on in place of syndicated shows and are getting better ratings.

我們對收視率非常滿意。正如我所說，我們觀察趨勢線，即串流媒體、有線頻道和廣播收視率的整體基礎，很明顯，廣播相當穩定。串流媒體正在成長，而有線電視正在衰落。正如您在我們的套牌中看到的那樣，對我們來說，收視率的優勢在於它是本地新聞、本地節目。正如丹您所提到的，我們現在一直在透過名為「調查電視」的新每日節目來利用我們的內容，我們現在正在一些市場上播放名為「本地新聞直播」的產品。因此，我們實際上開始採用這些非常好的內容並利用它來代替聯合節目，並且獲得了更好的收視率。

So we think the audience is there and they're certainly finding us. So we're definitely comfortable with where our local news ratings are. They've been holding in, and we don't see why -- we don't see that changing.

所以我們認為觀眾就在那裡，他們肯定會找到我們。因此，我們對當地新聞收視率絕對感到滿意。他們一直在堅持，我們不明白為什麼──我們看不到這種情況改變。

Got it. No, that's helpful. And Hilton since you're maybe in a sharing mood and before Kevin kicks you under the table, how do you feel about political next year?

知道了。不，這很有幫助。希爾頓，既然你可能有分享的心情，在凱文把你踢到桌子底下之前，你對明年的政治有何看法？

Well, I think it's going to be huge. I think it's -- political is going to be absolutely huge. It is yet too early for us to handicap who the respective nominees of their parties will be. But regardless of that, we still are spending less on political advertising during a presidential year than Halloween Costumes or Easter Eggs. So I think that the future of political spending is huge. And regardless of the fact that there's many avenues to reach people, the single best avenue is local new centered TV stations. So I think 2024 is going to be fantastic.

嗯，我認為這將會是巨大的。我認為政治影響絕對是巨大的。現在對我們來說限制各政黨各自的提名人是誰還為時過早。但無論如何，在總統年期間，我們在政治廣告上的支出仍然少於萬聖節服裝或復活節彩蛋。所以我認為政治支出的未來是巨大的。儘管有很多途徑可以接觸到人們，但最好的方法是當地的新中心電視台。所以我認為 2024 年將會非常棒。

Our next question is going to come from Nick Zangler from Stephens Inc.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Stephens Inc. 的 Nick Zangler。

High-level questions just on this Charter/Disney deal. Just love to hear your perspective on how quickly these MVPDs and other network streaming services will look to bundle together. And then specifically for Gray, are you more optimistic on the potential for reduced MVPD churn as you go forward? Or is it maybe the content curation that occurred specific to that deal that makes more room for spend to be allocated to Gray for the value you provide, which of those 2 are you more excited about in the near term?

關於此憲章/迪士尼交易的高級問題。我很想聽聽您對這些 MVPD 和其他網路串流服務捆綁在一起的速度的看法。然後，特別是對於 Gray，您對未來減少 MVPD 流失的潛力是否更加樂觀？或者，可能是針對該交易的內容管理，為您提供的價值分配給葛瑞更多的支出空間，您在短期內對這兩者中的哪一個更感興趣？

Good questions. Give me a moment to think about that. I've been doing retrans for -- in cable programming previous before I came to Gray for a couple of decades now. I'd say it's -- in my experience, the pay-TV distributors have been eager to rationalize some spending for a long time. And that would mean more flexibility in what channels are carried, not simply carry every channel that a content creator dreams up and output every channel that's streamed up on a basic cable tier and pay for it.

好問題。請給我一點時間考慮一下。在來到葛瑞之前，我已經在有線電視節目中進行了幾十年的轉播。我想說的是——根據我的經驗，付費電視發行商長期以來一直渴望合理化一些支出。這意味著在承載哪些頻道方面具有更大的靈活性，而不是簡單地承載內容創作者夢想的每個頻道，然後輸出在基本有線電視層上傳輸的每個頻道並付費。

And there has been some rationalization over the last few years of cable channels that have dropped, have been wound down, et cetera. But it seems that the Charter/Disney deal was a larger move on sort of rationalizing the number of cable channels than we've seen in any single deal. So that's probably more -- I guess, I'd say if I had to choose probably a bit more impactful to the ecosystem.

