Barrington Broadcasting Group’s Q1 results were good news for shareholders—more evidence the economy may be improving and dismal comps from last year are getting easier and easier to beat. Gross revenues for the quarter ended increased 18.9% to $31.0 million from $26.0 million in Q1 ‘09. The increase was primarily due to increases in local revenues which increased $1.7 million, or 10.5%, to $18.2 million, national revenues which increased $0.7 million, or 11.2%, to $6.5 million, and political revenues which increased $0.9 million to $1.0 million.
Retrans revenues increased $0.7 million, or 54.2%, to $2.0 million, and other revenues increased $1.0 million, or 42.3%, to $3.2 million for the quarter.
Net revenues for the quarter increased 18.4% to $26.6 million from $22.4 million for Q1 ‘09.
Operating expenses for the quarter, not including depreciation and amortization, decreased 2.6%, or $0.5 million, to $19.5 million from $20.0 million for Q1 ’09, primarily as a result of workforce reductions that occurred in 2009 as well as a reduction of operating expenses at our station in Peoria due to the joint sales and shared services agreements with Granite Broadcasting effective March 2, 2009.
Broadcast Cash Flow increased 101.6% to $8.8 million from $4.4 million in 2009.
“The momentum that the company experienced in late 2009 continued into the first quarter of 2010. We remain committed to the company’s three key priorities of re-engineering of our station-level operations, development of direct local sales strategies, and the growth of the stations’ local digital platforms. Our focus on these areas contributed to record first quarter Broadcast Cash Flow results,” said K. James Yager, Barrington CEO.
Barrington currently owns, operates, or supports the operations of 24 network affiliated TV stations. Barrington is O&O’d by Pilot Group, with management as its partner.
