Breaking Down The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

You're looking at The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) and seeing a classic media transition story, but the numbers tell a more nuanced tale of debt and digital growth. For the first nine months of 2025, the company reported a loss attributable to shareholders of $120 million, or $1.36 per share, on a total revenue of $1.6 billion, largely due to the cyclical absence of last year's political advertising revenue. The real pressure point is the balance sheet, which showed $2.7 billion in total debt as of September 30, 2025, a figure that demands a laser focus on cash flow. Still, the underlying strategy is showing traction: the Scripps Networks division saw its Connected TV (CTV) revenue surge by a massive 41% in the third quarter alone, proving their pivot to streaming and sports, like the WNBA on ION, is defintely working to offset declines in traditional distribution.

Revenue Analysis

You're looking at The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) and seeing a significant revenue drop, and you need to know if it's a structural problem or just a cycle. The direct takeaway is this: The company's Q3 2025 total revenue of $526 million was down 19% year-over-year, but this decline is largely predictable, stemming from the absence of a political election cycle in 2025 compared to 2024. The underlying core business, however, shows signs of strategic strength.

The E.W. Scripps Company's revenue streams are cleanly split into two main segments, plus a smaller third one. The core money comes from Local Media (broadcast TV and digital) and Scripps Networks (national networks like ION and Court TV). Local Media is defintely the largest contributor, but the Networks division is the one showing the most dynamic growth in key areas right now. For the first nine months of 2025, the company's year-to-date revenue stood at $1.6 billion, an 11% decrease from the prior year, illustrating the impact of the non-election year cycle on overall performance.

Here's the quick math on how the primary segments contributed to the Q3 2025 revenue:

• Local Media: Generated $325 million, a 27% drop from the prior-year quarter.
• Scripps Networks: Brought in $201 million, which was essentially flat, down only 0.4% year-over-year.

The Local Media segment's sharp decline is not a surprise; it's a political advertising headwind. In Q3 2025, political revenue was only $5.1 million, a massive drop from the $125 million it pulled in during the election-heavy Q3 2024. But, to be fair, the core advertising revenue-the money from local businesses outside of politics-actually increased by 1.8% to $132 million. That's a good sign of underlying business health in a tough ad market.

The real story of change is in the Scripps Networks division. While the segment revenue was flat, the mix is shifting dramatically toward Connected TV (CTV). Revenue from CTV distribution on streaming services was up a massive 41% year-over-year in Q3 2025. This push into streaming, coupled with the successful launch of Scripps Sports, is creating a new, nine-figure revenue line. Management projects that this Connected TV revenue stream will exceed $120 million for the full fiscal year 2025. This is a clear, actionable trend to watch. If you want a deeper dive into who is betting on this strategy, you should check out Exploring The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

The segment data shows a clear divergence in growth drivers, and you need to value them differently. The Local Media segment is stable in its distribution revenue ($186 million in Q3 2025) and resilient in its core advertising, but it's fundamentally cyclical. The Networks segment, however, is a growth engine, offsetting softness in the traditional national networks business with a strong, high-margin push into digital distribution and sports programming.

Profitability Metrics

You need to know where The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) stands on profitability, especially with the media landscape shifting so quickly. The short takeaway is that while the company maintains a solid Gross Margin, its Operating and Net Margins are under significant pressure, largely due to high fixed costs in a non-political advertising year and ongoing industry transformation.

For the trailing twelve months (TTM) leading up to the end of Q3 2025, The E.W. Scripps Company's core profitability ratios tell a story of a business fighting for the bottom line. The company's Gross Margin sits at a respectable 44.37%, which is slightly below the broader Communication Services sector's average of 47.1%. This suggests a relatively efficient cost of revenue structure, but the costs pile up quickly once you factor in overhead.

Here's the quick math on the TTM performance and the most recent quarter, Q3 2025:

Trends and Industry Comparison

The trend shows a clear near-term profitability challenge. The drop from a TTM Operating Margin of 13.14% to the Q3 2025 Operating Margin of 7.2% is sharp. This is defintely a function of the political advertising cycle: Q3 2025 was a non-election year, which meant Local Media revenue was down 27% compared to the prior year's political cycle. The total loss attributable to shareholders for the first nine months of 2025 was a hefty $120 million.

When you compare The E.W. Scripps Company's performance to the industry, the picture gets clearer. Analysts project the operating margins for TV broadcasters to rise to around 15% by 2026-2027. The company's TTM Operating Margin of 13.14% is close to this target, but the Q3 2025 margin of 7.2% shows the volatility inherent in the broadcasting business model, especially in off-cycle years. The goal is to smooth out that cyclicality.

