The E. W. Scripps Company says it earned a record $646 million in overall revenue during its third financial quarter (Q3) of 2024, spurred in large part by an uptick in political advertising spend.
On Monday, executives at Scripps say they expect political ad revenue to reach $340 million by the end of the year. Most political ad inventory is being purchased against news and other programming aired on Scripps-owned broadcast TV stations, which rose to $125 million during Q3.
Scripps Networks revenue was down 6.4 percent compared to the prior year, with the company earning $202 million, mostly from advertising. Scripps Networks includes Scripps News, the broadcast and streaming news channel that is winding down significant parts of its business later this month after executives complained the channel was experiencing hesitancy from advertisers who felt news content was too controversial to spend against.
That, apparently, was less of an issue on Scripps-owned local TV channels, which saw nearly half of its overall advertising revenue come in from political ad spending, according to the company’s earnings reports. Core advertising revenue — which excludes political inventory — came in at $129 million during Q3, down 9.2 percent compared to the prior year.
Distribution revenue, which includes fees paid by cable and satellite companies for the right to redistribute Scripps-owned local TV channels, was $186 million, a 6 percent dip compared to Q3 2023. That revenue segment was impacted by continued losses in the pay TV industry as cable and satellite customers drop those services for cheaper, streaming-only offerings. Most local Scripps stations stream their newscasts on free, ad-supported (FAST) platforms like Tubi, which also carry streaming variants of Scripps Networks brands like Ion TV, Court TV, Grit and Laff.
“Scripps’ Local Media political advertising revenue came in nearly 30% higher than our last presidential-election year political revenue, which also was a record year,” Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson said in a statement. “This 2024 level is a testament to the durability of local broadcast programming as the perfect vehicle for massive reach to deliver candidate and political action committee messaging. Our local news has always been a go-to for political advertising. This time around, our sports programming created significant additional opportunities for campaigns to efficiently and effectively reach voters, further boosting our political advertising revenue.”