在過去幾年中，有線頻道已經出現了一些合理化，這些頻道已經下降、關閉等等。但在合理化有線電視頻道數量方面，憲章/迪士尼的交易似乎是比我們在任何單一交易中看到的更大的舉措。所以這可能更多——我想，我會說，如果我必須選擇可能對生態系統更有影響力的話。

In terms of timing, it would just be my estimate that no distributor and content company is going to rush to do a deal terribly early. So as deals come up for renewal over the next couple of years, different -- probably, there will be some new structures that will develop but that's not going to happen sort of on its own. It's going to happen as individual contracts between big distributors and big content companies come up over the next few years.

就時間安排而言，據我估計，發行商和內容公司不會急於過早達成交易。因此，隨著未來幾年續約交易的出現，不同的——可能會出現一些新的結構，但這不會自行發生。隨著大型發行商和大型內容公司之間的個人合約在未來幾年內出現，這種情況將會發生。

Got it. That's very helpful. And then just one follow-up here. Assuming you're able to gain incremental access to sports content, and it sounds like you guys might have a few things growing here. I'm wondering if your existing distribution deals are flexible such that as you add more content, you can immediately then command improved distribution fees or whether you have to wait until the next renewal to be rewarded for the improved content that you might be bringing to consumers?

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後這裡只是一個後續行動。假設您能夠增量存取體育內容，聽起來您可能會在這裡成長一些東西。我想知道您現有的發行協議是否靈活，這樣當您添加更多內容時，您可以立即要求提高發行費，或者您是否必須等到下一次續訂才能獲得您可能帶來的改進內容的獎勵消費者？

Sure. So at a fairly high level, contracts say that if we add content of a certain type, it would trigger a fee. So historically, if we were to add a big 4 affiliate whether we buy the station in a new market or we add an affiliate in a market that didn't have a local affiliate, right? There used to be a lots of markets without a full range of network affiliates. As we add one of those, it would trigger an additional carriage obligation and additional payment obligation.

當然。因此，在相當高的水平上，合約規定，如果我們添加某種類型的內容，就會觸發費用。因此，從歷史上看，如果我們要增加四大附屬機構，無論是在新市場購買電台還是在沒有本地附屬機構的市場中添加附屬機構，對吧？過去有很多市場沒有全方位的網路附屬機構。當我們新增其中一項時，它將觸發額外的運輸義務和額外的付款義務。

The sports professional sports is similar to that. And that as a general rule, if we add sports to a station, we've negotiated with providers that if we deliver certain kinds of sports and certain kinds of games and certain channels, it would trigger an additional or a higher distribution fee. Generally, that's typically the language in the last several contracts. There are some that don't have that language, but those contracts are all coming up for expiration in the next 12 months.

運動職業運動與此類似。一般來說，如果我們為電視台添加體育賽事，我們會與提供者協商，如果我們提供某些類型的體育賽事、某些類型的遊戲和某些頻道，就會引發額外或更高的發行費用。一般來說，這通常是最近幾份合約中的語言。有些合約沒有這種語言，但這些合約都將在未來 12 個月內到期。

And given all broadcasters are seeking local professional sports, I would expect that all broadcasters and all distributors are having the same kinds of conversations about what triggers to include in their contracts, should local sports come to the local broadcast station.

鑑於所有廣播公司都在尋求本地職業體育賽事，我希望所有廣播公司和所有發行商都會就本地體育賽事來到當地廣播電台時在合約中包含哪些觸發因素進行同樣的對話。

Our next question is going to come from Alan Gould from Loop Capital.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Loop Capital 的艾倫·古爾德。

I've got 2 here. First, what are the financing options for Assembly? I mean, going on Hilton's analogy to a local TV station, I don't think you'd have an unleveraged TV stations in your portfolio. And then I'll follow up with a question for Pat or Kevin on CTV.

我這裡有2個首先，Assembly 的融資選擇有哪些？我的意思是，按照希爾頓對當地電視台的類比，我認為您的投資組合中不會有無槓桿的電視台。然後我會在 CTV 上向帕特或凱文提出問題。

All right. Well, let me answer that. Gray paid for Assembly Studios, the old-fashioned way, we've paid cash. There is utterly no debt on that real estate development, its own outright by the company. The initial investment came from funds we didn't anticipate receiving during the dual Georgia Senate runoff a couple of years ago. And then we have paid based upon Jim's prudent guidance, what we needed to do to build it out of our free cash flow every month. And those cash expenditures have essentially come to a close.

