The nation’s biggest owner of broadcast television stations has chosen the date and time it will reveal and discuss with Wall Street financial analysts its Q1 2020 results.
Nexstar Media Group will report its first-quarter results on Wednesday, May 6, and host a conference call at 10am that morning.
What can shareholders expect to hear from company founder and President/CEO Perry Sook?
Comments made by Sook on February 26 during Nexstar’s Q4 and full-year 2019 earnings call may come back to haunt him.
On the call, one Wall Street analyst inquired about any angst over coronavirus pandemic concerns. Sook’s response? “It could potentially benefit our business because people would be quarantined at home,” he said, suggesting that — even if live events, which drive broadcast TV ratings and revenue, were canceled — consumers would watch Nexstar stations more because they’d be unable to partake in their normal routines, including patronizing many of the stations’ advertising clients.
That’s exactly what transpired the week of March 16.
Yet, many broadcast media companies have experienced extreme ad revenue declines, even as viewership has increased.
Whether or not this has impacted Nexstar will certainly be of interest. Thankfully, two former Democratic presidential hopefuls have given the company a big shot in the arm for Q1.
Nexstar on February 25 made its Q1 2020 political budget — largely due to activity tied to the Mike Bloomberg for President campaign as well as some activity tied to fellow billionaire Democratic hopeful Tom Steyer.
Meanwhile, Q1 for Nexstar saw the March 2 closing of its $45 million acquisition of WJZY-TV and WMYT-TV in Charlotte from FOX Television Stations, and the sale of KCPQ-TV & KZJO-TV in Seattle and WITI-TV in Milwaukee to FOX Television Stations, for $350 million.
The influx of dollars from this deal could also benefit Nexstar in Q1, although year-over-year comps will be difficult.
As such, it is Q2 that could be potentially damaging for Nexstar and all media companies, should the COVID-19 pandemic stretch well into June.
