Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So I would say those are the big things that are driving the EBITDA quarter-over-quarter. But again, some of those things are good expenses to have like the rights or the initiatives because they’re part of our long-term growth story. And then on your leverage question, so what I would say is, look, we ended 2022 at 4x total net leverage. I do expect for it to increase this year beyond our target range. And just as a reminder, the target range is high 3s, low 4s. So we do expect by the end of this year will be higher than that low 4s area. And again, that’s really primarily driven by the absence of political, the macro climate, the strategic investments, higher interest rates. Last year, we had the benefit of the cash tax refunds that we won’t have this year.

And then, of course, the decline in net retrans. Now the good thing is 2024, which is a presidential year, is right around the corner, and we’ll start to see some benefit of that later in the year, more like fourth quarter. But we are expecting right now another record-breaking political year, next year. And so that will then help to delever the company.

Steven Cahall: Great, thank you for the color.

Operator: Your next question for today is coming from Aaron Watts at Deutsche Bank.

Aaron Watts: Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me on. You covered a lot of ground. I just had three quick follow-ups really. Chris, I don’t know if you’re able to share what percent of your retrans mission revenues come from virtual MVPDs versus the more traditional ones? And then secondly, with the distribution renewals that you’ve highlighted coming up at the end of this year and beginning of next year, will you be negotiating exclusively for your stations? Or will you be continuing to negotiate for the RSNs as well with those renewals? And then lastly, Lucy, just to follow up on your comments around leverage, I know you’ve bought back some bonds in the recent past, curious if continuing to take advantage of the discount those bonds trade at currently would help the deleveraging process as well as you move forward and think about free cash flow priorities? Thanks.

Chris Ripley: Thanks Aaron. So we don’t disclose the percentage between virtual versus traditional. And then in terms of your question on Diamond, as you know, it is now an independent entity with a separate Board and management team. And so we don’t control the decisions that happen there and nor can we necessarily speculate as to what happens with the services that we provide. So that’s all I can say on that.

Lucy Rutishauser: Yes. I’ll go ahead and jump in. So on the buybacks. So as you know, we’re always opportunistic, whether it’s debt or equity. And as you pointed out, we bought back $118 million, which was about 25% of the 2027 notes last year to discount. So we will continue to be opportunistic on all those fronts this year. We will balance that with the commentary around leverage, around investments, around the macro environment as well. And then just remember that the net leverage is net of cash. So to the extent that you’re using cash, to buy in any of the debt, it’s really the deleveraging impact will be based on the discount that you get. Otherwise, the bulk of it would not be deleveraging or any discount. But we’ll continue to be opportunistic, again, on all these fronts, while we balance some of the other priorities that we want to do.

Aaron Watts: Okay, thank you for the time.