Steven Marks
Analyst · Alexia Quadrani with JPMorgan
Thank you, Lucy. And good morning, everybody. Our net broadcast revenues in the first quarter were $192.2 million. And as Dave mentioned, slightly exceeding guidance. This reflects a 9.2% growth in the same station core business, excluding the acquisitions, political and Super Bowl. We are very pleased with how well the new stations are performing under Sinclair. KUTV, the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City which we acquired from Four Points, gained market revenue share year-to-year over in the first quarter of 2012 despite losing Oprah.
WPEC, the CBS affiliate in West Palm Beach, which we acquired from Freedom, was rated #1 in the February 2012 rating books in the 11:00 p.m. news on adults 25 to 54, Monday through Friday, for the first time since it tied for #1 in the Feb 2010 book.
Meanwhile, the Sinclair legacy stations saw strong rating increases in the February book versus the November book for Big Bang Theory and Family Feud, and this should be beneficial to our CW or MyNetwork stations in dealing with the buying community.
Political revenues in the quarter were $3.6 million as compared to $600,000 in the first quarter last year. Primary difference to our $4.0 million guidance was due to the Texas primary being moved out of the first quarter and into May, and now with the Republican primary completed we may see less political from the state than originally anticipated.
Local broadcast revenues were up 26.4% in the first quarter. Excluding political, local was up 26.1% for the quarter. On the same-station basis, local net broadcast revenues were up 8.4%. National broadcast revenues were up 12.4% in the quarter including political, and up 5.3% excluding political. On a same-station basis, national net broadcast revenues were down 0.06%. Some station categories that were up in the quarter were automotive, media spending and medical, while weaker categories were services, schools, fast food, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and entertainment.
We feel the questions from investors regarding the state of the movie category, this category is not significant for us, representing less than 1% of our time sales. Same-station spending by the automotive sector represented 21.3% of our time sales and grew 2% in the quarter, in line with our guidance of low single-digit percent growth due to the Super Bowl being on fewer of our stations this year as compared to last.
Turning to our outlook for second quarter. We are estimating that net broadcast revenues will be approximately $211.2 million to $212.2 million, up 32.6% to 33.2% as compared to second quarter 2011. This assumes $4 million of political versus $1.2 million in the same period last year. Also included is $47.5 million of revenue related to the acquisitions, which includes Freedom's results. Excluding the acquisitions and political, our core revenues on a same-station basis are expected to be up 1.8% to 2.4% in the quarter.
Our second quarter on a same-station basis is expected to be driven by retrans renewals, digital interactive revenues and time sales growth. Categories expected to grow are automotive, direct response, and restaurants. While schools, telecom, entertainment, services paid, and fast food are expected to be down. Auto, which will be cycling over the impact of the tsunami last year, is expected to be up mid-teen percent in the second quarter on a same-station basis.
On the expense side, we are forecasting our TV production and SG&A expenses in the second quarter to be approximately $106.2 million, of which $24.2 million relates to the acquisitions. $1.4 million relates to corporate expenses that we will be allocating to the stations, $300,000 to non-cash stock-based compensation. Excluding these, same-station expenses will be up 10.3% over the second quarter last year. Included in the $7.5 million same-station increase is higher reverse retrans payment for the networks, station maintenance expenses, our compensation and bonus expense and variable expenses relating to higher sales.
The acquisitions are expected to contribute $21.2 million of EBITDA in the quarter. The same station EBITDA is expected to be down $4 million to $5 million due to the expense growth as discussed. Based on our guidance included in our earnings release provided this morning, we are expecting EBITDA in the second quarter to be approximately $82.4 million to $83.4 million, or up 24.5% to 26% over the same period last year.
With that, I now would like to open it up for questions.