The E.W. Scripps Company has announced a $49 million loss in the third quarter, a setback attributed to the absence of political advertising revenue. This has prompted the broadcaster to intensify its efforts to stabilize its financial position through various measures, including cost reductions, station sales, and strategic refinancing.

The company's revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 amounted to $526 million, a 19% decrease compared to the same period in 2024. The previous year benefited from $125 million in political advertising, while this year's political revenue reached only $5.1 million. The loss translates to 55 cents per share, contrasting with a $33 million profit in the prior-year quarter.

Despite the loss, CEO Adam Symson expressed optimism, highlighting three consecutive quarters of meeting or exceeding Wall Street expectations and 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.

The company has implemented cost-cutting measures, reducing expenses by over 4% in its Local Media division and 7.5% in Scripps Networks during the quarter. Employee costs decreased in both segments. The Networks division maintained a flat revenue of $201 million while expanding its profit margin to 27%. Connected TV revenue increased by 41% as Scripps leveraged broad distribution across streaming platforms, which helped offset what the company characterized as "softness due to economic uncertainty."

The Local Media division witnessed a 1.8% increase in core advertising revenue, reaching $132 million. This growth was fueled by the services category and national advertising expansion. Scripps credited these gains to "strong sales execution" and its sports strategy, including a recent agreement with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.

Scripps has recently announced the sale of two stations, WFTX in Fort Myers and WRTV in Indianapolis, for a combined $123 million. These transactions follow a July announcement of station swaps with Gray Media across five markets in four states. These actions are part of a wider strategy aimed at improving operating performance and reducing debt.

In August, Scripps finalized $750 million in new senior secured second-lien notes at 9.875%, using the proceeds to pay off its 2027 senior notes, reduce its 2028 term loan by $205 million, and pay down revolving credit facilities. Net leverage stood at 4.6 times at quarter's end, down from 4.9 times at the end of the first quarter. As of Sept. 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 cannot pay common dividends or repurchase shares until all preferred shares are redeemed.

The WNBA season on ION emerged as a positive highlight, with linear and connected TV revenue growing 92% over the 2024 season, despite the absence of Caitlin Clark due to injury. Scripps reported strong demand for women’s sports programming in this year’s upfront cycle, with sports volume up 30% and commanding premium advertising rates.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Scripps anticipates robust core revenue growth, driven by the Lightning partnership, ongoing growth across live sports markets, and more favorable year-over-year comparisons as political advertising no longer displaces core advertising as it did in the previous year.