Q4 revenues were down for SBS

0

Advertising on Spanish media, especially radio, has been recovering more slowly than the general market. Spanish Broadcasting System reported Thursday (3/31) that its Q4 revenues were down 3% to $34.9 million. Operating income before depreciation, amortization and special charges (OIBDA) was down 12% to $9.5 million. Full year revenue fell 2% to $136.1 million, but OIBDA improved 2% to $39 million.
 
“This consolidated decrease was attributable to the decrease in our radio segment net revenue of $1.5 million or 5%. Our radio segment net revenue decreased due to national sales and special events revenue. The decrease in national sales occurred in all of our markets, with the exceptions of our Puerto Rico and San Francisco markets. The decrease in special events revenue occurred in our Los Angeles, Puerto Rico and Miami markets. Our television segment net revenue increased $0.4 million or 10%, primarily due to an increase in national sales, paid programming and integrated sales,” the company said in announcing its financial results.


Radio revenues declined 5% for the quarter to $30.2 million, but OIBDA gained 1% to $13.9 million. For all of 2010 radio revenues were down 3% to $119.5 million and OIBDA increased 2% to $55.5 million.

The still-young television unit saw revenues gain 10% to $4.7 million. However, OIBDA was a negative $2 million, compared to negative $825K a year earlier. Full year TV revenues were up 5% to $16.6 million and negative OIBDA worsened to $8.3 million from $6.4 million.

“We experienced volatile advertising conditions in many of our markets during 2010, even as we continued to drive strong audience shares across our multi-media platform. We are encouraged with the revenue growth at our television segment during the fourth quarter and we are seeing some improvement in the advertising climate in select markets year-to-date. We have continued to focus on strategically investing in our content and distribution, while carefully managing our costs. As a result, we were able to drive considerable improvement in our operating income for the full year. In 2011, we remain committed to building on our strong Hispanic media brands, growing our multi-media footprint and improving our operating results,” said CEO Raul Alarcón.

SBS did not provide any forward guidance and did not conduct a conference call with analysts.