Nexstar Broadcasting hoping to collect a lot of green from green initiative

Nexstar Broadcasting stations, including KODE and KSNF, launched their "green" initiative today, declaring an emphasis on environmentally-friendly activities.
According to a company news release, Nexstar officials are also hoping to open a new revenue stream with the initiative:

The program, officially launched today at the Company's 49 television stations located in 29 markets, will educate viewers and local communities through weekly-televised environmental reports about measures consumers can take to mitigate the perilous conditions that affect the environment and the planet today. In addition, each Nexstar station will develop partnerships with individual local groups or organizations to focus attention on specific eco-sensitive issues prevalent in that station's community. Nexstar has also launched a dedicated green page on each market's interactive web portal which showcase locally produced content, list available resources and offer links to other useful sites encouraging users to become involved.

Through nexstarGREEN, the Company also aims to supplement its traditional television business with a new, recurring ancillary revenue stream of corporate sponsorships and on-air and on-line spot advertisements during featured environmental newscast segments.

Perry A. Sook, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexstar Broadcasting Group, commented, ?The environmental challenges facing our planet are becoming more serious with each passing day. We believe we have a responsibility to leave this world a better place for our children and Future generations. As such, we?re delighted to once again take the reins and develop an industry-leading concept that will benefit our advertisers and the local communities we serve, as well as our Company, our employees and our shareholders. Through our nexstarGREEN on-air and on-line initiatives, we are confident that viewers will be more aware of and embrace eco-friendly measures that will positively impact our environment.

And, we?re not just using our strength as a multi-platform communications company to spread the word. At Nexstar -- in our corporate offices and in every local market where we have a facility -- we?re establishing new efficiency goals. We?re carefully evaluating how we operate our stations and analyzing our energy and resource consumption. We'll meaningfully reduce our environmental impact as we reduce paper use, energy consumption and waste. For example, we'll buy hybrid vehicles for our News departments, we are converting our traffic platform to an advanced system that will eliminate a significant amount of paper usage company-wide and recycling programs will be implemented at stations that don't yet have them in place.

Nexstar stations are also taking an active role in embracing local eco-sensitive projects with Nexstar employees volunteering their time and efforts to a specific project in each of the Company?s markets. This grassroots involvement demonstrates the overall commitment of the entire Nexstar family of stations. The projects adopted are wide-ranging and address different needs in different communities. Our people are involved in hands-on projects ranging from urban street clean up to water conservation to electronics recycling.

Overall, we expect to realize mid-six figure cost savings in 2008 as a result of our eco-focus and are confident that shareholders will see long-term benefits from our commitment to this cause. Like our innovative retransmission consent agreements and approach to new media initiatives, the nexstarGREEN program is also proving to be another avenue for establishing a revenue source that leverages our core broadcasting activities. We've recently secured our first six figure sponsorships to support this initiative and we're presently in discussions with several national advertisers to sponsor our efforts across the entire platform and in aggregate, we expect to generate several million dollars in new revenue from this initiative beginning in 2008.