Tegna reports lower second quarter earnings as costs increased more than revenue.
Net income was $79.955 million million, or 37 cents a share, down from $92.512 million, or 43 cents a share.
The company has several been making acquisitions, including stations from Dispatch Broadcast Group and the multicast networks Justice and Quest. The company had acquisition-related fees of $5 million in the quarter and severance expenses of $1 million.
Revenue rose 2.5% to $537 million. Excluding political ad spending from a year ago, revenue was up 7%.
Subscription revenue, driven by increases in retransmission consent rate increases, rose 13% to $236 million.
Advertising and marketing services revenue increased 3%.progressed. “The diversification of our advertising and marketing services revenue is becoming increasingly evident as the softness in auto has been more than offset by the growth in the services, banking and media categories, among several others,” the company said.
“We are pleased with our second quarter results in terms of both performance during the quarter and from a long-term positioning perspective,” said CEO Dave Lougee. “We met the outlook for our key financial metrics provided last quarter, and remain on pace to meet our full year 2019 guidance."
“We continue to augment our organic growth with disciplined capital allocation, highlighted this quarter by the announcement of our intent to acquire the Dispatch Broadcast Group stations, and the successful close of the Justice Network and Quest transaction,” Lougee added. “As we look forward, we have good visibility into our second half drivers and are confident we will capitalize on opportunities to further drive growth for the intermediate and long-term.”
The company said it expects third quarter revenue to be up in the low single digits, and excluding political, in the high single digits.
For the full year, the company said it expects subscription revenue to rise by mid-teen rates.
