Having picked up eight mid-sized TV stations from Fox, Local TV LLC has shot up on the BIA/TVNewsday Top 50 ranking of TV station groups (see below), settling in at No. 13 with revenue of $481 million.

The new ranking is based on 2007 revenue, the latest available. On last year's 2006 chart, Local TV ranked No. 25 with revenue of $170 million.

The 2007 ranking's other big change is the appearance of New Vision Television at No. 34 with revenue of $111 million. In 2006, before a station-buying binge, it posted just $34 million in revenue and failed to make the Top 50.

With a 7 percent gain in revenue, Raycom Media replaced Cox Television at No. 10 and NBC slipped past CBS for the second spot. Other than that, there were no year-over-year changes among the Top 10 of the Top 50. Fox remains the leader with just over $2 billion in revenue.

Among the Top 10, Fox and CBS saw the biggest drops in revenue—15.3 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively—but the declines were due primarily to the spin off of stations.

The Top 50 chart uses BIA revenue estimates, which are based on its close tracking of revenue in the 210 TV markets and surveys of station groups. BIA is a Chantilly, Va.,-based broadcast station appraiser and investment banker.

The number of stations given for each group includes satellite stations, full-power repeaters and low-power stations, which often originate programming and are affiliates of secondary networks.

For purposes of this chart, BIA attributes revenue of stations that are sold to the buying group in the year the deal is announced, even though the deal may not close till the following year.

With a few notable exceptions, the revenue for each group reflects only revenue from owned stations. It does not include revenue garnered through the management of other stations in local marketing agreements and other contractual arrangements.

The exceptions involve Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar Broadcasting and Newport Television.

Each manages, but does not own, many other stations through closely related companies—Cunningham Broadcasting, Mission Broadcasting and High Plains Broadcasting, respectively.

These related companies allow the managing companies to operate duopolies in smaller markets where FCC disallows ownership of two stations by one company.

To give a more accurate reading of who's who in TV, BIA and TVNewsday have dropped the three related companies from the list and folded their revenue in with that of their managing companies. The Sinclair listing, for example, includes the revenue of Cunningham.

The Top 50 groups account for most of the revenue in TV broadcasting. Combined, they generated $19.5 billion in 2007, 89.7 percent of total industry revenue of $21.6 billion.

Not surprisingly, the 2007 revenue of the Top 50 is down 4.4 percent from 2006. TV stations suffer from the loss of political advertising and Olympics advertising in odd-numbered years.

By contrast, 2006 Top 50 revenue was up 9.73 percent from $18.7 billion in 2005.

Local TV has made its substantial mark on broadcasting in just two years of existence.

Backed by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and headed by long-time radio executive Randy Michaels, Local TV joined the ranks of major TV groups on the 2006 chart when it purchased the New York Times Group for $575 million.

Local TV more than doubled its revenue when it agreed to buy the eight stations from Fox last December for $1.1 billion.

In building a Top 50 chart, some analysts would combine Local TV and Tribune into one super group with total revenue of more than $1.5 billion. Such a group would rank No. 4 on the chart, just behind CBS.

That's because Local TV and Tribune are now under common management.

After investor Sam Zell acquired Tribune and took it private last year, he recruited Michaels to help him run the multimedia giant.

Unwilling to leave Local TV behind, Michaels formed a management company that runs the Tribune and Local TV stations as one.

New Vision, the biggest new name of the Top 50 chart, has been collecting stations under the leadership of Jason Elkin and John Heinen and equity supplied by HBK Capital Management of Dallas.

The group made its big move last summer when it purchased the Montecito group of four network affiliates for $330 million. The now-defunct Montecito ranked No. 44 on the 2006 Top 50 chart with revenue of $76.4 million.

In addition to New Vision, four other station groups are first timers on the Top 50 chart: Four Points Media, InterMedia Partners, Hoak Media and Waterman Broadcasting.

No. 4 Four Points is a new station group comprising seven stations in four markets purchased from CBS for $185 million.

InterMedia Partners has just one station (with satellite) in San Juan, P.R., WAPA, but its $66.6 | More …