The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP): BCG Matrix [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking for a clear-eyed view of The E.W. Scripps Company's portfolio right now, so I've mapped their key businesses onto the classic BCG growth-share matrix based on late 2025 performance. The story shows high-flying Stars like Connected TV advertising, growing a strong 41%, funding the reliable Cash Cow of distribution fees bringing in $186 million in Q3, while the company navigates the sharp drop-off in political revenue-a Dog move from $125 million down to just $5.1 million-and the high-risk, high-investment Question Marks represented by the new Scripps Sports ventures, all while managing a 4.6x net leverage. Dive in below to see exactly where you should be focusing your attention on this media giant.

Background of The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP)

The E.W. Scripps Company, often just called Scripps, is an American broadcasting company with deep roots, having been founded way back in 1878 by Edward Willis Scripps as a chain of daily newspapers. You'll find its headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Scripps Center. The company has shed its non-broadcasting assets, selling off its 34 radio stations and its newspaper holdings to focus entirely on television broadcasting and digital distribution, a shift that was largely complete by the mid-2010s.

As of late 2025, Scripps remains one of the largest local broadcasters in the United States, operating dozens of television stations across more than 40 markets in 22 states. The corporate motto you might see is, 'Give light and the people will find their own way,' which ties into its public service legacy, including administering the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The company employs about 5,000 people, though workforce reductions followed in 2025 as part of streamlining efforts. For context, the company reported revenue of $2.5 billion in 2024.

The modern structure centers on a few key divisions. Local Media encompasses its core television stations, which provide local news and programming. Then there's Scripps Networks, which houses its national channels like ION, Court TV, Bounce, Grit, Laff, ION Mystery, Defy TV, and TrueReal, alongside the remaining streaming division of Scripps News. A newer, strategically important unit is Scripps Sports, which distributes professional and collegiate sports content, capitalizing on the shift away from regional sports networks.

Financially, the recent quarters show a company navigating a tough ad market while pushing its sports strategy. For the third quarter of 2025, The E.W. Scripps Company delivered revenue of $526 million, resulting in a loss attributable to shareholders of $49 million, or 55 cents per share. This followed a second quarter in 2025 where revenue was $540 million, a 5.8% drop year-over-year, with a loss of $51.7 million.

Looking closer at the segments, the Local Media division saw its Q3 core advertising revenue tick up 2% to $132 million, helped by national advertising and the sports strategy, even though political revenue was significantly lower than in the prior election year. The Scripps Networks division, however, is showing strong digital traction; its connected TV revenue was up 41% in Q3 2025, helping the division achieve a healthy 27% margin. The company is actively managing its balance sheet, having successfully refinanced debt, reducing its net leverage ratio to 4.4x following Q2 2025 transactions, which included placing $750 million in new notes.

Strategic portfolio optimization is ongoing; The E.W. Scripps Company announced a station swap with Gray Media and recently sold two network-affiliated stations for total proceeds of $123 million as of early November 2025. This focus on asset quality and debt reduction comes as the company faces external interest; in November 2025, rival Sinclair, Inc. disclosed an 8% stake and submitted a formal acquisition bid valuing Scripps at $538 million, or $7 per share.

The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) - BCG Matrix: Stars

Stars are the business units or products with the best market share and generating the most cash in a high-growth market. This means they consume large amounts of cash to maintain that growth, often resulting in cash flow that is near break-even. If market share is kept, Stars are likely to grow into cash cows when the market growth slows down. A key tenet of a Boston Consulting Group strategy for growth is to invest in these Stars.

For The E.W. Scripps Company, the digital and sports-centric network assets clearly fit this quadrant, showing high growth rates and leadership positions in emerging revenue streams. You're looking at the future cash generators, but they require continued capital support right now to cement that market position.

The performance metrics for these high-growth areas in the third quarter of 2025 clearly illustrate the Star profile:

• Connected TV (CTV) advertising revenue grew a strong 41% year-over-year in Q3 2025.
• The ION network's women's sports franchises, including the WNBA and NWSL, are commanding premium ad rates.
• WNBA revenue specifically was up 92% over the 2024 season.
• This high-growth digital stream is projected to exceed $120 million in 2025 revenue.

The Networks segment profit margin expanded to a healthy 27% in Q3 2025, a direct result of this growth combined with expense control, which is exactly what you want to see as these units mature. Here's a quick look at the key financials for the Networks division in Q3 2025:

The investment in sports rights and securing broad streaming distribution for networks like ION, Bounce TV, Court TV, Grit, and Laff is the action fueling this Star status. The strategy is to maintain this high market share in the growing CTV space so that when the growth rate naturally decelerates, these units transition into robust Cash Cows for The E.W. Scripps Company.

The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) - BCG Matrix: Cash Cows

You're analyzing the core, steady businesses within The E.W. Scripps Company, the ones that print money without needing massive new investment. That's the Cash Cow quadrant, and for SSP, the Local Media Distribution Revenue stream fits that description perfectly.

This revenue, derived from retransmission fees paid by cable and satellite providers, is the definition of a stable, contractual cash generator. For the third quarter of 2025, this segment generated exactly $186 million. What's telling here is that this figure remained flat year-over-year, holding steady at $186 million in Q3 2024 as well, even as the broader subscriber base continues to decline. That stability is gold for a company managing a significant balance sheet load. This segment's profit for the quarter was $52.8 million.

This reliable, high-margin cash flow is what you want to see when the company is servicing its obligations. As of September 30, 2025, The E.W. Scripps Company reported a total debt of $2.7 billion. The distribution revenue acts as a foundational layer to service that debt, requiring minimal promotional spend because the contracts lock in the revenue stream. To be fair, the core advertising within Local Media showed some life, with core advertising revenue up 1.8% in the quarter, which helps, but the distribution fees are the bedrock.

