In what should come as no surprise to anyone following the TV broadcasting business, only six of the Top 50 TV station groups managed to grow revenues in 2008, according to the BIAfn/TVNewsday annual revenue ranking. The fortunate half dozen: Post-Newsweek (up 3.59 percent) McGraw-Hill (up 6.26 percent), Dispatch (up 7.48 percent), Capitol (up 8.75 percent), Griffin (up 4.2 percent) and CCA (up less than 1 percent). Led by Sunbelt (down 20.42 percent) and Sunbeam (down 15.29 percent), the rest of the 2008 returnees on the Top 50 ranking posted negative revenue numbers for the year, although most were in the single digits. The declines reflect the recession that gripped the country in 2008 and has yet to let go. Overall, broadcast TV revenue fell 6.5 percent to $20.1 billion in 2008, according to BIAfn, even though candidates and political advocacy groups pumped money into stations at record levels during the year's incessant campaigning. The Top 50 accounted for about 91 percent of total industry revenue for the year.
