Quarterly Earnings: Nextstar Revenue Up, Station Switch Hurts Income

Nexstar Says Without Switch, Income Would Be Up 16.4%

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/7/2008 2:32:00 AM MT

Nexstar says net revenue was up 2.6% for the first quarter to $63.7 million, but the company lost $100,000 vs. an operating income of $6.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Nexstar said it had to take a $7.2 million contract termination charge related to its switch of 24 TV stations from rep firms Petry and Blair to Katz.

Without that charge, Nexstar said its operating income was $7.1 million, which would be up 16.4% from the previous quarter.

The company said strong political advertising, new media and retransmission consent dollars offset declines in national advertising, network comp and barter revenues.

"We expect to garner strong shares of political advertising, further grow our high margin retransmission revenue stream and realize a full year benefit of last year’s re-launch of our TV station websites into community portals," said Nexstar Chairman Perry Sook of the numbers.

Outstanding debt is $670.4 million, up from $665 million at the end of the previous quarter.