With national spot in the tank and local spot fizzling, TV station owners and group managers could use a little good financial news.

Borrell Associates and BIAfn delivers it this morning with a new report that says that station Web sites are adding real value to their holdings.

According to What's a Web Site Worth? Valuation Metrics for Local Web Sites, the median local TV Web site is worth more than $3.7 million, with a range of between $500,000 and $9 million.

"With rapid revenue growth anticipated, [TV station] sites are worth four to six times revenue and 11 to 30 times cash flow, depending mainly on market size and the level of development of the sites," the report says.

TV station sites today have about one third the revenue of newspaper sites, but they have much more upside, the report says.

Because of the investment broadcasters are making to their Web sites now and because of the anticipated demand for video and other "rich media" advertising the sites attract, the report says, stations can expect high double-digital revenue growth over the next five years.

"The uppermost value of [the] largest-grossing Web sites owned by local TV stations in the U.S., then, would be between $30 million and $40 million.

Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, said that sites associated with TV and other traditional media companies have an advantage over independent or what the report calls "pure play" Web sites.

They "benefit from promotion and content cost synergies as well as opportunities to up-sell to existing customers. As a result, their cash flow margins are robust, in most cases much higher than their parents'," he says.

Newspaper sites today tend to lead station sites in traffic and revenue, but they will not grow as quickly and command lower multiples, the report says.

"Newspaper sites rely heavily on banner advertising and pay-per-listing online classifieds, the slowest-growing types of interactive spending," it says.

"This is restricting multiples to four to six times revenue and 10 to 14 times cash flow."

Given those multiples, the report says, the median newspaper site is worth more than $4.2 million, with a range of values between $500,000 and $30 million.

"The uppermost value of Web sites owned by the largest newspapers in the U.S. then would be between $300 million and $450 million."

Like TV station Web sites, radio sites are not as developed as newspaper sites, but have high growth potential.

The median radio Web site is worth more than $1.2 million, with a range of values between $250,000 and nearly $6 million.

"Given the anticipated strong revenue growth, those sites are worth five to 6.4 times revenues and 15 to 25 times cash flow," it says.

"The uppermost value of largest-grossing Web sites owned by local radio groups in the U.S., then, would be between $15 million and $20 million."

The big unknown is what impact the pure plays will have on the local market, the report says.

"While these sites are expected to show substantial growth over the next few years, they do not benefit from the same synergies associated with local traditional media Web sites, namely promotion, content and current advertiser relationships," it says.

According to the report, the median local pure-play operation has revenues of $300,000, resulting in an estimated value of more than $2.4 million, corresponding to a 5.7 times revenue multiple and a cash flow multiple of nearly 22.

The bottom line for owners of traditional media is that their Web sites are a more important part of their value calculations, said Mark Fratrik, VP of BIAfn. "Given their growth potential, the value multiples of media Web sites may be 2 to 4 times that of the core business."