Media General Tops Olympics Ad Goal

Media General on Monday said its eight NBC-affiliated stations generated $7.6 million in advertising revenue from the 2010 Winter Olympics, compared with its previously announced expectation of $7 million.

Media General said that on the audience side, "the outstanding performance by Team USA in the 2010 Games, combined with the strength of Media General's local brands and their aggressive marketing commitments, drove very strong viewership for the Winter Olympics."

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Media General's five NBC stations in Nielsen-metered-markets, listed in the table below, were No. 1 in their respective markets during the games:

        Average household primetime viewing

Source: The Nielsen Co.

Primetime Winter Olympics coverage was the top-rated program on WFLA for the duration of the games. WJAR won 14 of 17 nights, and WCMH and WVTM each won 13 of 17 nights.  WCMH ranked seventh among all Nielsen-metered markets in the U.S. for overall average audience rating during the Games and was second for daytime viewing. 

"The outstanding efforts of our sales teams generated strong revenues from local and national advertisers from Winter Olympics packages," said Marshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer.  "All of our stations did a terrific job capitalizing on the opportunity presented by airing the Games.   We were aggressive in promoting the unique value we bring to our local communities and their viewers, and we succeeded in retaining new viewers for our adjoining local newscasts," said Mr. Morton. 

"Strong sales efforts were also evident in the revenues generated from Super Bowl packages on our eight CBS stations in February - a total of $912,000.  In addition, Political spending is ramping up, and we expect the first quarter of 2010 to include $1.1 million of Political revenues. Media General's revenue performance since mid-2009 reflects the benefit of an overall transformation of our sales culture to one that provides our customers with multimedia solutions. All of our sellers are now selling all of our products to all of our customers. This new focus is enabling Media General to deliver revenue results that are at the top of our peer group," said Mr. Morton.

For the first two months of 2010, broadcast revenues increased 11.4 percent and Digital Media revenues increased 10 percent compared to last year.  Newspaper revenue declines moderated to 10.7 percent in the first two months of 2010.  Total Media General revenues declined 1.1 percent in the first two months of 2010.

 Media General Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and Political Revenues

Media General operates three additional NBC affiliates that are not in metered markets, including WSLS (67), Roanoke, Va.; WSAV (96), Savannah, Ga.; and WCBD (97), Charleston, S.C.