Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Politico against local TV

Is Politico more valuable than Local télévision? It's what seems to think Robert Allbritton, owner of the group that bears his name and is based in Washington. He has just announced the sale of 8 television properties to Sinclair group, for 985 millions dollars. He intends to invest this huge amount of money in new services on the Web, including a development of his flagship news service, Politico which started from zero five years ago and is breaking even with a staff of 230 people.

Local TV is still a profitable business in the US but its audience is suffering from the competition with Internet and various news services on cable and satellite. For the moment, it is very much looked after by media groups.They try to increase their portfolio of this local media which still turns out big profits.

However, the future is hard to predict. The gamble of Allbritton group will be interesting to watch. A lot could be done with Politico: to set up an international service, to be present in other cities such as Naw York, Los Angeles or Chicago. It will cost a lot of money but the funds are available now.