Tribune Reports Third-Quarter Results

A Look At Q3

As its acquisition by, and merger into, SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP approaches (pending final approval), TRIBUNE MEDIA CO. reported its third-quarter 2017 results TODAY (11/8), with consolidated operating revenues off 4% to $450.5 million (up 3% excluding political ad revenues and real estate revenues) and total Television and Entertainment division overall revenues fell from $460.2 million to $447.3 million, and net advertising revenues (including political and digital revenues) were down 11% to $295.1 million.

Consolidated operating income fell as well, from a profit of $234.2 million to a loss of $23.7 million, mostly because of having real estate sale proceeds showing up in the 2016 numbers and $43 million in impairment charges taken for the Television and Entertainment division in 2017.  Consolidated income from continuing operations fell from a gain of $153.8 million to a loss of $18.7 million ($1.70 gain to 21 cent loss per diluted share).

The company saw retransmission consent fees increase 33% to $104.6 million and carriage fees up 7% to $30.9 million, and $185 million came in from FCC spectrum auction proceeds (with $5 million remaining to be collected in fourth quarter).  TRIBUNE also received its $158 million share from the sale of CAREERBUILDER (in which it retains about 7% ownership).  Results for the company's sole radio property, News-Talk WGN-A/CHICAGO, are not broken out in TRIBUNE's report.

"TRIBUNE MEDIA's performance in the third quarter of 2017 reflects the company's ability to continue to deliver solid results despite the impact of broader industry headwinds around core advertising and MVPD subscriber erosion," said CEO PETER KERN. "Strong growth in retransmission revenues and ongoing expense management enabled us to maintain flat Adjusted EBITDA margins year over year in the quarter. Our operating results this quarter were negatively impacted by higher program impairment charges at WGN AMERICA as we continue to reorient the programming strategy and position the business for significant EBITDA growth, and on a comparable basis the third quarter of 2016 included more than $200 million in real estate gains. Most importantly, Broadcast Cash Flow from our Television & Entertainment segment was up in the quarter despite the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in two of our markets, demonstrating the soundness of our core business as we continue to make progress toward closing our merger with SINCLAIR."

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