Sinclair, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Sinclair second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are placed on a listen-only mode. If you have any questions or comments during the presentation, you may press star 1 on your phone to enter the question queue at any time, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to hand the floor over to your host, Chris King, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining Sinclair's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Chris Ripley, our president and chief executive officer, Narinder Sahai, our executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Rob Weisbord, our chief operating officer and president of local media. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that the slides for today's earnings call are available on our website, sbgi.net. on the events and presentations page of the investor relations portion of the site. A webcast replay will remain available on our website until our next quarterly earnings release. Certain matters discussed on this call may include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, future operating results. Such statements are subject to several risks and uncertainties. Actual results in the future could differ from those described in the forward-looking statements because of various important factors. Such factors have been set forth in the company's most recent reports as filed with the SEC and included in our second quarter earnings release. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Including on the call will be a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, specifically adjusted EBITDA. This measure is not formulated in accordance with GAAP and is not meant to replace GAAP measurements and may differ from other companies' uses or formulations. Further discussions and reconciliations of the company's non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures can be found on our website. Please note that unless otherwise noted, all year-over-year comparisons throughout today's call are presented on an as-reported basis. Let me now turn the call over to Chris Ripley.

Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin on slide three. We delivered a strong second quarter with results that reflected the early strength of the 2026 political cycle continued distribution revenue growth and disciplined execution across the business. For the quarter, total revenue was $840 million, up 7% year-over-year, while adjusted EBITDA was $149 million, up 45%. Growth was led by political advertising, and the early pace of demand reinforces our confidence in the strength of the cycle and the value of our broad station footprint in many of the country's most competitive races. Distribution revenue continued to grow, supported by the partner station buy-ins completed over the past year. The combination of broadcast, connected television, digital, and podcast inventory continues to expand the solutions we offer advertisers and positions us well as political demand builds through the remainder of the year. Core advertising was softer, as we expected, reflecting record political demand crowding out inventory in our most competitive markets and and a handful of cost-pressured advertiser categories. Narinder will take you through the details. LiveSports once again demonstrated the reach of broadcast television led by record World Cup audiences on Fox. Rob will take you through that shortly. Tennis Channel also sustained its audience momentum with growth across its linear, direct-to-consumer Tennis Channel 2 and Pickleball TV platforms. Within Ventures, The portfolio continued to generate cash distributions and ended the quarter with 489 million cash on hand. That liquidity continues to provide meaningful flexibility as we evaluate opportunities across the portfolio and advance our broader strategic priorities. We also made substantial progress on deleveraging as we repaid or retired approximately 320 million of debt in the quarter. Deleveraging our balance sheet remains our top priority for the company. Based on our first half performance and current outlook, we are increasing our full year adjusted EBITDA and political advertising guidance. Narinder will discuss the updated outlook in more detail later in the call. On slide four, we highlight that we expect, what we expect to be a historic day for the broadcast industry tomorrow with the expectation of an FCC vote to remove the national ownership cap of 39%. A development that the industry has been supporting for many years The removal of the national ownership cap would set the stage for broadcasters to be able to compete on a more level playing field as the industry finds itself competing against big tech and streamers that are not subjected to comparable regulatory constraints It would strengthen broadcasters' ability to invest in local news across the country as we continue to serve our local communities As we continue our strategic review process, the increased clarity and support from an improved regulatory environment could help facilitate M&A activity across the industry. Sinclair is well prepared to participate in value-creating consolidation, and we will remain disciplined in how and when we do so. The slide also summarizes the other proceedings moving in the same constructive direction, the ATSC 3.0 transition, The Network Affiliation Review, and Modernized Local Ownership Rules. With that, let me turn the call over to Rob to discuss our operating highlights in more detail.