Operational Efficiency and Cost Management

Operational efficiency is where the company is taking clear action. Management is focused on cost controls to offset the revenue headwinds, and it's working in some segments. Look at the Scripps Networks division, for example:

• Achieved a 27% segment margin in Q3 2025.
• This margin was driven by a 7.5% reduction in expenses for the division.
• Connected TV (CTV) revenue was up 41% year-over-year, which is a high-growth area helping to stabilize the overall network performance.

The Local Media division also saw expenses down more than 4% year-over-year. This tight expense control is critical, given the overall revenue decline. The company is using strategic cost-cutting to try and maintain profitability while it pivots to higher-growth areas like connected TV and sports rights. You can read more about this financial pivot in our full analysis: Breaking Down The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

What this estimate hides is the one-time nature of some Q3 costs, like a $7.6 million loss on extinguishment of debt. Without those, the net loss would be shallower, but the core challenge of the Net Profit Margin remains until political advertising returns or the digital/sports revenue streams scale up significantly.

Next step: Portfolio Manager: Model SSP's 2026 profitability assuming a 15% operating margin on Local Media to gauge political cycle upside by next Tuesday.

Debt vs. Equity Structure

The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) operates with a highly leveraged balance sheet, a common but magnified risk profile in the capital-intensive broadcasting sector. Your key takeaway here is that the company is actively managing its debt maturities, but its debt load remains significant, with a Debt-to-Equity (D/E) ratio substantially higher than the industry average.

As of the second quarter of 2025, The E.W. Scripps Company reported total debt of approximately $2.7 billion. This reliance on debt financing is clearly reflected in the company's Debt-to-Equity ratio, which stood at approximately 2.2 in November 2025. Here's the quick math: with total debt around $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion and a reported total shareholder equity of about $1.3 billion, the D/E ratio of 2.2 is a clear signal of high financial leverage.

To be fair, the nature of media and broadcasting often demands high capital expenditure for spectrum and infrastructure, but this ratio is still a standout. The industry average D/E ratio for Broadcasting, as of November 2025, sits closer to 1.23. The E.W. Scripps Company's ratio of 2.2 indicates that for every dollar of shareholder equity, the company has taken on over two dollars of debt. That's a heavy debt load.

The company has been intensely focused on debt management in 2025, which is a positive action for investors. They are not sitting still. This focus is less about paying down the absolute principal and more about pushing out maturity dates to buy time for the business to grow into its capital structure.

• Short-Term Liabilities: As of the last reported balance sheet before November 2025, short-term liabilities (due within 12 months) were approximately $437.4 million.
• Long-Term Debt: The company's total debt is mostly long-term, including new term loans due in 2028 and 2029.

The most crucial action in 2025 was a series of refinancing transactions. In April 2025, the company completed a major refinancing of its 2026 and 2028 term loans and revolving credit facility. Following this, in August 2025, The E.W. Scripps Company closed on the placement of $750 million in new senior secured second-lien notes at a high interest rate of 9.875%. This new debt was used to pay off the company's 2027 senior notes and pay down $205 million of its 2028 term loan.

Here is a snapshot of the key debt components and leverage metrics for the 2025 fiscal year:

The company's financing strategy is defintely debt-heavy, prioritizing debt to fund growth initiatives and manage capital structure, rather than issuing common equity, which would dilute existing shareholders. The refinancing moves successfully pushed out near-term maturity cliffs, giving management a clearer runway to focus on operational improvements and capitalizing on the upcoming 2026 political advertising cycle. You should monitor their ability to generate enough cash flow to service the elevated cash interest payments, which are projected to be between $170 million and $175 million for the full year 2025.

For a deeper dive into how these financials impact the company's valuation, continue reading our full analysis: Breaking Down The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Liquidity and Solvency

You're looking at The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) and wondering if they have enough short-term cash to cover their bills, plus how they're managing their massive debt load. Honestly, The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) has adequate immediate liquidity, but the long-term solvency picture is dominated by a substantial debt burden, despite aggressive deleveraging efforts in 2025.

Liquidity is solid, but it's the debt that keeps me up at night.

Assessing The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP)'s Liquidity Position

The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP)'s short-term financial health, or liquidity, looks sufficient. The current ratio and the quick ratio (a stricter test that excludes inventory) are both approximately 1.61, based on trailing twelve months (TTM) data leading up to November 2025. A ratio above 1.0 is generally good; it means current assets-cash, receivables, etc.-exceed current liabilities, so they can cover their near-term obligations without stress. For a media company, this is a defintely a manageable position.

