BALTIMORE, Feb. 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sinclair, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI), the "Company" or "Sinclair," today reported financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2025.
Highlights:
- Met or exceeded guidance on all key financial metrics
- Full year Adjusted EBITDA of $483 million
- Full-year core advertising revenue grew by $71 million over 2024
CEO Comment:
“Sinclair delivered a strong fourth quarter, with total revenue exceeding the midpoint of guidance and Adjusted EBITDA above expectations, driven by solid core advertising growth and disciplined expense management. These results reflect both continued demand for live sports and a rebound from the economic uncertainty in the second and third quarters. Throughout 2025, we remained focused on controlling what we can control by executing consistently in our core business, optimizing our portfolio, strengthening liquidity, and extending maturities to position the company for long-term deleveraging. We enter 2026 with resilient distribution revenue, an expected record mid-term political cycle, and a compelling live sports calendar, which will help drive meaningful cash flow generation and long-term value creation for our stakeholders.”
Recent Company Developments:
Content and Distribution:
- Sinclair's newsrooms won a total of 246 journalism awards, including 32 regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and four National Headliner Awards.
- Completed renewals with multiple of our MVPD and vMVPD partners
- AMP Media's Podcast slate expanded into the NBA with new "Cousins" Podcast hosted by NBA icons Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
- Launched Amazing America 250: From Neighborhood to Nation Campaign to Celebrate America's Semiquincentennial, which will unite Sinclair's entire portfolio of assets to honor America's legacy through original programming, local features, digital activations and special events
Community:
- In total for the year Sinclair donated an estimated $5.7 million of on-air promotional time, helping 300+ different charitable organizations. Through the help of Sinclair Cares and our communities, the company helped raise nearly $23 million for non-profit organizations, schools, community agencies, local disaster relief, and charitable contributions.
- In November, Sinclair Cares: Fill The Food Banks, raised over $43,000 for Feeding America including a $25,000 donation from Sinclair.
Investment Portfolio:
- In 2025, Sinclair Ventures, LLC (Ventures) made approximately $50 million in minority investments as required by outstanding funding commitments and received distributions of approximately $104 million, $86 million of which were received in the fourth quarter, as we continue to pivot towards majority-controlled operating businesses.
Station Portfolio Optimization:
- As of February 25th, we have closed on 15 partner station acquisitions and we anticipate almost all of the broadcast portfolio optimizations by mid-year.
Financial Results:
Three Months Ended December 31, 2025 Consolidated Financial Results:
| ($ in millions) | Three Months Ended | Percent Change | |||||||||||
| December 31, 2025 | September 30, 2025 | December 31, 2024 | QTQ | YOY | |||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 836 | $ | 773 | $ | 1,004 | 8% | (17)% | |||||
| Distribution revenue | 438 | 422 | 441 | 4% | (1)% | ||||||||
| Core advertising revenue | 354 | 315 | 311 | 12% | 14% | ||||||||
| Political advertising revenue | 14 | 6 | 203 | 133% | (93)% | ||||||||
| Other media and non-media revenue | 30 | 30 | 49 | —% | (39)% | ||||||||
| Net income (loss) attributable to the Company | 109 | (1 | ) | 176 | n/m | (38)% | |||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(a) | 168 | 100 | 330 | 68% | (49)% | ||||||||
| n/m - not meaningful | |
| (a) | Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and non-recurring and unusual transaction, implementation, legal, regulatory and other costs, as well as certain non-cash items such as stock-based compensation expense and other gains and losses less amortization of program costs. Refer to the reconciliation at the end of this press release and the Company’s website. |
Year Ended December 31, 2025 Consolidated Financial Results:
| ($ in millions) | Year Ended | Percent Change | ||||||||||||
| December 31, 2025 | December 31, 2024 | December 31, 2023 | 25 vs '24 | 24 vs '23 | ||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 3,169 | $ | 3,548 | $ | 3,134 | (11)% | 13% | ||||||
| Distribution revenue | 1,745 | 1,746 | 1,680 | —% | 4% | |||||||||
| Core advertising revenue | 1,277 | 1,206 | 1,241 | 6% | (3)% | |||||||||
| Political advertising revenue | 32 | 405 | 44 | (92)% | 820% | |||||||||
| Other media and non-media revenue | 115 | 191 | 169 | (40)% | 13% | |||||||||
| Net (loss) income attributable to the Company | (112 | ) | 310 | (291 | ) | n/m | n/m | |||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(a) | 483 | 876 | 557 | (45)% | 57% | |||||||||
| n/m - not meaningful | |
| (a) | Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and non-recurring and unusual transaction, implementation, legal, regulatory and other costs, as well as certain non-cash items such as stock-based compensation expense and other gains and losses less amortization of program costs. Refer to the reconciliation at the end of this press release and the Company’s website. |
Segment financial information is included in the following tables for the periods presented. The Local Media segment consists primarily of broadcast television stations, which the Company owns, operates or to which the Company provides services, and includes multicast networks and original content. The Local Media segment assets are owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, LLC (SBG). The Tennis segment consists primarily of Tennis Channel, a cable network which includes coverage of most of tennis' top tournaments and original professional sport and tennis lifestyle shows; the Tennis Channel International subscription and streaming service; Tennis Channel streaming service; TennisChannel 2, a 24-hours a day free ad-supported streaming television channel; and Tennis.com. Other includes non-broadcast digital solutions such as Digital Remedy, technical services, and other non-media investments. The assets of the Tennis segment and Other are owned and operated by Ventures.
