• by Wayne Friedman , February 11, 2020

New station acquisitions and rising subscription fees helped TV station group Tegna see mid-single digit-percentage revenue gains during its recent fourth-quarter reporting period. But net income declined.

Revenue grew 8% to $694 million in the period. Taking out comparisons with the high-performing Congressional election political advertising of mid-year 2018, revenues climbed 33%.

Net income from continuing operations was $84 million, down 48% due to lower political revenue.

In early Tuesday morning trading, Tegna stock was down 2.5% to $16.90.

Subscription revenue for its TV stations from pay TV providers rose sharply by 31% to $287 million due to new station acquisitions and “repricing” of 50% of its subscriber rates from new contract deals with Altice, Comcast, Cox, and Spectrum.

Quarterly advertising was up 35% to $375.3 million -- mostly attributable to TV station acquisitions.

Ad sales were up 11% for the year overall to $1.23 billion. Political advertising was down 83% to $24 million from $139.9 million in the year-ago period. For the year, political advertising was down 84% to $38.5 million.

New station deals for Tegna were completed in the third quarter of 2019. For the year as a whole, total company revenues grew 4% to $2.3 billion.

Tegna expects full-year 2020 to see mid-20%-plus growth in subscription revenue, and around $300 million in political advertising revenue for the even-year Presidential election race. This compares favorably with the last even-year midterm Congressional elections, when Tegna pulled in $234 million.

Tegna did not break out financial results of its Premion unit -- the business selling OTT inventory in more than 125 OTT/CTV apps/platforms. But it noted that the company has continued to make investments in the advertising sales division.

Tegna has 62 TV stations in 51 markets, reaching about 39% of all television households nationwide.