• by Wayne Friedman , November 8, 2010

Gray Television Group said its third-quarter results went 28% higher to $85.3 million -- mostly because of better political, local, national and Internet advertising revenue. It also gained in retrans revenue, production and other revenue and consulting revenue.

The biggest gain was with political advertising -- up 422% or $13 million to $16 million. Its biggest revenue category -- overall local advertising revenue -- added on 8% or $3.1 million to $44.3 million. National advertising revenue improved 12%, or $1.5 million, to $14.3 million. Internet advertising revenue increased 14%, or $400,000, to $3.3 million.

In other revenue areas, retrans revenue rose 8%, or $300,000, to $4.7 million; production and other revenue gained 17%, or $300,000, to $2 million; and some consulting revenue from the agreement with Young Broadcasting gave Gray 76% more to $600,000.

Gray witnessed improved advertising categories -- automotive, climbing 26%; medical services, improving 18%; communications, increasing 11%; and financial and insurance services, bettering by 11%.

Ad categories that declined included paid programming (infomercials and the like), decreasing 10%; restaurants, 10% lower; and home improvement, 4% less. Gray's swung to a net income of $3.72 million from a loss of $9.98 million in the third quarter 2009.

Barrington Broadcasting Group gained 20.1% gross revenue to $33.8 million in the third quarter. A major increase came from a $3.2 million rise in political revenues. National spot TV revenues climbed 10.7% to $6.7 million, with local spot revenues inching up 3.2% to $17.7 million.

K. James Yager, CEO of Barrington, stated that the company's focus includes "re-engineering of our station-level operations, development of direct local sales strategies and the growth of the stations' local digital platforms."

Barrington also moved in the black: Net income was at $2.04 million versus a $3.28 million loss in the third quarter of 2009.

Smaller TV and radio station company Saga Communications increased revenues by 5% to $32.8 million. Net income gained 44% to $3.6 million compared to $2.5 million.