What 16 WAPT News does

16 WAPT News (WAPT-TV) is the ABC-affiliated local broadcast television station serving Jackson, Mississippi, and the surrounding Central Mississippi region. Founded in 1970 and owned by Hearst Television (a division of Hearst Communications), the station has been continuously operated for over 55 years and is led by President and General Manager Peter Keith. WAPT produces and distributes local news, weather forecasts, sports coverage, and investigative reporting across multiple channels: over-the-air digital broadcast, the wapt.com website, iOS and Android mobile applications, and social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and X/Twitter.

The station's product portfolio includes core local news programming, the Blitz 16 high school sports sub-brand, the Stitch lifestyle and community storytelling series, the Matter of Fact political commentary show, 16 Investigates journalism unit, and a comprehensive weather service featuring radar and severe weather alerting. The station also operates a commercial video archive and licensing service that makes tens of thousands of digitized news stories available to documentary producers and media organizations. Underlying technology consists of standard over-the-air digital signal transmission, website and mobile app content delivery, and a digitized video archive management system.

WAPT generates revenue through three primary streams: television advertising (local and national airtime sales during news, weather, and sports programming), digital advertising (display, pre-roll, and sponsored content on wapt.com and mobile apps), and video licensing fees from its archive. Advertising rates are not publicly disclosed and are negotiated based on time slot, program, audience reach, and campaign duration. The station's customer base consists of the general Jackson-area viewing audience on the demand side and a fragmented mix of local and national advertisers on the supply side, with no anchor customer dependency. The station also benefits from Hearst Television's broader network for national sales representation, technology infrastructure, and content syndication across its 31 owned stations.

Name

16 WAPT News

Legal name

Jackson Hearst Television Inc.

Website

https://wapt.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1970

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

16 WAPT News is the ABC-affiliated local broadcast television station serving Jackson, Mississippi, owned by Hearst Television. The station delivers local news, weather, sports, and investigative content across broadcast, web, and mobile platforms, generating revenue primarily from advertising and video licensing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Broadcast Television News

NAICS

Television Broadcasting Stations (51612)

SIC

Television Broadcasting Stations (4833)

akta.pro primary industry

Local News & Weather Stations (MPABACAJ)

Keywords

• Local broadcast news
• Television advertising
• Weather forecasting
• Video licensing
• ABC affiliate

Headquarters

HQ city

Jackson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Television Advertising: The station sells commercial advertising airtime during news programs, weather segments, sports coverage, and other programming slots. Both local Jackson-area businesses and national advertisers purchase airtime.
2. Digital Advertising: Display advertising, pre-roll video ads, and sponsored content on the wapt.com website and mobile applications.
3. Video Licensing: The station licenses historical and current video footage from its archive to third parties including documentary producers, filmmakers, and other media organizations. An extensive archive of tens of thousands of digitized news stories spanning decades is available for licensing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

16 WAPT News operates as the ABC-affiliated local broadcast television station for Jackson, Mississippi, producing and distributing local news, weather forecasts, sports coverage, national news, and investigative journalism. Programming is delivered via over-the-air broadcast, the wapt.com website, iOS/Android mobile apps, and YouTube. The station also licenses historical and current footage from its extensive digitized video archive to documentary producers and media organizations.

Product overview

16 WAPT News (WAPT-TV) is a local broadcast television station serving Jackson, Mississippi, owned by Hearst Television. The station operates as a single unified news media platform with multiple digital touchpoints including a mobile application, video archive licensing service, and specialized content sub-brands. The core offering is broadcast news content (local, national, weather, sports, entertainment, politics, investigative reporting) distributed across traditional TV broadcast, a mobile app (iOS/Android), website streaming, and YouTube. Supporting sub-brands include Blitz 16 (high school sports), Stitch (lifestyle storytelling), Matter of Fact (political commentary), 16 Investigates (investigative journalism), and comprehensive weather services including hurricane tracking. The station also offers a video archive licensing service for documentary and production companies seeking historical footage.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 16 WAPT News (Broadcast Television Station) Local broadcast television news station serving Jackson, Mississippi and surrounding areas, providing local news, weather, sports, national news, entertainment, politics, and investigative reporting content. Distributed via over-the-air ABC affiliate broadcast.
• 16WAPT News Mobile App Mobile application available for iOS and Android that allows users to access news, weather, and video content on mobile devices with push alert capabilities for breaking news.
• WAPT Video Archive & Licensing Service Video archive service offering tens of thousands of digitized news stories spanning decades, available for licensing to documentary producers, filmmakers, researchers, and other media organizations. Footage is searchable via YouTube with custom licensing requests handled through inquiry.
• Blitz 16 (High School Sports Coverage) High school sports brand covering prep sports in the Jackson area, including the 'Blitz 16' segment and 'Player of the Week' features, targeting local sports fans and community audiences.
• Weather Service Comprehensive weather coverage including forecasts, radar imagery, hurricane tracking, and severe weather alerts for the Jackson metro area. Critical for a region prone to severe weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, and extreme heat events.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Hearst TelevisioncoreOthersWAPT-TV is owned and operated by Hearst Television, a major broadcast television company. Hearst Television provides operational support, national sales representation, technology infrastructure, and content syndication across its network of stations. WAPT participates in various affiliate marketing programs and Hearst Television commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through retail links.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Tegna: Tegna operates a large portfolio of local TV stations across the US, overlapping with Hearst/WAPT in mid-sized DMAs and competing for the same national and political advertising budgets.
• Hearst Television: Hearst Television is the parent company of WAPT, operating 31 local TV stations nationwide. It defines the corporate context, shared services, and strategic direction for WAPT's operations.
• Nexstar Media Group: Nexstar is the largest US television broadcaster, owning 200+ stations. It competes with Hearst/WAPT for national ad dollars, political ad cycles, and syndicated programming.
• Gray Television: Gray Television is one of the largest US owners of local TV stations, competing with Hearst Television for ad budgets, syndicated content, and operational talent across mid-sized markets.
• WLBT (Civitan Media / Gray Television): WLBT is operated by Gray Television, a major US local broadcast group that competes with Hearst Television for stations, network affiliations, and national advertising share.
• WLOX: WLOX is the ABC affiliate in Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, also owned and operated by Hearst Television. It is a sister station sharing network content, sales support, and operational infrastructure with WAPT.

Direct peers

• WLBT: WLBT is the NBC affiliate serving the Jackson, Mississippi DMA. It is WAPT's most direct head-to-head competitor for local news viewers, advertisers, and digital audience in the same geographic market.
• WJTV: WJTV is the CBS affiliate in the Jackson, Mississippi market. It competes directly with WAPT for local news ratings, ad spend, and digital audience share in the same DMA.
• WHLT: WHLT is a CBS-affiliated station in the Hattiesburg-Laurel, Mississippi market that overlaps WAPT's Central Mississippi coverage area and competes for regional news and ad share.

Emerging players

• Very Local: Very Local is Hearst Television's owned streaming and digital content platform. WAPT content is distributed through Very Local, which represents the company's emerging digital-first distribution and monetization strategy beyond linear TV.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/16WAPTNews
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/wapttv
• Facebookfacebook.com/16wapt
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wapt-tv

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 16 WAPT News