Meredith Station Quarterly Revenue Down 10%

Meredith Corp. reported that its station group’s fiscal first quarter revenue decreased 10.1% to $192.8 million.

The station group saw operating profit drop 43.2% to $38.4 million and adjusted EBITDA fall 36.9% to $48.9 million.

The group revenue comprised:

• Non-political spot advertising revenues grew 3% to $77 million, led by growth in the Kansas City, Atlanta, and St. Louis markets. From a category standpoint, the professional services, home services and organizations categories were stronger, partially offset by softer results in the automotive category.
• Combined third party sales and digital advertising revenues grew 6%, both driven primarily by MNI Targeted Media.
• As expected in a non-political year, political spot advertising revenues were lower —$3 million — compared to $36 million in the prior year.
• Consumer related revenues increased 9% to $80 million due to growth in retransmission fees from cable and satellite television operators. These increases were offset by higher payments to affiliated networks. During the first quarter, Meredith entered into a new multi-year retransmission consent agreement with Dish Network across all of its markets. Meredith expects to renew MVPD contracts representing an additional 45% of its subscriber base in fiscal 2020.

The company as a whole reported quarterly total revenue of $725 million, down 6.4%. Earnings from continuing operations were $12.1 million, compared to $16.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

Meredith Corp. President-CEO Tom Harty said: “Our Local Media Group delivered record revenue for a first quarter in a non-political year, driven by growth in non-political related advertising and consumer revenues. Our National Media Group results reflect advertising performance which met our long-term expectations on a comparable basis, including high-single digit growth in digital advertising revenues. We also continued our track record of strong expense control. These factors helped drive a 55% increase in National Media Group operating profit in the quarter.”

Read the company’s report here.