Gray Television Revenue Down 1% in First Quarter

By Andrew Gauthier 

Gray Television, which currently operates 36 stations serving 30 markets across the country and oversees seven stations owned by bankrupt Young Broadcasting, sustained a 1% dip in revenue for the first quarter of 2011.

The Atlanta-based company announced this week that it brought in $69.7 million for the first quarter, an $0.8 million decrease from the same period last year. Gray attributes the dip to a decrease in political advertising as well as the absence of the Winter Olympics on the company’s NBC stations.

While Gray saw a big decrease in political advertising–down 50% from the Q1 of last year–the company had increased revenue in local advertising, retrans, and online advertising.

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Local advertising was up 1%, retrans revenue was up 9%, and online advertising was up 38%, from $1.1 million to $4.2 million. Gray earned $0.6 million for the quarter from its consulting agreement with Young.

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