Barrington Q3 Revenue Down $7.7 Million

Steep drops in political, local and national ad revenue

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/9/2009 11:02:54 PM

Barrington Broadcasting revenues were down $7.7 million (21.6%) to $28.2 million for the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Much of the decrease resulted from the $3.5 million fall-off in political revenue from third-quarter 2008, but local revenue was off $3.3 million, to $17.1 million, and national ad revenue was down dramatically from $2.8 million, to $600,000.

Barrington said its operating expenses had been reduced by 10.5% ($2.2 million) thanks to restructuring contracts, layoffs and reduced expenses due to a joint sales and shared services agreement with Granite for WHOI-TV.

Net revenue for the first nine months of the year was down 18%, to $15.6 million.

Barrington will discuss those and other results on an earnings conference call Nov. 10.