Sinclair Reports 22.5% Increase In Revenue

Sinclair Broadcast Group today reported financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2018.

• Net income fell to $206.2 million, or $2.10 a share, from $443.5 million, or $4.32 a share.
• Revenues were up 25.4% to $893 million
• Media revenues increased 22.5% to $848.9 million. Distribution revenues rose to $334.1 million from $299.9 million. Political revenues were $149.6 million compared to $15.5 million a year ago
• Revenue from digital businesses increase 22.5%It expects media revenues to be between $667 million and $673 million in the first quarter of 2019.

Chris Ripley

CEO Comment:

“We ended 2018 on a very positive note, beating guidance on all financial metrics, with core advertising revenues improving from the first half of the year despite the crowding out effect from having our best mid-term political ad spending election year on record,” commented Chris Ripley, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Building on a base of $255 million in political ad spending for 2018 and a number of candidates already declaring their candidacy for the Presidency, we expect 2020’s political advertising to be yet another record year for us, with some of the ad spending expected as early as the fourth quarter of this year. In addition, we and the industry are making significant strides on the implementation of ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen Broadcast) with recent announcements of a global mobile chip design, collaboration on over-the-top and over-the-air technologies, and broad industry support to begin 3.0 deployments this year.

"We exited the year with a strong balance sheet and liquidity position while executing on share repurchases totaling 11% of our total shares since August 2018 and continue to create shareholder value through content acquisitions such as the Chicago Cubs RSN joint venture.”