好的。好吧，讓我來回答一下。格雷以老式的方式支付了 Assembly Studios 的費用，我們支付了現金。該房地產開發案完全沒有任何債務，完全由公司自己承擔。最初的投資來自幾年前喬治亞州參議院兩輪決選期間我們沒有預料到的資金。然後我們根據吉姆的謹慎指導進行支付，我們需要做些什麼來建立它每個月的自由現金流。這些現金支出基本上已經結束。

And as I mentioned earlier, we start getting free cash flow from that investment in about 3 weeks, certainly by the time we next gather on our call. And those cash flow numbers, while we cannot provide them to you directly will go up substantially when this strike comes to an end. I have utterly no inside information. We're not part of either party. What I read in the press is that the strike is more optimistic that it will conclude then it will continue through the end of the year. And then when that happens, we're going to have thousands of men and women out there making movies, making their job and creating value for the shareholders of our company.

正如我之前提到的，我們在大約三週內開始從該投資中獲得自由現金流，當然在我們下次電話會議時。雖然我們無法直接向您提供這些現金流數字，但當罷工結束時，這些現金流數字將會大幅上升。我完全沒有任何內幕消息。我們不屬於任何一方。我在媒體上讀到的消息是，人們更樂觀地認為罷工將會結束，而不是持續到今年年底。當這種情況發生時，我們將有成千上萬的男人和女人在那裡製作電影，創造他們的工作並為我們公司的股東創造價值。

I mean, Hilton, I understand your bullishness on the Studio, but wouldn't it make sense to have some nonrecourse financing, especially based on the cash flows that are about to start coming in?

我的意思是，希爾頓，我理解您對工作室的看好，但是進行一些無追索權融資是否有意義，尤其是基於即將開始流入的現金流？

Alan, as we said I think enough couple of calls ago, now that the Studio phase is completed, we said very clearly, like I said a couple of calls ago, that we will be taking a pause and thinking very hard about what the possibilities are over the next 3, 5, 7 years to continue to unlock value there. And I remind everybody that there's still a approximately 50 acres or so that is undeveloped. Okay. Hilton corrected me, he said it's closer to 80%. So that's my bad.

艾倫，正如我們所說，我認為已經有足夠多的電話了，現在工作室階段已經完成，我們非常明確地表示，就像我在幾次電話前所說的那樣，我們將暫停並認真思考可能性在未來 3 年、5 年、7 年繼續釋放價值。我提醒大家，還有大約 50 英畝左右的土地尚未開發。好的。希爾頓糾正了我，他說接近 80%。所以這是我的錯。

So that is financing options for Assembly that's part of that evaluation. That's part of that thought process. And I would remind everybody that Assembly Studios is in an unrestricted subsidiary. So it is currently outside of all of our credit agreements. So it gives us a lot of flexibility on a go-forward basis to consider a wide range of possibilities.

這就是 Assembly 的融資選擇，這是評估的一部分。這是思考過程的一部分。我想提醒大家，Assembly Studios 是一家不受限制的子公司。因此，它目前不屬於我們所有的信貸協議之內。因此，它為我們提供了極大的靈活性，可以在未來考慮各種可能性。

And Alan, this is Hilton. Let me follow up on your comment. Yes, I am a bull, and I suggest to everyone on this call that all of you should be a bull on what we are doing as well. It is a unique asset for our company and for our state in the film and television production business is the fastest-growing part of -- one of the fastest-growing states in this country. And I think you should all be very bullish on what we're doing.

艾倫，這是希爾頓。讓我跟進您的評論。是的，我是一個公牛，我建議參加這次電話會議的所有人也應該對我們正在做的事情持公牛態度。對於我們公司和我們州來說，它是一項獨特的資產，電影和電視製作業務是美國成長最快的州之一。我認為你們都應該非常看好我們正在做的事情。

Okay. And then to follow up on the CTV side, I know a lot of the -- those put there stations, the local news on fast stations that makes sense with the growth of CTV. But Pat or Kevin, what impact does that have on your retrans when you start putting some of your local news on these fast stations or CTV stations?

