Hot political races in some of its markets drove the boost to $101 million, aided by higher local and national ad revenue as well as an 18% rise in retransmission consent dollars and a 39% rise in digital revenue.
QUARTERLY REPORT
Scripps 4Q TV Revenue Soars 37%
The E.W. Scripps Co. reported operating results for the fourth quarter of 2010 that included significantly higher operating income, led by the strong performance of its television division.
Benefiting from political ad dollars and the favorable footprint of the company’s stations in the 2010 election cycle, revenue from the Scripps television stations was $101 million, an increase of 37% over the fourth quarter of 2009. The 2010 figure was 8.1 percent higher than the $93.4 million in revenue reported in the fourth quarter of the presidential election year of 2008.
Advertising revenue broken down by category was:
- Local, up 1.2% to $43.3 million.
- National, up 5.1% to $23.4 million.
- Political was $28.1 million, compared with $2.9 million in the 2009 quarter.
The significant increase in political advertising reduced the inventory that was available for local and national advertisers through Nov. 2. Despite that displacement, the total revenue from non-political advertisers grew on the strength of the automotive category, which was up 31% compared with the fourth quarter of 2009. After a historically weak year for automotive advertising in 2009, the category’s rebound began in December of that year.
Revenue from retransmission consent agreements was $3 million, a year-over-year increase of 18%, and digital revenue increased 39% to $2.3 million.
Expenses for the TV station group increased year over year by 7.5% to $63.7 million in the fourth quarter. Contributing to the expense increase were programming costs associated with the new ABC affiliation agreement and an increase in employee costs, which rose 7.4% due to the restoration of performance bonuses.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
The television division’s segment profit, which was $14.7 million in the year-ago quarter, more than doubled in the 2010 quarter to $37.3 million, the division’s highest segment profit figure since the fourth quarter of 2006.
For the company as a whole, consolidated revenues from continuing operations were $220 million, an increase of 12.1% from $196 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. Operating income more than doubled in the period to $28.9 million.
Read the company’s report here.
Comments (0)