Company: GHC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000104889-25-000022
Chunk: 202

Company: Graham Holdings Co
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 202
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 Changes in regulations have the potential to negatively impact the television broadcasting business, not only by increasing compliance costs and reducing revenues through restrictions on certain types of advertising, limitations on pricing flexibility, or other means, but also by possibly creating more favorable regulatory environments for the providers of competing services, including unregulated digital programming distribution platforms. In addition, changes to the FCC’s rules governing broadcast ownership may affect the Company’s ability to expand its television broadcasting business and/or may enable the Company’s competitors to improve their market positions through consolidation. More generally, significant changes in applicable regulations could adversely affect the profitability and/or competitive positions of the Company’s businesses.

•    Transition to New Technical Standards for Broadcast Television Stations May Alter the Competitive Environment in the Company’s Stations’ Markets or Cause the Company to Incur Increased Costs. 

The Company cannot predict how the market will evolve as the new broadcast television station technical standard, ATSC 3.0, is made available in a growing number of television markets across the country; today, ATSC 3.0 streams are available in more than 75 markets. Competing stations that transition to ATSC 3.0 may increase competition for the Company’s stations and/or create competitive pressure for the Company’s stations to launch ATSC 3.0 streams. As noted above, all of GMG stations have begun broadcasting ATSC 3.0 streams. The pace of transition to and consumer adoption of the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting standard may also be affected by the availability of ATSC 3.0-capable consumer devices. Equipment manufacturers began releasing certain TV models with built-in ATSC 3.0-capable receivers in 2020, and an increasing number of external tuners or converter boxes are available, but ATSC 3.0-capable consumer devices are not yet widely available or in use in the U.S. The ongoing transition to ATSC 3.0 may have material effects on the Company’s media businesses that cannot now be reliably predicted and that may have an adverse effect on the Company’s operating results.

•    Changes in MVPD Subscriber Numbers, Retransmission Consent Fees, “Reverse Retransmission Consent” Payments to the Networks, and Broadcast Exclusivity Could Adversely Affect the Company’s Revenues.

As the number of subscribers to traditional cable, satellite and telecommunications services continues to decline, GMG faces the possibility of declining revenues under its existing retransmission agreements, which typically provide for payment to GMG on a per-subscriber basis. Those