Related: Tribune TV Division Revenue Up 5% to $467M in 2Q
Driven by boosts in political, retransmission and digital money, Nexstar Broadcasting Tuesday reported that second quarter revenues hit a record-setting $262 million, up 19% from 2015.
That number includes:
- $133.4 million in core revenue, up slightly from $132.7 million in 2Q 2015
- $11.2 million in political money, up from $1.9 million
- $98.1 million in retransmission revenue, up from $69.7 million
- $24.8 million in digital revenue, up $21.1 million over last year
“Nexstar’s long-term strategy to leverage our local content and relationships through accretive, scale-building acquisitions while creating complementary revenue streams drove record second quarter net revenue, BCF and Adjusted EBITDA, while free cash flow was impacted by the timing of 2016 cash tax payments, a situation that will self-resolve over the remainder of the year,” chairman, president and CEO Perry Sook said in a statement.
“Year-to-date core, political, retransmission and digital revenue are largely tracking consistent with our expectations and Nexstar generated $3.29 in free cash flow per share through June 30,” he said.
The earnings report comes as Nexstar progresses with its acquisition of Media General, which was approved by shareholders of both companies during the last quarter. That included Nexstar selling 13 stations for a total of $548 million to comply with FCC ownership caps.
“When the Media General transaction is completed, the new Nexstar Media Group will increase our legacy broadcast portfolio by approximately two thirds and more than double our audience reach while presenting opportunities related to the increased scale and complementary nature of the combined digital operations,” Sook said.
