Gannett reported first-quarter television revenues of $185.5
million, 8.5% higher than the first quarter a year ago. Increases of 58.7% in
retransmission revenue and 2.3% in core advertising revenues more than offset
the revenue hit from the Super Bowl airing on Gannett's six CBS stations,
compared to the 12 NBC stations that aired the big game last year.
Overall broadcasting revenues, including the Captivate
elevator network, were $191.6 million in the quarter, an increase of 8.7%.
Gannett expects second-quarter television revenues to be up
in the mid-single digits.
Gannett's total revenues were $1.24 billion, up 1.6% from
the same quarter a year ago.
The media giant's publishing revenues were $871.2 million,
virtually flat from the $874.1 million in the first quarter last year. Digital
revenues grew 3.9%.
"We are very pleased to report a significant increase
in earnings per share this quarter," said Gracia Martore, president and
CEO. "Our all-access content subscription model's success benefited our
local domestic publishing revenue for the fourth consecutive quarter. Core
advertising growth and a substantial increase in retransmission revenue
contributed to improving results in Broadcasting while Digital segment results
continued to reflect CareerBuilder's growing market position."
Gannett owns 23 TV stations and 82 daily newspapers,
including USA Today.
