Scripps Third Quarter Revenue Boosted By TV Acquisitions, Stitcher Increase

Q3

Acquisitions boosted the revenue results for THE E.W. SCRIPPS COMPANY in third quarter 2019, with a 16% increase year-to-year to $350 million boosted by $10 million in revenue added from the acquisition of TRITON DIGITAL and $55.3 million added from the newly-acquired GRAY/RAYCOM and TRIBUNE/NEXSTAR spinoff TV stations. Net income fell from a gain of $19.1 million to a loss of $21.9 million (23 to -27 cents/diluted share).

As for the national media segment that includes podcast network and sales operation STITCHER and TRITON, revenues jumped 35.5% to $97.2 million year-to-year. and segment profit increased 85% to $5.3 million. Local media revenue rose 9.4% to $252 million, with local core advertising revenue increasing 36% to $148 million; adjusted to account for the station transactions for the year, third quarter revenue would have dropped 12% to $305 million.

Taken separately, STITCHER revenue increased 41.4% to $18.9 million.

Pres./CEO ADAM SYMSON said, "The third quarter marked the eighth consecutive reporting period in which SCRIPPS has delivered financial results across the company that met or beat expectations, further evidence we are committed to executing our plan to deliver on our operating results while fueling long-term value creation.

"The closing of the NEXSTAR-TRIBUNE station acquisitions in SEPTEMBER was an important milestone as we further reposition SCRIPPS to be a bigger, stronger and more durable company -- strengthening our Local Media portfolio to best capture the opportunities coming to us in 2020 while providing excellent return on invested capital.

"In our National Media businesses, we continue to deliver record revenue performance across our businesses, fueled by modest short-term investments that will generate significant long-term value. Our businesses are riding high on a wave of growth in some of the most important emerging media marketplaces, including digital audio and podcasting and over-the-top and over-the-air television. Our strategies to capitalize on the media consumers' changing habits are a complement to our robust local broadcast business while also creating new shareholder value.

"2020 is just on the horizon, bringing the reset of contracts covering about half of our subscriber households and the opportunity to leverage our exceedingly well-positioned political advertising footprint for next year's presidential election. Combined with the moves we have made to improve the operating profile of our company, we expect SCRIPPS to generate significantly higher free cash flow in 2020 than we otherwise would have expected."

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