Gray 3Q Revenue Climbs 17%

Gray Television this morning announced that revenue for the third quarter of 2020 came in at $604 million, that’s an $87 million (17%) increase from the third quarter of 2019. With total core revenue at $237 million, down 14% from 3Q 2019, the big revenue drivers were political and retransmission consent.

That revenue total comprised:

• Local advertising revenue (including internet/digital/mobile) of $188 million, down 14% from $218 million.
• National advertising revenue of $49 million, down 13% from $56 million.
• Political advertising revenue of $128 million, up 482% from $22 million.
• Retransmission consent revenue of $217 million, up 11% from $196 million.
• Production company revenue of $11 million, down 31% from $16 million.
• Other revenue of $11 million, up 22% from $9 million.

The company said: “Net income attributable to common stockholders for the third quarter of 2020 was $109 million, or $1.14 per fully diluted share, increasing $63 million, or 137% from the third quarter of 2019.

“Broadcast cash flow was $271 million increasing $79 million, or 41%, from the third quarter of 2019.

“Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2020 was $261 million, an increase of $80 million, or 44%, from the third quarter of 2019.

“As anticipated, COVID-19 continued to have an adverse impact upon our business in the third quarter of 2020, although our results continue to recover. In particular, while our total revenue increased by 17%, in the third quarter of 2020, our combined local and national broadcast revenue, excluding political revenue (“total core revenue”), for the third quarter 2020 only decreased by approximately 14% compared to the third quarter of 2019. In addition, the year-over-year declines in total core revenue continued their sequential improvement through the third quarter of 2020 as follows: July declined 16%, August and September each declined by only 12%.

“Our total revenue performed better in the third quarter than our total core revenue on a year-over-year basis, because of continuing growth of retransmission consent revenue and especially because of the growth of political advertising revenue in the current “on-year” of the two-year political advertising cycle.”

Read the company’s report here.

Also today, Gray announced a share repurchase authorization for up to an additional $150 million of outstanding common stock (GTN) and/or Class A common stock (GTN.A) through December 31, 2023. This additional authorization increases the total capacity under Gray’s share repurchase program to $220 million when combined with the approximately $70 million remaining under its previous authorization.