By Renee Cassis
Correspondent
NEW YORK — With a majestic view of the Hudson River and New Jersey, the somewhat out-of-the-way location did little to deter more than 550 television and advertising agency executives who attended TVB Forward, a daylong conference at Pier 60 in Manhattan’s famed Chelsea Piers.
Among the key highlights from morning sessions was a thumbs up on TV industry stocks from influential analyst Marci Ryvicker, Managing Director of Wells Fargo Securities. Her words resonated with traders: Several TV industry stocks were up in late afternoon trading down on Wall Street.
In a morning “Wall Street Keynote” delivered as some latecomers just arrived due to heavier-than-normal traffic, Ryvicker predicted that mergers and acquisitions would be a huge boost for broadcast TV.
Additionally, political advertising will continue to be a catalyst for growth in the local TV sector. Ryvicker anticipates such a robust political year for broadcast TV that she expects the medium will outperform the market and other media sectors.
Ryvicker also made it known that she’s high on broadcast TV stocks, which will see a strong 2018 after a year of ups and downs and experience core advertising growth of 2% (ex-political). Among the companies set to see a positive 2018 are Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Gray Television.
Investors quickly reacted to Ryvicker’s positive comments. In late-afternoon trading, NXST shares were up 1.4%, SBGI increased 3.4%, and Gray improved by 3.5% from the Opening Bell.
AN INDUSTRY PROGNOSIS FOR PROGRAMMATIC
The ease-of-buying digital media has shone a bigger spotlight on the complexity of buying spot TV, and panelists on the mid-morning “Local TV: Advanced & Automated” session agreed that that the industry has come together to move forward.
Panel moderator Rick Ducey, Managing Director of BIA/Kelsey, pointed out that the industry is still grappling over the semantics of programmatic vs. automated, but the message that technologically driven buying is coming was clear.
Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise noted that the fear that programmatic would eliminate jobs was far from reality. That was echoed by Lorne Brown, CEO of SintecMedia, whose position is that programmatic/automated gives television the scale it needs to compete with digital.
Eric Mathewson, founder and CEO of WideOrbit, concurred with those sentiments. He perceives technologically driven ad-buying platforms as enhancements to the transactional process rather than a replacement for selling.
“It’s about selling more than we’re selling today,” concluded Videa President Shereta Williams, who offered sage advice with a masked challenge. “Innovation is the courage to change before you have to.”
— Additional reporting by Adam R Jacobson, from Boca Raton, Fla.
