Perry Sook: Well, I would say, first of all, that embedded in the guidance that we issued this morning is a record political number for 2024, and it is up not inconsequentially from what you saw in both 2022 and in 2020. So it will be a record year. The reach of our local platform, which is where the political game is played overlaps very well with the open Senate races, the states that are expected to be in play for the presidential contest. And so we are very bullish on political 2024. I would say, things that will exist by 2024 that don’t exist today. There will be a show called The Hill on NewsNation at 5 o’clock Monday through Friday that will launch in April. That would be — that is a perfect conduit for newsmakers, politicians and others to reach a national audience.
We anticipate being active in the debate business as we were in 2020. And in 2022, we did 50 debates across our company, three of which we put on the national cable network to offer to all of America outside of the states in which they were being contested. I think you’ll see us more active on the debate stage. Certainly, when you look at the power of The Hill, which is a national brand in concert with NewsNation, which is a national brand; and the strength of our local stations, which is the backbone of everything we do, I think you’ll see all of that come together in a unified sales effort to highlight the opportunity available to us in 2024 and beyond.
Daniel Kurnos: Great. Thanks. I appreciate it.
Operator: Our next question comes from Nick Zangler with Stephens.
Nicholas Zangler: Yes, hey guys. Thanks for giving me on. How would you gauge the risk, I guess, that the impasse with CBS over fuboTV carries over to the other vMVPDs like YouTube TV, Hulu TV, Sling TV? Are those negotiations coming up at all? And are we talking about the affiliates effectively drawing a line in the sand here, which could see and could create spillover and impact these relationships with other vMVPDs as well?
Perry Sook: Well, I’ll go back to what Tom said in his prepared remarks is that total virtual MVPD revenue is approximately 10% of our distribution revenue. So if it were all at risk, that’s the number that you’re talking about. Right now, I think you can say that the fubo dispute is a dispute over money as well as governance issues. And so I think you’ll see affiliates continue to press the point that we should negotiate our own agreements and that no one else should be negotiating on behalf of our content. And that and money are the two issues here. And I think for the long-term health of the local ecosystem, we talk to people at Roku at fubo at other virtual MVPDs, and we asked them, what are they watching? And they say, the locals.
And so not unlike traditional cable, where we are the most watched channels in the bundle, why would that be different in a virtual universe? And so we know we have value. And I think individually and collectively, we will recognize that value and are not willing it to sell at a discount or to sell on an à la carte basis. So you have an inferior offering in the marketplace. If you don’t have the global stations, I think that should tell you everything you need to know about the leverage in the discussions. And so if that means we have to go dark for a little while to make the point. I think — our company as well as others in the industry have made the value judgment to do that.
