Earnings

LIN Media, which operates or services 32 network affiliates around the country, today reported a 15% increase in revenue for the first quarter, compared to the same period last year.

LIN TV stations brought in $103.2 million in net revenue during the first three months of the year, compared to $89.7 million during last year’s first quarter. Local revenue increased 16% to $67.7 million, and national revenue was up 4% to $23.1 million.

“2012 is off to a great start as a result of strong first quarter results and revenue increases in all areas of our business,” LIN president and CEO Vincent Sadusky said, announcing his company’s financial results. Read more

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Nexstar Broadcasting today reported a 19.6% rise in first quarter revenue, including a record amount of retrans revenue.

Nexstar, which owns, operates, programs, or provides services to 55 stations that reach roughly 9.3% of U.S. households, took in $83.6 million during the first three months of the year, with $14.5 million coming from carriage fees–a record for the company.

Core local and national revenue was up 7.8%.  Nexstar’s stations made $45.4 million in local revenue for the first quarter and $17.4 million in national for the period. Read more

Fisher Communications brought in $29.2 million in television revenue in the first quarter of 2012, essentially flat compared to the $29.1 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Television revenue declined due to lower national advertising revenue in the pharmaceutical, financial services and tourism categories, according to the company. The decline was balanced by increases in retail and automotive categories.

“We believe Fisher remains well positioned for strong station performance and audience share growth,” president and CEO Colleen Brown said in a statement. “These are the fundamentals that differentiate Fisher from its competitors and will continue to make the Company a leader in redefining the future of local media.” Read more

Gray Television brought in $80.7 million for the first quarter of 2012, a 16% increase over the company’s total revenue from the same period last year.

The Q1 increase was driven by increases in retrans revenue and political advertising at the 36 stations Gray operates.

“A significant portion of our retransmission consent contracts expired on December 31, 2011,” the station group explained in its financial release, “and we were able to renew substantially all of these contracts under terms more favorable to Gray, which resulted in increased revenue in the first quarter of 2012.” Read more

Sinclair Broadcast Group today reported financial results for the first quarter, announcing a 23% increase in revenue for the period.

Sinclair, which owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 74 television stations across the country, brought in $192.2 million during the first three months of the year, compared to $156.0 million for the same period last year.

Sinclair’s strong quarter was driven by an increase in local broadcast revenues, which include local time sales and retrans revenues, and a boost in political advertising. Read more

As CBS stations saw a slight increase in revenue for 2012′s first quarter, the company drew huge profits during the period thanks in part to an increase in revenue from carriage agreements.

CBS today reported an 80% increase in profit for the first quarter, which analysts attribute to the $60 million in retrans fees the company received from cable systems, nearly double the amount it received during the same period last year.  Not only did CBS receive a ton of carriage money from cable systems,  it also received a significantly bigger cut of the retrans fees its affiliates earn from cable providers.

Meanwhile, revenue at the CBS station group rose 2% during the first quarter. Read more

Journal Communications’ 14 TV stations brought in $29.5 million during the first quarter, a 7.5% increase compared to the $27.5 million in revenue from the same period last year.

Journal’s TV stations saw increases in both local and national advertising during the first quarter this year.  Thanks to an increase in automotive advertising, core local advertising was up 2.6%.  And core national advertising increased 18.1% due to an influx of communications and financial advertising.

Political advertising was also up for the quarter:  $1.2 million compared to $0.8 million last year.

Belo today reported a 3% increase in total revenue for the first quarter of 2012, compared to the same period last year.

The Dallas-based company, which owns 20 stations across the country, generated $156 million during the first the months of this year.

Belo’s political revenue in the first quarter was up significantly.  The company’s Q1 political revenue totaled $1.6 million, a $1.2 million increase compared to 2011.

Excluding political revenue, total spot revenue was up 1%, with a 4% increase in local and a 5% decrease in national.  Belo attributes the growth in spot revenue to an increase in automotive and retail advertising. Read more

Meredith today reported its fiscal 2012 third quarter earnings, announcing a 10% increase in total revenue during the period for its local media group, which consists of 12 stations around the country, including WGCL in Atlanta and KPHO in Phoenix.

Meredith’s local media group brought in $78 million during the period, with a 5% rise in non-political advertising revenue and a 70% increase in digital advertising.

“Our Local Media group is doing an excellent job of increasing ratings and translating them into advertising revenues, consistently ranking us among the leading station groups in advertising revenue gains,” Meredith local media group president Paul Karpowicz said in a statement. Read more

Media General’s 18 TV stations helped offset the financial struggles of its 23 newspapers in the first quarter of this year, the company announced today in its quarterly earnings report.

Media General reported $3.2 million of operating income for the first quarter of 2012 compared with an operating loss of $4.2 million for the same period last year.  The company’s total revenue for the quarter was $150 million, up 0.4 percent from last year.

“The operating improvement is primarily the result of increased profits at our broadcast television stations, as they generated 12 percent revenue growth from increased political revenues and higher retransmission fees,” Media General president and CEO Marshall Morton said.