• by Paul Gough , April 14, 2004

Add Scripps to the list of networks that thinks it'll make out well in this year's upfront.

"We're very optimistic about this year's upfront," said Kenneth W. Lowe, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps, which also owns newspapers and local TV stations that have similarly positive outlooks for 2004.

But neither can compare to the double-digit growth rates in cost per thousand that are expected at Scripps, whose channels include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, DIY: Do It Yourself, and Fine Living. In last year's upfront, HGTV tallied a "healthy double-digit increase" in CPMs. The rate was about double the cable industry average, Lowe said.

This year, cable is widely expected to benefit from the anger advertisers and agencies are feeling about the steep price increases in the past two upfronts that led the broadcast networks to their best takes ever. While it's still speculation about a shift from broadcast to cable and elsewhere, cable's case probably got a boost Monday when CBS chief Leslie Moonves told reporters that he was expecting his network to earn double-digit CPM increases in this year's upfront.

Lowe acknowledged that he had heard a lot of speculation about a shift, which could send as much as $750 million to $1.3 billion away from the broadcast networks.

"Who knows. I don't know if it's going to be a dollar," Lowe said Tuesday morning. But he believed that Scripps Networks' share will grow by the end of the upfront.

Prices on scatter inventory in the first quarter were running about 29 percent ahead of the upfront. In the quarter, Scripps Networks' advertising revenues rose 31 percent to $122 million. Lowe attributed that to the networks' strong upfront performance last year.

The first quarter, which E.W. Scripps detailed Tuesday, was the first in which quarterly segment profits for the 10-year-old Scripps Networks division surpassed its traditional business, newspapers. Scripps Networks' profit was $62.3 million in the first quarter compared to $41.6 million a year ago; the newspaper unit's profits fell 6.8 percent to $59.1 million. Both newspapers and spot TV revenues rose for Scripps in the quarter as well.

Newspaper ad revenue rose 4.1 percent to $139.1 million, with national, classified, and preprint advertising up in the mid-to-high single digits.

Local retail was flat. Lowe said an encouraging sign in the first quarter was an increased pace for help-wanted classified, which has been dragging at many newspapers across the country, particularly in the Midwest.

Spot TV ad revenues rose 7.8 percent to $75.7 million in the quarter. Political grew the strongest, with $4.2 million booked in the first quarter compared to $200,000 in the first quarter of 2003, a mostly non-election year. Local advertising rose 2.1 percent to $44.4 million. National advertising was flat at $22.6 million.