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.
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.