| Three months ended December 31, 2025 | Local Media | Tennis | Other | Corporate and Eliminations | Consolidated | |||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | ||||||||||||||||
| Distribution revenue | $ | 384 | $ | 54 | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 438 | ||||||
| Core advertising revenue | 312 | 7 | 44 | (9 | ) | 354 | ||||||||||
| Political advertising revenue | 14 | — | — | — | 14 | |||||||||||
| Other media revenue | 24 | 1 | — | (1 | ) | 24 | ||||||||||
| Media revenue | $ | 734 | $ | 62 | $ | 44 | $ | (10 | ) | $ | 830 | |||||
| Non-media revenue | — | — | 7 | (1 | ) | 6 | ||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 734 | $ | 62 | $ | 51 | $ | (11 | ) | $ | 836 | |||||
| Media programming and production expenses | $ | 378 | $ | 24 | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 402 | ||||||
| Media selling, general and administrative expenses | 169 | 17 | 35 | (10 | ) | 211 | ||||||||||
| Non-media expenses | 2 | — | 10 | — | 12 | |||||||||||
| Amortization of program costs | 17 | — | — | — | 17 | |||||||||||
| Corporate general and administrative expenses | 33 | — | 2 | 13 | 48 | |||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 7 | — | 2 | 1 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Non-recurring and unusual transaction, implementation, legal, regulatory and other costs | 11 | — | 1 | — | 12 | |||||||||||
| Interest expense (net)(a) | 80 | — | (5 | ) | — | 75 | ||||||||||
| Capital expenditures | 18 | 1 | — | — | 19 | |||||||||||
| Distributions to the noncontrolling interests | 3 | — | — | — | 3 | |||||||||||
| Cash distributions from investments | — | — | 86 | — | 86 | |||||||||||
| Net cash taxes paid | 11 | |||||||||||||||
| Net income | 116 | |||||||||||||||
| Operating income (loss) | 75 | 15 | 3 | (13 | ) | 80 | ||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(b) | 153 | 21 | 7 | (13 | ) | 168 | ||||||||||
| Note: Certain amounts may not summarize to totals due to rounding differences. | |
| (a) | Interest expense (net) excludes deferred financing costs, original issue discount amortization, and other non-cash interest expense, and is net of interest income. |
| (b) | Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and non-recurring and unusual transaction, implementation, legal, regulatory and other costs, as well as certain non-cash items such as stock-based compensation expense and other gains and losses less amortization of program costs. Refer to the reconciliation at the end of this press release and the Company’s website. |
| Three months ended December 31, 2024 | Local Media | Tennis | Other | Corporate and Eliminations | Consolidated | |||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue: | ||||||||||||||||
| Distribution revenue | $ | 392 | $ | 49 | $ | — | $ | — | $ | 441 | ||||||
| Core advertising revenue | 300 | 7 | 9 | (5 | ) | 311 | ||||||||||
| Political advertising revenue | 203 | — | — | — | 203 | |||||||||||
| Other media revenue | 37 | 1 | — | (1 | ) | 37 | ||||||||||
| Media revenue | $ | 932 | $ | 57 | $ | 9 | $ | (6 | ) | $ | 992 | |||||
| Non-media revenue | — | — | 13 | (1 | ) | 12 | ||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 932 | $ | 57 | $ | 22 | $ | (7 | ) | $ | 1,004 | |||||
| Media programming and production expenses | $ | 387 | $ | 27 | $ | — | — | $ | 414 | |||||||
| Media selling, general and administrative expenses | 193 | 11 | 5 | (6 | ) | 203 | ||||||||||
| Non-media expenses | 2 | — | 12 | — | 14 | |||||||||||
| Amortization of program costs | 19 | — | — | — | 19 | |||||||||||
| Corporate general and administrative expenses | 23 | — | 1 | 12 | 36 | |||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 8 | — | — | — | 8 | |||||||||||
| Non-recurring and unusual transaction, implementation, legal, regulatory and other costs | 5 | — | (1 | ) | — | 4 | ||||||||||
| Interest expense (net)(a) | 68 | — | (5 | ) | — | 63 | ||||||||||
| Capital expenditures | 18 | 1 | 4 | — | 23 | |||||||||||
| Distributions to the noncontrolling interests | 3 | — | 1 | — | 4 | |||||||||||
| Cash distributions from investments | — | — | 47 | — | 47 | |||||||||||
| Net cash taxes paid | — | |||||||||||||||
| Net income | 179 | |||||||||||||||
| Operating income (loss) | 258 | 14 | 6 | (12 | ) | 266 | ||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(b) | 321 | 19 | 3 | (13 | ) | 330 | ||||||||||
| Note: Certain amounts may not summarize to totals due to rounding differences. | |
| (a) | Interest expense (net) excludes deferred financing costs, original issue discount amortization, and other non-cash interest expense, and is net of interest income. |
| (b) | Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and non-recurring and unusual transaction, implementation, legal, regulatory and other costs, as well as certain non-cash items such as stock-based compensation expense and other gains and losses less amortization of program costs. Refer to the reconciliation at the end of this press release and the Company’s website. |
Consolidated Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Highlights of the Company:
- Total Company debt was $4,383 million, all of which is indebtedness to STG.
- Cash and cash equivalents was $866 million, of which $401 million was SBG cash and $465 million was Ventures cash. In addition the Company has $612.5 million of available borrowing capacity under its revolver, bringing available liquidity to $1.5 billion.
- STG Credit Agreement Leverage Metrics1
- First Out First Lien Leverage Ratio – 1.5x (Covenant – 3.5x2)
- Total Leverage Ratio – 5.3x (Covenant –