Davis Hebert: No, it makes sense. If I could just follow-up with one kind of all encompassing sports question. I think broadcast is clearly offers an incredible reach medium. But you have NBC doing exclusive NFL games on Peacock. And so there seems to be some experimentation with doing exclusive sports on streaming. What sort of commitment levels do you get from your broadcast partners in terms of keeping sports on the broadcast medium and limiting sort of that leakage to streaming services? And then my second question is — on sports is. What sort of feedback have you gotten on your sort of early innings distribution of local games. NBA, et cetera. What’s been the feedback I guess from either fans or the teams themselves? Thank you.
Pat LaPlatney: Yes, sure. To answer your second question first I mean, the feedback has been extraordinary from the fans from the teams and there is a really good reason for that. I mean the numbers, the audience that we are generating for these teams is significantly above their former levels or what they’re currently doing, right? So in Phoenix we were up 70%, 80%. In some of the other markets where we did smaller packages, we did some five and 10 game packages. In some markets, the numbers were double or triple what they were on the current carrier. So obviously, the teams are going to be excited about that. But the fans who — many of which have been sort of disenfranchised over the last few years are able to see their team.
And it’s a really exciting moment. And so the feedback has been extraordinary and not only for the fans, but also from the advertisers. They are really excited to have those games reach the types of audiences that they are now reaching. As far as the networks and sports, they are dabbling in direct-to-consumer with a small number of games and a lot of the games or in the case of NBC, the vast majority of the sports they do is simulcast. So we are not — some of the audiences, there a little bit of audience leakage there, but not a lot. And so we continue to be very, very effective in selling those high-profile sports properties. So I can’t — as far as commitments go, I can’t get into that but I think you are going to see some experimentation in that area.
I think you will see that with a number of the leagues. But I think that broadcast television has clearly illustrated its value over the last six months.
Sandy Breland: Yes Dave just one additional point to that is that Phoenix, the Suns where we have the full commitment, the full season commitment, and side-by-side games where games are carrying on national cable, our local broadcast in our station just absolutely significantly higher ratings. People are turning to us to see the game and the feedback has been fantastic from both the team and the fans. And Pat mentioned the small package of games that we had, just to give you one example. So in New Orleans with the Pelicans, their ratings were up over 200% and over 300% in adults 25 to 54. So as you probably no surprise, we are getting great feedback from both the teams and the fans.
Pat LaPlatney: I think one other sort of interesting point there is that in Phoenix, where we’ve an independent station, KTVK, it’s the Number One billing station in that market. And for some context, if you go back 10 quarters, to go back when we made the Meredith acquisition, our CBS station and our KTVK, the independent, we’re the Number Three and Four stations in that market from a revenue perspective. They’re now the Number One and Number Two stations in the market. Now in fairness, KPHO, the CBS had the Super Bowl in first quarter, but KTVK is the Number One station in Phoenix. So I think that tells you a little bit about the value and the impact of local sports and where that can head. So we are excited about that.
Sandy Breland: I’d certainly show that to the team there.
Pat LaPlatney: Absolutely.
Sandy Breland: And our team may [family] (ph).
Hilton Howell: David, this is Hilton. You ask for some anecdotes. Let me give you a couple of them just real quick. We took our Board to Phoenix because we are really proud of what we are doing with the Suns and the Mercury, and took them to a game on Sunday afternoon, held our Board meet out there. And I walked in because the hotel we were staying and didn’t have our independent on the television. And I asked them if they could program it. And the guy that was sitting there behind the thing is — are you part of the companies that bought the Suns to live free TV. I said, yes, actually, I am. And he goes, Oh my God, I’m a college student. I can’t afford to like pay XYZ. The fact you brought it back to free TV, it’s unbelievable.
That night, we go up and we had all our board at a dinner, and we were just talking about what we had done with the Suns and where we’re going to go to the game, et cetera, et cetera. And then we freaking got three of our folks that were serving us our dinner applauding because we brought the Suns back to the market. Now if that doesn’t tell you something, I don’t know what does. Those are great anecdotes, and we are thrilled with our experience with the Suns. And I think, everybody in Arizona is too.
Operator: All right. And it looks like we have time for just one more question. So Michael Kupinski will be our final question.
Michael Kupinski: Most of my questions have been already addressed, but a quick one here. You’ve always prided yourself on local direct business, which has been just an incredible success for you. The agency business looked like it ticked up in the last quarter 48% of your revenue. I assume that’s because of the pickup in national, but I was wondering if you maybe provide a little color there if that was maybe a little political. Do you anticipate that the agency business will be a greater percent of total revenues as national recovers? And then maybe because of some of your initiatives like sports or targeting advertisers that have a broader geographic reach. I was just some thoughts of what you think Agency business will be in terms of the “norm” local direct versus agency?
Pat LaPlatney: Yes. So because we skew to midsize and smaller markets we have a lower percentage of agency business than most groups. So I think that I don’t — I wouldn’t say, that we think our revenue — the agency share of our revenue is going to grow significantly going forward. Again I think the area that we control the most is local direct. So our control better is local direct. And Sandy may have some comments –.
Sandy Breland: Certainly, political plays a part in that as well.
Pat LaPlatney: Yes, that’s true — right. For first quarter, yes. Yes. So you’ll see a lot — in a political, obviously, agency business go up.
Jim Ryan: One the [issue] (ph) is strong. It will be agency side business, too.
Sandy Breland: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Michael Kupinski: Yes. So we should just look for that to go up this year, but maybe kind of go back to more of a normalized in the 43%, 44% range going forward.
Pat LaPlatney: Yes, it would go back to a more normalized range going forward.
Michael Kupinski: Okay, all right. Thank.
Operator: And with that, I’ll now turn the program back over to Chairman Howell for closing remarks.
Hilton Howell: Thank you, operator. Before we close out this morning, I just want to take a moment to thank Jim Ryan for his time with our company. I don’t know if he’s feeling a sense of great elation that this is his last earnings call. I know that he’ll have other phone calls to talk to with you guys. But for, what 26 years, and as I mentioned at the beginning, over 100 of these calls, he has been there, steady and true. And I greatly thank him for his time and service. And I will say we still have around to help us out for the next year. And I also want to welcome Jeff Gignac to our company. I could not be more proud of that individual and the succession that we have accomplished. Jeff knows our company. He may know some parts of it better than the rest of us around this table.
And now he’s getting to know the people and the assets that create the financial numbers that all of you look at. And so thank you, Jim, and welcome, Jeff. With that, we’ll sign off for Q1, and we’ll see you next quarter. Thank you.
Operator: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your call. You may now disconnect your lines, and thank you very much again for joining us today.
