Gray Television, Inc. (GTN): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're trying to figure out if a traditional broadcaster can truly pivot, and honestly, Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) is a fascinating case study right now. They're doubling down on local dominance-owning stations that hit nearly 37% of US households-while simultaneously pushing digital ad networks like Premion to keep revenue flowing, evidenced by their $355 million core ad sales in Q3 2025. We need to look closely at how their dual revenue model, which brought in $346 million from retransmission fees that same quarter, is priced against the backdrop of $5.6 billion in debt. Below, I'll map out their precise Product, Place, Promotion, and Price moves so you can see the strategy clearly.

Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) - Marketing Mix: Product

The product offering from Gray Television, Inc., now operating as Gray Media, Inc., centers on local television content delivery, complemented by significant digital and production capabilities. This forms the core value proposition to viewers and advertisers.

Local News and Programming Across 113 Markets

Gray Media, Inc. is positioned as the nation's largest owner of top-rated local television stations. As of early 2025, the company serves approximately 113 television markets across the United States. This extensive footprint allows the company to reach about 37 percent of U.S. television households. The product strategy emphasizes strong local news and information programming to maintain market leadership and stable revenues. Recent strategic moves, such as the announced acquisition of ten stations from Allen Media Group in August 2025, are designed to expand this presence, potentially reaching approximately 37 percent of U.S. television households upon closing.

Broadcast Television Stations Affiliated with CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC

The broadcasting segment is the foundation of Gray Media's product. The company operates stations affiliated with the Big Four networks, along with many smaller networks. The quality of the product is underscored by market rankings; as of 2024, the portfolio included stations that were the top-rated in 78 markets and the first and/or second highest-rated in 99 markets. The company also maintains the largest Telemundo Affiliate group, serving 44 markets as of the 2024 10-K filing.

The reliance on specific network programming for revenue is a key product characteristic, as detailed by 2024 financial data:

The product mix is geographically diverse, with Phoenix, Arizona, being the largest market by revenue in both 2024 and 2023, contributing 5 percent and 4 percent of total revenue, respectively.

Digital Advertising and Marketing Services via Gray Digital Media

Gray Digital Media (GDM) functions as a full-service digital agency, extending the product beyond traditional over-the-air broadcasts to national and local clients. GDM supports more than 100 markets nationwide with digital marketing strategies. The digital component of the product portfolio has shown resilience, with digital revenue reporting healthy growth in the third quarter of 2025. For context on the overall company revenue, Q1 2025 total revenue was $782 million, with core revenue at $344 million. Core advertising revenue for Q3 2025 was $355 million, and the guidance for Q4 2025 core advertising revenue was set between $380 million and $390 million.

Video Production Assets, Including Raycom Sports and Tupelo Media Group

Gray Media's product suite is enhanced by proprietary production assets, which contribute content and specialized services. These assets are integrated into the overall multimedia offering.

• Raycom Sports
• Tupelo Media Group
• PowerNation Studios
• Studio production facilities: Assembly Atlanta and Third Rail Studios

The content creation capability is leveraged across platforms; for instance, Raycom Sports launched the Origin Sports Network in June 2021.

NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) Deployment for Advanced Data and Video Services

Technological advancement is a key product feature, with Gray Media investing in NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) to narrow the gap between broadcast and streaming services. This technology enables better picture and sound, improved reception, and interactive features. Gray Media specifically plans to enable the start over capability for all its newscasts, a feature consumers know from streaming services. As of January 2025, High Dynamic Range (HDR) functionality was live on over 200 local NEXTGEN TV services across the country. The company is focused on using the digital spectrum for future data delivery, which includes interactive features and supplementary content alongside linear programming.

You should review the integration timeline for these new capabilities, especially considering the August 2025 agreement to acquire ten stations, which will require integration into the existing NextGen TV framework.

Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) - Marketing Mix: Place

You're looking at how Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) physically delivers its core product-local television content and advertising inventory-to the market. For a broadcaster, Place is about spectrum ownership, geographic market penetration, and the strategic placement of assets to maximize household reach and local market dominance. Gray Television, Inc. has built its distribution strategy around being the largest owner of top-rated local TV stations in the U.S..

The scale of Gray Television, Inc.'s distribution network is significant, covering a substantial portion of the American viewing audience. As of late 2025, the company owns or operates 180 stations across 113 television markets in the United States. This footprint allows the company to reach approximately 37 percent of all U.S. television households. The focus is clearly on market leadership within those geographies, as evidenced by its existing portfolio metrics from 2024.

Gray Television, Inc. is actively reinforcing its distribution by executing strategic acquisitions, which is a key component of its Place strategy. The announced agreement to acquire 10 television stations in ten markets from Allen Media Group for $171 million is a prime example. This transaction, anticipated to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, is designed to both enter new territories and deepen existing ones.

The distribution strategy heavily emphasizes creating local market density through duopolies. This structural approach enhances local news, weather, and sports programming, which are the primary local product offerings. The Scripps station swap announced in July 2025, for instance, was explicitly about creating new duopolies across five markets. The Allen Media Group deal furthers this by creating new duopolies in seven existing Gray markets while simultaneously adding three new, high-rated markets.

Gray Television, Inc.'s commitment to diverse local content distribution is also seen in its Spanish-language presence. The company operates the largest Telemundo Affiliate group, which spans 44 markets. This multi-platform approach ensures content is available across various demographic segments within its established distribution footprint.

