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And thank you for taking the time to join us for our first quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. Joining me for today's discussion are Bob Pittman, our Chairman and CEO and Rich Bressler, our President, COO and CFO. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, management will take your questions. In addition to our press release, we have an earnings presentation available on our website that you can use to follow along with our note that this call may include forward looking statements regarding our financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management's current expectations, and actual results could differ from what is stated as a result of certain factors identified on today's call in the company's SEC filings including our recent eight ks filing. Additionally, during this call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between GAAP and non GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release earnings presentation our SEC filings. Which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. And now I'll turn the call over to Bob. Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. I know all of you are trying to read the tea leaves on this advertising marketplace in this uncertain environment.
11m 23s
And so are we. At this point in time, we're seeing generally stable ad spend but we of course continue to monitor it closely due to the lack of visibility. Even with that lack of visibility, let me remind you that over the past few years, we've repeatedly shown our ability to take quick and decisive action on both cost and growth opportunities for the benefit of both the immediate and long term and to leverage new technologies that significantly reduce our operating expenses without reducing our capabilities. We remain committed to identifying opportunities across our organization to operate more efficiently and take advantage of new and evolving technologies like programmatic and AI which are critical to delivering short term results and long term growth. Even during periods of economic uncertainty. Now let me jump to the financial results. In the first quarter, we generated adjusted EBITDA $105,000,000 flat to prior year and consistent with our previously provided guidance. Our consolidated revenue for the quarter was up 1% compared to the prior year quarter above our guide of down low single digits. Excluding the impact of political, our consolidated revenue was up 1.8%. Turning to our individual operating segments, the Digital Audio Group generated first quarter revenue of $277,000,000 up 16% versus prior year.
12m 44s
The Digital Audio Group generated first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $87,000,000 up 27.8% versus prior year and the Digital Audio Group's adjusted EBITDA margins were 31.4% compared to 28.5% in the prior year making continued progress toward our stated goal of achieving adjusted EBITDA margins in the mid-30s. Within the Digital Audio Group, our podcast revenue grew 28% compared to prior year, well above our revenue guidance of up high teens. We're beginning to feel the flywheel effect of being the strong number one in podcast publishing. Our podcasting financial discipline and our focus on the high margin podcast publishing sector continue to fuel what we believe is the most profitable podcasting business in The United States and to accelerate our growth. Importantly, our podcasting EBITDA margins remain accretive to our total company EBITDA margins. Our non digital revenues grew 8.7% compared to prior year. Turning now to the multi platform group, which includes our broadcast radio, networks and events businesses. In the first quarter revenue was $473,000,000 down 4.2% versus prior year and excluding the impact of political advertising revenue was down 3.4%. The multi platform groups adjusted EBITDA was $70,000,000 down 9.3% versus prior year. Let me share with you a data point from this quarter which we believe illustrates the progress we're making in moving our broadcast radio business back into growth mode.
14m 15s
Included in our multi platform group is our premier broadcast radio networks business which sells broadcast radio advertising with national reach instead of market by market or local advertising. Our premier broadcast networks revenue returned to growth in Q1 and was up 2.1% compared to prior year. We believe this is an important indicator of the growing strength broadcast radio has among national advertisers and evidence of the progress we're making in returning broadcast radio to revenue growth. Additionally, we continue to increase our share of the radio industry advertising revenue pie. In the first quarter, iHeart grew to 40% of the advertising revenue and markets measured by Miller Kaplan. Given our audience reach, plus the investments we've made in ad tech and data, coupled with the fact that we have the largest sales force in audio, we expect that share growth to continue. Turning to the Audio and Media Services Group, revenue was 59,000,000 down 14.2% year over year and adjusted EBITDA was $16,000,000 down 33.3%. And most of that decline was driven by Katz Television. Excluding the impact of political, the audio and media Group revenue was down 11.8%. In summary, we believe we're demonstrating one, our ability to generate positive financial results even in an uncertain environment two, our continued podcast outperformance as we submit our number one leadership position three, our commitment to reignite growth in our broadcast radio business and four, that our modernization program remains on track to generate $150,000,000 net savings in 2025 driven primarily by technology and AI.
