Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI): PESTLE Analysis [Nov-2025 Updated]

If you're analyzing Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI), you need to look past the daily stock moves and focus on two massive, near-term forces: the political cycle and the NextGen TV rollout. The ongoing US election cycle is poised to deliver a significant revenue boost, with the industry potentially seeing over $1.5 billion in total political ad spend, but this tailwind is fighting against a high net debt load of around $4.0 billion and the accelerating shift of consumers away from linear TV. The real strategic play is the ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) deployment, which promises new revenue streams like datacasting, but requires costly capital expenditure in a high-interest environment, making the race between technological opportunity and economic constraint the story of 2025. We need to map these political, economic, and tech pressures to clear actions.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) - PESTLE Analysis: Political factors

The political landscape for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) in 2025 is defined by a sharp cyclical revenue drop-off and a major regulatory shift at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). You need to plan for a significant revenue gap in the near-term but also prepare for potential M&A opportunities as the FCC moves toward deregulation.

2025 Political Advertising Cycle: Significant revenue boost from the ongoing US election cycle, potentially exceeding $1.5 billion in total political ad spend across the industry.

The biggest near-term political factor is the absence of a major federal election. Honestly, 2025 is a financial hangover year for broadcasters like Sinclair Broadcast Group following the record-breaking 2024 Presidential cycle. The industry-wide political ad spend doesn't hit the massive $1.5 billion mark in an off-year; it contracts sharply.

For Sinclair Broadcast Group specifically, the impact is clear in the Q1 and Q2 2025 results. This is a predictable, but defintely painful, swing. This downturn is why the total U.S. local TV-based advertising market is projected to be down by 20% in 2025, reaching roughly $21.3 billion in total media revenues, according to BIA Advisory Services estimates. S&P Global also projects a 12.5% decline in total TV station ad revenue to $21.81 billion for the year.

Here's the quick math on the political revenue drop-off for Sinclair Broadcast Group's Local Media segment:

What this estimate hides is the high-margin nature of political ads, meaning the drop in net income is even more pronounced than the drop in gross revenue. You should focus on core advertising growth, which is projected to rise by 3.6% for the local TV industry, excluding political spend, in 2025.

FCC Media Ownership Rules: Continued pressure on cross-ownership limits; the 2025 regulatory stance remains a key M&A constraint.

The regulatory environment is shifting in a way that could favor a consolidator like Sinclair Broadcast Group. The FCC officially launched its quadrennial review of broadcast ownership rules on September 30, 2025. This review is a direct response to a July 2025 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that struck down the FCC's long-standing 'top-four' prohibition, which barred common ownership of two top-rated local TV stations in a single market.

The review is looking to relax local television ownership limits, which generally cap a single entity at two stations per market. Still, the national TV ownership cap remains firmly in place, prohibiting any single company from reaching more than 39% of U.S. television households.

The key areas under review that affect Sinclair Broadcast Group are:

• Local Television Ownership Rule: Could allow owning more than two stations in a market.
• Dual Network Rule: Prevents mergers among the four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC).

The political mood at the FCC is leaning toward deregulation, arguing that broadcasters need greater scale to compete effectively against streaming services and Big Tech. This signals a clear opportunity for Sinclair Broadcast Group to pursue strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to build stronger portfolios, a move they are well-positioned to make.

Must-Carry/Retransmission Consent: Ongoing regulatory battles over the future of retransmission consent fees, a major SBGI revenue source.

Retransmission consent fees-the payments cable and satellite providers make to carry local broadcast signals-are a critical political and financial battleground for Sinclair Broadcast Group, providing roughly 41% of total station revenue across the industry. Sinclair Broadcast Group's own retransmission consent renewals are expected to deliver a 2% compounded annualized growth in net retrans revenue for the 2023-2025 period.

The political risk here is two-fold: the fees themselves and the 'reverse retransmission fees' (the money affiliates pay back to the networks). One FCC Commissioner proposed in May 2025 that the FCC should cap reverse retransmission fees at 30% of the total retrans fees. If implemented, this cap would directly boost local station profitability by limiting the money flowing back to the national networks.

