E.W. Scripps said that it is getting closer to selling off its Bounce TV multicast network.
“We are progressing nicely with our efforts to sell the Bounce TV network and some non-strategic real estate assets,” Scripps CEO Adam Symson said in the company’s second-quarter earnings release.
The sale of Bounce and other assets would help Scripps reduce its heavy debt load.
Bounce is part of Scripps’ national networks division. During the second quarter, segment profit for Scripps Networks fell to $37.7 million from $60.3 million a year ago.
Revenue was down 9.7% from the previous year.
Scripps acquired Bounce when it bought Katz Networks in 2017
Scripps has been pushing into the sports world, with women’s basketball and soccer on its Ion network and adding NHL hockey games on its stations in Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Symson said sports was helping Scripps sell advertising.
“While the results of last year’s national advertising upfront are still impacting our quarterly results in the Scripps Networks division, we are seeing a better performance in this season’s upfront sales cycle,” he said.
“With commitments from the majority of our advertising agency clients, we have volume increases of low single digits over last year. Sports has been the differentiator. Our WNBA Friday-night franchise on Ion has so far showcased three games where viewership surpassed 1 million, proving to advertisers that ION can deliver them to significantly large sports audiences,” Symson said.
Overall, Scripps reported a second-quarter net loss of $13 million, or 15 cents a share, compared to a $682.4 million loss, or $8.10 a share, a year ago when the company took a big writeoff on Scripps Networks.
Revenue fell 2% to $574 million.
Scripps’s local media division had segment profit of $88.1 million, up from $81 million a year ago.
Revenue rose 3.6% to $365 million.
Distribution revenue dipped to $194 million from $195 million a year ago.
Core advertising revenues — excluding political spending — was down 6.9% to $139 million. Political revenue was $28.2 million, compared to $3.8 million a year ago, a non-presidential election year.
The company said it expects to see a record level of political ad spending in 2024, even if spending hits the low end of its forecast, which is now between $270 million and $290 million. Previously, Scripps said it expected to garner political ad revenue of $240 million to $270 million.
“Election spending remains robust for the U.S. Senate races in Montana and Ohio, and at least four states where we have stations have placed reproductive rights issues on their November ballots,” Symson said. “We are beginning to see additional upside from Vice President Kamala Harris’s entry into the presidential race. Overall, this year’s political ad revenue performance for broadcast television is a testament to our durability as a brand-safe platform for political candidates and campaigns
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