Broadcast Stocks Are On the Rise

March 17, 2010

MULTIPLE CITIES: Broadcast stocks are improving across the board. Television Broadcast presents price trends from a selection of publicly held broadcast properties, year-to-date. Not all are pure-play, though no network owners are included. Among the most aggressive movers are Belo, Nexstar, Sinclair, Saga and E.W. Scripps.

By way of comparison:
Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 3 percent.
S & P 500 is up 5 percent.
NASDAQ is up 6 percent.

Acme Communications , (OTC: ACME) has six TV stations is down 30 percent to 35 cents.

Belo Corp ., (NYSE: BLC) with 20 TV stations, is up 28 percent to $6.94.

Entravision , (NYSE: EVC) with 50 TV stations in addition to some 48 radio stations, is down 13 percent to $2.95.

Fisher Communications, (NASDAQ: FSCI) with 20 TV stations and other media properties, is down 3 percent to $15.71.

Gannett , (NYSE: GCI) with 23 TV stations and more than 900 print properties, is up 12 percent to $16.69.

Gray Television , (NYSE: GTN.A), with 36 TV stations, is up 67 percent to $2.50, even after warning of default recently.

Journal Communications, (NYSE: JRN), with 12 TV stations, 35 radios and several newspapers, is up 4 percent to $4.03.

LIN TV, (NYSE: TVL), with 27 TV stations, is up 42 percent to $6.32.

Meredith Corp., (NYSE: MDP), with 12 TV stations as well as book and magazine publishing divisions, is up 8 percent to $33.43.

Media General (NYSE: MEG), with 18 TV stations and 220 print pubs is up 11 percent to $8.68.

McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), with four TV stations and a multitude of specialty print and service products, is up 7 percent to $35.71.

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, (NASDAQ: NXST), with 32 TV stations and service agreements for 18 more, is up 17 percent to $4.72.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, (NASDAQ: SBGI), with 58 TV stations and some real estate holdings, is up 40 percent to $5.67.

Saga Communications, (AMEX: SGA), with nine TV stations and 91 radios, is up 95 percent to $24.50.

The E.W. Scripps Co., (NYSE: SSP), with 10 TV stations, print publications and print syndication, is up 32 percent to $9.19.

Washington Post Co., (NYSE: WPO), with six TV stations, the Kaplan educational testing division, cable investments and print pubs, is up 2 percent to $448.58.

It should also be noted that Young Broadcasting (OTC: YBTVQ) with 10 TV stations; and Equity Media Holdings (OTC: EMDAQ), with 23 full-power TV stations and several LPTVs, were among the publicly held broadcasters to go bankrupt in 2009.