Minutes before RBR+TVBR’s daily news deadline, The E.W. Scripps Co. released its first quarter 2026 earnings report. While C-Suite leaders including President/CEO Adam Symson will not host a call for analysts and shareholders until Friday morning to discuss the results, the key takeaways are very clear.
First, operating revenue grew to $516.87 million, rising from $524.39 million. How close were Wall Street prognosticators? Five analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance chimed in with their revenue projections, putting the consensus estimate at $516.86 million.
As such, the expected year-over-year dip transpired for Scripps, even with reduced restructuring costs (down to $644,000 from $4.14 million). Slightly lower operating expenses were also logged, coming in at $492.1 million, down from $496.92 million.
Nevertheless, lower operating income was seen.
What helped Scripps in the quarter? A $30,009,000 gain from the sales of Court TV and television stations WFTX-TV in Fort Myers-Naples and WRTV-TV in Indianapolis.
Still, a year-over-year net loss persists, albeit it is slightly lower, dipping to $17.98 million (-$0.20 per share) from $18.84 million (-$0.22).
Adjusted EBITDA declined to $66.76 million, from $75.61 million.
Total debt was $2.6 billion.
“This is shaping up to be a pivotal year for our company,” Symson said in prepared remarks issued with the Q1 2026 earnings report on Thursday. “We’re using the word ‘transformation’ to describe how all of us at Scripps are questioning what we do, how we do it and why, with a goal of forming the optimal organizational structure to position us to grow, inside our current businesses and beyond. Through that growth, we will continue to serve our audiences, advertisers, sports fans and communities with objective journalism,
meaningful personal connection, live sports and quality entertainment – and at the same time, create new shareholder value.”
LOCAL LEADS, NATIONAL LAGS
In Q1, the national dollar struggle seen by linear media for the last several quarters persisted.
As shown below, Scripps Networks profit slumped by 28% as Local Media growth was 33.7%.
The great news for Scripps in Q1? Core advertising revenue increased to $139.79 million, from $132.15 million, while distribution revenue continued to serve as Scripps’ dollar-generation leader — rising to $189.92 million from $187.19 million.
What can investors expect from Scripps in Q2? Local Media revenue is forecast to rise in the low single-digit percent range, while Local Media expenses are projected to be flat.
Scripps Networks revenue will likely be down about 10%, with expenses up in the low single-digit percent range.
In prepared comments, Symson said, “We’re moving through the second quarter with real momentum, fueled by progress toward our transformation goals, the ongoing successes with our Scripps Sports strategy and meaningful reductions in our leverage ratio.”
Symson added that Scripps is on track “in the execution of our ambitious plans to improve company EBITDA by at least 30% over the next two years. Hundreds of colleagues from every area of the company have come together to identify more than 1,000 cost savings and revenue growth initiatives. Our execution plans leverage AI, automation and other
technology to fundamentally improve how we operate. The magnitude of our transformation is evident in the early changes to our leverage ratio and the improvement
we’ll continue to see on our balance sheet.”
Scripps plans to use proceeds from midterm political advertising revenue to make meaningful further progress.
