Key Points
- Sinclair estimates its broadcast spectrum portfolio could be worth more than $4 billion if excess capacity is sold or leased to wireless or satellite companies.
- Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGen TV, could allow Sinclair to operate its core broadcast business using just 20 to 25 percent of its current spectrum.
- The company has retired or repaid $320 million of debt this year and repurchased another $25 million of term loans in July.
Television licenses accumulated by Sinclair, Inc. over the years could be worth as much as $4 billion if the broadcaster is permitted to sell or lease access to its spectrum in the future, the company’s chief executive said at an industry conference this week.
The projection is based on opportunities that Sinclair sees if the industry is successful in mandating a push away from the current transmission standard, known as ATSC 1.0, to a new one called NextGen TV, which uses the ATSC 3.0 standard for broadcasting and datacasting capabilities, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley told investors on Tuesday.
NextGen TV allows broadcasters to shift some or all of their video feeds to broadband while transmitting low-bandwidth media and metadata via traditional signals. If the industry successfully convinces federal regulators to wind down the existing standard in favor of NextGen TV, that could leave substantial capacity available for other uses, including datacasting through Sinclair-backed EdgeBeam Wireless or agreements with wireless and satellite companies, Ripley said.
“The comps point to a value of the spectrum that we currently have at around $2.50 per megahertz,” Ripley said. Applying that figure across Sinclair’s portfolio would imply “over $4 billion of asset value,” he affirmed.
Ripley identified T-Mobile, Verizon, Starlink, AST and Amazon’s low-Earth-orbit satellite business among potential sources of demand for low-band spectrum.
Sinclair and other broadcasters are hoping that the wind-down of the current ATSC 1.0 broadcast standard occurs as soon as February 2028. The proposal requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which issues and regulates licenses for broadcast TV and wireless capabilities.
Ripley acknowledged the February 2028 cut-off data might be ambitious, and could change based on whatever the FCC decides in the near future. The agency is currently considering the proposal, which was first raised by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) last year.
The spectrum strategy comes as Sinclair continues prioritizing debt reduction: Chief Financial Officer Narinder Sahai said the company has retired or repaid $320 million of debt during 2026 and repurchased another $25 million of term loans in July. Its nearest material debt maturity is in December 2029.
Sinclair also raised its 2026 political advertising guidance to more than $375 million, with Ripley saying the company expects to set a record for midterm political revenue.
Core advertising has been softer: Sinclair reported $308 million in core advertising revenue during the second quarter and lowered its full-year forecast to between $1.22 billion and $1.28 billion.
Sahai said weakness extends beyond political advertising crowd-out, citing macroeconomic uncertainty, tariffs and fuel costs as pressures on some advertisers.
Still, Sinclair said several trends are improving the outlook for broadcast TV, including moderating pay TV churn, continued retransmission pricing power and a shift in content costs as networks distribute more programming through their own streaming services.
Ripley said broadcasters account for roughly 45 percent of viewing within pay TV but receive about 30 percent of distribution revenue, leaving room for continued retransmission growth.
Like other broadcasters, Sinclair has employed a tactic of charging more for its broadcast TV stations on cable and satellite, which has fueled a wave of cord-cutting as consumers are burdened with those higher fees in their bills.
