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E.W. Scripps is contemplating asset sales and station swaps as deregulation looms on the horizon. And it sees huge benefits, if stations are able to directly negotiate carriage deals with virtual MVPDs.
Thoughts about both those potential developments came to light during Scripps’ first quarter earnings call with analysts Friday morning, at a time when the company’s balance sheet showed improvements, although some declines.
In Scripps’ local media division, revenue was down 7.8%, to $325 million. Core advertising decreased 3.1%, to $132 million. Distribution revenue reflected subscriber losses at the MVPDs, moving from $197 million in last year’s first quarter to $187 million in the same quarter this year. Expenses rose a mere 1.1%, to $290 million. The unit’s profit took a dive — from $65.6 million in last year’s first quarter to $34.9 million in the quarter recently ended.
Scripps’ networks division showed a profit increase, from $49.7 million in last year’s comparable quarter to $64.1 million — helped by a 16.1% reduction in expenses, to $134 million. Revenue dipped 5.4%, to $198 million.
Jason Combs, the company’s CFO, put the results in this perspective: “We’re reporting first quarter results today that outperform financial expectations despite the headwinds of uncertainty in the U.S. economy about tariffs, inflation and recession.” He noted that the company completed retransmission consent negotiations representing 25% of its traditional pay TV base.
“We exceeded our expectations on Scripps Networks’ margin improvement, delivering 870 basis points of improvement for the quarter, well ahead of the 400 to 600 basis points we