Gray Television earned $826 million in overall revenue during the second quarter (Q2) of the year, around 2 percent higher than the comparable quarter in 2023 but lower than what the company had previously forecasted.
In its earnings release on Thursday, executives at Gray Television said they were “overall pleased with our results,” but said economic factors “largely beyond our control appear likely to result in somewhat lower revenues for the year than we previously anticipated.”
That includes a continued softening of the traditional advertising market, which has seen buyers move their cash away from broadcast television toward connected TV platforms like streaming services and free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels over the past few years.
Core advertising revenue at Gray clocked in at $373 million during Q2, which was “slightly below the low end of our guidance range,” the company said. Heading into the next fiscal quarter, Gray said its core advertising revenue — which does not include political ad buying — will be “flat to up low single-digit percentages,” spurred by a slightly higher uptake in ad buying due to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games airing on some of the broadcaster’s NBC affiliates.
Gray said it now projects core advertising revenue to be around $1.525 billion for 2024, or slightly less than the $1.6 billion it had earlier projected.
Shares of Gray Television’s common stock were trading around 1 percent lower from its prior-day market close price by Thursday afternoon.
Gray’s political advertising business is doing better, with the company reporting $47 million from political ad buying during Q2, or 62 percent higher than Q2 2020. The company appeared to use Q2 2020 as a benchmark, because 2020 and 2024 are both presidential election years.
“We continue to anticipate strong political advertising revenues for the remainder of the year, including such revenues in a range of $180 million to $200 million in the third quarter, which would be essentially comparable to such revenues from our current television station portfolio in the third quarter of 2020,” executives at Gray said on Thursday.
Distribution income — which largely consists of fees charged to cable, satellite and some streaming cable-like services for the privilege of redistributing Gray’s portfolio of local broadcast stations to subscribers — clocked in at $371 million during Q2, which was generally on the nose with what the company had forecasted. Gray says it expects cable TV carriage fees to earn the company around $1.475 billion by the end of 2024.
From its $826 million in overall Q2 revenue, Gray said its net income was $22 million — or 450 percent higher from the $4 million Gray earned during Q2 2023.
In tandem with the company’s earnings release, Gray said its Board of Directors had approved a quarterly cash dividend of 8 cents per share of Class A common stock, which will be payable on September 30.
