The belt-tightening has already hit another big money driver for network TV: morning shows. In early January, Hoda Kotb left Today Show after 17 years. The broadcast journalist was reportedly making more than $20 million a year as a host, and NBC did not want to pay that much. This is why the network shut down the band late night with seth meyers and reduced the number of weekly episodes of tonight show with jimmy fallon From five to four. They're all indicative of what Variety called “TV's new austerity initiative.”
“We have viewers who are traveling to different locations to watch their programming,” An agent told Variety“Many of these institutions are seeing a decline in revenues. It's just a fact of life.”
But broadcast TV audiences are now divided between streaming, cable and social media, why is this? donald trump Is its existence threatened? “This is a political weapon being used against national news networks,” says David Green, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Greene said Trump's anger was more focused on national news outlets than on local stations that actually have broadcast licenses.
Some networks have local stations. Paramount, which also produces CBS 60 minutesOwn a handful, and was even exploring selling 12 of them back in August first Trump makes his latest threats towards the network. But when I asked Oberman about those threats, she said she “haven't really heard that it's a concern for the industry.” “If anything the incoming administration is more friendly to broadcasters.”
Perry Sook, CEO of Nexstar, the largest television station owner in the US, hopes the new administration will remove rules limiting the number of local stations the company can own. But November 2024 earnings callSook stated clearly what kind of journalism he would like to see on those stations. ,[I]“It seems like a kinder, gentler consensus is emerging, that maybe fact-based journalism will come back into vogue, while also eliminating the level of activist journalism,” he said on the call.
Sinclair, the second-largest owner of TV stations in the US, is also eager for greater consolidation, and has gained a reputation for directing its local stations to cover news with a POV. Sinclair has his own conservative political leanings.Sinclair's subject was viral video of 2018 It featured dozens of newscasters from across the United States reading the exact same script criticizing the media, repeating common stereotypes.
But the Trump administration and the big owners of broadcast licenses are not friendly just because of their shared political leanings. According to Orman, local stations also have better reach when it comes to political advertising. “It appears that digital is not giving political advertisers the returns they are expecting, and TV is still giving that,” Orman. told Ad Exchanger late last year. Broadcast TV actually saw its ad revenue increase by 9 percent in 2024, an increase driven entirely by increased spending on political ads during key election cycles.
With elections approaching, advertising money is running out. And with viewership declining and streaming costs becoming more than a handful for networks, one of the world's oldest media institutions is tightening its belts. Even if the incoming administration fails to follow through on its promise to punish media outlets that run stories it finds objectionable, broadcast TV is entering a period of existential uncertainty.
“Broadcasting is so insecure at the moment, any threat against it appears to be a threat,” says the EFF's Green.