CINCINNATI, May 8, 2025 -- The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) delivered $524 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2025. Loss attributable to the shareholders of Scripps was $18.8 million or 22 cents per share. Year to date, the company has successfully completed negotiations covering 25% of its pay TV households, significantly grown its Scripps Networks margins and closed its previously announced refinancing transactions.
Business notes:
- On April 10, the company successfully completed the refinancing of its 2026 term loan, 2028 term loan and revolving credit facility and entered into a new accounts receivable (AR) securitization facility, and is committed to proactive management of its remaining debt maturities.
- In the Scripps Networks division, margins reached 32%, attributable to growth in connected TV revenue, a steady general market and strong sales execution as well as cost savings announced in Q4 2024. First-quarter expenses decreased 16% over Q1 2024.
- In the second quarter, the Scripps Networks division will benefit from the return of the WNBA and the National Women's Soccer League to the ION network. A large percentage of the advertising dollars for the 2025 season were laid in during last year's upfront, and the remaining inventory is commanding premium advertising rates.
- In the Local Media division, the company completed legacy distribution revenue contracts that expired at the end of the first quarter covering about 25% of its pay TV households. Due to those renewals, both Q2 and full-year distribution revenue are expected to be about flat despite subscriber count declines.
- Real estate sales of Scripps' West Palm Beach station building and five transmission towers have generated a total of $63 million from late last year through early spring.
- Net leverage at the end of Q1 was 4.9x due to a positive financial performance, and the company expects to continue to reduce its leverage ratio this year.
From Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson:
"We began the year strong, outperforming financial expectations despite an uncertain macroeconomic environment. In the Scripps Networks division, effective sales execution combined with disciplined expense management produced our highest margins since Q4 2022. With the return of the women's sports seasons, we are optimistic about the division's growth outlook in the second and third quarters.
"To help our sales team meet the demand for live women's sports, we recently completed two new distribution agreements, including with Sports Illustrated for the SI Women's Games – a six-day competition of elite women athletes across six sports, taking place live nationally Oct. 28-Nov. 2 on ION. Scripps will share in profits from the event. ION also will become the exclusive television home for the Elevance Health Women's Fort Myers Tip-Off, a premier early-season women's college basketball tournament in November. These events will bring live women's sports to ION in the fourth quarter, when the WNBA and NWSL seasons have concluded, helping us fulfill advertiser demand for women's sports and more deeply connecting ION with women's sports fans and advertisers across the U.S.
"On the local broadcast station front, we expect industry deregulation to be a tailwind for Scripps and the sector when the Federal Communications Commission revisits the outdated ownership rules that govern us today. Greater broadcaster national scale and in-market depth will power new economic growth and support our ability to serve audiences and local communities.
"Over the past year, we have made significant progress on debt paydown and reducing leverage. Debt paydown remains our highest capital allocation priority. As we move through the first half of this year, we are navigating the headwinds of business uncertainty while maximizing revenue growth in connected TV and sports, delivering on Scripps Networks' margin expansion and positioning the company to benefit from the new regulatory environment."
Operating results
First-quarter company revenue was $524 million, a decrease of 6.6% or $37.1 million from the prior-year quarter. Costs and expenses for segments, shared services and corporate were $454 million, down from $474 million in the year-ago quarter.
Loss attributable to the shareholders of Scripps was $18.8 million or 22 cents per share. The current-year quarter included a $4.1 million restructuring charge that increased the loss attributable to shareholders by 4 cents per share. In the prior-year quarter, the loss attributable to shareholders was $12.8 million or 15 cents per share. The prior-year quarter included an $18.1 million investment gain and $5 million in restructuring costs. When taken together, these items decreased the loss attributable to shareholders by 12 cents per share.
First-quarter 2025 results by segment compared to prior-period amounts:
Local Media
Revenue was $325 million, down 7.8% from the prior-year quarter.
- Core advertising revenue decreased 3.1% to $132 million.
- Political revenue was $3.3 million, compared to $15.2 million in the prior-year quarter, an election year.
- Distribution revenue was $187 million, compared to $197 million in the prior-year quarter, as a result of declining legacy pay TV subscribers.
Segment expenses increased 1.1% to $290 million.
Segment profit was $34.9 million, compared to $65.6 million in the year-ago quarter.
Scripps Networks
Revenue was $198 million, down 5.4% from the prior-year quarter. Segment expenses were $134 million, down 16.1% from the prior-year quarter.
Segment profit was $64.1 million, compared to $49.7 million in the year-ago quarter.
Financial condition
On March 31, cash and cash equivalents totaled $24 million, and total debt was $2.6 billion.
During the first quarter of 2025, we had $25 million outstanding under the revolving credit facility. We made mandatory principal payments of $3.9 million on our term loans.
On April 10, we completed a series of previously announced refinancing transactions. Following the completion of the transactions, no amounts remain outstanding for our prior term loan that was due in 2026, our prior term loan that was due in 2028, or our prior revolving credit facility. We now have a new term loan due 2028 with $545 million aggregate principal outstanding and a new term loan due 2029 with $340 million aggregate principal outstanding. We also replaced the prior revolving credit facility with a new $208 million revolving credit facility, maturing on July 7, 2027, and a $70 million non-extended revolving credit facility, maturing on Jan. 7, 2026. Additionally, we entered into a new three-year accounts receivable securitization facility with aggregate commitments of up to $450 million.
We did not declare or provide payment for the first-quarter 2025 preferred stock dividend. Deferral of preferred stock dividend payments provides us better flexibility for accelerating deleveraging and maximizing the paydown of our traditional bank debt. The 9% dividend rate on the preferred shares compounds quarterly. At March 31, aggregated undeclared and unpaid cumulative dividends totaled $70.6 million. Under the terms of Berkshire Hathaway's preferred equity investment in Scripps, we are prohibited from paying dividends on or repurchasing our common shares until all preferred shares are redeemed.
Looking ahead
Comparisons for our segments are to the same period in 2024.
Second-quarter 2025 | ||
Local Media revenue | Down high single-digit percent range | |
Local Media expense | Up low single-digit percent range | |
Scripps Networks revenue | About flat | |
Scripps Networks expense | Down low double-digit percent range | |
Shared services and corporate | About $22 million |
Conference call
A call with the company's senior management team will take place at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow, Friday, May 9. The company's protocol for joining its earnings calls is as follows:
- To access a live webcast of the call, participants will need to register by visiting http://ir.scripps.com/. The registration link can be found on that page under "upcoming events."
- To dial in by phone, participants will first need to visit a website to receive the phone number. To receive a listen-only dial-in and PIN code, visit https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/aeukwtug/.
- Analysts who will be asking questions should visit this webpage to receive a different dial-in and PIN, which will identify them by name on the call: https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BIccb5710608ad4a019fe29699909354bd
A replay of the conference call will be archived and available online for an extended period of time. To access the audio replay, visit http://ir.scripps.com/ approximately four hours after the call, and the link can be found on that page under "audio/video links."
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