Nexstar Revenue Up 2.3% in Third

Strong station advertising paces pure-play broadcaster

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/8/2011 10:03:53 AM

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Nexstar posted $74.8 million in third quarter revenue, up 2.3% from the same quarter a year ago. Nexstar is the rare group to show positive revenue in the quarter, compared to last year's political advertising-rich third quarter. Local revenues were up 3.9% in the quarter, while national revenues climbed 9%, for a combined 5.3% core advertising gain.

Nexstar's political revenue was $1.7 million, down 74.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

"Nexstar's third quarter results highlight the benefits of our revenue diversification initiatives, select accretive station acquisitions and our success in generating new local direct advertising," said Perry Sook, chairman and CEO of Nexstar. "Nexstar's record third quarter revenue reflects our eighth consecutive quarter of core television advertising revenue growth complemented by significant double-digit revenue gains in every one of our non-television advertising revenue sources. The 5.3% rise in core ad revenue growth, 17.5% increases in e-Media revenue, 30.5% in retransmission fee revenue and 21% improvement in management agreement revenue more than offset the impact of a 74.3% year-over-year reduction in political revenue."

Sook said Nexstar is well positioned for the fourth quarter.

"Nexstar's positive core television advertising trends are continuing in the fourth quarter and we again expect positive year-over-year core revenue comparisons in the current quarter," he said. "Beyond Nexstar's continued revenue momentum, we are successfully integrating the accretive acquisition of CBS affiliates, WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV and Internet technology provider GoLocal.Biz into our operations. In addition, the Mission owned, former WFXW-TV became Terre Haute, Indiana's ABC affiliate, WAWV-TV, on Sept. 1 and we will improve our economics in Evansville as we complete the accretive acquisition of the market's ABC affiliate later this quarter."