Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Joe Jaffoni – Investor Relations

Perry Sook – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Tom Carter – President and Chief Operating Officer

Lee Ann Gliha – Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Dan Kurnos – Benchmark

Craig Huber – Huber Research Partners

Jim Goss – Barrington Research

Benjamin Soff – Deutsche Bank

Steven Cahall – Wells Fargo

Barton Crockett – Rosenblatt Securities

Nick Zangler – Stephens

Alan Gould – Loop Capital

Operator

Good day, and welcome to Nexstar Media Group's First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded.

And now I'll turn the conference over to Joe Jaffoni, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Joe Jaffoni

Thank you, Kyle, and good morning, everyone. Let me read the safe harbor language, and then we'll get right into the call and your questions and answers. All statements and comments made by management during this conference call other than statements of historical fact, may be deemed forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Nexstar cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected by the forward statements made during this call.

For additional details on these risks and uncertainties, please see Nexstar's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Nexstar's subsequent public filings with the SEC. Nexstar undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Thank you for your patience. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the conference over to your host, Nexstar Chairman and CEO, Perry Sook. Perry, please go ahead.

Perry Sook

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you all joining us today to discuss Nexstar's first quarter results. With me on the call today is Tom Carter, our President and COO; and Lee Ann Gliha, our CFO. I will start with a summary of our recent highlights and developments, followed by Tom's operations review and Lee Ann's financial review.

Nexstar's first quarter financial results mark a very strong start to the year for the company. Record first quarter net revenues were driven by all-time high quarterly distribution revenue and the benefit of the CW acquisition, which more than offset the cyclical year-over-year decline in political and Olympic advertising. Net revenue, adjusted EBITDA and attributable free cash flow all came in ahead of consensus estimates, extending our long-term record of exceeding expectations.