SCRIPPS NETWORKS INTERACTIVE

by Yebin Choi

BACKGROUND

The E.W. Scripps Company was founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878.

In July, 2008, the company separated into the publicly traded companies: The E.W. Scripps Company and Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI). The E.W. Scripps Company works with newspapers, TV stations, as well as licensing and syndication, while Scripps Networks Interactive has become the leader of media delivering viewers with information and entertainment in home, lifestyle, food, and travel. They are involved with the more popular household television names such as Food Network, HGTV, and the Travel Channel.

Scripps also operates the national spelling bee, though the competitions are broadcasted on ESPN and ABC.

ACQUISITIONS IN 2012

December 30, 2011: Scripps acquires McGraw-Hill
The E.W. Scripps Company finally successfully acquired 9 stations of the McGraw-Hill television station in December of 2011. Scripps announced their intent on purchasing the McGraw-Hill television station around October, and with the approval of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the transaction was finally made. This purchase will expand Scripps’ affiliation with ABC as well as the spanish Azteca America network. The transaction was made for $212 million, in cash.[1]

January 31: Scripps acquires Real Gravity Inc.
On January 31, SNI announced the successful agreement of the acquisition of Real Gravity Inc., a California based company that specializes in online video publishing and technology. Founded in 2009, SNI hopes Real Gravity Inc. will greatly aid and enhance their foothold in the realm of digital video capabilities and distribution with their fast growing lifestyle media businesses. [2]

March 22: Scripps acquires Travel Channel International
Scripps announced their acquisition of Travel Channel International (TCI) on March 22. The transaction took place for £65 million, or $105.43 million [3]. TCI was formed in 2004 with headquarters located in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for distributing popular original Travel Channel programming to 91 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. [4]

FINANCES

2011 FOURTH QUARTER REPORT
SNI released their fourth quarter reports for 2011 on February 9, 2012 and announced double-digit revenue growth over the past year. Consolidated revenues for the fourth quarter increased 10% to $553 million while advertising revenues increased 11% to $394 million. Segment profits also saw significant increase ($257million; 14% increase) along with smaller increases in areas such as affiliate fee revenues.[5]

Revenues for the fourth quarter of SNI networks are as follows:

• Food Network : $204 million, up 15%
• HGTV: $191 million, up 8.1%
• Travel Channel: $67.2 million, down 1.4%
• DIY Network: $26.9 million, up 18%
• Cooking Channel: $17.8 million, up 14%
• Great American Country (GAC): $6.6 million, down 15%

Most networks have seen significant increase, such as Food Network, Cooking Channel, an the DIY Network. While the Travel Channel has seen a slight dip in their revenue percent, GAC saw a revenue decrease of 15%. [5]

2011 FULL YEAR SUMMARY
SNI saw significant increases in almost all of their revenue areas during 2011.

• Consolidated Operating Revenue: $2.1 billion, up 10% from 2010
• Advertising Revenue: $1.4 billion, up 11% from 2010
• Affiliate Fee Revenue: $589 million, up 6.1 percent from 2010
• Segment Profit: $977 million, up 17 percent from 2010

Consolidated income from continuing operations attributable to Scripps Networks Interactive also increased from $398 million to $473 million, making what was $2.37 per share now worth $2.86 per share. [5]

PREDICTIONS FOR 2012
It is predicted that programming expenses and non-programming expenses will increase by 13-15% and 10-12% for the year 2012 in order to facilitate the increase of viewership across all of their networks and to “accelerate investments in developing international, interactive, and digital businesses”. The total revenue for SNI is expected to increase 8~10% during the year 2012. [5]

UPFRONTS FOR 2012:

Scripps Networks Interactive held their annual upfront this year at Foxwood’s Theater in Manhattan. The latest news about Scripps and their channels was already announced before the event, but Scripps went big with their 90-minute presentation this year. Their focus on the pitches were still geared toward “the high level of interplay between its ad partners and its creative side”. [6]

FOOD NETWORK

Food Network and the Cooking Channel announced their lineup for 2012 with a combined total 35 returning shows and 22 new series and specials.[7]

 

 

 

New Nighttime Series:

• Meat Men premiered April 9, 11PM ET
• Cupcake Champions May 13, 8PM ET
• Invention Hunters May 13, 8PM ET
• Mystery Diners May 25, 10PM ET
• Chopped:Grill Masters July 22, 10PM ET
• $24 in 24 hours (working title) August, 2012
• Undercover Critics September, 2012
• Sugar Dome October, 2012
• Blind Dinner Party October, 2012

Some of the new shows are brand new, such as Meat Men, Mystery Diners, and Invention Hunters, while others are based off of existing popular shows, such as Cupcake Champions, a spinoff of Cupcake Wars, and Chopped: Grill Masters, a spinoff of Chopped.

New Daytime Series:

• Trisha’s Southern Kitchen premiered April 14, 10:30AM ET
• Home for Dinner with Jamie Deen June 16, 10:30AM ET

Additional new daytime series include Sunny Travels (working title) where Sunny Anderson travels to find the best home recipes and a show hosted by Sandra Lee where she reveals to fans even more of her entertaining tricks cooking tips.

