SAN FRANCISCO — It may not quite be mom-and-pop, but it sure is father-and-son. Lilly Broadcasting is the US local broadcasting company previously run by George Lilly and son Brian, now by Brian and brother Kevin.
With operations in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Michigan, Lilly is keeping things small.
But finance chief Wade O’Hagan thinks small is beautiful – and local TV news is more relevant than ever.
“If you have a strong local news, especially in the smaller markets and even in the larger markets, where are they going to get that information?,” he asks.
“They’re not going to get it from the internet necessarily because there’s maybe nobody covering a smaller market. They’re going to get it from the TV stations in the market. The newspapers have cut way back. Pick up a local newspaper in a smaller market today and it might be more like a pamphlet than an actual paper.
“So, it’s key for us to always stay relevant to the local community and to serve the local community with higher end content. Especially in California, for example – you have wildfires going everywhere.”
That’s why O’Hagan finds ad sales operations at local TV stations so critical.
“The local ad stuff has gone up and down depending on the general economy, but kind of stayed strong,” he adds.
“I think the opportunity is to always try to stay relevant where your local content. And that includes news especially.
This video is part of a Beet.TV series on advanced TV produced at the WideOrbit Connect conference. WideOrbit is the sponsor of this series. Please find more videos here..