好的。然後在 CTV 方面進行跟進，我知道很多 - 那些放在那裡的電台，快速電台上的本地新聞，這對 CTV 的發展有意義。但是帕特或凱文，當您開始在這些快台或 CTV 台上播放一些本地新聞時，這會對您的重播產生什麼影響？

There hasn't been any effect. As we sit here today, the CTV -- the Connected TV business for us is still small, and we would expect some growth we mentioned today that there's going to be a number of more rollouts. Candidly, 18 months ago, we thought we'd have most of our stations rolled out due to technical challenges on the part of our partners. We haven't gotten as many rolled out as we'd like. But we think over the next year or 2, there will be meaningful revenue coming from that area.

沒有任何效果。當我們今天坐在這裡時，CTV——我們的連網電視業務仍然很小，我們預計我們今天提到的一些成長將會有更多的推出。坦白說，18 個月前，我們認為由於合作夥伴面臨的技術挑戰，我們的大部分站點都會推出。我們還沒有推出我們想要的那麼多。但我們認為在未來一兩年內，該領域將會帶來可觀的收入。

Our next question is going to come from Craig Huber with Huber Research.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Huber Research 的 Craig Huber。

Your retrans subs, I believe you guys said 3 months ago, they were down low single digits year-over-year net. Just can you give us an update on that number, please, this time?

你們的重傳潛艇，我相信你們三個月前說過，它們的淨值比去年同期下降了低個位數。這次您能給我們該號碼的最新資訊嗎？

Craig, what we are saying is our sublots are generally consistent with what we're seeing in the industry on broadcast peers. We're not doing it quarter-by-quarter calculation any longer. We've got too many long philosophical discussions over days over how we define the word subscriber versus others. So just take it at a high level. We're not materially better or materially worse in terms of sub numbers and our peers. Half of our footprint is in large markets, half or 45% of our footprint is in midsized markets, so about 5% is in small markets.

克雷格，我們要說的是，我們的子地段總體上與我們在廣播同行中看到的情況一致。我們不再按季度計算。幾天來，我們就如何定義「訂閱者」和「其他人」這個詞進行了太多長時間的哲學討論。所以只是以高水平來看待它。就子數量和同行而言，我們並沒有實質上更好或更差。我們一半的足跡位於大型市場，一半或 45% 的足跡位於中型市場，因此約 5% 位於小型市場。

So we are -- there was a -- while there were -- our sub numbers were much better than our peers because we were predominantly midsized and small markets. And given our current footprint, we're very much now, like everybody else, a large market, midsized market company split almost evenly between the 2. So we're finding our subtrans are consistent generally with everybody else's. So there's not really anything to call out that were better or worse than what the peer group is seeing.

因此，我們的子數據比同行好得多，因為我們主要是中小型市場。考慮到我們目前的足跡，我們現在和其他人一樣，是一家大型市場、中型市場公司，兩者幾乎各佔一半。因此，我們發現我們的子交易總體上與其他人的一致。因此，實際上沒有什麼比同儕群體所看到的更好或更差的了。

Okay. My second question, please. Your core advertising trends have certainly held up better than your peers out there. I'd just like to hear your thoughts on why you think your core advertising has been doing so much better than your peers in this market in particular.

好的。我的第二個問題，請。您的核心廣告趨勢肯定比您的同行表現得更好。我只是想聽聽您的想法，為什麼您認為您的核心廣告在這個市場上比您的同行做得更好。

Yes, well, it's a strength of our stations. If you've been on calls before, you've probably heard me talk about our training program and our vertical program, those things which are unique in the industry have an impact on our local ad sales every quarter. We also have this maniacal focus on new business development. So I think those 3 things combined with the strength of our people and our stations are the reason why we tend to lead the industry in core advertising.

是的，這是我們電台的優點。如果您以前接過電話，您可能聽過我談論我們的培訓計劃和我們的垂直計劃，這些在行業中獨一無二的東西對我們每個季度的本地廣告銷售都有影響。我們也瘋狂地關注新業務的開發。因此，我認為這三件事加上我們員工和電視台的實力是我們在核心廣告領域領先產業的原因。

Yes, absolutely. We're really fortunate to have strong general managers and strong sales managers that have made new local direct to focus and continuing to improve quality, and we see the results of that in core.

