Media General 4Q TV Revenue Up 29%

Strength in broadcast operations helped counter declines on the newspaper side at Media General in the fourth quarter of 2010 and, looking forward, the company sees promise in the nascent mobile DTV movement.

“We’re providing the service in Columbus, Ohio, and Tampa, and we’ll launch it in a half dozen more markets in the coming months,” Marshall Morton, Media General president-CEO said during Thursday’s conference call on its 4Q  financial results.

“This has the potential to grow rapidly, as manufacturers introduce more devices equipped to receive the signals.  We believe mobile DTV can significantly expand our broadcast audience and create new revenue streams, including subscriptions and advertising.”

The company did not offer projections on what mobile DTV is likely to contribute to revenues in the coming year.

And while projections for broadcast operations show revenues flat to down 3%, that division was clearly a strength for the Media General in the fourth quarter.

Hotly contested political races generated nearly $24 million in fourth quarter political revenues, compared with $3.7 million the year before. Also contributing was a strong automotive sector that powered a 6% gain in local time sales.

Media General today reported that total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 increased 7.2% to $189.9 million, driven by a nearly 29% increase in broadcast television revenues, which reflected strong political advertising and an overall firming in broadcast transactional business. 

“In the fourth quarter of 2010, our broadcast-intensive markets — Mid-South and Ohio/Rhode Island — generated significantly higher profits compared with the prior year,” said Morton. “Our television stations, most of which are rated No. 1 or 2 in their markets, were in an excellent position again this year to attract political advertising dollars. Operating results benefited from nearly $24 million in fourth quarter political revenues, compared with $3.7 million last year. Our stations benefited from hotly contested races in several markets and from a surge in national party and issue spending in the final weeks and days leading up to Nov. 2,” he said.

“We experienced strengthening in our overall broadcast advertising as well,” he continued. “In the fourth quarter, local time sales grew nearly 6% and national time sales increased nominally, which was a good performance given some displacement of transactional advertising by political issue and candidate spending.  Automotive advertising, in particular, was strong,” Morton added.

“In addition,” he said, “we were pleased to see the benefits of our aggressive digital sales initiatives, which drove a 19% increase in revenues at our newspaper and broadcast media websites.”

For the first quarter of 2011, Media General said it expects total revenues in the range of level to 3% down compared with last year. Broadcast revenues are expected to be in a range from even with last year to down 3% from last year, due mostly to the absence of political, Olympics and Super Bowl advertising revenues partially offset by strengthening of the transactional business.

Read the company’s report here.