15m 56s
And now I'll turn it over to Rich. Thank you, Bob, and good afternoon. Our Q1 twenty twenty five consolidated revenue was up 1% year over year above the guidance we provided down low single digits due to March coming in slightly better than we were expecting in both our multi platform and digital segments. Let me provide you with some additional granularity on our advertising revenue performance this quarter. As a reminder, we have no advertising category greater than about 5% of our total advertising revenue and no individual advertiser that is more than 2% our total advertising revenue. In the first quarter, our top five largest advertising categories in terms of total revenue were healthcare, financial services, homebuilding and improvement, entertainment and auto. In terms of gains and declines in absolute dollars, as you can see on Slide nine, the four largest gains in the first quarter were professional services, tech and telco, beauty and fitness and education. And the four categories that declined the most were restaurants, auto, gambling, and political. Our consolidated direct operating expenses increased 4.4% for the quarter. This increase was primarily driven by higher variable content costs associated with the growth in our digital business, including higher podcast profit sharing expenses and third party digital costs, partially offset by a decrease in employee compensation costs connection with our modernization initiatives taken in 02/2024.
17m 31s
Our consolidated SG and A expenses decreased 1.1% for the quarter, driven primarily by our modernization initiatives including decreased employee compensation costs, partially offset by an increase in employee health and benefit expenses including the reestablishment of the four zero one k matching program during the February and additional bad debt expense. We generated first quarter GAAP operating loss of $25,400,000 compared to an operating loss of $34,700,000 in the prior year quarter. We generated first quarter adjusted EBITDA of 105,000,000 flat to prior year and at the midpoint of our previously provided guidance range. Before I turn to our segment performances, wanted to spend the moment on the modernization initiative we announced on last quarter's call. As a reminder, these actions will generate net savings of $150,000,000 in 2025 when compared to 2024. And our Q1 results included the benefit of $27,000,000 of net savings. This quarter, we have included a slide in our investor presentation Slide five, that provides a few different ways of identifying the cost savings including by segment, function and type. Hopefully, this level of granularity is helpful as you update your models. Turning now to the performance of our operating segments. And as a reminder, there are slides in the earnings presentation on our segment performances.
19m 3s
In the first quarter, the Digital Audio Group's revenue was $277,000,000 up 16% year over year and above our guidance of up low double digits. The Digital Audio Group's adjusted EBITDA was 87,000,000 up 27.8% year over year and our Q1 margins 31.4%, up from 28.5% in the prior year. Within the digital audio group, our podcasting revenues were $116,000,000 which grew 28% year over year and well above the guidance we provided of up high teens. Podcasting strong Q1 performance with its high EBITDA flow through help expand the segment's Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin by nearly 300 basis points compared to prior year. Our first quarter non podcasting digital revenue grew 8.7% year over year to $161,000,000 The multi platform group revenue was $473,000,000 down 4.2% compared to the prior year in line with our guidance of down mid single digits. Excluding the impact of political revenue, our multiplatform group revenue was down 3.4% adjusted EBITDA was 70,000,000 down 9.3% from 77,000,000 in the prior year quarter. Multi platform Group's adjusted EBITDA margins were 14.8% compared to 15.6% in the prior year quarter. Turning to the Audio Media Services Group, revenue was $59,000,000 down 14.2% year over year and adjusted EBITDA was 16,000,000 down 33.3% from $24,000,000 in the prior year and most of that decline was driven by Cats Television.
20m 54s
Excluding the impact of political, the Audio and Media Services Group revenue was down 11.8%. At quarter end, our net debt was approximately $4,600,000,000 Our total liquidity was $569,000,000 and our cash balance was 168,000,000 Our quarter ending net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 6.5 times. In the first quarter, our free cash flow was a negative 80,700,000.0 essentially flat to the negative $80,900,000 in the prior year quarter. As a reminder, Q1 is our seasonal low point for free cash flow in the year we expect to generate positive free cash flow each of the remaining quarters in 2025. With Bob's comments on the advertising marketplace as a backdrop, let me now turn to our second quarter guidance. Expect to generate second quarter adjusted EBITDA in the range of 140,000,000 to $160,000,000 compared to $150,000,000 in the prior year. We expect our consolidated Q2 twenty twenty five revenue to be down low single digits compared to prior year. Our April pacing was down 2% compared to prior year and down 1.4% excluding the impact of political. Turning to the individual segments for Q2, expect the Digital Audio Group's revenue to be up low double digits with podcasting revenue expected to grow in the low 20s.
22m 23s
We expect the multi platform group's revenue to be down mid to high single digits. And we expect the audio media services group revenue be down approximately 5% due primarily to the impact of political advertising. The full year guidance we issued last quarter did not contemplate the current macro volatility we are all seeing. Therefore, for us to date our full year guidance, we will need some positive movement in the macro and improvement to the uncertainty in the back half of the year to avoid the possible negative impact on the advertising marketplace for audio. Now we will turn it over to the operator to take your questions. Thank you.
