The largest markets in the Regent Communications portfolio are Buffalo NY and Albany-Schenectady-Troy NY. Regent’s focus on local, and cushion from the deleterious effects of diminishing national buys allowed it to post positive results, even in this troubled media environment.
"In the second quarter, we continued to find ways to outperform the industry and our portfolio of markets due to the excellent execution of our aggressive local operating strategy," said honcho Bill Stakelin. "The concerted investments we have made in our stations and digital footprint have enhanced our ability to consistently deliver valuable audiences to our local advertisers. Further, our sales teams are now fully versed in cross-marketing our integrated platform and they are working diligently to continue to increase our share of ad dollars. Looking ahead, we continue to face headwinds from a slowing economy and soft advertising market, but we are controlling our costs and implementing our strategic plan."
The company banked net broadcast revenues of $26.5M in Q2 2008, a 2.9% over the same period in 2007, while holding the line on expenses, which were almost flat. Net revenues YTD are about flat as well, sitting at $47.3M.
Stakelin said national typically represents 14% of revenue, but since few of its markets are particularly impacted (mainly the aforementioned Buffalo and Albany), the effects of the national business slowdown have been minimal, and counterbalanced in some markets by the benefits of solid ongoing NTR events. NTR brought in $2.2M net revenue during the quarter.
RBR/TVBR observation: Everybody tries to tell a positive story during these quarterly dog and pony shows, but few of late have been able to back up the story with a little black ink. Well done.
