• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 12, 2011

Allbritton Communications, which owns six ABC stations, including the Washington, D.C. affiliate, reported an 8% drop in revenue (to $49 million) in the April-June quarter as auto ad dollars declined with the crises in Japan.

Local and national advertising, excluding political dollars, fell 3% to $41 million as the auto category dropped 5%.

Allbritton, which operates a 24/7 cable news channel in Washington, D.C. and the related TBD.com Web site, noted in a filing that costs have increased this year with the pair. Allbritton had changed the NewsChannel 8 brand to TBD TV last year, but switched back earlier this year. Also, the TBD.com site subsumed the online presence for ABC station WJLA, but the WJLA.com site also returned.

In the most recent quarter, Allbritton's profit rose from $4 million to $5.2 million.

Allbritton had opposed the Comcast/NBC Universal merger because it said in FCC filings that it feared Comcast, the dominant cable operator in Washington, might look to bundle carriage negotiations for its ABC station in the market and the cable news outlet.

That could "devalue the news channel, rendering it financially non-viable," Allbritton wrote the FCC.

Last fall, before the merger closed, NBCU launched a 24/7 news channel in Washington -- similar to ones in New York and Philadelphia -- which competes with NewsChannel 8. The NBCU outlet has digital multicast carriage as well as pay-TV distribution.