E.W. Scripps reported lower third-quarter earnings in a non-election year, despite growth at its new national networks group.
Net income was $46.1 million, or 50 cents a share, down from $58.5 million, or 69 cents a share, a year ago. The results included a $32.6 million gain from the sale of KMGH’s building in Denver.
Revenue rose 13% to $555 million.
Local media profit was $65.4 million, down from $148 million a year ago. Local media revenue was down 19% to $331 million. Core advertising revenue was up 10% to $167 million, while political advertising plunged to $7.1 million from $96.4 million during last year’s election year.
Retransmission revenue decreased 1.3% to $153 million.
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At the new Scripps Networks group, segment profit was $83.3 million, up from $63.6 million on an adjusted-combined basis, on revenues of $227 million, up 18%.
“Investors should take note of the growing financial value of our differentiated strategy, focused on leadership in the free television marketplace,” Scripps president and CEO Adam Symson said. “In a year without a major national election season, we again raised our free cash flow guidance range for this year — from $240 million to $260 million, up to $255 million to $265 million — driven by the strength of our local and national brands, sales execution and the rebounding advertising marketplace.“ The company has quickly integrated Ion Media and has nine national over-the-air TV networks, Symson said.
“At the same time, Scripps is focused on growing scale in the connected TV marketplace through an aggressive launch schedule for most of our networks on CTV platforms,” he said. “All 40 of our local news brands are already available through the major CTV platforms, garnering material new revenue that helped us beat Wall Street’s core advertising revenue estimates in the third quarter.”