Here's a breakdown of the scale and strategic moves impacting Gray Television, Inc.'s Place strategy as of late 2025:

The recent acquisition activity details the tactical deployment of capital to secure prime distribution points:

• Allen Media Group acquisition cost: $171 million for 10 stations.
• New markets entered via AMG deal: 3 (Columbus-Tupelo, Terre Haute, West Lafayette).
• Existing markets strengthened by AMG deal: 7 via new duopolies.
• Block Communications acquisition cost: $80 million (expected Q4 2025 close).
• Scripps station swap: Resulted in new duopolies across 5 markets.

The company is defintely prioritizing the acquisition of the highest-rated stations in new markets, using 2024 Comscore data as a benchmark for asset quality in the AMG deal. This focus on securing top-rated assets in specific DMAs (Designated Market Areas) is the core of their distribution channel selection.

Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

You're looking at how Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) communicates its value proposition to advertisers and audiences in late 2025. Promotion for Gray Television centers on monetizing its local media footprint across broadcast and digital, heavily influenced by political cycles and the shift to streaming.

The core of the promotion effort is the sale of advertising inventory. For the third quarter of 2025, core advertising revenue-which excludes the highly cyclical political spend-totaled $355 million. This figure landed at the high end of management's guidance, though it represented a 3% decline year-over-year, partly because Q3 2024 included revenue from the Summer Olympics broadcast. Honestly, hitting guidance in a soft spot of the political cycle is a win for the sales teams.

Political advertising is a distinct, cyclical component of the promotion strategy. In Q3 2025, which was an off-year for major federal elections, political advertising revenue was $8 million. This actually exceeded the high side of the company's guidance range of $6 to $7 million, but it reflects the predictable downturn, showing a 95% drop compared to the prior year period.

Here's a quick look at those key advertising revenue components for Q3 2025:

Gray Television is actively pushing its digital inventory through its streaming app and CTV advertising network, Premion. Gray Television resells Premion services across all of its television markets, helping advertisers reach consumers on streaming app and CTV platforms. This is a major growth area, as forecasts suggest local CTV/OTT ad spending will exceed $2.8 billion in 2025, with most marketers planning to increase their CTV/OTT spending by an average of 21% this year.

The promotion strategy also heavily features community engagement and public service. Gray Television, Inc. was honored with the 2025 Catalyst Award for its significant support of the Ad Council's Project Roadblock initiative. To give you context on the scale of their past commitment, in 2024, Gray Media accounted for more than 11,000 Public Service Announcement detections for the campaign, representing 17% of all national airings for that effort. The 2024 Project Roadblock effort generated an estimated $6.5 million in donated media value nationwide.

Beyond digital and PSAs, Gray Television promotes its local relevance through content partnerships. The company carries sports content, including professional and collegiate sports, via its network affiliation and local sports rights agreements. This content helps drive viewership, which in turn supports local ad sales across all platforms. The company's digital presence extends across online, mobile, connected television, streaming, and social platforms, ensuring reach on all devices consumers use to consume news content.

The promotion efforts are supported by the overall reach of the company's assets, which include:

• Carrying local news, producing over 1,700 hours of news per week across its stations.
• Maintaining a liquidity position with over $900 million available as of Q3 2025.
• Generating $346 million in Retransmission consent revenue in Q3 2025.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) - Marketing Mix: Price

Price for Gray Television, Inc. centers on the monetization of its broadcast and digital assets through a dual revenue model. This involves setting prices for advertising inventory and negotiating fees for content distribution.

The company's revenue streams are fundamentally split between advertising sales and fees collected from distributors. For the third quarter ending September 30, 2025, total revenue reached $749 million. This top-line performance reflects the pricing achieved across both major segments.

The pricing for core advertising inventory is not set in a vacuum; it is directly subject to local market competition and the audience ratings Gray Television, Inc. can deliver. In Q3 2025, core advertising revenue was $355 million, representing a 3 percent year-over-year decline. Political advertising, which is highly cyclical, contributed only $8 million, a sharp 95 percent drop from the prior year's comparable period.

The second major component of pricing is the collection of retransmission consent fees. This revenue stream saw a 6 percent year-over-year decline in Q3 2025, coming in at $346 million. This decline is partially attributed to the transition of WANF in Atlanta to an independent station, which occurred during the quarter. The overall growth trajectory for retransmission revenue faces pressure from ongoing pay-TV subscriber churn across the industry, a dynamic that management expects to continue impacting future periods.

To provide a clearer view of the pricing realization across these streams in Q3 2025, here is the breakdown:

When considering capital allocation, which influences the financial flexibility to support pricing strategies, debt reduction remains a top priority. As of the end of Q3 2025, Gray Television, Inc.'s long-term debt stood at $5.6 billion. The company actively managed this during the quarter, reducing its outstanding debt principal balance by $246 million. Executives project a total net debt reduction of roughly $500 million for the full year 2025.

The pricing strategy must also account for the company's balance sheet management and liquidity position. Key financial metrics related to pricing power and stability include:

• Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025 was $162 million.
• Operating expenses before D&A were $542 million in Q3 2025, down 5 percent year-over-year.
• Liquidity as of September 30, 2025, included $182 million in cash and $742 million in borrowing availability.
• The Revolving Credit Facility commitment stands at $750 million.

The guidance for the next period also informs near-term pricing expectations. The midpoint revenue guidance for Q4 2025 is set at $774.5 million. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.