Discovery ad sales growth softens as ratings sink
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Ratings challenges across the Discovery portfolio are beginning to have a diminishing effect on the company’s advertising growth, as significant losses at the flagship network and other key brands in the fourth quarter resulted in a sequential decline in sales revenue.
On a pro forma basis, calculated as if the Discovery-Scripps merger had been completed a year ago, fourth quarter ad sales revenue increased 3 percent to $1.04 billion, up from $1.02 billion. The adjusted improvement marks a bit of a downward shift compared to Discovery’s third-quarter results, in which ad sales grew 5 percent year-over-year.
Analysts expected Discovery to post a 5 percent increase in ad sales revenue over the last three months of 2018. On Dec. 3, Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav warned attendees of the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference that the company’s fourth-quarter sales would come in “a little less” than anticipated, a disclosure that triggered an 8 percent plunge in the company’s stock price that same afternoon.
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