是的，一點沒錯。我們真的很幸運，擁有強大的總經理和強大的銷售經理，他們使新的本地直接關注並持續提高質量，我們看到了核心的結果。

I appreciate that. What percent of your big 4 TV stations are ranked, say, #1 or #2 in ratings right now?

我很感激。目前，四大電視台中排名第一或第二的電視台佔百分之幾？

90%.

90%。

Isn't that the big reason why you guys are shining versus your peers? I think they understand, right? What you're saying?

這不就是你們在同儕中脫穎而出的重要原因嗎？我想他們都明白，對吧？你在講些什麼？

Absolutely.

絕對地。

And then added at 90%, how many are ranked #1 in ratings?

然後加上90%，有多少個收視率排名第一？

I guess, it's in our...

我想，它就在我們的...

We'll tell you exactly. Hang on 1 second. Bear with me.

我們會準確地告訴你。堅持1秒。耐心聽我說。

We have 113 markets. I would say we have 80 markets with the #1 ranked station in 102 markets with a first or second ranked TV station.

我們有 113 個市場。我想說的是，我們有 80 個市場擁有排名第一的電視台，而 102 個市場擁有排名第一或第二的電視台。

We're pretty proud of that number. I mean the stations have obviously continued to focus on quality local content, and we see that our audiences respond very positively to that.

我們對這個數字感到非常自豪。我的意思是，這些電視台顯然繼續關注優質的本地內容，我們看到觀眾對此反應非常積極。

And our next question is going to come from Jim Goss with Barrington Research.

我們的下一個問題將來自巴林頓研究公司的吉姆·戈斯。

I think you're talking about the large, medium and small markets. Are you seeing any appreciable difference in ad trends among them by market size? Or might it be more geographic to the extent there is differences.

我想你說的是大、中、小市場。您是否發現以市場規模劃分，它們之間的廣告趨勢有明顯差異？或可能在地理上存在差異。

Jim, not really. There really isn't any group, whether it's small, medium or large and outside and outperforms the others. So geographically, the same situation, we really can't point to single area, whether it's the Midwest or the Southeast or whatever, where certain stations are performing better than others in different geographic reasons. So I'd say no.

吉姆，不是真的。確實沒有任何一個團體，無論是小型、中型或大型團體，都能夠超越其他團體。因此，從地理位置上來說，同樣的情況，我們確實無法指出某個地區，無論是中西部還是東南部還是其他地區，某些電台由於不同的地理原因而表現得比其他電台更好。所以我會說不。

And let me follow up with what Pat said. We're seeing no sign by region or by market of any kind of recession. We just aren't seeing it. And when we began 2023, everyone that was on our calls at the time thought, "Oh, well, we're going to have a recession." Rates going up, are going to devastate things, and we're not seeing that anywhere. The changes that we have in terms of our core revenue are things like automobile, all right, automobile industry, they didn't advertise a lot because they didn't have enough cars to sell for the demand. And now all of a sudden, they've got to do that. It's returning, but there's no signs of a recession that we yet see anywhere in the country.

讓我跟進帕特所說的話。我們沒有看到任何地區或市場出現任何衰退的跡象。我們只是沒有看到它。當我們進入 2023 年時，當時接到我們電話的每個人都在想，“哦，好吧，我們將會陷入衰退。”利率上升會帶來毀滅性的後果，但我們在任何地方都沒有看到這種情況。我們的核心收入發生的變化是像汽車這樣的事情，好吧，汽車行業，他們沒有做很多廣告，因為他們沒有足夠的汽車來滿足需求。現在突然之間，他們必須這樣做。它正在捲土重來，但我們在該國任何地方都沒有看到經濟衰退的跡象。

Okay. Very good to know. Couple of other questions about the sports focus. You made a point of saying how important it was to take advantage of the opportunities. I'm curious about a couple of things. One, the situation we have in Phoenix with the Suns and the Mercury, are there other markets that you think you can do similar things? And are these sort of nonexclusive add-ons to other program rights that are existing in those markets? And then separately, with regard to the ACC programming, is that totally within the context of the CW. And to the extent that the CW has changed its stripes quite a bit with Nexstar recently in terms of the orientation. Are there additional stations in some of the markets where you might be more inclined to consider affiliating with the CW, whereas you may not have earlier.