Also, a conservative think tank, the International Center for Law & Economics, argued in November 2025 that the FCC should eliminate the entire retransmission-consent framework. This would be a radical shift, treating broadcasters like any other content creator and removing a crucial, congressionally-mandated revenue stream. This is a high-stakes political debate you must track closely.

Net Neutrality: Potential for new FCC rules to affect how SBGI's streaming and digital content is delivered to consumers.

The political and legal battle over Net Neutrality has taken a decisive turn in 2025, creating a risk for Sinclair Broadcast Group's digital future. In January 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down the FCC's 2024 order, effectively ending federal net neutrality regulations. Following this, the FCC finalized a reversal of the 2015 Open Internet Order in February 2025, reclassifying broadband under Title I (information service).

The immediate political consequence is that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are no longer legally barred from practices like throttling, paid prioritization, or blocking lawful content. This means that a major ISP could, hypothetically, create a 'fast lane' for a competing streaming service or slow down the delivery of Sinclair Broadcast Group's digital content, like its local news streams or its sports offerings, unless Sinclair Broadcast Group pays for priority access. This creates a new, non-traditional political risk where the company must now manage relationships with ISPs to ensure its digital delivery quality is not impaired, which is a new cost of doing business.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) - PESTLE Analysis: Economic factors

Retransmission Revenue Growth: Fee increases from cable/satellite providers are slowing, but still a core, stable revenue stream for 2025.

You need to understand that Distribution Revenue, primarily retransmission consent fees from cable and satellite providers, is the bedrock of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.'s (SBGI) financial stability. This revenue stream is still growing, but the pace is defintely slowing down. For the full year, net retransmission revenues are still expected to see a mid-single-digit growth.

However, the underlying issue is subscriber churn (the rate at which customers leave) from traditional pay-TV. This is why the Q3 2025 Distribution Revenue of $422 million was down 3% year-over-year. The fee increases are fighting a losing battle against the shrinking subscriber base, but still provide a reliable, high-margin cash flow to offset volatility in the advertising market.

Local Advertising Market: Volatility in the non-political ad market, especially auto and retail, requiring SBGI to diversify digital revenue.

The local advertising market in 2025 shows a mixed, volatile picture, largely due to the cyclical nature of political spending. This is a non-election year, so political advertising revenue was only $6 million in Q2 2025, a massive drop from the prior year. But, here's the quick math on the core business: Core Advertising Revenue (excluding political) has shown resilience, with Q3 2025 reporting $315 million, an increase of 7% year-over-year.

Still, the traditional core categories like auto and retail remain challenging. Sinclair is proactively addressing this by diversifying its digital revenue through strategic acquisitions. For instance, the full acquisition of Digital Remedy, a software company specializing in omnichannel media activation, is a clear move to integrate digital solutions and reduce reliance on traditional broadcast ad sales.

To be fair, the company has a dedicated automotive marketing division, Drive Auto, which shows they are fighting hard to maintain share in the critical auto sector.

Interest Rate Environment: High debt load (around $4.0 billion net debt as of late 2025) makes refinancing and capital expenditure for ATSC 3.0 more costly.

The current interest rate environment is a major headwind because Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. carries a substantial debt load. As of September 30, 2025, the Total Company Debt was a formidable $4.101 billion. This high debt service cost is a primary driver of the negative bottom-line performance, contributing to the Q1 2025 net loss of $156 million.

The good news is that management is working on it. They completed a comprehensive refinancing in Q1 2025 to strengthen the balance sheet and push out the maturity profile. Plus, they redeemed $89 million of 5.125% Senior Unsecured Notes in October 2025. But, the cost of capital remains high, which directly impacts the expensive, long-term capital expenditure (CapEx) for the ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) transition.

CapEx for Q3 2025 was $22 million. This investment is crucial for future revenue streams like targeted advertising and data distribution, but the high cost of debt makes every dollar of CapEx more expensive right now.

Labor Costs: Rising wages for local news talent and technical staff are putting pressure on operating margins.

The cost side of the equation is where the economic pressure is most visible, particularly on operating margins. While Sinclair has shown strong gross profitability-Q1 2025 Gross Margin was 46.13%-high operating expenses are wiping out that profit.

The Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) Operating Margin as of November 2025 plummeted to just 2.12%. This dramatic decline highlights the structural pressures on local media, which includes rising labor costs for the essential local news talent and technical staff needed to run their stations and implement the new ATSC 3.0 technology. Though Media Programming and Production Expenses were reduced by $6 million in Q3 2025, the overall expenses remain a concern.

Here's a snapshot of the expense pressure:

• Q1 2025 Media Programming and Production Expenses: $418 million
• Q1 2025 Media Selling, General and Administrative Expenses: $192 million

The high overhead and administrative expenses are disproportionately high, which is why the TTM Operating Margin is so thin.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) - PESTLE Analysis: Social factors

Shift to Streaming: Accelerating consumer migration away from traditional linear TV, challenging the core broadcast model.

You are seeing the fundamental challenge to Sinclair Broadcast Group's (SBGI) core business model play out in real-time viewership data. The long-predicted shift from traditional linear television (broadcast and cable) to streaming has officially tipped the scales in 2025. In May 2025, streaming platforms captured 44.8% of total U.S. TV viewing time, narrowly surpassing the combined linear TV share of 44.2% for the first time ever. By September 2025, streaming's lead widened to 45.2% of total TV usage, with broadcast and cable each falling to 22.3%. That's a massive, structural change.

This migration directly impacts Sinclair's revenue streams. As audiences move, so do the ad dollars. Projections for the 2025 fiscal year show linear TV ad budgets expected to decline by 13%, dropping to approximately $51 billion. Conversely, Connected TV (CTV) ad spending is projected to surpass $32 billion by the end of 2025, demonstrating where the growth capital is flowing. The quick math here is simple: Sinclair must accelerate its digital and streaming strategy, like its NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) and digital assets, to recapture that audience and ad spend.

Local News Trust: High perceived value and trust in local news content, which SBGI's stations provide, remains a key competitive advantage.

Despite the broader erosion of media confidence, local news remains a powerful social anchor and a core competitive advantage for Sinclair. While trust in national news organizations among U.S. adults fell to 56% by October 2025, the share of Americans with at least some trust in local news organizations remained significantly higher at 70%. This gap is a critical moat for local broadcasters.

The high trust in local news is further reinforced by the growing issue of news deserts-areas with limited or no local news coverage. Approximately 50 million Americans now live in counties with limited or no access to a reliable local news source, a figure that continues to rise. Sinclair, with its extensive network of 193 stations across over 100 markets, covering 40% of American households, is uniquely positioned to fill this void. This local connection is not just a social good; it is a premium product that supports higher retransmission fee negotiations and attracts local advertisers who value a trusted environment.

• Local news trust is 14 percentage points higher than national news trust.
• Sinclair's newsrooms won 227 journalism awards year-to-date in 2025, including 25 RTDNA regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.
• The local focus is the defintely strongest social asset you have.

Demographic Changes: Need to adapt content and distribution to younger, mobile-first audiences to maintain long-term relevance.

The demographic divide in media consumption is stark and presents a clear long-term risk for a traditional broadcaster like Sinclair. Younger audiences are simply not consuming media the same way their parents are. Data from May 2025 shows that audiences aged 16-24 spend 51% of their TV time on streaming platforms, while linear TV retains a dominant 68% share only among the older 55-64 demographic. This means Sinclair's core audience is aging out, and the replacement audience is already digitally native.

To be fair, this younger audience is also highly skeptical and fragmented. Adults under 30 are now about as likely to trust information from national news organizations (51%) as they are to trust social media sites (50%). Sinclair must create content that is not only mobile-first and platform-agnostic but also capable of cutting through the noise and skepticism of the digital generation. This is why investments in digital assets, like those reaching an average of 80 million unique visitors each month, are crucial for long-term relevance.

Community Engagement: Increased public and regulatory scrutiny on local programming and editorial independence.

Sinclair operates in a high-scrutiny environment, especially concerning the editorial independence of its local stations. The company's political leanings have historically drawn public and regulatory attention, which can complicate strategic moves like mergers and acquisitions. For example, in its November 2025 bid to acquire E.W. Scripps, Sinclair proactively addressed this social factor by including plans for an ombudsman and updated editorial standards to bolster public trust and ease regulatory concerns.

