The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ:SSP) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Craig Huber: And then how much is scatter…

Lisa Knutson: And getting better, I would say, because on the national side because of sports.

Craig Huber: Okay. And then also, if I could ask, what is scatter versus scatter, so like versus like? And how is that trending right now versus a year ago?

Jason Combs: Yes. I don’t think that’s anything we’ve given out before. So I don’t think we’re going to be giving out that number. But I would just reiterate what Lisa said, we are seeing a stronger scatter market now than what we’ve seen the last couple of years.

Adam Symson: And look, I mean, the scatter market is stronger and the DR market is stronger. As we said, the DR market is up for the first time in two years. So I think you sort of put those things together and you recognize that pricing in general, demand is higher and pricing is better than it was last year.

Jason Combs: And maybe to put a finer point on DR, DR was up for the first time in two years in Q1 and is pacing up even more in the second quarter.

Craig Huber: How about the other 60% on the Scripps Networks? How is that trending here on the brand side of things?

Adam Symson: That is all inclusive.

Lisa Knutson: Yes.

Jason Combs: Yes.

Adam Symson: So when we’re talking about scatter, we’re talking about across the networks. And when we’re talking about DR, it’s across the networks. Like for example, Bounce is 50% DR. Grit is 100% DR. So we’re seeing that strength flow through to all of the networks pro rata based on sort of how their inventory is split.

Jason Combs: I would say, Craig, the one thing we haven’t talked about, so we’ve talked about the scatter piece, we’ve talked about DR. In our prepared remarks, we also talked about the upfront, which is really the other piece. And we – as you heard in our comments, we were really pleased with the reception so far from the upfront presentations that we did over the last month. That will take a couple of months to kind of play out in terms of what gets booked. But I would say, I think the tie-in with the sports, specifically the NWSL and WNBA, I would say has us pretty optimistic coming out of this.

Adam Symson: Yes. And look there’s no question that the Networks business is still contending with last year’s upfront. That’s to Steven’s point, that’s why we’re seeing positive momentum and yet still have commitments from advertisers at last year rate.

Craig Huber: Jason, if I could ask you, your outlook for net re-trans for this year is still up about 1% to 2%?

Jason Combs: Yes. Both, yes, gross and net distribution are projected to be up in the low single-digit range, correct. And that’s despite the fact that we really only have 5% of our sub base renewing this year.

Craig Huber: Kay. Cool. Thank you guys.

Adam Symson: Thanks Craig.

Operator: Okay. Now at this time, we have no further questions in queue.

Carolyn Micheli: Great. Thank you so much, Kevin. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. Have a good day.

Operator: And thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference. You may now disconnect.

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