• by Wayne Friedman , February 28, 2024

Fourth-quarter core advertising sank 6% to $449 million for Nexstar Media Group, the largest U.S. owner of TV stations.

The company cited continued softness in the advertising market as the reason for the decline.

Digital advertising declined 5.4% to $106 million due to weakness in the national digital advertising market, but Nexstar said local digital ad revenue posted increases.

Political advertising dropped to $30 million from $266 million due to the regular cyclical downturn versus the fourth quarter of 2022, when the midterm elections drove stronger results.

On the positive side, the company posted record distribution revenues -- up 14.3% to $704 million.

Company-wide revenue was down 12.3% to $1.3 billion with cash flow (adjusted earnings before interest depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA) down 31% to $411 million.

At the end of 2023, the CW Network trimmed its losses to $50 million from $64 million in the third quarter.

The network had $52 million of cash on its balance sheet. In September 2022, Nexstar completed its deal for 75% interest in The CW Network.

Nexstar stock was up 1.6% in early Wednesday trading to $165.05.

Nexstar operates 200 stations across 116 markets, reaching over 68% of U.S. TV households.