Triton Acquisition Drives Revenue Increase For Scripps In Second Quarter 2019

Increase

THE E.W. SCRIPPS COMPANY's second quarter 2019 revenues rose 19% year-to-year to $337 million, compared to $283 million in second-quarter 2018. The increase includes $9.9 million in revenue from TRITON (acquired NOVEMBER 30, 2018) and the TV stations acquired on JANUARY 1st from RAYCOM and MAY 1st from CORDILLERA COMMUNICATIONS. Income went from a gain of $8.7 million to a loss of $400,000 (10 cents to a loss of 1 cent/share), the latter figure including acquisition and restructuring charges totalling $2.8 million net of taxes (3 cents/share) and the former including $2.3 million of restructuring costs (2 cents/share).

The National Media division, including the company's STITCHER podcasting operations, saw revenue jump 44% to $98.5 million, driven by the TRITON addition. Segment profit rose from $2 million to $6.6 million.

Revenue from the Local Media division (television stations) increased 11% to $237 million, with retransmission revenue up 24% to $91.5 million and core advertising up 15% to $140 million. Segment profit rose slightly from $53.4 million to $54.3 million. On an adjusted basis (without the acquisitions), combined revenue from the Local Media division fell 4.3% to $249 million, attributed to a $19 million drop in political advertising; core advertising was off slightly but up 1% factoring out revenue from the CLEVELAND CAVALIERS' 2018 NBA Finals appearance.

Pres./CEO ADAM SYMSON said, "We were very pleased to deliver stronger-than-expected financial results in the second quarter, including higher company segment profit and better earnings per share. Improving our short-term operating results has been one of our highest priorities over the last two years, and we have steadily executed on our plan.

"Also instrumental to our short-term performance improvement plan is our aggressive pursuit of a clearly articulated M&A strategy that will help us build a more powerful and durable portfolio of television stations. With the transactions we have announced or completed in the last seven months, we will emerge as the fourth-largest independent local broadcaster, enhancing our financial durability and vastly improving cash flow generation.

"We soon will have 26 television stations in the top 50 markets as well as tremendous geographic diversity, giving us a strong and varied economic base. We added more highly-ranked stations as well as second stations in more of our markets. We positioned ourselves to take further advantage of our expertise in political advertising by forming one of the strongest TV station footprints. We also repositioned ourselves just ahead of renegotiating retransmission household rates for about 50 percent of our cable and satellite households over the next year. With the close of the NEXSTAR divested stations, we will have accomplished what we set out to do.

"We were extremely pleased with the terms of our financing vehicles for these acquisitions. Both saw strong demand that drove an attractive interest rate for us and allowed us to upsize the facilities. Our highest priority is now on paying down debt – which we expect to be greatly aided by 2020 cash flow -- to quickly return to our more typical historical levels of company leverage.

"In our National Media businesses, we have been pleased with the sustained robust revenue growth. KATZ, STITCHER and NEWSY in particular delivered second-quarter growth that helped drive the segment's profitability well beyond our expectations.

"Looking to the back half of the year, our focus remains on producing strong financial results and aggressively executing our strategies to build long-term value across our many consumer media platforms while also improving our near-term operating performance."

« see more Net News