Here's the quick math on their immediate cash:

• Cash and Cash Equivalents: $54.7 million as of September 30, 2025.
• Revolving Credit Facility: No borrowings outstanding at the end of Q3 2025, which is a key strength.

Working Capital Trends and Cash Flow Dynamics

The working capital trend is essentially positive, driven by the healthy current ratio, but the company's focus is clearly on capital structure improvement. The management's highest priority is reducing debt, and they are using operational cash flow to do it. This is a good sign-it shows a commitment to long-term stability over short-term expansion.

The cash flow statement overview for the TTM period ending mid-2025 shows the core business is generating cash, but Free Cash Flow (FCF) has been under pressure:

What this estimate hides is the significant refinancing activity. The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) issued $1.6 billion in new long-term debt proceeds and made $1.9 billion in payments on long-term debt during the first nine months of 2025, essentially terming out their debt to push the next major maturity to 2029. This is a critical move to buy time and operational flexibility. You can read more about their strategic direction here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP).

Potential Liquidity Concerns and Strengths

The biggest strength is the successful debt refinancing and the fact that the company has no borrowings on its revolving credit facilities. That means they have a significant untapped line of credit for unexpected needs. The key concern, however, is the massive total debt of $2.7 billion and the net leverage ratio of 4.6x as of Q3 2025. This is better than the 6x from Q2 of last year, but it's still high for a media company in a challenging environment. Also, keep an eye on the preferred stock dividends: the company has not paid them in 2025, and the aggregated undeclared and unpaid cumulative dividends totaled $101 million at September 30, 2025. That's a liability that compounds and must be addressed before common shareholders see a cent.

Valuation Analysis

You're looking at The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) and asking the core question: is the market pricing this correctly? My short answer is that the stock looks undervalued based on traditional metrics, especially considering the strong analyst consensus, but you must factor in the current lack of profitability and high debt load.

The company's valuation ratios tell a story of a turnaround play, not a stable media giant. For instance, the trailing twelve-month (TTM) Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio sits at 8.25, which is low. To be fair, this ratio is volatile because the company reported a GAAP net loss per share of $0.55 in Q3 2025, but analysts project a significant earnings recovery, giving The E.W. Scripps Company a Forward P/E of just 3.70 based on expected 2026 earnings per share (EPS) of $0.21. That's defintely a deep-value signal.

Here's the quick math on other key multiples as of late 2025:

• Price-to-Book (P/B) Ratio: 0.42
• Enterprise Value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) (TTM): 6.77

A P/B ratio below 1.0, like The E.W. Scripps Company's 0.42, suggests the stock is trading for less than the book value of its assets, which is a classic undervaluation sign. However, the TTM EV/EBITDA of 6.77 is relatively low for a media company, and the forward estimate range of 7.2x to 9.0x signals that the market anticipates higher earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) growth will increase the enterprise value.

The stock price trend over the last 12 months (52 weeks) has been a wild ride, reflecting the market's uncertainty and recent optimism. The stock has a 52-week range between a low of $1.36 and a high of $4.90. As of November 20, 2025, the closing price was $3.96. This means the stock has climbed an impressive +122.47% over the last 52 weeks, driven by strategic moves like the Scripps Sports initiative and debt reduction efforts, but it's still well below its high.

The company is currently focused on deleveraging, so don't look for a dividend. The E.W. Scripps Company has not paid a dividend in the past year, resulting in a TTM dividend yield of 0% and a payout ratio of 0.00%. This capital is being reinvested or used to pay down debt, which is a prudent move given their net leverage improved to 4.6 times at the end of Q3 2025.

Wall Street analysts generally agree on the upside, with a consensus rating of Buy. The average price target is $5.50, which forecasts a potential upside of approximately 34.31% from the current price over the next year. This strong buy signal is based on the expectation that the company's strategic pivot to sports and Connected TV (CTV) advertising will pay off. For a deeper look at the operational health driving these numbers, check out Breaking Down The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Risk Factors

You're looking at The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) and seeing a media company in the middle of a major transition, so you need to understand the structural risks that could derail its strategic pivot. The biggest challenge isn't just competition; it's the sheer weight of their balance sheet combined with the cyclical nature of their revenue. Simply put, the high debt load makes the inherent volatility of the broadcasting business much riskier.

