Key Financial Data
- Q2 Total revenue: $840 million (+7% year-over)
- Media revenue: $833 million (+7%)
- Distribution revenue: $444 million (+2%)
- Core advertising revenue: $308 million (-3%)
- Political advertising revenue: $59 million (+883% from Q2 2025; +9% from Q2 2022)
- Other media and non-media revenue: $29 million (+4%)
- Operating income: $50 million (+138%)
- Local Media revenue: $731 million (+8%)
- Local Media operating income: $68 million (+4.6%)
- Tennis Channel revenue: $70 million (+2.9%)
- Other segment revenue: $53 million (+15.2%)
- Debt repaid during Q2: Approximately $320 million
- Read more Q2 2026 media earnings coverage | Sinclair, Inc. coverage
Sinclair, Inc.’s local television broadcast stations helped deliver strong revenue during the second quarter (Q2) of the year as political campaigns and candidates gobbled up traditional TV advertising inventory to reach voters ahead of the midterm election.
During Q2, overall revenue increased 7 percent to $840 million, up from $784 million a year earlier. Media revenue rose to $833 million from $777 million. Sinclair reported an operating profit of $50 million, up from $21 million a year earlier, and a net loss attributable to shareholders of $76 million, or $1.06 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $64 million, or $0.91 per share.
Political advertising revenue reached $59 million, up from $6 million during the year-ago quarter. Sinclair said the result was also 9 percent higher than political revenue during the second quarter of 2022, the previous midterm election cycle and a more-comparable metric.
The company operates in 39 markets across the 10 states expected to attract the most political advertising spending this year. Its footprint includes markets with six competitive U.S. Senate races, seven competitive gubernatorial races and 33 competitive House races.
Distribution revenue — the amount of money Sinclair earns from fees charged to cable and satellite platforms for its local stations, multicast networks and Tennis Channel — increased 2 percent to $444 million, benefiting from partner-station buy-ins. Sinclair said subscriber trends among traditional pay television distributors continued to show signs of modest stabilization.
Core advertising revenue fell 3 percent to $308 million; the company attributed the decline partly to political campaigns crowding out commercial inventory in competitive markets and caution among advertisers in several cost-pressured categories.
Revenue tied to its local TV operations increased 8 percent to $731 million, largely on the back of stronger political advertising uptake that offset declines in core advertising income, Sinclair said. The company’s Fox affiliates benefited from record FIFA World Cup audiences; Sinclair also extended advertiser campaigns beyond linear television through its digital properties and the “Unfiltered Soccer” podcast.
Tennis revenue increased to $70 million from $68 million, though adjusted earnings fell to $8 million because of higher programming costs and continued investment in direct-to-consumer services.
Stock Price
The company repaid approximately $320 million of debt during the quarter, including $165 million of term loans and $150 million under an accounts receivable facility. Sinclair ended June with $604 million in cash, total debt of about $4.1 billion and approximately $1.4 billion in liquidity.
Sinclair raised its full-year political advertising forecast to at least $375 million from at least $333 million. It also increased adjusted EBITDA guidance to between $730 million and $760 million from its prior range of $700 million to $740 million.
“Sinclair delivered strong second quarter results, with meaningful year-over-year growth in revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, driven by political advertising and disciplined execution across the business. Political advertising maintained significant momentum during the quarter as we move further into the 2026 midterm election cycle,” Christopher Ripley, Sinclair’s CEO, said in a statement that accompanied the financial earnings release on Wednesday. “ecord-setting World Cup audiences across our FOX affiliate portfolio once again demonstrated the reach of broadcast television, while also driving engagement across our digital and podcast platforms. Traditional MVPD subscriber trends also continued to show signs of modest stabilization. Based on our second quarter performance and current political trends, we are increasing our full-year Adjusted EBITDA guidance.”
Sinclair’s stock price closed down nearly 1 percent on Wednesday, but increased 4 percent in after-hours trading following the release of its Q2 earnings report.
The financial report came less than 24 hours before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was scheduled to hold a key vote on eliminating a long-standing restriction on the number of broadcast TV stations a company like Sinclair may directly own at any given time.
Sinclair has long advocated for the lifting of the broadcast ownership cap and has already made efforts to engage in transactions in some parts of the country, including station and affiliation swaps, some of which required the approval of the FCC.
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