The stability is further reinforced by successful negotiations. The scenario indicates that successful contract renewals covering 25% of pay TV households stabilize the full-year distribution revenue outlook. This proactive management of the contract book ensures that this cash cow keeps producing predictable income, which is crucial for funding other, riskier parts of the portfolio, like Question Marks, or covering corporate overhead.

Here's a quick look at the Q3 2025 Local Media performance metrics that define this segment's Cash Cow status:

The key takeaway for you is the nature of this income stream. You can count on it.

• Contractual nature provides high visibility.
• Revenue stream is mature, requiring low growth investment.
• Directly supports debt servicing obligations.
• Segment profit was $52.8 million in the quarter.

Finance: draft the 13-week cash flow view incorporating the Q4 guidance for Local Media revenue, expected to be down about 30%, by Friday.

The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) - BCG Matrix: Dogs

You're looking at the segments of The E.W. Scripps Company that are tying up capital without delivering significant returns, which is what we call the Dogs quadrant in the BCG Matrix. These are the areas characterized by low market share in low-growth markets. Honestly, these units are prime candidates for divestiture because expensive turn-around plans rarely work out in the long run.

The most glaring example of this dynamic is the cyclical nature of Political Advertising Revenue in a non-election year cycle. This revenue stream is inherently volatile, spiking during election years and then collapsing in the off-cycle periods, making it a classic Dog when viewed outside of the presidential cycle.

For instance, look at the third quarter of 2025. The political revenue plummeted to just $5.1 million. That's a massive drop when you compare it to the $125 million The E.W. Scripps Company pulled in during the third quarter of 2024, which was an election year. That nearly 97.2 percent year-over-year decline in a single revenue line exposes the underlying weakness of this market segment in the off-cycle.

We can see the low underlying market growth reflected in the Legacy Local Media core advertising performance. While the company managed to grow this revenue stream, the pace is slow. Legacy Local Media core advertising only grew 1.8% in Q3 2025, reaching $132 million for the quarter. This modest growth suggests the core business isn't expanding rapidly, which is typical for a Dog category.

Here's a quick look at how the Local Media division fared in Q3 2025 compared to the prior year's political windfall, showing the cash drain when that political money isn't present:

The segment profit drop is stark; the Local Media segment profit was $52.8 million in Q3 2025, down significantly from $161 million in Q3 2024. That's the cash being trapped-money tied up in a low-growth market that doesn't generate the necessary returns when the election cycle ends.

To optimize the portfolio and free up cash, The E.W. Scripps Company is actively divesting assets that fit this profile. You see this in the sales of smaller, non-core station assets. Specifically, the company recently announced the sale of WFTX in Fort Myers and WRTV in Indianapolis. These transactions are designed to generate $123 million in proceeds, which supports the strategy to pay down debt. That cash generation from divestiture is the correct action for a Dog unit.

You should watch for these indicators as you assess the Dog quadrant:

• Political revenue showing a massive year-over-year decline.
• Core advertising growth in the low single digits, like 1.8%.
• Segment profit declining sharply post-election.
• Active announcements regarding asset sales for portfolio optimization.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

The E.W. Scripps Company (SSP) - BCG Matrix: Question Marks

You're looking at the Scripps Sports strategy as a prime example of a Question Mark. These are the high-growth bets that need serious cash to gain market share, and honestly, they can drain resources before they pay off. The E.W. Scripps Company is definitely putting capital to work here, hoping these ventures turn into Stars.

The core of this high-investment area is the new Scripps Sports strategy. This includes major local deals, like the multi-year agreement with the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning, which kicks off with the 2025-26 NHL season. To support this, The E.W. Scripps Company is launching a second full-power local station in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, WXPX-TV, branded as "The Spot - Tampa Bay 66," scheduled to launch on July 1, 2025. This aggressive pursuit of live sports rights also includes partnerships with the Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, and Utah Mammoth.

Here's a quick look at the expected near-term impact of this strategy:

• The sports strategy is expected to bolster Q4 core revenue growth by about 10%.
• Local Media expenses for Q4 are expected to be flat to down low single digits, inclusive of the new sports rights expense for the Lightning.
• The WNBA season on ION saw linear and connected TV revenue grow 92% over the 2024 season.
• Sports volume in the upfront cycle was up 30%, commanding premium ad rates.

Still, these high-growth, high-investment ventures carry elevated risk, especially given the balance sheet. The company's net leverage at the end of the third quarter was 4.6x. This is an improvement from 4.9x at the end of Q1 2025 and down from 6x in Q2 2024, but it's still a level that demands careful capital allocation. Remember, The E.W. Scripps Company is subject to a maximum first-lien net leverage ratio of 4.5x thereafter, meaning these investments need to start delivering returns to keep leverage trending down.

The performance of the Scripps Networks division itself shows the mixed results typical of a Question Mark. While the strategy is to grow market share in the high-growth streaming space, the overall revenue in Q3 2025 was nearly flat, indicating that the breakthrough moment hasn't fully materialized yet. For Q3 2025, the division revenue was $201 million, which was about flat compared to the year-ago quarter. However, the connected TV revenue stream, which is the high-growth area, was up 41% year-over-year.

You can see the current state of the Networks division here:

The division's ability to cut expenses by 7.5% helped it achieve a 27% margin in Q3, which is solid execution. But the guidance for Q4 suggests continued softness, projecting Networks division revenue to be down in the low double-digit range. This is why the division sits as a Question Mark: high growth potential in CTV, but the overall segment isn't yet a Cash Cow, and it needs to quickly convert that high growth into market share dominance to avoid becoming a Dog.