The station count is dwindling for ACME Communications, but the revenues are rising for its remaining TV group. Revenues from continuing operations were up 10% to $4 million in Q4 of 2010, which the company announced on Tuesday (4/19).
Revenues at the three remaining stations increased 7% and revenues for The Daily Buzz were up 22%. Broadcast cash flow more than doubled to $321K from $121K a year earlier.
For all of 2010 net revenues were up 2% to $14.6 million for the continuing stations, mainly due to a 7% revenue increase for The Daily Buzz. Adjusted EBITDA, while still negative, improved to negative $1.4 million from negative $2.1 million in 2009.
“During this past year we made significant progress on our overarching goal of monetizing our assets for the benefit of our shareholders. With our stations in Knoxville, Dayton and Green Bay expected to be sold in the current quarter, we expect to begin returning a meaningful portion of the cash component of those proceeds to our shareholders and will work to reduce corporate costs to reflect the reduced scale of our operations. Although we were very surprised and disappointed by the recent decision of a New York court which rewarded MMT, our former national sales rep firm, with a break-up fee for effectively shutting down their rep firm and abandoning our stations, we have appealed this decision and expect to ultimately prevail on the merits of our case and our counterclaims. We will likely set aside cash to cover the bond required to proceed with our appeal. In the meantime, we will remain focused and continue to seek ways to maximize profitability at our remaining stations and viable exit routes for our investors, including selling off our remaining assets,” said ACME President and CEO Doug Gealy.
As previously announced, Lin Media has exercised its option to acquire ACME’s WBDT Dayton and WCWF (formerly WIWB) Green Bay and Lockwood Broadcast Group is purchasing WBXX Knoxville. ACME has treated the results of those stations as discontinued operations in its earnings report. The stations included as continuing operations are KWBQ/KASY Albuquerque, NM and WBUW Madison, WI.
