Gray Media GTN

NYSE GTN

$4.78 +0.01 (+0.21%)

As of: Sep 9, 2026 · 3:59 PM EDT

Key Stats

Market Cap569.52 Mn

P/E-8.35

P/S0.18

Div. Yield6.15

Total Debt (Qtr)5.81 Bn

Revenue Growth (1y) (Qtr)8.68

Add ratio to table…

About

Gray Media, Inc. is a multimedia company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company is the nation’s largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets in the United States. Its television stations serve 114 full-power television markets that collectively reach approximately 37% of US television households. Gray Media also owns the largest Telemundo Affiliate group with 47 markets totaling over 1.6 million Hispanic TV Households. Additionally, the company operates Gray Digital Media, a full-service digital agency offering national and local clients digital marketing strategies with advanced digital products and services. Other media properties include video production companies Raycom Sports, Tupelo Media Group, and PowerNation Studios, as well as studio production facilities Assembly Atlanta and Third Rail Studios.

Gray Media generates revenue primarily from broadcast and digital advertising and from retransmission consent fees. For the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, total revenue was $3.1 billion, $3.6 billion, and $3.3 billion, respectively. In 2025, CBS-affiliated channels accounted for approximately 37% of total revenue, NBC-affiliated channels for 27%, FOX-affiliated channels for 14%, and ABC-affiliated channels for 11%. The company’s top 10 markets by revenue contributed approximately 25% of total revenue in 2025, with Phoenix, Arizona being the largest market by revenue at 5% of total revenue. Revenue is also derived from digital advertising, political advertising in election years, and studio and tower space rental fees.

The company operates through the following segments:

Television Broadcasting: This segment includes the operation of full-power television stations across 114 markets, serving local communities with news, sports, entertainment, and syndicated programming. The segment derives revenue from local, regional, and national advertising, including digital advertising on station websites and apps, as well as retransmission consent fees from multichannel video programming distributors. Key brand and trademark names associated with this segment include WANF in Atlanta, which operates as an independent station after ceasing CBS affiliation in August 2025, and numerous Big Four network-affiliated stations across CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX.
Gray Digital Media: This segment operates as a full-service digital agency providing national and local clients with digital marketing strategies, including campaign management, audience targeting, and performance analytics. The segment leverages advanced digital products and services to deliver measurable results for advertisers across multiple platforms. Brand and trademark names under this segment include the Gray Digital Media service offering, which supports both political and non-political advertising clients with tailored digital solutions.
Video Production and Studio Operations: This segment encompasses video production companies Raycom Sports, Tupelo Media Group, and PowerNation Studios, which create sports, entertainment, and lifestyle content for broadcast and digital distribution. It also includes studio production facilities Assembly Atlanta and Third Rail Studios, which provide soundstage and post-production services for film, television, and commercial projects. These facilities support both internal content creation and third-party production contracts, enhancing the company’s vertical integration in media production.

Gray Media holds a leading position in the broadcast television industry as the largest owner of top-rated local television stations by market reach. The company’s owned and operated stations achieved the #1 ranking in overall audience in 77 of 113 markets measured by Nielsen in 2025, and #1 and/or #2 rankings in 97 of those markets. This market leadership provides competitive advantages in advertising revenue, retransmission consent negotiations, and talent acquisition. Key competitors include other major station groups such as Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Tegna Inc., as well as digital platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram that compete for advertising dollars.

Gray Media serves a diverse customer base that includes local, regional, and national advertisers across industries such as automotive, services (including financial, legal, and medical), and retail. The company also political advertising customers during election cycles, including candidates, political parties, and special interest groups. Additionally, Gray Media serves multichannel video programming distributors through retransmission consent agreements, and digital advertising clients through its Gray Digital Media agency. The company’s video production and studio facilities serve third-party content creators, advertisers, and media companies seeking production and post-production services.

