Nexstar’s 3Q Net Revenue Sets Record

Nexstar Media Group this morning reported financial results for the third quarter of 2021 that included net revenue of $1,157,012, an increase of 3.5% from the same quarter of 2020. That revenue comprised:

• Core ad revenue totaled $433 million, up 13.3% from 3Q 2020.
• Political ad revenue was $12.4 million, down 90.6%.
• Distribution fee revenue grew 14.9% to $619 million.
• Digital revenue climbed 46.8% to $81 million.
• Other revenue grew 16.7% to $12 million.

Income from operations was $277.4 million, down 19.3%.

Net income totaled $169.2 million, a decrease of 10.6% from 3Q 2002.

Free cash flow was $252 million, up 14.9% from $195 million.

Perry A. Sook, Nexstar chairman, president and CEO, said: “Nexstar’s strong third quarter financial results once again exceeded consensus expectations and highlight growing momentum across our broadcast, digital and networks platforms. With pandemic-related challenges largely behind us, we are beginning to actualize the value of the scaled platform we have created.

“We acquired The Hill which has synergies across multiple business and functional lines, including leveraging our salesforce to drive revenue, using content from The Hill on NewsNation, and increasing our overall digital audience. Our presence in approximately 80% of the states where sports betting is legal or expected to be legal enabled us to generate significant revenue from gaming/sports betting advertising which is now a top 5 category for us and led us to partner with SportsGrid to launch its network in a number of our markets. We also launched our second owned and operated multicast network, Rewind TV, to nearly 50 million homes primarily in the Nexstar portfolio.

“Our significant free cash flow and industry-leading scale affords us the flexibility to continue pursuing additional accretive organic and external growth opportunities, while having the financial capacity for further leverage reduction and return of capital initiatives. In the third quarter we allocated $80 million toward leverage reduction and $138 million toward accretive M&A, while repurchasing $144 million of our Class A common shares and returning $29 million to shareholders through our quarterly cash dividend.

“Through the nine months ended September 30, Nexstar allocated approximately $493 million toward share repurchases and dividends, a 29% increase over the total capital returned to shareholders for all of 2020, while maintaining leverage below 3.5x. Fourth quarter trends continue to improve, and we look forward to what we expect to be a record level of revenue with the return of political advertising in 2022. We remain confident in meeting or exceeding our recently updated pro forma average annual free cash flow guidance of approximately $1.33 billion during the 2021/2022 cycle.

“Third quarter net revenue of $1.16 billion was a new record, increasing 3.5% over the prior year reflecting double-digit year-over-year increases in core advertising, distribution and digital revenue, as we fully offset the cyclical $120 million year-over-year decline in political advertising. Nexstar’s third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $410 million with a healthy 35.5% margin and we brought approximately 61% of every Adjusted EBITDA dollar to the free cash flow line.

“Nexstar’s third quarter net revenue excluding political increased approximately 16%, reflecting our success in leveraging the multiplatform consumer reach and engagement of our content. Core television advertising revenue increased 13.3% year-over-year, with nine of our top ten advertising categories posting growth. In addition, Nexstar’s local sales initiatives continue to deliver strong new business growth with our sales teams generating $34.8 million of third quarter new-to-television revenue, marking a 37% increase over the prior year and a 6% rise over the 2021 second quarter.

“Notably, excluding automotive, 2021 third quarter core television advertising revenue exceeded pro forma 2019 levels due, in part, to the significant growth of the gaming/sports betting category. Overall gaming/sports betting has become a top five category and is generally a No. 1 or No. 2 category in established gaming/sports betting markets. We expect these positive trends to continue in the fourth quarter and beyond.

“Third quarter 2021 distribution fee revenue rose 15% year-over-year to approximately $619 million, reflecting our renewal of distribution agreements in 2020 representing approximately 18% of our subscriber base and other increases and stable subscriber trends across our platform. Nexstar has solid visibility into our contractual distribution economics with over 85% of our Big Four affiliations contracted through December 31, 2022. We expect continued retransmission revenue growth reflecting contract renewals representing a mid-to-high single digit percentage of our subscribers in 2021 and approximately 60% of our subscribers in 2022.

“Third quarter 2021 total digital revenue increased 46.8% to approximately $81 million with digital profitability up substantially over the prior year period. Top-line growth was driven by strong year-over-year growth in our local digital advertising revenue and agency services business, combined with contributions from recent acquisitions. Nexstar’s integrated content and audience development strategies continue to generate strong audience growth and engagement across our digital network of 120 local web sites and 284 local news and weather mobile apps.

“We continue to make progress in scaling NewsNation’s content offerings with the launch of a major programming expansion at the end of September, including two new shows Dan Abrams Live, produced and hosted by veteran journalist and analyst Dan Abrams, and Morning In America, a live three-hour weekday morning news show hosted by award-winning former ABC News correspondent and anchor, Adrienne Bankert.

“Consistent with our long-term record of creating new value from acquisitions, in twelve months we substantially have transformed the former WGN America cable asset from a syndicated programming network into a profitable national news and entertainment network reaching 75 million U.S. television households and airing 13 hours of original news programming per day. Over the last year alone, consumer awareness of NewsNation has doubled and while there is still much work to be done, we have great confidence in our long-term growth strategy for the network and the complementary opportunities related to our acquisition of The Hill.

“In summary, as the largest local broadcast television company in America with a diverse portfolio of valuable and growing media assets, Nexstar continues to deliver growing cash flow. Our scale will enable us to monetize our assets in new ways that will be material to our bottom line, including using our platform to make accretive acquisitions. With our record of free cash flow growth, and over $1.3 billion of average annual free cash flow expected for the 2021/2022 cycle, we have the capacity to invest in growth while reducing leverage and returning capital to shareholders.

“Looking ahead, Nexstar expects 2022 to benefit from its growing multi-platform audience and industry-leading distribution, continued growth of the gaming/sports betting category and the upcoming 2022 mid-term elections where, due to our extensive footprint, Nexstar has historically garnered 12-15% of total U.S. broadcast political advertising spending. These factors contribute to our excellent visibility to deliver on or exceed our upsized free cash flow targets in the 2021/2022 cycle as well as facilitate continued near- and long-term enhancement of shareholder value.”

Read the company’s report here.