好的。很高興知道。關於體育焦點的其他幾個問題。您強調了利用這些機會是多麼重要。我對幾件事很好奇。一，我們在鳳凰城與太陽隊和水星隊的情況，你認為還有其他市場可以做類似的事情嗎？這些是這些市場中現有的其他節目權利的非排他性附加內容嗎？然後，就 ACC 編程而言，這完全在 CW 的範圍內。 CW 最近在方向上與 Nexstar 發生了很大的變化。在某些市場中是否有其他電台，您可能更傾向於考慮加入 CW，而您之前可能沒有。

I'm going to let Pat go for this, but I do want to say a couple of things, Jim. First of all, everyone on this call may or may not have actually looked at our footprint. This is something that we actually need to make sure that you guys understand. One of the great things about what we have built over the last, pick it, number of decades, is that we cover small markets, midsized markets and large markets. And so we're one of the very, very, very few broadcasters that can deliver a broadcast speed for a sports team for every single viewer that wants to watch those teams.

我打算讓帕特離開，但我確實想說幾件事，吉姆。首先，參加這次電話會議的每個人可能或可能沒有真正看過我們的足跡。這是我們實際上需要確保你們理解的事情。我們在過去幾十年所建立的偉大事物之一，就是我們覆蓋了小型市場、中型市場和大型市場。因此，我們是極少數能夠為每位想要觀看球隊比賽的觀眾提供運動隊伍轉播速度的廣播公司之一。

One of the things that we preach is that, you know what, you need to be on free TV. Gray can deliver that. We did a brilliant job and are doing, I should say, a brilliant job with Suns, because we're in Yuma, Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, everywhere in the state of Arizona. And we got letters. And this is something that the investing world needs to understand. Our GM and our station got letters from individuals who live on the American reservations, the Native American reservation saying, thank you so much. Because all of a sudden, for the first time, we can watch our basketball team on our reservation in our homes. And that is the power of broadcast television that is also, I want to say, one of the unique abilities that Gray has.

我們宣揚的一件事是，你知道嗎，你需要上免費電視。格雷可以做到這一點。我們做得非常出色，我應該說，太陽隊也做得非常出色，因為我們在尤馬、圖森、鳳凰城、弗拉格斯塔夫，以及亞利桑那州的任何地方。我們收到信了。這是投資界需要理解的事情。我們的總經理和電視台收到了居住在美國保留地的人們的來信，美洲原住民保留地說，非常感謝。因為突然之間，我們第一次可以在家裡觀看預訂的籃球隊比賽。我想說，這就是廣播電視的力量，這也是格雷擁有的獨特能力之一。

If you look at our home state of Georgia, we're in every single television market. That's true for South Carolina, Alabama. That's true for almost all of Mississippi and Louisiana, all of Kentucky, all of Tennessee, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, you go through the list, and we cover the smallest cities to the largest metroplex. And that gives us an ability not only to put it on the air, but because we have such a high concentration of deeply embedded TV stations, we can promote these sports teams better than any of our competitors. That is our sales pitch, and it's what we've been building for almost 30 years.

如果你看看我們的家鄉喬治亞州，你會發現我們涉足每一個電視市場。南卡羅來納州和阿拉巴馬州就是如此。幾乎整個密西西比州和路易斯安那州、整個肯塔基州、整個田納西州、威斯康星州、亞利桑那州、內華達州都是如此，您瀏覽一下列表，我們涵蓋了最小的城市到最大的大都市。這不僅使我們有能力進行廣播，而且由於我們擁有如此高度集中的深度嵌入的電視台，我們可以比任何競爭對手更好地宣傳這些運動隊伍。這就是我們的銷售宣傳，也是我們近 30 年來一直在打造的。

Yes. Just to follow on, Hilton. I think the way to look at it is we're not just focused on the Phoenix team or the Atlanta team or the Cleveland team or the Nashville team, we have markets. I'll use an example here in the state of Wisconsin. We're not in Milwaukee, but we're in every other market in Wisconsin. So we are a great partner for whomever ends up with -- I'll make this up, the Bucks or the Brewers. And that situation is true for a number of different teams. So we -- again, we have one team right now. We're not going to get way ahead of ourselves here, but the reality is our geography is really favorable to many, many sports franchises. And Jim, you asked a question about CW and the ACC, the ACC rights that were formerly with Diamond are now at the CW, so the ACC football and basketball rights. I think that's what you'd asked. I just wanted to confirm that.

