Nexstar’s 1Q Net Revenue Up 8.6%

Nexstar Media Group this morning reported financial results for the first quarter of 2022 that included net revenue of $1.2 billion, an increase of 8.6% from the same quarter of 2021.

The 1Q revenue comprised:

• Core ad revenue of $428 million, up 4%.
• Political ad revenue of $23.7 million, up 339%.
• Distribution fee revenue of $668 million, up 7.5%.
• Digital revenue of $79 million, up 18.5%.
• Other revenue of $11.7 million, up 27.2%.

Income from operations was $329.4 million, up 15.6%.

Net income totaled $251.4 million, an increase of 26.2%.

Free cash flow was $562 million, up 15.9%.

Perry A. Sook, Nexstar chairman, president and CEO, said: “Nexstar had a strong start to 2022, delivering record first quarter financial results. Once again, we exceeded consensus expectations generating all-time high first quarter net revenue and Adjusted EBITDA at a strong 53.1% margin, as well as the highest quarterly free cash flow in the Company’s history.

“Our top- and bottom-line results benefitted from strong year-over-year increases across all of our core and political advertising, distribution and digital revenue sources and first quarter cash distribution from our TV Food Network ownership interest. We returned 34.8% of our first quarter free cash flow to our shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases with another 27.7% allocated toward debt reduction.

“We continue to have excellent three-year visibility on our growth trajectory, given expected strong mid-term and presidential political advertising and distribution agreement renewals representing a significant percentage of our subscribers over this period. The current core television advertising environment also remains healthy despite recent macroeconomic challenges, as businesses continue to leverage Nexstar’s scaled platform to reach consumers. As a result of these factors, we remain confident in our ability to generate pro forma average annual free cash flow in excess of $1.40 billion over the 2022-23 cycle.

“Nexstar’s powerful and growing diversified media platform produces and distributes some of the most compelling local and national news, sports and entertainment content in America, with the best margins in the business. Our outstanding first quarter results only reinforce our view that Nexstar is well on its way to delivering another year of record financial performance in 2022. As such, we have a solid foundation to continue driving near- and long-term growth and the enhancement of shareholder value.”

Read the company’s report here.