Investment Thesis

▲ Bull case

Gray Media's strategic acquisitions and operational improvements are creating a powerful foundation for accelerated growth that the market is significantly underestimating, with the company's recent purchases of assets from Allen Media Group and Block Communications expanding its footprint to include valuable independent stations carrying professional sports content, which commands premium advertising rates and strengthens bargaining power with MVPDs; these acquisitions are particularly compelling because they complement Gray's existing strength in political advertising—where the company is already well-positioned to capitalize on an exceptionally engaged 2026 election cycle with exposure to competitive races across key states like Texas, Michigan, and Georgia—and the integration of these new assets will generate immediate synergies in retransmission consent negotiations and local advertising sales, with management indicating that the full-year net retransmission revenue growth trajectory is already secured despite the Q1 DISH blackout, implying that the market is overlooking the near-term accretive impact of these deals on cash flow and leverage reduction; furthermore, the company's Assembly Studios initiative represents a hidden catalyst with long-term monetization potential, as evidenced by CBS renewing Beyond the Gates for two additional seasons to film at the facility and Tennis Channel/TGL committing to host all 52 matches of its 2026 season in its 30,000 square foot soundstage with live audience capacity for up to 500 viewers, signaling that Assembly is evolving beyond a speculative real estate play into a revenue-generating production hub that could attract additional studio leases and sports/event bookings, thereby diversifying income streams beyond traditional broadcasting; finally, Gray's disciplined cost structure—demonstrated by a $22 million year-over-year decline in broadcasting expenses in Q1 2026 despite inflationary pressures—and its proactive balance sheet management, including the full repayment of a $10 million Term Loan F and an undrawn revolver post-acquisition, position the company to benefit from operating leverage as political ad revenue ramps in Q2 and Q3, with management guiding for Q2 political revenue between $60 million and $70 million and expressing confidence in a "very, very engaged" election season where super PAC reserves are poised for deployment toward general elections, suggesting that the current valuation fails to reflect the near-term earnings acceleration from both political spending and the incremental contribution of newly acquired stations, which together could drive Adjusted EBITDA growth well beyond the low-single-digit net retransmission guidance that management has provided.

Gray Media's strategic acquisitions and operational improvements are creating a powerful foundation for accelerated growth that the market is significantly underestimating, with the company's recent purchases of assets from Allen Media Group and Block Communications expanding its footprint to include valuable independent stations carrying professional sports content, which commands premium advertising rates and strengthens bargaining power with MVPDs; these acquisitions are particularly compelling because they complement Gray's existing strength in political advertising—where the company is already well-positioned to capitalize on an exceptionally engaged 2026 election cycle with exposure to competitive races across key states like Texas, Michigan, and Georgia—and the integration of these new assets will generate immediate synergies in retransmission consent negotiations and local advertising sales, with management indicating that the full-year net retransmission revenue growth trajectory is already secured despite the Q1 DISH blackout, implying that the market is overlooking the near-term accretive impact of these deals on cash flow and leverage reduction; furthermore, the company's Assembly Studios initiative represents a hidden catalyst with long-term monetization potential, as evidenced by CBS renewing Beyond the Gates for two additional seasons to film at the facility and Tennis Channel/TGL committing to host all 52 matches of its 2026 season in its 30,000 square foot soundstage with live audience capacity for up to 500 viewers, signaling that Assembly is evolving beyond a speculative real estate play into a revenue-generating production hub that could attract additional studio leases and sports/event bookings, thereby diversifying income streams beyond traditional broadcasting; finally, Gray's disciplined cost structure—demonstrated by a $22 million year-over-year decline in broadcasting expenses in Q1 2026 despite inflationary pressures—and its proactive balance sheet management, including the full repayment of a $10 million Term Loan F and an undrawn revolver post-acquisition, position the company to benefit from operating leverage as political ad revenue ramps in Q2 and Q3, with management guiding for Q2 political revenue between $60 million and $70 million and expressing confidence in a "very, very engaged" election season where super PAC reserves are poised for deployment toward general elections, suggesting that the current valuation fails to reflect the near-term earnings acceleration from both political spending and the incremental contribution of newly acquired stations, which together could drive Adjusted EBITDA growth well beyond the low-single-digit net retransmission guidance that management has provided.

▼ Bear case

Gray Media faces substantial and underappreciated headwinds that the market is ignoring, primarily stemming from the increasing fragility of its retransmission consent business model, as evidenced by the unprecedented DISH blackout—described by management as "bizarre" and "incredibly unprecedented" in their deep professional experience—where a distributor demanded non-negotiable control over broadcast operations that the company was neither prepared for nor willing to accept, revealing a dangerous shift in MVPD behavior that could encourage similar demands from other virtual and traditional providers seeking to exert operational influence over content, thereby threatening the stability of Gray's net retransmission revenue stream, which management itself acknowledged was down $4 million year-over-year in Q1 2026 and is only now expected to return to low-single-digit growth for the full year despite having negotiated all 2026 renewals, indicating that the underlying trend in retransmission economics is deteriorating rather than improving; additionally, the company's aggressive M&A strategy—having acquired stations from Bahakel, Allen Media Group, and Block Communications with pending deals from E.W. Scripps and Sagamore Hill—carries significant integration and regulatory risks that are being downplayed, particularly given the Department of Justice's unusually intense review of Gray's recent transactions, which required extensive document production and delayed closings, and the emerging threat of state attorney general antitrust theories that management admits it is "evaluating... through the lens of potential additional uncertainty," suggesting that future deals may face heightened scrutiny or be blocked entirely, undermining the company's reliance on acquisitions for growth; meanwhile, core advertising revenue remains structurally challenged, with management admitting to softness in Q2 due to Middle East-related oil price volatility causing advertisers to delay commitments, the NCAA Final Four rotating away from CBS (which previously delivered $5 million in April revenue), and weakness in consumer-focused categories like goods and discount department stores, all of which are only partially offset by strength in gaming, legal, insurance, and financial services, while digital growth—though noted as healthy—remains insufficient to compensate for linear TV's secular decline, especially as the company's local programming viewership, while still strong, faces modest pressure from MVPDs offering access to network streaming services that could erode traditional audience share over time; finally, the company's optimism around the 2026 political cycle, while understandable, overlooks the risk that fundraising and spending patterns may not translate into sustained advertising revenue, as seen in 2022 when primary season spending was "pulled forward" and left general election campaigns underfunded, and the current environment—where super PACs are sitting on hundreds of millions of undallocated dollars—could repeat that pattern if money is not deployed toward general elections in time to benefit Gray's station group, leaving the company exposed to a revenue shortfall despite its confident guidance of $60–70 million in Q2 political ad revenue.