是的。只是繼續，希爾頓。我認為看待這個問題的方式是，我們不僅僅關注菲尼克斯隊、亞特蘭大隊、克利夫蘭隊或納許維爾隊，我們還有市場。我將使用威斯康辛州的一個例子。我們不在密爾瓦基，但我們在威斯康辛州的所有其他市場。所以無論最終的對手是誰，我們都是一個很好的合作夥伴——我來彌補一下，雄鹿隊還是釀酒人。對於許多不同的團隊來說，情況都是如此。所以我們——再說一次，我們現在有一個團隊。我們不會在這裡走得太遠，但現實是我們的地理位置確實對很多很多體育特許經營權有利。吉姆，你問了一個關於 CW 和 ACC 的問題，以前戴蒙德的 ACC 權利現在屬於 CW，所以 ACC 的足球和籃球權利。我想這就是你問的。我只是想確認這一點。

Yes, that is correct.

對，那是正確的。

Yes.

是的。

And we're very happy with that. And I will tell you personally, I love watching the CW and ACC football, I watched the Georgia Tech game here recently and Atlanta on our CW here. We're proud to be affiliated with the CW network as we are with all of our networks. But I do want to just take a moment and salute Perry Sook and everyone at Nexstar for what they've done for the CW. They're doing a great job, and we're proud to be in business with them on a local basis.

我們對此感到非常高興。我個人會告訴你，我喜歡看 CW 和 ACC 橄欖球比賽，我最近在這裡觀看了佐治亞理工學院的比賽，還在這裡觀看了我們 CW 的亞特蘭大比賽。我們很自豪能夠加入 CW 網絡，就像我們加入我們所有的網絡一樣。但我確實想花點時間向 Perry Sook 和 Nexstar 的每個人致敬，感謝他們為 CW 所做的一切。他們做得很好，我們很自豪能夠在當地與他們開展業務。

Yes. I should have mentioned that we actually do the production for CW football and for CW basketball. That's Raycom Sports, one of our production companies.

是的。我應該要提到的是，我們實際上為 CW 橄欖球和 CW 籃球進行製作。那是融科體育，我們的製作公司之一。

Okay. But the other part of the question was whether you -- there are additional CW affiliations that might be under potential consideration, would you say...

好的。但問題的另一部分是，是否還有可能正在考慮的其他 CW 附屬機構，你會說…

I think that's a question for Perry Sook and the CW, not for Gray Television. But just so you'll know, I'll take any CW affiliation that they want to give us. So yes, we're open, but that's a question for the people that own that network.

我認為這是 Perry Sook 和 CW 的問題，而不是 Grey Television 的問題。但你要知道，我會接受他們想要給我們的任何 CW 隸屬關係。所以，是的，我們是開放的，但這是擁有該網路的人的問題。

And our last question is going to come from Michael Kupinski with NOBLE Capital.

我們的最後一個問題將由 NOBLE Capital 的 Michael Kupinski 提出。

Congratulations on working with Jonathan Katz, by the way, the guy has been a pioneer in the network business. And I think that's a real plus. I was curious on flushing out your strategy for those networks and also how many networks do you think you might need to gain scale there? And then also, do you plan to grow affiliates beyond maybe the Gray affiliations and stations that you might have, maybe just to kind of flush out your strategy there?