Returning Primetime Shows:

• Chopped: All Stars ( Season 2 ) – April 8, 9PM ET
• Food Network Star ( Season 8 ) – May 13 9PM ET
• The Great Food Truck Race ( Season 3 ) – August 19, 9PM ET
• Extreme Chef ( Season 2 ) – August 2012
• The Next Iron Chef: Redemption ( Season 5 ) – November 4, 9PM ET

Returning Daytime Shows:

• The Best Thing I Ever Made ( Season 2 ) – premiered April 8, 11:30AM ET
• The Pioneer Woman ( Season 3 ) – Fall 2012

Specials:

• Hunger Hits Home premiered April 14, 8PM ET
• Grilling Live! June 2, 12PM-2PM ET
• Thanksgiving Live! November 18 12PM-2PM ET

TRAVEL CHANNEL

The Travel Channel announced in April their “okay” on 3 pilots and 2 new original series for 2012. Coffee Hunter and City Swappers are the two anticipated original series still in development. Barn Finds, Kevin Michael Connolly Project, and Power Trip with Jason Harper (all working titles) are the three pilots. Barn Finds is planned to air as two 30-minute pilots and Kevin Michael Connolly Project and Power Trip with Jason Harper are to air as one hour premieres. [8]

HGTV

 

HGTV is returning for 2012 with 7 new original series.

• Mom Caves May 12, 8:30PM ET
• Design Star: All Stars July 31, 9PM ET
• Buying and Selling (working title) September 2012
• Scoring the Deal October 2012
• Million Dollar Rooms April 24, 8:30PM ET

Other new additions to their lineup include House Hunters: Where are they Now? (working title), scheduled to air October of 2012, and Living Abroad, its premiere still to be determined. Both new series are spinoffs of the show House Hunters. [9]

COOKING CHANNEL

 

FoodNetwork and the Cooking Channel announced in March their lineup for 2012 with a combined total 35 returning shows and 22 new series and specials.

 

 

New Primetime Series

• Road Trip with G Garvin May 29, 9PM ET
• The Culinary Adventures of Baron Ambrosia June 1, 10PM ET
• Eden Eats August 2012
• Cheap Bites August 2012
• Eat the Street September 2012
• Man, Fire, Food September 2012
• My Grandmother’s Ravioli Fall 2012

Returning Primetime Series

• Easy Chinese ( Season 2 ) June 2, 8:30 PM ET
• Not My Mama’s Meals ( Season 2 ) August 2012
• Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen ( Season 3 ) September 2012
• Symon’s Suppers ( Season 2 ) September 2012
• Unique Sweets ( Season 3 ) October 2012
• Extra Virgin ( Season 3 ) Fall 2012

Returning Daytime Series

• The Perfect Three ( Season 2 ) May 12, 2:30PM ET
• Kelsey’s Essentials ( Season 4 ) Fall 2012
• Drop 5Lbs. with Good Housekeeping ( Season 2 ) January 2013

RECENT NEWS

FOOD NETWORK’S HIGHEST JANUARY
Food Network was the highest-rated, most-watched network for the month of January. [10] It delivered a 40% gain in ratings, and a 21% gain in impressions [10] with a viewership demographic of 69% females, 63% between the ages of 25-54, and a median age of 46. [11] This first month of January averaged 1.4 million viewers.

A.B. CRUZ III STEPS DOWN
SNI Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, A.B. Cruz, stepped down from his position on March 29, 2012. Cruz served as the officer for SNI for 8 years, and will now “devote more of his time to guiding the company’s government affairs activities and allow him greater flexibility to fulfill his responsibilities as a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy Reserve.” [12]

TRAVEL CHANNEL PROMOTIONS
On February 7, 2012, it was announced that Marietta Hurwitz would be appointed to Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital at the Travel Channel. Hurwitz will be in charge of the Travel Channel’s brand distribution across digital platforms as well as the network keeps up with today’s fact paced society to stretch across multi-platforms. [13] Andy Singer, also with Travel Channel, became the General Manager for the network later on that month on February, 29. [14]

 

 

SOURCES:

1. (Scripps acquires McGraw-Hill) retrieved from:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scripps-completes-acquisition-of-nine-television-stations-from-mcgraw-hill-136431958.html

2. (Scripps acquires Real Gravity Inc.) retrieved from:
http://pressreleases.sninetwork.com/downloads/pressreleases/1201/1201.pdf

3. http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=currency+converter#hl=en&ei=tD-gT7HlE8Ha0QGK8OGlAg&sa=X&oi=currency_onebox&ct=currency_onebox_convert&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6wgwAA&q=65000000+GBP+to+USD&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=94550080af715d0f&biw=1276&bih=683

4. (Scripps acquires Travel Channel International) retrieved from:
http://www.scrippsnetworks.com/newsitem.aspx?id=674 

5. (Finances) retrieved from:
http://pressreleases.sninetwork.com/downloads/pressreleases/1202/1202.pdf

6. (Upfronts) retrieved from:
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/scripps-goes-big-2012-upfront-139839

7. (Food Network, Cooking Channel Upfronts) retrieved from:
http://newsroom.scrippsnetworks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5141 

8. (Travel Channel Upfronts) retrieved from:
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/entry/110025/travel-channel-upfront-two-new-series-three-pilots/ 

9. (HGTV Upfronts) retrieved from:
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/entry/109932/hgtv-upfront-seven-new-original-programs/ 

10. (Food Network’s Highest January) retrieved from:
http://www.scrippsnetworks.com/newsitem.aspx?id=653

11. (Food Network Demographics) retrieved from:
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/entry/109966/food-network-upfront-a-robust-menu-of-new-returning-special-shows/

12. (A.B. Cruz Steps Down) retrieved from:
http://pressreleases.sninetwork.com/downloads/pressreleases/1208/1208.pdf

13. (Hurwitz Promoted) retrieved from:
http://www.scrippsnetworks.com/newsitem.aspx?id=655

14. (Singer Promoted) retrieved from:
http://www.scrippsnetworks.com/newsitem.aspx?id=667

All images courtesy of Google