Gray Media faces substantial and underappreciated headwinds that the market is ignoring, primarily stemming from the increasing fragility of its retransmission consent business model, as evidenced by the unprecedented DISH blackout—described by management as "bizarre" and "incredibly unprecedented" in their deep professional experience—where a distributor demanded non-negotiable control over broadcast operations that the company was neither prepared for nor willing to accept, revealing a dangerous shift in MVPD behavior that could encourage similar demands from other virtual and traditional providers seeking to exert operational influence over content, thereby threatening the stability of Gray's net retransmission revenue stream, which management itself acknowledged was down $4 million year-over-year in Q1 2026 and is only now expected to return to low-single-digit growth for the full year despite having negotiated all 2026 renewals, indicating that the underlying trend in retransmission economics is deteriorating rather than improving; additionally, the company's aggressive M&A strategy—having acquired stations from Bahakel, Allen Media Group, and Block Communications with pending deals from E.W. Scripps and Sagamore Hill—carries significant integration and regulatory risks that are being downplayed, particularly given the Department of Justice's unusually intense review of Gray's recent transactions, which required extensive document production and delayed closings, and the emerging threat of state attorney general antitrust theories that management admits it is "evaluating... through the lens of potential additional uncertainty," suggesting that future deals may face heightened scrutiny or be blocked entirely, undermining the company's reliance on acquisitions for growth; meanwhile, core advertising revenue remains structurally challenged, with management admitting to softness in Q2 due to Middle East-related oil price volatility causing advertisers to delay commitments, the NCAA Final Four rotating away from CBS (which previously delivered $5 million in April revenue), and weakness in consumer-focused categories like goods and discount department stores, all of which are only partially offset by strength in gaming, legal, insurance, and financial services, while digital growth—though noted as healthy—remains insufficient to compensate for linear TV's secular decline, especially as the company's local programming viewership, while still strong, faces modest pressure from MVPDs offering access to network streaming services that could erode traditional audience share over time; finally, the company's optimism around the 2026 political cycle, while understandable, overlooks the risk that fundraising and spending patterns may not translate into sustained advertising revenue, as seen in 2022 when primary season spending was "pulled forward" and left general election campaigns underfunded, and the current environment—where super PACs are sitting on hundreds of millions of undallocated dollars—could repeat that pattern if money is not deployed toward general elections in time to benefit Gray's station group, leaving the company exposed to a revenue shortfall despite its confident guidance of $60–70 million in Q2 political ad revenue.

Contract with Customer, Sales Channel Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer group

Peer Comparison

Companies in the Television Broadcasting

S.No.	Ticker	Company	match	Market Cap	P/E	P/S	Total Debt (Qtr)
1	WBD	Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.	primary	70.85 Bn	-22.63	1.96	33.52 Bn
2	FOX	Fox Corp	primary	25.18 Bn	14.94	1.47	6.61 Bn
3	PSKY	Paramount Skydance Corp	primary	12.03 Bn	-27.45	0.98	13.66 Bn
4	NXST	Nexstar Media Group, Inc.	primary	5.45 Bn	138.81	0.93	11.74 Bn
5	VSNT	Versant Media Group, Inc.	primary	5.37 Bn	25.75	3.27	3.07 Bn
6	NMAX	Newsmax Inc.	primary	1.36 Bn	-17.19	8.92	0.03 Bn
7	GTN	Gray Media, Inc	primary	0.57 Bn	-8.35	0.18	5.81 Bn
8	AMCX	AMC Global Media Inc.	primary	0.54 Bn	-27.18	0.24	1.66 Bn

Gray Media GTN

About

Investment Thesis

Product and Service Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Contract with Customer, Sales Channel Breakdown of Revenue (2025)

Peer Comparison

Create an account

Sign In

Reset Password