But discounting political ad money, that figure becomes a 13% increase. Local media websites turn in a 20% revenue gain.
QUARTERLY REPORT
Media General 1Q TV Revenue Dips 2.6%
Media General Inc. today reported a $1.8 million drop in TV station revenue (2.6%) in the first quarter of 2011 that it attributed to the large difference in political ad revenue between this quarter and the same period a year earlier — political revenues of $188,000 this year compared with $980,000 last year.
“We were pleased that our broadcast television stations continued their strong performance,” said Marshall N. Morton, president-CEO. Total broadcast revenues decreased $1.8 million, or 2.6%, from last year, despite the absence of $7.6 million in Olympics revenues and nearly $1 million in Super Bowl revenues. Political revenues of $188,000 this year compared with $980,000 last year. Excluding those amounts, broadcast revenues increased 13% in the first quarter. This strong performance underscores the fundamental strength of television advertising as well as the outstanding efforts of our stations to generate new business,” Morton added.
“Our local media websites produced a 20% increase in revenues. Digital media revenues grew 26% in our Virginia/Tennessee market, 23% in the Mid-South, 20% in North Carolina, 18% in Ohio/Rhode Island, and 11% in Florida.
“Local online revenues continued their robust double-digit growth and increased 35%percent. Online classified revenues grew 7.1% and marked the fifth consecutive quarterly increase. Unique visitors to our websites increased 18%,” Morton said.
Read the company’s report here.
Comments (1)
Gregg Palermo says:
April 20, 2011 at 11:04 am
Year to year increases are hard to maintain unless last year was really low for some reason. Notice all the 4Q gains over a spectacularly awful 2009 4Q, thanks in part to political, but also to general recovery. 1Q 2011, however, has less to gain over an improved 1Q 2010. Always take gains with a grain of salt, and expect the following year to regress to the mean.