The focus on tangible community engagement is a necessary counter-balance to this scrutiny. Sinclair's Corporate Responsibility initiatives, such as the Sinclair Cares campaign which partnered with the American Cancer Society to help recruit over 600 volunteer drivers for their Road to Recovery program in July 2025, are concrete examples of local impact. This local action is essential for maintaining the high trust in local news and mitigating the risk associated with its national reputation. You must view community engagement not as a cost center, but as a critical risk mitigation and brand equity investment.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) - PESTLE Analysis: Technological factors

ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) Deployment

The biggest technological pivot for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is its aggressive leadership in deploying ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV). This isn't just about better picture quality; it's a fundamental shift from a one-way broadcast model to an internet-protocol (IP) based platform, which is crucial for new revenue streams. Sinclair is a key driver in the industry's push to establish a sunset date for the legacy ATSC 1.0 standard, urging the FCC to mandate a transition in the top 55 television markets by February 2028. This regulatory certainty is the key to unlocking the full commercial potential of the new standard.

The market is slowly catching up; the installed base of NextGen TV products in American homes climbed to nearly 14 million by the end of 2024, up significantly from the prior year. Sinclair's strategy is to be the first-mover, positioning itself to monetize this growing user base through highly personalized advertising and new data services. This is a high-stakes, long-term bet on the future of over-the-air broadcasting.

Spectrum Utilization: Leveraging NextGen TV for Datacasting

The enhanced efficiency of the ATSC 3.0 standard allows Sinclair to use its existing spectrum for 'datacasting'-transmitting high-speed data to non-TV devices. This is the clearest opportunity to diversify revenue away from traditional advertising. To accelerate this, Sinclair, alongside other major broadcasters, formed the EdgeBeam Wireless joint venture in early 2025. This venture aims to tap into massive new markets by using the broadcast airwaves as a data pipe.

Here's the quick math on the potential total addressable market (TAM) for these new services, which is what drives the investment thesis:

Sinclair's subsidiary, ONE Media 3.0, is actively deploying Single Frequency Networks (SFNs), with the nation's first SFN deployment in Dallas serving as a key testing ground. This technology allows for robust, predictable reception deep indoors and to mobile devices, which is defintely essential for mobile viewing and the high-reliability data services they plan to offer.

Digital Ad Tech: Programmatic Advertising and Data Analytics

To compete effectively with the digital duopoly of Google and Meta, Sinclair must transition its ad sales from manual, linear TV buys to a sophisticated, data-driven programmatic model. The company is investing heavily in this area, both internally and through strategic acquisitions. In Q2 2025, for instance, Sinclair acquired CPX Interactive for approximately $30 million to bolster its digital advertising capabilities. This is a clear action to enhance their ability to target ads across their vast network of local stations and digital platforms.

The financial results for 2025 show mixed, but encouraging, signals from this push:

• Q3 2025 Core Advertising Revenue: $272 million (Local Media segment).
• Q3 2025 Core Revenue Growth: Increased by 7% year-over-year.
• Q2 2025 Core Advertising Revenue: Down 4.7% year-over-year, reflecting broader macroeconomic softness.

The core advertising revenue growth of 7% in Q3 2025 is a strong indicator that the investment in a cross-platform advertising ecosystem is starting to pay off, even as traditional linear TV viewership faces secular (long-term) declines.

Cybersecurity Risk: Increased Vulnerability

As Sinclair connects its broadcast operations to the internet for ATSC 3.0 and integrates digital ad platforms, its attack surface grows exponentially. The risk is not theoretical; the company's past experience underscores the financial and operational damage a breach can inflict. A high-profile ransomware attack in 2021, for example, caused a loss of $63 million in advertising revenue in a single quarter and necessitated an additional $11 million in mitigation and security improvement costs. The unrecoverable net losses from that incident totaled $24 million.

