Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. 2022 third quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. And 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 star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. And for operator assistance at any time, press the star zero key. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference call over to your host, Eileen McLaughlin, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. On the call today are Scott Wells, our CEO, and Brian Coleman, our CFO. Scott and Brian will provide an overview of the 2022 their quarter operating performance of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. and Clear Channel International BV. We recommend you download the earnings conference call investor presentation located in the financial section in our investor website and review the presentation during this call. After an introduction and a review of our results, we'll open the line for questions and Justin Cochran, CEO of Clear Channel Europe, will participate in the Q&A portion of the call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, we may make forward-looking statements regarding the company, including statements about its future financial performance and its strategic goals. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that management's expectations, beliefs, or projections will be achieved or that actual results will not differ from expectations. Please review the statements of risk contained in our earnings press release and our filings with the SEC. During today's call, we will also refer to the certain performance measures that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles. We provide schedules that reconcile these non-GAAP measures with our reported results on a GAAP basis as part of our earnings release and the earnings conference call investor presentation. Also, please note that the information provided on this call speaks only to management's views as of today, November 8, 2022, and may no longer be accurate at the time of a replay. Please turn to slide four in the investor presentation, and I will now turn the call over to Scott Wells.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join today's call. Our strong third quarter results were at the high end of consolidated revenue guidance we provided on our last call and reflect the resiliency of our platform, the dedication of our company-wide teams, and the continued execution of our strategic plan as we detailed during our investor day in September. We delivered consolidated revenue of $603 million in the third quarter, up 8%, excluding movements in foreign exchange rates. Continuing the trends we saw in the first half of the year, Our performance was supported by broad-based demand from advertisers, with notable strength across our digital footprint in the Americas and Europe. We're progressing in giving our advertisers the kind of experience they expect from digital media, which we believe contributes to our growth now and in the future. We're making our solutions faster to launch, easier to buy, and more data-driven. In turn, we believe we're performing very well during a difficult period for many ad delivery platforms. As we noted during our investor day, we believe digital is not just a growth driver, it's a revenue multiplier. At the close of the third quarter, digital represented less than 5% of total inventory, yet digital revenue accounted for 40% of our consolidated revenue and rose 20% during the period compared to the third quarter of last year, excluding movements in foreign exchange rates. Looking at our digital footprint, in the US, we deployed 34 large format digital billboards during the third quarter, adding to our total with more than 1,600 digital billboards. Combined with our smaller format digital displays in airports and on shelters, we have more than 4,700 digital displays domestically. And in Europe, we added 366 digital displays in the third quarter for a total of 19,200 digital displays now live. As we expand our digital footprint, we're continuing to strengthen our data analytics offerings and build out a more sophisticated operational backend to the customer experience. These investments are allowing us to attract a greater pool of advertisers, which bodes well for our longer term outlook. As an example of the dynamism of our platform, I'd like to call out our airports team for the work they did developing a multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership and sponsorship with PenFed Credit Union. This first of its kind brand takeover of the Concourse C connector at Washington Dulles includes a 4,000 square foot digital media tunnel. It's really something to see, and we are working with PenFed on further opportunities. Looking at the fourth quarter, our business remains healthy, and we are on track to deliver results in line with the full year guidance we presented during our investor day in September. Brian will provide an update on our guidance and his prepared remarks, but I want to take a moment to focus on what we are seeing. As indicated in that full year guidance, we do expect growth to moderate in the fourth quarter as compared to the last few quarters, driven by tougher comps against the strong fourth quarter last year. Since September, we are not seeing a material change in advertiser behavior. In the US, advertising demand remains healthy, and we remain on track to exceed our record revenue in Q4 2021. Airports and digital continue to drive that improvement. In Europe, our business also remains healthy and is on track to outperform Q4 2019 and is in line with a very strong Q4 2021, excluding movements in FX rates, as we continue to benefit from the growth in our digital platform and the recovery in transit. Bookings and pacing continue to be strong in Northern Europe, particularly in the UK and Scandinavia, versus pre-COVID levels in 2019. However, there are still a few markets, primarily in parts of Southern Europe, that haven't fully rebounded. Looking further out, we're keeping a close eye on business trends across our markets. And so far, our 2023 upfront in the US is going well, and we remain optimistic about our business. Finally, we continue to conduct a review of strategic alternatives for our European business with the goal of optimizing our portfolio in the best interest of our shareholders with the resulting greater focus on our core America's business. We will communicate further details as and when we are able. And with that, let me now turn it over to Brian to discuss our third quarter financial results, as well as our fourth quarter guidance.