Jim Yager sees opportunity in new car supply problems

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Barrington Broadcasting Group reported that Q1 net revenues were up 3.2% to $24.7 million. CEO Jim Yager acknowledged that there have been some ad accounts pull back recently due to Japanese auto supply chain problems, but he has found a silver lining to that dark cloud.


With its portfolio of small market TV stations, Barrington is intently focused on local ad sales sold face-to-face, so its account executives are dealing directly with local car dealers as they seek ways to drive business.

“We know, for instance, that there will be parts problems for even some of the American brands because of parts that came out of Japan. And there’s still some question as to when that channel will open up. On the other hand, there’s a gigantic opportunity right now for used car sales. There’s a gigantic opportunity for them to sell their service departments. And so we are focusing in our size markets, we’re working with dealers and dealer groups on not just new car sales, but used car sales as well as service,” Yager said in his quarterly conference call with bond analysts.

New car ad sales were up overall in Q1 for Barrington, but Yager said the company has seen some slight impact in Q2.

The total automotive category was up 11.2% in Q1 for Barrington, COO Chris Cornelius reported. Excluding political, core national/local advertising was up 4.6% in Q1 to $25.8 million. Non-time sales, including interactive advertising, retransmission consent fees and other revenues, were up 8.8% to $5.7 million, with retrans up 20.3% to $2.4 million and other non-time sale revenues up 1.6% to $3.3 million. Broadcast cash flow in Q1 was up 5.8% to $9.3 million. 

RBR-TVBR observation: That’s why Jim Yager has been successful in this business for so long. Always thinking of something new.