Barrington Broadcasting just barely made the BIA Financial Network's Top 50 TV Station TV Groups for 2005, nabbing the last spot with $32 million in revenue.

But with revenue rising 318 percent to $133 million following its purchase of 12 stations from Raycom Media, Barrington leaped up the 2006 list to No. 31.

Backed by the Pilot Group equity fund, three-year-old Barrington now owns 21 stations in 15 market and is led by veteran broadcaster Jim Yager.

The 2006 list, the latest from Chantilly,Va.-based BIAfn, ranks group owners of TV stations by revenue (see below).

It stretches from No. 1 Fox at $2.4 billion to No. 50 Communications Corp. of America with $61 million. CBS again captured the No. 2 spot as its revenue nudged up to $1.9 billion.

It was not a year of great change, said BIAfn analyst Mark Fratrik. “Generally, the groups held pretty steady."

And what changes did occur were primarily the result of buying or selling stations, not good or bad sales performance, Fratrik said, citing Schurz and Entravision as other examples of groups that grew through acquisitions.

Altogether, the Top 50 rang up $20.5 billion in 2006, up 9.73 percent from $18.7 billion in 2005. The Top 50 account for 91 percent of the $22.5 billion in total TV station revenue for 2006.

The 9.73 percent increase in revenue for the Top 50 in 2006 (8.2 percent for the entire industry) reflects the two-year, up-and-down revenue cycle that the industry is locked into.

Revenue grows in even-numbered years due to heavy political advertising and ad spending around the Olympics and then falls in odd-numbered years when those sources dry up.

Looking ahead, BIAfn projects that revenue will drop 1.5 percent this year, but rebound nearly 10 percent in 2008.

With its 19-rung climb, Barrington was the biggest mover on the list.

Another making a significant move was Media General. After picking up four stations from NBC, its revenue swelled 37 percent to $441 million and its ranking rose from 18 to 14. Those four spots were the most of any group in the Top 25.

The Top 10, dominated by the O&O groups of the broadcast networks, showed little change. ABC reclaimed the fourth spot from Tribune, which had the distinction of being one of only three groups to post a decline in revenue. It dropped to No. 5.

Even though NBC sold those four stations to Media General, it stayed at No. 3. In fact, it still managed a modest 2.28 percent increase in revenue to $1.8 billion.

Cox Television joined the Top 10 at No. 10, replacing Raycom, which sunk from No. 9 to No. 11, in the elite group. Univision rose from No. 10 to No. 9.

Among the new names is Local TV LLC. That's the company backed by Oak Hill Capital and fronted by Randy Michaels that closed on its purchase of the New York Times station group earlier this month. It landed at No. 25 with $170 million in revenue.

Another new name is Lincoln Financial Media, which acquired Jefferson-Pilot and its three TV stations. It appears at No. 38, down two spots from 2005.

Ion Media (formerly Paxson Communications) dropped significantly in the ranking—from 33 to 42—and it wasn't because it sold stations. Its revenue dropped 19 percent to $80.1 million as it struggled to find a winning programming strategy and sales declined.

According to Fratrik, Midwest Television and the Communications Corp. of America squeezed on the bottom of the list at No. 49 and No. 50, respectively, as Emmis Communications and Liberty Corp. dropped off.

Although still a radio player, Emmis sold most of its TV stations to different buyers, while Liberty merged into Raycom.

BIAfn closely tracks broadcast station sales and ownership. It uses the data in support of its appraisal, investment banking and consulting work and publishes it in a variety of forms, including the annual Investing In Television Market Report.

CLARIFICATION: After this story was originally posted on May 29, it and the accompanying chart were changed to relect revisions in the revenue of Raycom Media for 2005 and 2006. The revisions were the result of certain purchases and sales of  TV stations by Raycom in those years.

The changes did not affect Raycom's ranking, but they did dramatically affect its percentage change in revenue. They also affected the Top 50 totals at the bottom of the chart.

Also note that the 2005 revenue for Journal Broadcast includes the 2005 revenue of the stations Journal purchased from Emmis Communications.

TOP 50 TV STATION GROUPS

Rank		TV Group	Revenue (000)		% chg.
2006	2005		2006	2005
1	1	Fox	$2,440,040	$2,298,600	6.17
2	2	CBS	1,914,575	1,852,600	3.35
3	3	NBC	1,827,275	1,786,550	2.28
4	5	ABC	1,237,550	1,154,800	7.17
5	4	Tribune	1,099,875	1,176,800	-6.54
6	6	Gannett	1,023,750	853,875	19.89
7	7	Hearst-Argyle	846,625	762,175	11.08
8	8	Belo	796,925	723,600	10.13
9	10	Univision	739,925	626,775	18.05
10	11	Cox	648,900	619,275	4.78
11	9	Raycom	635,639	503,175	12.6
12	12	Sinclair	616,950	591,050	4.38
13	13	LIN	518,600	457,950	13.24
14	18	Media General	440,625	320,675	37.41
15	15	E.W. Scripps	439,250	373,500	17.60
16	14	Post-Newsweek	424,150	377,500	12.36
17	19	Clear Channel	362,375	314,225	15.32
18	16	Meredith	358,900	326,850	9.81
19	17	Gray	354,900	324,150	9.49
20	21	Sunbeam	256,200	218,375	17.32
21	20	Young	232,875	218,700	6.48
22	22	Allbritton	226,975	206,800	9.76
23	23	Nexstar	192,875	178,000	8.36
24	26	Entravision	183,675	135,875	35.18
25	24	Local TV	170,025	157,250	8.12
26	25	Journal	151,675	144,100	5.26
27	29	Freedom	142,500	124,625	14.34
28	27	Hubbard	140,700	130,250	8.02
29	28	McGraw-Hill	138,050	129,100	6.93
30	38	Granite	136,175	82,400	65.26
31	50	Barrington	133,150	31,875	317.73
32	31	Fisher	130,225	114,875	13.36
33	32	Cordillera	124,350	102,150	21.73
34	30	Dispatch	123,350	116,575	5.81
35	37	Landmark	100,500	82,800	21.38
36	35	Cunningham	92,875	87,275	6.42
37	34	Capitol	92,500	88,950	3.99
38	36	Lincoln	92,100	85,625	7.56
39	39	Sunbelt	90,200	76,000	18.68
40	42	Pappas	89,625	69,475	29.00
41	43	Quincy	87,900	65,325	34.56
42	33	Ion Media	80,825	99,675	-18.91
43	49	Schurz	80,100	53,875	48.68
44	40	Montecito	76,400	73,475	3.98
45	41	Weigel	75,175	69,700	7.86
46	45	Griffin	70,325	58,300	20.63
47	44	Bahakel	66,050	59,925	10.22
48	48	Mission	64,850	56,600	14.58
49	46	Midwest	64,000	58,000	10.34
50	47	CCA	61,000	61,000	7.06
		TOTAL	20,494,414	18,677,050	9.73

Source: BIA Financial Network