Decrease in Political Advertising Leads to 11% Drop in Revenue at Scripps

Scripps, which owns 10 stations across the country including WFTS in Tampa and WXYZ in Detroit, today announced an 11% decrease in TV revenue for the third quarter, compared to the same period last year.

The company is attributing the double-digit drop to a significant decrease in political advertising. Last year, Scripps stations hauled in $14.8 million in political advertising during the third quarter. This year, the total was $2.1 million.

Excluding political advertising, revenue increased 6.5% on the strength of local advertising (up 11%), digital (up 11%) and retrans (up 32%) revenue.

In total, Scripps’ stations brought in $69.9 million in the third quarter.

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