Gannett 3Q TV Revenue Down 14.8%

Gannett Co. this morning reported third quarter financial results that included television revenue of $198.5 million compared to $233 million in the third quarter last year, a drop of 14.8%. However, the company said television revenues would have been 13.6% higher excluding the incremental impact of Olympic and political spending year-over-year, in line with guidance provided in July.

Retransmission revenues were up 62.8%.

In June, the company entered into a definitive merger agreement with Belo Corp. under which Gannett will acquire all outstanding shares of Belo for $13.75 per share in cash, or approximately $1.5 billion, plus the assumption of $715 million in existing debt for an enterprise value of approximately $2.2 billion. This transaction was approved by Belo shareholders during the quarter. However, the transaction is subject to antitrust and FCC approval and other customary closing conditions.

Gracia Martore, president and chief executive officer, said: “In the third quarter, we continued to take steps to further expand our digital offerings and execute across all of our media and marketing platforms. We achieved a 12% increase in digital revenue company-wide, which underscores our ongoing evolution into a more highly diversified, higher margin multi-media company. In our Broadcast and Publishing businesses, despite challenging comparisons to third quarter 2012 — which benefited from Summer Olympic advertising, record political spending and the significant ramp-up of our content subscription model — we performed well. Total company-wide third quarter 2013 revenue was essentially flat, excluding the incremental impact from Olympic and political spending last year.”

Looking forward, the company said that based on current trends and reflecting a record level of political revenues achieved in the fourth quarter in 2012, it expects the percentage decrease in total television revenues for the fourth quarter of 2013 to be in the high teens compared to the fourth quarter of 2012 (excluding the extra week in the period). Record political advertising totaling $91.2 million positively impacted television revenues in the fourth quarter of 2012. Excluding the incremental impact of political spending, total television revenues in the fourth quarter this year compared to the fourth quarter last year are expected to be up in the range of 10% to 12%.