This group of folks actually had no idea that there was such a thing as over-the-air television. We talked a little bit about broadcast and that generation associates broadcast with cable, which they have no interest in. I had a meeting with a group of students from NYU. Rick Howe:So let's talk a little bit about audience, because you talked about younger folks not necessarily being served well by social media. And we approach that from an integrated approach where we go to capture more of their share of wallet, and provide them a fully integrated suite of marketing services, including spot, website, AdWords, social, social campaigns, so they have a one-stop shop to get the cash register. And that is going to take our wireless spectrum, which is only used by 15 to 20 percent of the population today, and is going to unlock a significant amount of value and actually make it a platform which the entire country is going to want to use.And then, last but not least, we think about our marketing services, our relationships with the advertisers, national but primarily in the mobile marketplace. We've been a big booster and a technology provider into ATSC 3.0. You've heard a lot about that at this conference. How do we serve them on their platform of choice?The second leg of the stool for us is wireless. Social does a very poor job and also has problems with trustworthiness. Right now, the default platform for that generation is social. We know the younger generation wants mobile, but is very unhappy right now with the choice of platforms on wireless. That means local, that means topicals, that’s sports.Just to unpack that a little bit more, specifically in mobile. What we've seen in the marketplace, Netflix has taught us that players that combine information and entertainment, with convenience and user experience, will win.And what does that mean for the rest of us, for companies like Sinclair? We're really focused on winning in areas where we're strong in.
Christopher Ripley:So when we think about strategy at Sinclair, we really break it up into three buckets, the first being content, which is probably the most important part right now. Rick Howe:Give us an overview of your long-term strategy for growing Sinclair. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
#RIPL WE ARE UNABLE TO USE THIS PARTICULAR VIDEO TV#
Nevertherless, Ripley covered lots of worthwhile territory, as Sinclair continues to be an ambitious TV player to watch. Christopher Ripley, CEO and president of the country's biggest chain of TV stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group, took to the stage at the recent NAB NY conference to discuss the transformative potential of ATSC 3.0 the "antiquated" TV viewing experience what acquisitions might be in store how Sinclair hopes to STIRR the streaming video pot why the Tennis Channel is perfectly positioned for a sports gambling future and why Sinclair won't compete directly in the "sea of blood" with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other tech giants.Subjects Ripley didn't discuss with Rick Howe, a long-time industry consultant and self-described ITV Doctor, included criticism of the company's controversial imposition of conservative editorial positions on its local news anchors, as well as what went wrong with that failed Tribune deal that would have dramatically increases Sinclair's already substantial national reach.