恭喜您與喬納森·卡茨 (Jonathan Katz) 合作，順便說一句，他是網路業務的先驅。我認為這是一個真正的優勢。我很好奇你對這些網路的策略，以及你認為你可能需要多少個網路來擴大規模？另外，您是否計劃在您可能擁有的格雷附屬機構和電台之外發展附屬機構，也許只是為了在那裡制定您的策略？

Yes. It's really -- it's Jonathan strategy. But from our perspective, being able to partner with the very best in the business is a huge advantage. Back in 2011, and this is back in the Raycom days, Raycom partnered with Jonathan to launch Bounce and Grit and Escape and Laff. And those networks grew tremendously, and you ended up selling them to Scripps much to Raycom's dismay at the time. And so one network is an African-American focused network. One is a sort of Western/action adventure. Having access to the libraries from Lionsgate and WBD is another enormous asset for that business.

是的。這確實是喬納森的策略。但從我們的角度來看，能夠與業界最優秀的公司合作是一個巨大的優勢。早在 2011 年，也就是融科時代，融科與 Jonathan 合作推出了 Bounce and Grit 以及 Escape and Laff。這些網路發展迅速，最終將它們賣給了史克里普斯，這讓融科科技當時非常沮喪。因此，一個網路是一個以非裔美國人為中心的網路。一種是西部片/動作冒險片。能夠存取獅門影業和 WBD 的圖書館是該企業的另一個巨大資產。

So look, I think in terms of other station groups, I could -- I want to speak with Jonathan, but I'm sure he's talking to a lot of folks who run traditional television station groups beyond Gray, but I don't -- in terms of his sort of a strategic approach to that area, that's really his deal more in mind.

所以看，我認為就其他電視台團體而言，我可以 - 我想與喬納森交談，但我確信他正在與許多經營格雷以外的傳統電視台團體的人交談，但我不 - - 就他對該領域的戰略方針而言，這確實是他更關心的事情。

I want to thank you for your excitement about what he is doing and our participation in that. I agree with you. I think he's a star and we'll see what the future brings. Operator, was that last of our question?

我要感謝你們對他所做的事情以及我們的參與感到興奮。我同意你的看法。我認為他是一位明星，我們將看看未來會發生什麼。接線員，這是我們的最後一個問題嗎？

Yes, So I'll turn it back over for any closing remarks.

是的，所以我將把它轉回來以供結束語。

Thank you very much. I'd like -- normally, I just sign off, but let me just sort of end this morning's call with a few things. Gray Television's assets, our core, our retrans, our ratings are all best-in-class. And as all of you know, Kevin, is a human being who speak softly, but carries a big stick. And so I am going to reprise his big stick as we close this.

非常感謝。我想——通常情況下，我只是結束，但讓我以一些事情來結束今天早上的電話會議。格雷電視台的資產、我們的核心、我們的轉播、我們的收視率都是一流的。眾所周知，凱文是個說話輕聲細語，卻拿著大棒的人。因此，當我們結束這個話題時，我將再次重申他的大棒。

Our data illustrates that Gray's local newscast delivers more household viewership in each of our markets than the total of all network prime viewership on NBC, CBS and FOX combined. Gray's local newscasts deliver more viewership than the total of all NFL games on ABC's Monday Night Football, CBS, FOX and NBC combined. Gray's local newscast deliver more viewership than the total of all 3 major cable news networks combined. Finally, Gray's local newscast by a factor of over 6x deliver more household viewership than the total of all 15 top cable sports networks in their markets.

我們的數據表明，格雷的本地新聞廣播在我們每個市場上提供的家庭收視率超過了 NBC、CBS 和 FOX 所有網路主要收視率的總和。格雷的當地新聞廣播帶來的收視率比 ABC 週一橄欖球之夜、哥倫比亞廣播公司、福克斯和 NBC 的所有 NFL 比賽的總收視率還要高。格雷的當地新聞廣播的收視率比所有三大有線電視新聞網的收視率總和還要多。最後，格雷的本地新聞廣播提供的家庭收視率比其市場上所有 15 個頂級有線體育網絡的總收視率高出 6 倍以上。

The reason we outperform is because our stations outperform. This is a unique company. And I think we should be valued as a unique company. So thank you for being here and joining us for this conference, and I look forward to reviewing our year-end results next year. Thank you, operator.

我們表現出色的原因是我們的電台表現出色。這是一家獨特的公司。我認為我們應該被視為一家獨特的公司。感謝您來到這裡並參加我們這次會議，我期待明年回顧我們的年終業績。謝謝你，接線生。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your call. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，你們的通話到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。