A newly expanded Graham Media Wednesday reported revenues rising 10% to $106.1 million in the second quarter of 2017.
That figure includes revenue from the group’s two January acquisitions—former Nexstar stations WCWJ, a CW affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla., and NBC affiliate WSLS in Roanoke, Va. Without those stations, Graham’s Q2 revenue rose 3%, driven by $5.8 million more in retransmission consent fees, Graham said.
The increased money from carriage deals offset the $1.3 million year-over-year loss in political money, as well as an increase in NBC affiliate fees being paid by Graham’s stations in Houston and Detroit, the company said. Graham stations entered a new carriage deal with Comcast April 1.
Operating income for the second quarter of 2017 decreased 11% to $39.3 million, due primarily to the significantly higher network fees, Graham said.
The TV group division increased 5% to $197.6 million in the first six months of 2017, from $188.5 million in the same period of 2016. Excluding revenue from the two newly acquired stations, revenue declined 1% due to a $5.3 million decrease in political advertising revenue and lower network revenue, offset by $8.8 million in higher retransmission revenues, Graham said.
Operating income for the first six months of 2017 decreased 24% to $65.2 million from $85.4 million in the same period of 2016, due primarily to significantly higher network fees.
(Photo via Pictures of Money's Flickr. Image taken on Sept. 17, 2015 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 16x9 aspect ratio.)
