iHeartMedia, Inc.

Good afternoon. My name is Audra and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the iHeartMedia first quarter 2025 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mike McGinnis, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join us for our first quarter 2025 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 remarks. Please 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 and in the company's SEC filings, including our recent 8 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, and 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, 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 of $105 million, 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 million, up 16% versus prior year. The digital audio group generated first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $87 million, up 27.8% versus prior year, and the digital audio groups 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 above 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-podcast 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 million, down 4.2% versus prior year, and excluding the impact of political advertising, revenue was down 3.4%. The multi-platform group's adjusted EBITDA was $70 million, 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. 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 in 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 million, down 14.2% year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA was $16 million, down 33.3%. And most of that decline was driven by CATS television. Excluding the impact of political, the audio and media services 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 cement 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 million net savings in 2025, driven primarily by technology and AI. And now I'll turn it over to Rich.