Nexstar advert gross sales have been up 22% from July 1-Sept. 30 forward of the presidential election, the TV station large reported in its third-quarter 2024 earnings Thursday.
The corporate additionally stated that its broadcaster the CW as soon as once more narrowed its losses in Q3, this time down by $36 million, although the whole remaining loss was not disclosed.
Distribution income for Q3 was $719 million, up 20% yr over yr. Advert gross sales have been $622 million for the quarter with “different” revenues at $25 million.
Adjusted free money circulate for Q3 was $327 million.
Wall Avenue forecast earnings per share (EPS) of $5.41 on $1.37 billion in income, in keeping with analyst consensus information supplied by LSEG. Nexstar reported diluted EPS of $5.27, or web revenue of $180 million, on $1.37 billion in income.
“Nexstar generated file monetary outcomes for the third quarter, reflecting the continued energy of our broadcast tv enterprise mannequin,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook stated in a letter to shareholders. “We delivered the best third quarter web income within the Firm’s historical past, comprised of file third quarter distribution and promoting income, together with all time excessive third quarter political promoting income of $154 million, up 16% over the comparable 2020 interval.
“Throughout the quarter, we made additional progress on our technique for The CW, decreasing working losses by $36 million year-over-year and by $119 million year-to-date. We debuted NASCAR Xfinity Sequence racing in September and WWE NXT wrestling in October on The CW broadcast community to double-digit share will increase each in complete viewers and in adults 18-49 versus earlier viewership on cable. Total, our robust year-to-date working efficiency yielded $792 million of Adjusted Free Money Circulate and we returned $590 million, or 74%, to shareholders within the type of dividends and share repurchases and decreased debt by $146 million.”