Management acknowledges this risk in its 2024 10-K report (filed February 2025), stating that future breaches could lead to significant financial losses and reputational damage. The company is addressing this through ongoing security enhancements, which are funded within the overall anticipated capital expenditures of between $83 million and $86 million for 2025. You simply cannot afford to skimp on digital defenses when your entire future is built on an interconnected IP network. The cost of prevention is always cheaper than the cost of a breach.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) - PESTLE Analysis: Legal factors

You need to understand that the legal and regulatory environment for a company like Sinclair Broadcast Group is less about simple compliance and more about a high-stakes, multi-front risk management strategy. For 2025, the biggest legal factors are the antitrust hurdles for consolidation, the massive financial impact of recent litigation settlements, and the quiet but persistent risk from data privacy and IP protection.

The regulatory landscape is shifting, creating both opportunity and significant legal risk. You can't ignore the $495 million cash payment tied to a major litigation settlement, for example; that is a material legal cost that hits the balance sheet. Here is the defintely critical legal breakdown.

Antitrust Scrutiny: Acquisition Concentration Risk

The core of Sinclair's growth strategy-consolidation-runs directly into the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust tripwires. We saw this play out with the failed Tribune Media Company acquisition, which cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, in late 2025, the company is actively pursuing a strategic review of its broadcast business and has made an unsolicited cash and stock proposal to acquire E.W. Scripps for $7 per share. This proposed merger would instantly draw renewed regulatory scrutiny because a combined portfolio would likely surpass the FCC's current 39% national ownership limit, even with the UHF discount.

Still, management is optimistic, pointing to recent regulatory changes, like the elimination of restrictions on owning multiple Big Four network affiliates in the same market, as a sign the environment is becoming more favorable for consolidation. The near-term action is clear: you must model the cost of divestitures and the timeline for a full regulatory review into any potential deal valuation.

Here's the quick math on recent consolidation activity:

Litigation Risk: Financial Impact of Lawsuits

Sinclair has a history of high-profile litigation, and 2025 has been no exception, with significant financial and operational costs. The largest single legal event was the global settlement of all litigation issues with Diamond Sports Group, LLC (DSG) in January 2024, which is a major factor in the 2025 financial outlook.

The settlement required a cash payment of $495 million to DSG, though the estimated net cost to Sinclair is approximately $250 million to $325 million after considering tax benefits and other assets received. That is a huge one-time hit. Also, regulatory and employment disputes continue to add up.

• FCC Consent Decree: In June 2025, a Consent Decree with the FCC Media and Enforcement Bureaus was finalized, requiring Sinclair to pay $500,000 to resolve various outstanding proceedings and abide by a two-year compliance plan.
• Employment Lawsuits: The company settled a race discrimination case with the EEOC in August 2025, agreeing to pay $100,000 in back pay and damages.
• Advertising MDL Sanction: In November 2025, a federal judge sanctioned Sinclair for failing to preserve text message data from over 50 company-issued cellphones in a long-running multidistrict litigation (MDL) concerning an alleged advertising price-fixing scheme.

Intellectual Property (IP) Rights: Digital Piracy and Content Protection

Protecting the value of local news content and regional sports broadcast rights is a constant legal battle against digital piracy. The entire U.S. economy loses more than $29 billion annually to digital piracy, and Sinclair's high-value, exclusive content is a prime target.

The company's formal compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a baseline, but the real threat is the unauthorized streaming and use of their content, especially sports. The legislative environment is trying to catch up, with bipartisan efforts in 2025, like the proposed Block BEARD Act, which aims to give copyright owners a tool to seek federal court orders to block dedicated foreign online piracy operations. This potential new law could defintely help broadcasters protect their revenue streams.

Data Privacy Laws: Compliance for Targeted Advertising

Sinclair's push into digital advertising, including the Q2 2025 acquisition of CPX Interactive for approximately $30 million to enhance its capabilities, makes compliance with evolving data privacy laws a critical legal factor.

The transition to NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) is a major technological opportunity because it enables highly precise targeted advertising, but this capability exponentially increases the company's exposure to state-level US data privacy regulations. Sinclair's September 2025 Privacy Policy acknowledges this, explicitly detailing how they collect personal data for targeted advertising and their need to provide region-specific disclosures for states like California (CCPA) and others. The risk here is not just a fine, but a loss of consumer trust that could cripple the value proposition of their new digital ad platform.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBGI) - PESTLE Analysis: Environmental factors

You defintely need to track the pace of ATSC 3.0 adoption; it's the single biggest swing factor for their long-term valuation.