23m 3s
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask We'll go first to Steven Laschuk at Goldman Sachs.
23m 23s
Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. Maybe two if I could.
23m 27s
Bob, Rich, just on the ad market, I know you mentioned the lack of visibility. That's out there in the moment. I'm curious if you could perhaps just add in a little bit of color to what you're seeing out there at the moment and conversations you're having with your ad partners. I'd be curious to what extent they pulled back after the tariff announcements. Over the last couple of weeks, to what extent you might be starting to see them reengage over the last couple of days here especially post this morning. And I'm curious to what extent or what do think we need to get visibility and return to the ad market here over the the next couple of weeks and months? [indiscernible] today is certainly helpful.
24m 8s
And I think if you go back and look at data point we had in for Premier Networks, which is really our national advertising, we're up over 2% for the quarter. I think that's sort of an indication that the bigger advertisers were hanging in there and taking this in stride. I think the risk has been in the small and medium sized businesses which were I think a little more subject to any sort of bad news. And again, I think improving news like today helps that and we feel better about it.
24m 39s
Yeah. No. I have anything to add. And I think just in terms of what you're seeing, I mean, we gave you the pacing numbers where we are through April. And again, you might as I remind we always remind all of ourselves every day are pacing just a point in time. Just remember, when we gave guidance in Q1, we said that we were up 5% in January. Down about 7% in February. Terms of pacing at that point in time or finishing January. We said we'd be down low single digits in revenue for Q1 and we were up 1%. You saw what we reported today. So that's why it's a data point but again, it's just a point in time.
25m 21s
Got it. That's helpful. And then, Bob, maybe a higher level question for you. I think you called out market share today. In and around 40% of the the industry think investors think of you as a as a market share gainer, but just curious if you could speak a little bit more about the state of the terrestrial radio industry today and maybe what gives you confidence can take that market share from 40% today to to something north of that over the next couple of years?
25m 46s
Yeah. I I think that look. I think the the fundamental with broadcast radio is we've got more listeners than we did ten years ago. That the audience side of broadcast radio just fine. This is a monetization issue that broadcast radio is facing. It's making the transformation from being a business that was sold as spots And today, it's moving to electronic and digital platforms. And I think we're making that transformation. Our ad tech stack is is moving along as as expected. Programmatics certainly beginning to emerge for broadcast radio as well. And I think probably the biggest argument for the share gain is that given our size, what you're finding, I think, especially with the larger advertising partners is they want fewer partners, not more partners. And I think we are certainly would have to be partner number one. What other partners they have in radio, I know. I think that's probably beneficial to us as the industry consolidates.
26m 51s
And Steve, it's Rich. Might just add just two very quick points. One of, as you look forward, if you kind of go back over the last, whatever eight, nine, ten, eleven years, we've consistently taken share. Of the broadcast from the capital standpoint. So I think [indiscernible] they can from a credibility standpoint, we've taken share going back. And number two, we have heard feedback, which was very good, about, okay, you've talked about audience more Can you give us data points in terms of broadcast? And that's what we shared with you today, Bob just articulated with respect to premier networks.
27m 37s
We'll move next next to Sebastiano Petty at JPMorgan.
27m 43s
Hi, thanks for taking the question.
27m 46s
Podcasting in the first quarter coming through better than expected. You know, Second quarter guide, Rich, talks about, or you're guiding to continued acceleration in 20% range plus. Help us think about what's underlying that. Obviously, guys have been a leader in podcasting for quite some time, but we hear the narrative about consumption moving to video and YouTube video podcasting. YouTube now a larger player in the market. So any color around what's driving that and how you guys continue to accelerate that top line?
28m 19s
And then one other kind of more thematic broader kind of question.
28m 24s
I think, Bob, you said, you're healthy for the market to consolidate. Maybe thinking about consolidation from a different angle. You know, there is a bit of fair bit of focus on broadcast deregulation in the local TV space.
28m 37s
Yeah. How might radio be impacted if there is a loosening up of ownership rules? Does that change how you guys view yourself as a buyer or seller of assets? Thank you.
