However, its nonpolitical ad revenue grew 13% and retrans money also increased from a year ago.
QUARTERLY REPORT
Political Scarcity Drops Meredith TV Rev 7%
Meredith Corp. on Wednesday afternoon reported that its station (Local Media) group’s fiscal second quarter revenues were $170 million, a decrease of 7.2% from $183 million in the same quarter a year ago.
At the same time it released its quarterly results, it also announced that it has completed its acquisition of Time Inc., and that Feb. 1 will be the first day of operations for the combined company. Time Inc. shareholders received $18.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.8 billion originally announced on Nov. 26, 2017.
Back to Meredith’s Local Media Group, non-political advertising revenues grew 13% to $104 million, driven by strong performance in the Phoenix, Atlanta and Las Vegas markets.
As expected in a non-political year, political advertising revenues totaled only $2 million, down from $40 million a year ago.
Other revenues increased 25%, primarily due to growth in retransmission revenues. Operating profit was $51 million, a record for a non-political second quarter.
The station group, which operates 17 stations covering 11% of TV homes, saw operating profit of $50.5 million, down 34% from a year ago, and EBITDA of $58.4 million, down from $85.6 million in the prior-year period.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Meredith said the company’s digital advertising revenues were a record for any fiscal quarter. Traffic across Meredith’s digital properties averaged 89 million monthly unique visitors. Digital advertising revenues accounted for 44% of its National Media Group’s advertising revenues of $247 million.
The company as a whole reported quarterly total revenue of $418 million, down 5.7% from $443 million in the same quarter a year ago.
“We were quite pleased to report record earnings per share for a non-political second quarter and first half, driven by strong growth in non-political advertising revenue in our Local Media Group, along with record digital performance and solid expense discipline in our National Media Group,” said said Meredith Chairman-CEO Stephen Lacy.
Read the company’s report here.
Comments (0)