Scripps Q1 Station Revenue Climbs 13%

E.W. Scripps Co. announced first quarter results Thursday after the market closed, including Local Media (its TV stations and local brands on all platforms) revenue of $353 million, up 13% from the prior-year quarter. (It will hold its earnings call with analysts, Friday, May 10, at 9:30 a.m. ET.)

• Core advertising decreased 3.4% to $136 million.
• Political advertising revenue was $15.2 million, compared to $3.5 million in the prior-year quarter, a non-election year.
• Distribution revenue increased 21% to $197 million.
• Segment expenses increased 8% to $287 million.
• Segment profit was $65.6 million, compared to $45.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

The Scripps Networks division reported revenue of $209 million, down 2.3% from the prior-year quarter. Segment expenses were $160 million, down 3.2%. Segment profit was $49.7 million, compared to $51.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

For the company as a whole, total Q1 revenue was $561 million, a decrease of 6.4%, or $33.7 million, from the prior-year quarter.

Costs and expenses for segments, shared services and corporate were $474 million, up from $455 million in the year-ago quarter.

Loss attributable to the shareholders of Scripps was $12.8 million or 15 cents per share.

Commenting on the quarter’s results, Scripps President-CEO Adam Symson said: “In the first quarter, we were pleased to deliver strong operating results that exceeded our expectations due to our close expense management. Local political is coming on strong. We also are seeing green shoots in the national direct response advertising marketplace while scatter market pricing improved in Q1 2024 over Q1 2023.

“The company is sharply focused on our No.1 priority of bringing down our debt levels and leverage to a more comfortable place by year’s end. We are optimistic about the sale of a major asset, the Bounce TV network, as well as some non-strategic real estate assets. We expect to benefit from robust political advertising, the early signs of recovery in parts of the national advertising marketplace, and our expected increase in revenue from the stability we’ve seen in the pay TV ecosystem. With careful expense management, we are committed and confident this will be a significant year toward our goal.

“We decided to explore a sale of Bounce after receiving significant inbound interest from potential strategic buyers. We have thoroughly enjoyed owning Bounce since we acquired it in 2017, and we know the network plays a special role in Black communities. Under Scripps’ stewardship, the network has doubled its revenue and continues to see unparalleled audience growth. For the first quarter, Bounce was up 14% on linear platforms while most other linear viewership was down. At this point, we believe a strategic buyer could catalyze Bounce’s growth even more.

“We are pleased to see political advertising strengthening, leading us to raise our full-year guidance range to $240 million-$270 million, with the higher end of that range now above our 2020 results. Strong spending is coming from Montana and Ohio, where U.S. Senators John Tester and Sherrod Brown are defending their seats against Republican National Committee spending. The controversial ballot measure in Florida also provided upside to our guidance range. We’ll know in the coming months how many of the six other states with Scripps markets, including Arizona, will have similar measures on their November ballots. Those prospective ballot issues are not yet factored into our updated guidance.” 

Read the company’s report here.