28m 46s
Well, let me let me start with why podcasting. I think it starts the fact that we've got the podcast people want to listen to. We've got a large podcast audience and it's growing. If you look at PodTrak, which measures podcast listening, Not only do we do extraordinarily well overall, I mean a pretty substantial lead over the second largest podcast publisher. We've also got it diversified across all 19 categories of podcast listening as measured by contract.
29m 18s
So I think it starts with that. And second, when you get into how are people looking at podcasting, the vast majority want to listen to podcast.
29m 29s
Are there some people that would prefer to watch a podcast? Well, I think at that point, it's not really so much a podcast. As much as it is a video show.
29m 37s
And certainly, there's that goes on. Look at the success of YouTube. I don't think that's the podcasting business per se. I mean, I understand that YouTube would like to take some of that podcasting revenue and I don't blame them. But I think, the consumer is spoken. And so although we look at it and watch it carefully, think we're in exactly the right position and feel very good about Yes. Sebastian, just on your first question, just made a pickup on what Bob articulated. And just as a reminder, from a strategic standpoint, a number of years ago, which obviously turned out to be an important decision for us, didn't go behind the paywall wanted to make sure all our podcasts were available anywhere we carry everybody else's podcast. We just want to get the biggest inventory and we want to monetize the most efficiently. And Bob talked about within our company, we've got approximately 1,000 sellers on the ground that are selling everything anywhere, anytime in that includes podcast.
30m 43s
So you really have 1,000 persons ad sales force spread out across The United States in our 150 plus offices. [indiscernible] We've talked about our ad tech that we've built up.
30m 54s
Over the years.
30m 55s
The ability to place it and monitor them and to report on them across all of our platforms. So again, when you look at this is not just something we started three or four days ago or three or four months ago or three or four years ago. And I think you're seeing the cumulative effect quite frankly, I think most importantly, with all the capabilities we have is the demand. That we have out there. And you see it the efficiency and the effectiveness of podcast. And I know we've said this before, is bigger advertisers or our biggest advertisers have only recently, over the last couple of years, really started to suffer podcasting. And the reason why that's so important is bigger advertisers spend bigger dollars there.
31m 42s
And and look, I wanna add one other point is and we've talked about it before, but it's worth repeating here. That podcasting is probably radio on demand. Just like Netflix is probably TV on demand.
31m 55s
It's an adjacent business to radio. We have a natural advantage here. Not only have an advantage in terms of creation and knowing how to do it and having the resources to do it, But we also have this incredible promotional vehicle called broadcast radio. Where we're able to advertise these podcasts promote them, talk about them, to an audience that is very audio centric anyway. And understands what we're doing here. So again, I think that is the natural advantage for us.
32m 29s
Yes. And by the way, just on your second question, I think it something with respect to regulation, whether it's any of the license industry I guess you're asking about FCC license industries, Obviously, of us have noticed the dominance from rural reading the same press. You know, you know, from our standpoint, we already reached 90% -plus of the country, 90%, 10% Americans. Bob highlighted our greatest in terms of our strength is that our broadcast listening is higher than it was ten years ago, out there. So we've got a great footprint. Within The US. I don't see any any anything of that that will affect our operating strategy at all.
33m 13s
Thank you both.
33m 16s
We'll move to our next question from Erin Watts at Deutsche Bank.
33m 21s
Hi, guys. Appreciate the expanded slide deck.
33m 24s
And thanks for taking the questions. I've got two, if I may. First, on the cost Was the $27,000,000 of cost savings you mentioned for first quarter run rate or actual impact in the quarter And how should we think about the cadence of the balance of the savings coming through the rest of the year? Any lumpiness on the way to 150,000,000 at year end?
33m 47s
Aaron, thanks for that. And thank you for the comment on the slide. So the 27,000,000 you shouldn't think about as run rate. Again, if you think about our cost and cost kind of supporting revenues that you'd expect expect them to kind of the cadence speed along with the business. But I think at a high level, if you you thought about them, 7% in Q2, and then 40% per quarter in each of the next three quarters. That would be kind of you know, think about those costs. That comes basically to the $1.50.
34m 21s
Okay. That's helpful. And Rich, should the revenue environment slow? I know that's not what we're hoping for, but if it happened, are there additional cost rationalization that could be identified?