The core internal financial risk is leverage. As of September 2025, The E.W. Scripps Company carried a total debt of about $2.65 billion, translating to a net debt of roughly $2.59 billion. This heavy reliance on debt financing is reflected in a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.2 and an Altman Z-Score of just 0.58, which places the company firmly in the financial distress zone. High debt means less flexibility when core business segments hit a rough patch.

The operational risk is the 'political revenue cliff.' The Local Media segment, which generates the maximum revenue, is highly dependent on political advertising in even-numbered election years. In Q3 2025, a non-political year, the company reported revenue of $526 million, an 18.6% year-over-year decline. Management's guidance anticipates this headwind will continue, projecting Local Media revenue to be down about 30% in Q4 2025. This volatility makes consistent profitability a struggle, leading to a Q3 2025 GAAP loss of $0.55 per share and a low trailing net margin of just 0.99%. They need to defintely smooth out that revenue curve.

• External/Industry Risk: Streaming giants like YouTube and Netflix continue to disrupt the traditional broadcasting model, intensifying competition with other local broadcasters like Nexstar Media Group.
• Strategic Risk: The recent interest from Sinclair, Inc. (SBGI) and its 8.2% stake introduces M&A uncertainty. While a merger could unlock an estimated $300 million in synergies, the Scripps Family Trust's control over the voting structure is a major hurdle, creating market volatility without a clear path to a deal.

Here's the quick math on their deleveraging focus, which is the key mitigation strategy:

The company is aggressively using asset sales and expense management to fight the debt problem. They are also making smart strategic moves, like their focus on women's sports rights (WNBA, NWSL) and Connected TV distribution, which commands premium ad rates. What this estimate hides is the execution risk; if the ad market softens further or their distribution renewals don't go well, the debt reduction timeline could stretch out. For more depth on the institutional movements around this volatility, you should check out Exploring The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Growth Opportunities

You're looking for where The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) can generate real momentum, and the answer is a clear pivot: it's moving from a traditional broadcaster to a diversified media company driven by live sports and digital growth, all while aggressively cleaning up the balance sheet.

The near-term financial picture for 2025 is still challenging, with analysts projecting full-year consensus revenue of approximately $2.14 billion. But what this estimate hides is the strategic shift that is defintely building a foundation for future profitability, especially as political advertising revenue returns in 2026.

Future Revenue and Earnings Estimates

The consensus forecasts for the 2025 fiscal year reflect a media landscape in transition, still grappling with core advertising headwinds outside of political cycles. Here's the quick math on the analyst consensus for the full year, which suggests a slight revenue decline with a forecast annual revenue growth rate of -0.68%.

To be fair, the consensus Earnings Per Share (EPS) of -$1.39 is a loss, but it's crucial to remember that the company is in a non-political year, and the focus has been on debt reduction and strategic investment, which temporarily pressures the bottom line. The expectation is that the strategic initiatives will pay off in future cycles, especially 2026.

Strategic Drivers and Competitive Advantages

The E.W. Scripps Company's management is focused on three clear, actionable areas: high-growth revenue streams, operational efficiency, and financial de-risking. This is where the company is building its competitive moat.

The biggest driver is the Sports Strategy, which is a smart move to capture premium advertising dollars that are migrating away from traditional linear TV. The Scripps Networks division saw its margins reach a healthy 32% in Q1 2025, largely due to this pivot.

• Connected TV (CTV) Revenue: This is a bright spot, surging 41% in Q3 2025, driven by the broad distribution of the Scripps Networks.
• Live Sports Partnerships: Renewed agreements for the WNBA and NWSL on the ION network, plus a new NHL partnership with the Tampa Bay Lightning, are driving core advertising growth.
• Deleveraging: The company successfully refinanced its 2026 and 2027 debt maturities and reduced its net leverage to 4.6x by the end of Q3 2025, down from 6x in the prior year. This is a massive step toward financial stability.
• Operational Efficiency: Cost-cutting measures, including leveraging centralized production and exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) for local operations, helped decrease expenses by 16% in Q1 2025.

Also, the recent acquisition of an 8.2% stake in the non-voting shares by Sinclair Inc. in November 2025 has put a spotlight on potential merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. While the Scripps family's control of the voting shares complicates a forced sale, the speculation alone highlights the potential for synergies, which some estimate could reach $300 million in combined EBITDA uplift. This M&A tailwind, coupled with the company's aggressive debt paydown, makes The E.W. Scripps Company a more interesting play than its current stock price might suggest. For a deeper dive into the balance sheet, you should check out Breaking Down The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.