• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2013

Two mid-size TV station groups posted higher revenues for their respective first-quarter reporting periods -- as well as trimming net losses.

Entravision, the Spanish-language media TV and radio company, witnessed overall net revenue up 6% to $49 million. TV businesses were up 5% to nearly $35 million and its radio unit grew 6% to $14 million. It narrowed a net loss from a year ago to just under $1 million -- $957,000. For the first quarter of 2012, it had a net loss of $3.4 million.

Entravision is the largest affiliate group of both the top-ranked Univision television network and Univision's UniMas network, with TV stations in 19 of the nation's top 50 Latino markets.

Entravision gains were the result of higher local advertising revenue and retrans consent revenue. In addition, it said there was an $800,000 increase from the radio business coming from national advertising business.

Seattle-based Fisher Communications, soon to be acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group, witnessed 8% higher revenues to $36.8 million. Fisher was able to trim its first quarter 2013 net loss to $769,000 from $1.9 million.

TV revenue was 12% higher to $32.6 million, due to strong advertising growth from automotive, financial services and retail categories. Revenue from retrans deals was up 82% to $6.5 million. Radio revenue was down 9% to $4.3 million due to market softness.

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