The E.W. Scripps Co. reported a fourth-quarter loss as the company took charges against its weak national networks division and restructuring costs.
Scripps’s loss was $268 million,or $3.17 a share, compared to net income of $73 million, or 84 cents a share.
The company said a $266 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge related to its national networks and $9.4 million in restructuring charges accounted for $3.15 of the per-share loss.
The company said the restructuring will save more than $40 million a year in costs.
Revenue fell 9.6% to $616 million.
The results sent Scripps stock down nearly 20% to $4.40 a share in Friday afternoon trading.
In its local media business, Scripps had a segment profit of $64.3 million, down from $80 million a year ago, when $106 million in election-year advertising swelled revenue.
Local core advertising — excluding political spending — was up 1%, helped by incremental revenue generated by adding rights to the National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes this season.
Distribution revenue rose 22% to $196 million.
Scripps Networks generated $64.3 million in profit, down from $80 million a year ago.
Revenues fell 7.1% to $230 million. The drop was smaller than expected because of unanticipated strength in connected TV, general market and direct-response advertising.
For the first quarter, Scripps expects local revenue to be up in the low teens, while network revenues are flat to down in the low-single-digit range.
“Our fourth-quarter results reflect improvement in the advertising marketplace, both at the core local level and nationally,“ CEO Adam Symson said. “In Local Media, we saw our five top categories end the quarter higher than Q4 2022, with particular strength in auto, home improvement and services.”
Symson said those positive trends in local media and Scripps Networks have continued into the first quarter. He said the company’s top four local core categories — services, auto, retail and home improvement — are all up in February.
But the weak upfront season last year left Scripps Networks with less of a revenue foundation than usual for the first quarter, he noted. Direct response advertising has held steady in Q1, though, and connected TV revenue is on track to grow more than 40% for the full year, minus the programmatic product.
“Our advertising revenue results and large distribution ecosystem, combined with our cost-savings initiatives, lay the groundwork for short-term operating performance improvement and firm financial footing as we execute on strategies for future growth,“ Symson said. “We are planning for a near-term media landscape where consumers combine a variety of connected TV services with free, over-the-air viewing that best serves their desire to watch live sports, news and television entertainment events. We also are moving aggressively ahead with datacasting business models and expect to take in first dollars this year. We are carving out a valuable and durable niche in the chaos around us.”
