The E.W. Scripps Company has announced a $49 million loss for its third quarter, primarily attributed to the absence of significant political advertising revenue. This situation highlights the broadcaster's ongoing efforts to stabilize its financial health through various measures, including cost reductions, station divestments, and strategic refinancing.
The company's revenue for the quarter ending September 30 reached $526 million, a 19% decrease compared to the same period in 2024, which benefited from $125 million in political advertising. In contrast, this year's political revenue was only $5.1 million. The loss translates to 55 cents per share, a significant drop from the $33 million profit reported in the previous year's quarter.
Despite these challenges, CEO Adam Symson expressed optimism, emphasizing the company's consistent performance in meeting or exceeding Wall Street expectations for three consecutive quarters, alongside progress in debt reduction. “All of these financial milestones should serve as clear evidence that our short-term performance improvement and near-term growth strategies we have been executing, many of them unique among local broadcast groups, are working,” Symson stated.
Scripps has successfully reduced expenses by over 4% in its Local Media division and 7.5% in Scripps Networks during the quarter. Employee costs also decreased in both segments. The Networks division maintained stable revenue at $201 million while improving its profit margin to 27%. Revenue from Connected TV experienced a 41% increase, as Scripps leveraged its wide distribution across various streaming platforms, which helped mitigate what the company described as “softness due to economic uncertainty.”
The Local Media division reported a 1.8% increase in core advertising revenue, reaching $132 million. This growth was fueled by the services sector and national advertising expansion. Scripps credited these gains to "strong sales execution" and its sports strategy, which includes a new agreement with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
Scripps recently announced the sale of WFTX in Fort Myers and WRTV in Indianapolis for a total of $123 million. These transactions follow an announcement in July regarding station swaps with Gray Media across five markets in four states. The company views these actions as part of a broader strategy to enhance operating performance and lower debt.
In August, Scripps finalized a $750 million offering of new senior secured second-lien notes at 9.875%. The proceeds were used to repay its 2027 senior notes, reduce its 2028 term loan by $205 million, and reduce revolving credit facilities. Net leverage stood at 4.6 times at the end of the quarter, down from 4.9 times at the end of the first quarter. As of September 30, the company held $54.7 million in cash against $2.7 billion in total debt.
Scripps did not pay any 2025 quarterly preferred stock dividends, with undeclared and unpaid cumulative dividends totaling $101 million. Under the terms of Berkshire Hathaway’s preferred equity investment, Scripps is restricted from paying common dividends or repurchasing shares until all preferred shares are redeemed.
The WNBA season on ION showed positive results, with linear and connected TV revenue increasing by 92% compared to the 2024 season, even without Caitlin Clark due to injury. Scripps noted strong demand for women’s sports programming during this year’s upfront cycle, with sports volume up 30% and premium advertising rates.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Scripps anticipates strong core revenue growth, supported by the Lightning partnership, continuous expansion across live sports markets, and easier year-over-year comparisons due to the displacement of core advertising by political advertising in the previous year.