Broadcast television is dying. Trump threatens her anyway

The belt-tightening has already hit another big money driver for network television: the morning show. In early January, Hoda Kotb left the team today Show after 17 years. The radio journalist was reportedly making more than $20 million a year as a host, and NBC didn’t want to keep paying that. This is also the reason why the network canceled the band Late Night with Seth Meyers The number of weekly episodes decreased for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon From five to four. They’re all signs of what Variety called “TV’s new austerity push.”

“We have audiences who go to different places to watch their shows.” one agent told Variety. “A number of these entities are seeing a decline in their revenues. That’s just a fact of life.”

But with the broadcast TV audience now divided across streaming, cable and social media, why not? Donald Trump Threatening its existence? “This is a political cudgel being used against national news networks,” says David Green, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Green noted that Trump’s ire was focused more on national media outlets than on local stations that already hold broadcast licenses.

Some networks own local stations. Paramount, which also produces CBS programs 60 minuteshe had a bunch, and he was exploring too 12 of them sold Back in August before Trump made his latest threats Towards the network. But when I asked Oberman about those threats, she said she “hadn’t really heard that it was an area of ​​concern” for the industry. “If anything, the incoming administration is more pro-broadcast stations.”

Perry Sock, CEO of Nexstar, the largest TV station owner in the United States, hopes the new administration will remove rules that limit the number of local stations a company can own. on November 2024 earnings callSook clearly stated the type of journalism he would like to see on those stations. “It seems there might be a kinder, gentler consensus that fact-based journalism might be coming back into vogue, as well as eliminating the level of activist journalism out there,” he said on the call.

Sinclair, the second-largest owner of television stations in the United States, is also keen on further consolidation, and has developed a reputation for guiding its local stations to cover news with a viewpoint more in line with Sinclair’s political leanings are conservative. Sinclair was the subject of a 2018 viral video which showed dozens of news anchors from across the United States reading the same script criticizing media outlets that repeat popular conservative talking points.

But the Trump administration and major broadcast license holders aren’t just friendly because of their shared political leanings. According to Orman, local stations also tend to have better reach when it comes to political ads. “Digital doesn’t seem to be giving political advertisers the return they expect, and TV still seems to be giving that,” Orman said He told Ad Exchanger late last year. Broadcast TV actually saw its ad revenue increase by 9 percent in 2024, an uptick due entirely to increased political ad spending during the key election cycle.

With the election down, advertising money is drying up. With viewership fading and streaming outpacing networks, one of the world’s oldest media organizations is in a difficult position. Even if the next administration fails to fulfill its promise to punish media outlets that publish stories it finds offensive, broadcast television is entering a period of existential uncertainty.

“Broadcasting is so vulnerable at the moment that any threat against it seems like a risk,” says the EFF’s Green.