HGTV Property Brothers - H 2015
HGTVScripps Networks Interactive’s HGTV has become the company’s first cable network to reach $1 billion in annual revenue.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report Tuesday, the company included a table that showed HGTV’s 2015 revenue hit $1.01 billion, up 7.4 percent from $938.5 million in 2014. That compared to $879 million in 2013 and $786.3 million in 2012.
Evercore ISI analyst David Joyce cited strong advertising market trends and “the ratings strength especially at the HGTV and Food networks” as helping the company’s latest results.
Management has touted such shows as Fixer Upper as key HGTV hits, along with the likes of Property Brothers.
HGTV has been the Scripps network with the highest revenue since 2013 when it overtook the Food Network, which for that year reported revenue of $858.1 million, up from $830.7 million the year before. For 2015, the Food Network posted revenue of $891.6 million, making it the company’s second-largest brand in terms of revenue.
In comparison, the company’s Travel Channel had revenue of $309.2 million in 2015, DIY Network recorded $167.4 million, the Cooking Channel had $134.8 million and Great American Country had $30.5 million.
Scripps on Tuesday highlighted that it also reached a record $3 billion in total revenue for the first time in 2015, up 13.2 percent from 2014.
Scripps on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $164.7 million, or $1.27 per share. That was up 25 percent from $131.8 million in the year-ago period, or 96 cents per share, and exceeded Wall Street estimates. Revenue rose 27 percent to $851.8 million. U.S. advertising revenue grew 7.8 percent, but the domestic networks also recorded higher programming expenses.
“These results exemplify the strong and consistent execution of our strategy at Scripps Networks Interactive,” said Scripps CEO Ken Lowe. “Our core television lifestyle networks are growing in demand by viewers and advertisers, while our international expansion continues to make a significant contribution to the overall robust health of the company.”
