Christopher S. Ripley - Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
Management
Thank you, Jill. Before we go through the results, let me review some of the more meaningful activities that have taken place since our last earnings call. We've been very active on the network front, announcing the launch of two new networks this month, CHARGE! and TBD. TBD brings together the best of the Internet to TV and is geared towards a millennial audience. CHARGE! is modeled after COMET, our successful science fiction network partnership with MGM, except CHARGE! is action and adventure-based. Early feedback has been very enthusiastic for the new networks. COMET, profitable from the start and launched in October of 2015, is now in over 80% of the country with a loyal fan base and we'll be extending its distribution even further with its upcoming launch on Apple TV and Roku this quarter. In February, we reached an agreement in principle with Frontier Cable for carriage of our Seattle and Portland stations as well as Tennis Channel. We also extended our programming agreement with MyNetworkTV through the 2017-2018 broadcast season. Our drone program is off to an exciting start with 14 stations providing spectacular aerial footage for our news. On the regulatory front, the FCC has recently enacted some welcomed and overdue regulatory improvements, rescinding the JSA processing rules and launching the ATSC 3.0 NPRMs process. We are expecting the ownership rules to be tackled sometime this year. This is all good news for our industry, as the elimination of antiquated rules will allow us to compete on a level playing field with other forms of communications. Turning to ATSC 3.0, our ONE Media 3.0 subsidiary continues its development of products and services, which will lead to next-gen business opportunities, including work on a Single Frequency Network deployment, automotive telematics, the 3.0 transition plan, and other business model opportunities. The FCC completed the reverse portion of the spectrum auction, which closed at the 84 megahertz clearing level. As a result, we expect to receive $313 million of gross proceeds later this year. We do not expect any loss of over-the-air coverage or MVPD carriage and no material impact on operating performance. We're pleased to announce that once again we're offering up to $50,000 in scholarship funds to minority students studying broadcasting or journalism. And as we enter 2017, we're very excited about the deregulation potential, our auction proceeds, the upcoming Next-Gen Broadcast Platform, our development initiatives, our strong balance sheet, and our free cash flow performance. Now, with that, I'll hand it over to Lucy to take you through the fourth quarter results.