Nexstar: Rev Down in 4Q, Retrans, Media Fees Up

Mid-level broadcast station owner Nexstar Broadcasting Group is following similar recent financial trends in the industry: lower political ad dollars, but higher money from new media sales and retransmission revenue.

Overall for its recent fourth quarter, Nexstar had $71.6 million in revenue, compared with $77.2 million in the fourth-quarter of 2006.

For the entire 2007 year, revenues climbed a bit to 266.8 million, a $1.6 million increase over $265.2 million--in part due to a station acquisition. All this helped defray lower political ad revenues, which dropped to $4.3 million for the year versus $27.0 the year before.

Still, the fourth quarter was hit with a 49% drop in income from its operations, falling to $12.7 million from $18.9 million the year before. Net revenue on a same-station basis reflected poorer returns--$68.1 million compared to $77.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 --a decrease of 11.8%.

Good news came from its improving cash-flow situation. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization results (EBITDA) was $85.1 million for 2007 compared to $88.5 million for 2006, while free cash flow rose to $28.0 million in 2007--a $0.4 million increase over 2006.

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Retransmission revenues grew over 25% in 2007 to $17.2 million, and the company generated over $5.1 million in new media revenue in 2007. Perry A. Sook, Nexstar chairman, president and CEO, said: "Nexstar is leveraging its core business into new sources of revenue growth and is successfully overcoming the odd year/even year revenue disparity caused by political advertising."

Nexstar owns 50 television stations in 29 markets in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and New York.

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