• by Wayne Friedman , May 10, 2019

Tribune Media and E.W. Scripps went in different directions when it came to their respective core TV station advertising results.

Tribune’s core advertising revenues -- excluding political and digital revenues -- inched up 1% to $247.7 million. Scripps was down 2.2% in core advertising to $117.6 million.

Scripps was affected by year-to-year changes when it came to big sporting events. This year’s quarterly results included Super Bowl advertising on two CBS-affiliated stations.

In addition, Scripps benefited from a rise in retrans revenues -- up 21% to $85.4 million. This included a one-time refund of $2.1 million. All that meant that Scripps' local media revenue grew 6% to $203 million.

Tribune also had higher retrans/carriage revenues, increasing 9% to $174 million.

Tribune’s overall revenue was up 3% to $455 million in its first quarter; Scripps, 15% higher to $292 million.

Revenue from Scripps national media platforms spiked 44% — from $60.7 million to $87.3 million. Much of this came from its acquisition of Triton, a digital audio technology and measurement company -- a deal completed in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Scripps national networks include Katz broadcast networks (based on local TV station digital signals); Stitcher, the big podcast producer; and Newsy, a national news platform.

Tribune says its $4.1 billion deal to be acquired by Nexstar Media Group is projected to close late in the third quarter this year.

Scripps posted a $6.8 million loss from continuing operators -- trimmed from a $8.6 million loss in the year-ago period. Tribune’s net income was down 20% to $113.2 million.

Stock market trading on Friday showed that E.W. Scripps was down 9% to $21.02; Tribune was up 0.3% to $46.42.