Gray sees revenue increase thanks to political advertising

Gray Media announced its second-quarter financial results on Aug. 8, 2024, which included a 2% revenue spike attributed to political advertising and an upcoming $0.08 cash dividend for investors. 

While political ad revenue was up 292% to $47 million, compared to the same quarter in 2023, non-political advertising generated $6 million less in revenue, a decrease of 2%. This revenue totaled $373 million.

“Our core advertising revenue in the second quarter was $373 million, which was slightly below the low end of our guidance range,” Gray said in a statement. “For the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2024, we expect core advertising revenue will be flat to up low single digit percentages compared to the third quarter of 2023, driven primarily by the Olympic Games. In light of results to date and political advertising revenues arriving later in the year than originally anticipated, we currently anticipate core advertising revenues of approximately $1.525 billion for full-year 2024, down from our earlier guidance of $1.6 billion.”

Gray’s retransmission revenue shrank 6% to $317 million from $394 million the year before.

The company noted that current pay-television subscriber numbers have “largely extended” the trends from last year rather than improving somewhat as we anticipated at the start of this year.

Gray is forecasting retransmission consent revenues in the range of $365 million to $370 million for the third quarter and a total of approximately $1.475 billion for full-year 2024.

The company also said its board of directors had authorized a cash divided of $0.08 per share of common and Class A common stock. The dividend will be paid Sept. 30, 2024, to shareholders of record as of the close of business Sept. 13, 2024.

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