All broadcasters fell the impact of the election cycle, but perhaps no one else feels it as much as Allbritton Communications, whose biggest (by far) TV station and 24/7 local cable news operation call Washington, DC home base. So, revenues were down in the most recent quarter.
For Allbritton the April-June quarter is its fiscal Q3. Net revenues were down 8.2% to $49.3 million and operating income fell 27.7% to $16.1 million. In its quarterly SEC filing the company attributed the revenue decline to the lack of political advertising, which fell to $28K from $4.6 million. However, local and national spot (combined) were also off, dropping to $40.6 million from nearly $42 million. Allbritton noted a 5% drop in automotive, which was attributed to the problems in Japan.
Subscriber fees, however, were up, rising to nearly $6 million from $4.8 million.
Allbritton doesn’t conduct quarterly conference calls with analysts and it doesn’t have any public stock – just bonds.