34m 33s
Yes. Yes. I think, Tricia, one is we did in the deck, you point out, I think it's Slide five, that goes through some more details on cost. So what's important about that slide is that people look at it and look at the number of levers that Bob and I and the rest of the management team could focus on. I think also Bob mentioned in his opening remarks that we've repeatedly, I think since we've been here, shown the ability to be look at opportunities. By the way, a big part of that is just constantly looking at taking advantage of AI technologies, making things more efficient for both the medium and long term, leveraging new technologies and at the same time, make sure we've been talking about [indiscernible] Make sure we continue to feed our winners and continue to feed our growth opportunities And I think that balance is why you're seeing just as a tangible example, what you're seeing in podcasting revenue. Growth. Okay.
35m 33s
That's helpful. If could squeeze one last one in and again, appreciate the time. Nielsen updated its ratings methodology recently. I'm curious your early observations on that and whether the new way of looking at listenership is resonating with advertisers. Well, think the most important thing is that and we're excited about it is that Nielsen is making a priority to try and capture all the listing that's really happening. Not only is that important in terms of will we show this more listeners, but as advertisers do these econometric models, the media mix models, what's important is that when they see a signal of a purchase a buy, they look back and see what caused it. If Nielsen is under measuring our listening, they don't show that person. Makes it worse. We don't get credit, and someone else gets credit for what we did. So I think it's a step forward with Nielsen in terms of let's make Nielsen more representative and more accurate for us to use not only in terms of pricing and selling our products, but also in terms of the value for the sub media mix models.
36m 42s
Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Rich.
36m 45s
Thank you, Aaron.
36m 48s
Next, we'll move to Patrick Schrole at Barrington Research.
36m 52s
Good afternoon. Thank you. I was just curious if you could talk a little bit on the adoption of transacting programmatically, if there's any sort of know, difference across categories and how that contributed to [indiscernible] I don't think at this point it was material in terms of the performance of Premier. I think that was probably more of an indication of how did the national advertisers that are buying national footprint look versus the SMBs. But we continue to make great progress. As you know, we've already pretty much got our digital inventory up and running on most of the important platforms for programmatic and seeing some revenue coming in there. The big push for us is to be this to get our broadcast inventory up on these as well. And I think we're making good progress there.
37m 46s
Yes. And I think we announced last quarter in addition to being in Magnite about getting broadcast to be clear inventory to DB360 and Yahoo! And we can continue to work with the other DSPs and and recognize in terms of where the advertising marketplace going and we're adapting to that. Okay. Thank you. And then maybe just one last on podcasting.
38m 19s
On the growth in the in the quarter, I guess, how much of that comes from just increased rates on the impressions you're delivering versus, you know, growing the amount of impressions?
38m 31s
It it it's but we we don't.
38m 34s
It's both. I would say it's if you think about it, apples to apples year over year that there's nothing unusual at at any onetime item in the numbers. It's just both coming from both volume and from rates.
38m 49s
On both. But remember, we've got such a wide purview in terms of the number of podcasts we have, the number of downloads from our biggest downloads to smaller downloads out there, and we have a as I'll repeat it, we have a thousand people selling it every single day. Out there selling Podcast along with the rest of our products. So it's a combination of both.
39m 12s
Okay. Thank you.
39m 16s
They just I'll pause for a second, make sure there are no other questions. And if there's not, thank you very much. On behalf of Bob, myself, the rest of the management team And we, along with Mike Migidis and the team, are available for any follow-up questions. Thank you all.
39m 34s
And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Key Insights
Q1 2025 consolidated revenue was up 1% year-over-year, above guidance, with adjusted EBITDA of $105M (flat to prior year and at the midpoint of guidance); Digital Audio Group revenue grew 16% to $277M, with podcast revenue up 28% and adjusted EBITDA up 27.8%.
The company’s modernization program delivered $27M in net savings in Q1, with a target of $150M in net savings for 2025, primarily driven by technology and AI initiatives; cost savings are expected to ramp through the year.
Multi Platform Group revenue (broadcast radio, networks, events) was $473M, down 4.2% year-over-year; Premier Networks (national radio advertising) returned to growth, up 2.1%, and iHeart’s share of radio industry ad revenue grew to 40%.
Q2 2025 guidance: adjusted EBITDA expected between $140M–$160M (vs. $150M prior year); consolidated revenue expected to be down low single digits; Digital Audio Group revenue to be up low double digits with podcasting up low 20s percent; Multi Platform Group revenue down mid-to-high single digits.
Management highlighted continued podcasting outperformance, strong advertiser demand (especially from larger advertisers), ongoing investments in ad tech and programmatic capabilities, and flexibility to further rationalize costs if the revenue environment weakens; full-year guidance may be updated depending on macroeconomic conditions.