Energy Consumption: High power requirements for broadcast towers and data centers; pressure to adopt more sustainable, lower-carbon operations.

The core business of operating 185 television stations in 85 markets means Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. faces a constant, substantial energy load from its broadcast towers and data centers. The massive power draw of high-power transmitters makes energy cost a significant operational expense, and increasingly, a major environmental risk factor. Because of this, the company is actively pursuing energy-efficiency measures to lower its carbon footprint, which is a key negative impact area noted in its 2025 ESG profile.

The shift to NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) is a dual-edged sword here. On one hand, the new standard utilizes a more efficient, IP-based architecture and modern compression formats like High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) that should reduce the overall energy per bit transmitted. On the other hand, the transition itself requires a significant capital outlay for new, high-power ATSC 3.0 transmitters and related equipment. Sinclair is exploring long-term, low-carbon solutions to manage this load:

• Replacing existing lighting with LED lighting across facilities.
• Upgrading HVAC equipment with higher efficiency models.
• Exploring renewable energy options, including solar energy, battery farms, and electric vehicles.

While specific 2025 Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions data for Sinclair are not public, the pressure is real. The company's overall net impact ratio, as measured by The Upright Project in 2025, is 34.4%, indicating a positive net impact, but the negative impact category of 'Creating greenhouse gas emissions' remains a material factor for investors.

E-Waste Management: Need for responsible disposal of obsolete broadcasting equipment during the ATSC 3.0 transition.

The multi-year, industry-wide transition from the legacy ATSC 1.0 standard to ATSC 3.0 presents a major e-waste management challenge. This is not a simple software update; it involves replacing large, complex, and heavy electronic equipment, including transmitters, exciters, and encoders, across Sinclair's vast network of owned and operated stations. The sheer volume of obsolete ATSC 1.0 equipment that will be retired over the next few years is substantial.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which Sinclair supports, has proposed a timeline to the FCC to complete the transition in the top 55 markets by February 2028 and all remaining markets by February 2030. This timeline forces a capital expenditure cycle that must incorporate a robust, auditable e-waste strategy. A failure to manage this responsibly exposes the company to reputational damage and potential regulatory fines under local and state e-waste laws. The transition's scale is best understood in the context of the company's network:

The opportunity is to partner with certified electronics recyclers to ensure the proper recovery of valuable materials like copper, gold, and palladium from the retired equipment, turning a potential liability into a manageable, albeit costly, part of the upgrade process.

Climate Reporting: Growing investor and stakeholder demand for transparent reporting on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.

Investor scrutiny on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance is intensifying, moving beyond boilerplate statements to demand quantifiable metrics. Sinclair acknowledges this, stating a commitment to providing transparency and accountability to stakeholders.

The company's commitment to ESG is explicitly listed on its Investor Relations page as of November 2025, underscoring its importance to the capital markets. While the latest comprehensive public ESG report is from 2022, the market is now demanding more frequent, granular disclosures aligned with frameworks like the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) or the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The company's Q1 2025 financial results, which reported a net loss of $156 million, highlight the financial environment where every operational cost, including energy efficiency CapEx, is under the microscope.

Disaster Preparedness: Ensuring operational resilience of broadcast infrastructure against increasing severe weather events.

As a local news and emergency information provider, operational resilience is a public interest requirement, not just a business continuity issue. The increasing frequency and severity of U.S. weather events-hurricanes, wildfires, and extreme cold-pose a direct physical risk to Sinclair's network of broadcast towers and studios.

The company has taken concrete steps to enhance its preparedness, which also serves a vital social function. In late 2024, Sinclair made The Weather Company's Max Alert Live storm tracking solution available to over 70 of its U.S. stations. This allows for hyperlocal, street-level severe weather tracking and alerts, ensuring that even if a transmitter site is compromised, the stations can provide critical, life-saving information. This investment is a necessary cost of doing business in a changing climate, protecting both physical assets and the company's reputation as a trusted local resource.

Next Step: Finance: Draft a sensitivity analysis showing the impact of a 10% swing in 2025 political ad revenue on the Q4 EBITDA guidance by the end of the week.