With its biggest TV station in Washington, DC, Allbritton Communications is particularly blessed some years with issue advertising, in addition to political ads. For its fiscal Q2 (January-March) this year, political was a no-show and issue advertising was also down – but automotive partially filled the gap.
For the quarter Allbritton reported net revenues of $44.7 million, down 1.4% from a year earlier. The half million-plus of political advertising from a year earlier which went to zero accounted for much of the $804K decline. On the plus side, automotive advertising was up 22%.
With expenses up 7.5% from a year earlier, Allbritton saw operating income for the quarter decline 19.3% to $12.2 million.
While Allbritton is privately owned, it has public bonds. The company owns ABC affiliates in six markets, plus a 24/7 local cable news channel in the Washington, DC metro operated alongside WJLA-TV.
