the HOT List

The third quarter of 2020 brought broadcast media an incredible amount of political advertising, boosting revenue to unprecedented heights across the broadcast TV landscape. One year later, with fewer political ad dollars, losses are expected. But, how big the loss is has emerged as the key investor question. At Graham Media Group, the decrease was in the mid-single-digits.

The third quarter 2021 results from the largest audio content creator and distributor in the U.S., iHeartMedia, were released shortly before the company's two top leaders, Bob Pittman and Rich Bressler, played host to analysts and investors in a conference call scheduled for 4:30pm Eastern. How did the company do?

With home improvement, insurance, education, CPG and finance showing no signs of a slowdown, the owner of broadcast TV stations and the Premion Connected TV/OTT advertising platform for regional and local advertisers enjoyed a strong Q3, easily beating the forecast of analysts polled by Zacks Equity Research.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate was for net revenue that came in higher than anticipated. But, instead of positive earnings per share growth, Gray Television's EPS ended up in the negative, with the company suffering a net loss in Q3 2021. Investors expressed their disappointment by sending GTN down 5.3%, even though the loss reflects divestments tied to two big deals designed to make Gray a bigger local TV player.

"Our outstanding third quarter results underscore the enormous opportunities that lie ahead for Univision.” That positive statement comes courtesy of Wade Davis, who earlier this year succeed Vince Sadusky as CEO of Univision Communications. Just how strong was Q3 for Univision?

On October 25, it was trumpeting how support was piling up for its ONE Casino + Resort, a proposed 100,000-square foot destination bringing "unrivaled gaming entertainment" to the Southside portion of Virginia's capital city, Richmond. Now, Urban One appears to be headed to Plan B, as official results released Wednesday morning confirm a referendum on the casino has failed to pass.

Analysts expected Sinclair Broadcast Group to release third quarter earnings results on Wednesday morning reflecting a $0.95 per share loss on revenue of $1.58 billion. The EPS is a year-over-year change of a whopping 144.6%, despite a 2.4% gain in revenue from Q3 2020. How did the company led by Chris Ripley do?

It was Wolfe Research analyst John Janedis who was first in a Q&A period during Nexstar Media Group's Q3 2021 to ask about supply chain concerns at its advertisers. Nexstar's CEO and CFO each acknowledged that there is an impact. But, Chief Financial Officer Tom Carter says growth in 14 of 25 categories is "more than making up" the loss.

On October 26, Zacks Equity Research predicted that the nation's No. 1 licensee of television stations, Nexstar Media Group, would post quarterly earnings of $4.05 per share in Q3 2021, with revenues reaching $1.14 billion, up 2% from one year ago. With the company's stock less than $6 from an all-time high reached in late September, did Nexstar meet those forecasts? Yes.

Forget about 2020 comps: Townsquare Media is offering Q3 2021 comps to two years prior, and the results are strong. The local digital and radio broadcasting company is reporting third quarter net revenue that falls short of Q3 2019 by just 1%.

Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson, the respected Wall Street financial analyst house, offered some conflicting answers about the negative impact supply chain issues have ad on advertising demand in an investor note distributed Friday. It seems he has more to say about the matter, and Nathanson has now shifted his concerns to the radio business and TV industry.

For 23 1/2 years, she was one of the most recognizable anchors at the ABC affiliate serving Atlanta — the flagship television station of Cox Media Group. In April, two masses on her brain and subsequent surgery to remove them revealed she had the most common type of brain cancer. On Thursday night, Jovita Moore lost her battle against the aggressive, incurable disease.

If investors truly want to gauge the financial health of the broadcast media industry, all they need is a full day of undivided attention to no less than eight CEOs, as Thursday, Nov. 4 has emerged as a monster day for Q3 2021 earnings releases for publicly traded radio and television companies. Here's a glance of what's on the calendar.

With Barry Diller's IAC purchasing the National Media arm, and all other assets, of Meredith Corp., and Gray Television in the home stretch in its acquisition of Meredith Local Media, following needed spin-offs to meet regulatory approval, this will be the final fiscal Q1 report from Meredith of interest to the TV industry. How did Meredith's TV arm do? As is typical in non-political years, tough comparisons are at play.

The nation's biggest owner of radio stations has repurchased and cancelled all of its outstanding shares of Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock. To do so, it used cash on hand, wiping 60,000 outstanding shares out of existence.