on Fox, have five-year deals ending in 2024. Peacock retains streaming rights through 2026.
As for Nexstar, the big broadcaster benefits from scale, including multiple stations in some markets with highly competitive political races; it surpassed $500 million in political advertising for 2022. And it’s also dialed down its ad exposure, with over half of sales coming from distribution, or retrans, a business historically resistant to economic downturns.
Net leverage, a gauge of a company’s financial health, refers to net debt as a proportion of EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Debt is becoming a big issue again for companies in a world of high and still rising interest rates. Supply-chain disruptions lingering from Covid and the Russia-Ukraine War, among other factors, sent inflation soaring to 40-year highs, which caused the Federal Reserve to raise rates seven times in 2022.