The E. W. Scripps Company grew its overall revenue to $2.5 billion during calendar year 2024, representing a near 9 percent growth in income compared to the prior year, the broadcaster announced on Tuesday.
The company released its fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year earnings report about two weeks later than it initially scheduled, a move that was intended to help the broadcaster better address the need to refinance some of its existing debt.
The report was delayed to March 12, but Scripps released it Tuesday evening instead, about two hours after the company said it had reached a deal with most of its creditors to refinance around 70 percent of its overall debt. The refinancing includes $1.3 billion of prior debt, and agreements with new and existing creditors to offer a new cash loan of $450 million backed by its balance sheet and a new credit facility worth $208 million.
The refinancing gives Scripps the ability to delay the maturity dates of some loans, and offers a runway to execute on a number of long-term initiatives, the broadcaster said.
During its third financial quarter, Scripps used some of its political and core advertising revenue windfall to pay down around $115 million of its prior existing debt. Throughout the year, the total amount of debt Scripps paid down was $330 million, the company said on Tuesday, which included $15.6 million toward the principal balance of what was owed.
For the year, Scripps earned $363 million from political advertising revenue. Of that, $343 million was earned from Scripps-owned local stations, and 80 percent of its political revenue came from six markets: Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Nevada and Wisconsin.
Scripps did not offer a specific breakout in its press release of full-year core advertising revenue, but said political ad inventory “caused significant local core advertising displacement” in the six states where it earned 80 percent of its political-related income.
During the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024, core advertising revenue fell 11 percent to $147 million, while political advertising revenue clocked in at $147 million. Distribution revenue — income from fees charged to cable, satellite and some streaming cable-like services for carriage of Scripps-owned local TV channels — clocked in at $186 million, down more than 5 percent compared to Q4 2023.
Revenue attributed to Scripps Networks — which includes its Ion TV network and multicast networks like Scripps News, Court TV, Laff, Bounce and Grit — was 6.1 percent lower than Q4 2023, earning the company $216 million. But Scripps trimmed its operational expenses associated with Scripps Network by 6.3 percent to $155 million. The company laid off nearly all of its employees at Scripps News shortly after the November presidential election, which fell within Q4.
Looking ahead to 2025, Scripps said it projects a drop in local media revenue within the “high single-digit percent range,” and lower Scripps Network revenue as well. It expects local media expenditures to rise, while expenses associated with Scripps Network is expected to be lower.
During 2024, Scripps completed its affiliation deals with the Walt Disney Company’s ABC and Paramount Global’s CBS, which will allow its ABC and CBS affiliated stations to continue carrying national news, sports and entertainment programming from both networks for a few more years.
