Belt-tightening has already hit another important driver of network television: the morning show. At the beginning of January, Hoda Kotb left the Today show after 17 years. The broadcast journalist reportedly makes more than $20 million a year as a host, and NBC just didn’t want to keep paying that. This is also why the network removed the group. Late Night with Seth Meyers and reduced the number of weekly episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon from five to four. These are all signs of what Variety calls “television’s new austerity push.”
“We have audiences who go to different places to watch their programs” an agent told Variety. “Several of these entities are seeing their revenues decline. It’s just a fact of life.
But with the TV audience now split between streaming, cable and social media, why Donald Trump threaten its existence? “This is a political cudgel used against national news networks,” says David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Greene noted that Trump’s anger was focused more on national media outlets than on the local stations that actually own the broadcast licenses.
Some networks have local stations. Paramount, which also produces CBS shows 60 minutesowns a handful and was even exploring I sell 12 back in August before Trump made his latest threats to the network. But when I asked Oberman about these threats, she said she hadn’t “really heard that it was a concern” for the industry. “If anything, the new administration is more supportive of broadcasters. »
Perry Sook, CEO of Nexstar, the largest owner of television stations in the United States, hopes the new administration will remove rules capping the number of local channels a company can own. On a call for November 2024 resultsSook has made it clear what kind of journalism he would like to see on these stations. “(It) seems that a kinder, gentler consensus may emerge that perhaps fact-based journalism will come back into fashion, while eliminating the level of activist journalism,” he said during of the call.
Sinclair, the second-largest owner of television stations in the United States, is also eager for greater consolidation and has gained a reputation for requiring its local stations to cover news with a point of view more in line with that television channels. Sinclair’s conservative political leanings. Sinclair was the subject of a Viral video 2018 which showed dozens of anchors from across the United States reading the exact same script criticizing media outlets for repeating common conservative talking points.
But the Trump administration and big broadcast license owners 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 advertising. “Digital doesn’t seem to be giving political advertisers the return they expect, and TV still seems to,” Orman ” told Ad Exchanger late last year. Broadcasting actually saw a 9% increase in advertising revenue in 2024, an increase driven entirely by increased spending on political ads during the major election cycle.
With the election behind us, that ad money is drying up. And as audiences shrink and streaming far outpaces networks, one of the world’s oldest media institutions has its back against the wall. Even if the new administration fails to keep its promise to punish media outlets that broadcast stories it deems offensive, television is entering a period of existential uncertainty.
“Broadcasting is so vulnerable right now,” says the EFF’s Greene, “any threat to it seems like a danger.”