Is scale still the winning strategy in media, or has the math changed?
A longtime financial analyst focused on broadcast media will tackle those questions on October 21 during an NAB Show New York session baring the name “The Future of Media: Consolidation or Spin-Off?”
Participating in the session is Jessica Reif Ehrlich, which is scheduled on that date from 2:30pm-3:15pm Eastern. Ehrlich (née Cohen) will discuss where consolidation is headed, which companies are best positioned to emerge as winners, and which business models face the greatest pressure.
Discussion will also cover the role of private equity and strategic buyers, along with the regulatory hurdles shaping today’s biggest transactions.
That last point carries real weight for radio broadcasters right now. The FCC’s 2022 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules, which could loosen or eliminate the Local Radio Ownership Rule, still sits pending for years, but momentum has built under Chairman Brendan Carr, who will likely lead the Commission to loosen the national television ownership cap later this week.
Ehrlich presently serves as Managing Director and Senior Media and Entertainment Analyst at BofA Securities Inc. Global Research, where her coverage spans media, entertainment, music, and cable companies. She joined the firm in 1994 as Managing Director after previously holding the same role at Oppenheimer & Co., and will bring three decades of watching media deals rise and fall to the panel’s central question.
The session lands at the Javits Center on the same day Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink hosts its Radio Wayne Awards, which return to NAB Show New York for a second consecutive year.
