Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that its broadcast revenues were up 23.5% in the fourth quarter of last year.

“2010 ended on an even stronger note than originally anticipated with record levels of political advertising helping to drive net broadcast revenues,” said David Smith, Sinclair’s president and CEO. “For the year, excluding political, revenues from our core television business finished up 12.0% led by the automotive recovery. We expect to see continued improvement in our core advertising, driving our top-line in 2011.”

Sinclair, which manages 58 stations in 35 markets, saw a respectable increase in local broadcast revenues. While total broadcast revenues were up 23.5%, local revenues, which include local time sales and retransmission revenues, increased by 18.9%.

As Smith mentioned, political advertising was responsible for much of the growth but Sinclair also saw promising increases in other advertising categories. Excluding political, Sinclair’s local revenues were up 12.1% for the quarter.  Showing strong signs of recovery, automotive advertising was up 25% in the fourth quarter and 36.9% for the entire year.