Moody's: Sinclair Broadcast negative

Moody's Investors Service said it changed Sinclair Broadcast Group's outlook to negative from stable. In addition, Moody's lowered Sinclair's speculative grade liquidity rating to SGL-3 from SGL-2.

Moody's said the outlook change is due to lower-than-expected revenue growth for 2004, followed by the likelihood of still lower revenues in 2005, a non-election year, and concerns regarding management focus as evidenced by its intervention in its stations' traditional programming, exacerbating concerns regarding the weaker-than-expected operating environment and corporate governance.

Moreover, Sinclair's credit metrics were already weakly positioned for its rating category with debt-to-EBITDA of close to 8 times and interest coverage under 2 times.

Moody's also affirmed Sinclair's long term ratings, including the Ba2 rating on $625 million of senior secured credit facilities, B2 rating on $835 million of senior subordinated notes, B3 rating on $100 million of convertible senior subordinated notes, Caa1 rating on $173 million of preferred stock, Ba3 senior implied rating; and Ba3 senior unsecured issuer rating.

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