Belo Corp. -- the Dallas-based broadcaster that, of course, counts WFAA-Channel 8 among its 20 owned-and-operated TV stations around the country -- announced this morning that on April 30, it will release its first-quarter earnings. Bloomberg today reports it could be an especially interesting read for investors, who so far today have watched the stock price rise almost 15 percent to 93 cents: The news service says that both Belo Corp. and Rhode Island-based LIN TV "risk breaching loan
agreements this year and face higher bank fees and interest to
renegotiate the deals."
So happens that this morning, Broadcasting & Cable summarized a just-released report detailing what ails the TV business: a nearly 6 percent decline in television ad buys (car and travel ads, especially), despite an upturn in overall eyeballs likely to see those ads. Course, it's good news-bad news, ain't it always?
The report predicts that TV ad expenditures will fall 5.5% for 2009 but that decline is less steep than other mediums such as newspapers, magazines, and radio. Zenith also predicts an increase in market share for television from 38.1% in 2008 to 38.6% in 2009, followed by a record 39.3% in 2010.
