Sinclair Revises Expectations For 2007 Retransmission Revenues From $48 Million To $53 Million

Sinclair Revises Expectations For 2007 Retransmission Revenues From $48 Million To $53 Million

BALTIMORE, March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) announced today that in light of recent retransmission agreements entered into that it is revising its estimate for its 2007 retransmission revenues from approximately $48 million to approximately $53 million. The prior estimate included retransmission revenues based on anticipated deal terms with Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA; CMCSK) at that time. The new estimate includes the final Comcast agreement terms, which were entered into today, as well as recent deals with some smaller independent cable companies. It does not include potential retransmission revenues from Charter or Cox with whom the Company is negotiating.

"In response to certain statements made by Comcast today, I note that Sinclair's policy is that it does not enter into retransmission consent agreements without receiving compensation for retransmission rights and we did not violate that policy in our agreement with Comcast," commented Barry Faber, VP and General Counsel of Sinclair. "While we acknowledge the accuracy of public statements made by a Mr. David Cohen of Comcast stating that we are providing advertising and other services to Comcast, we disagree that such consideration is equivalent to the value that we are receiving from Comcast. To the extent that Mr. Cohen, who was not part of the negotiations between our companies, implied that our agreement reflects nothing more than an exchange of equivalent value with no compensation being paid for the right to carry our stations, we believe he has mischaracterized the economic terms of the deal. In addition, we believe that Mr. Cohen's statement that Comcast did not pay "cash for broadcast carriage that would need to be passed on to [Comcast's] customers," is not a denial that Comcast agreed to pay cash, but instead represents a claim that any such payments will not need to be passed on to subscribers. Since we believe that customers are already paying cable operators such as Comcast for the right to receive all of the programming carried, including broadcast stations, we are pleased to know that our agreement with Comcast will not require their subscribers to pay any additional amounts."

"We are extremely pleased with the results of our deal with Comcast," stated David Smith, Sinclair's President and CEO, "and believe it represents a further step in our goal of monetizing the value of our retransmission consent rights. Contrary to statements made by Comcast, in our opinion this agreement, together with other agreements we have entered into recently, does in fact represent a shift in the retransmission consent paradigm. This view is well supported by the expectation of $53 million in retransmission consent revenue. In fact, we would be more than happy to waive the confidentiality clause included in the agreement with Comcast and disclose the specific terms to the general public."

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies, currently owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 36 markets. Sinclair's television group reaches approximately 22% of the U.S. television households and is affiliated with all the major networks.

Forward-Looking Statements:

The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, future operating results. When used in this press release, the words "outlook," "intends to," "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "achieves," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results in the future could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including and in addition to the assumptions identified herein this release, the impact of changes in national and regional economies, successful execution of outsourcing agreements, pricing and demand fluctuations in local and national advertising, volatility in programming costs, the market acceptance of new programming, the CW Television Network and MyNetworkTV programming, our news share strategy, our local sales initiatives, the execution of retransmission consent agreements and the other risk factors set forth in the Company's most recent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurances that the assumptions and other factors referred to in this release will occur. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.

First Call Analyst: Lucy Rutishauser, +1-410-568-1500

Source: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

CONTACT: Barry Faber, VP & General Counsel, +1-410-568-1500, for
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

Web site: http://www.sbgi.net/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/110203.html

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