Corus Entertainment Inc.

Good morning. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Chorus Entertainment Q2 2025 Analyst and Investor Conference Call. 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 star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. Thank you. As a reminder, this call has been recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mr. John Gosling, co-CEO and CFO of Chorus Entertainment. Mr. Gosling, you may begin your conference.

Thanks very much, Joelle, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Chorus Entertainment's fiscal 2025 second quarter earnings call. Joined today by Troy Reeve, our Co-Chief Executive Officer. Before I read the cautionary statement, I would like to remind everyone that we have slides that accompany today's call, and you can find them on our website at www.corescent.com under the investor relations dash events and presentation section. Let's move on to the standard cautionary statement found on slide two. We note that forward-looking statements may be made during this call. Actual results could differ materially from forecasts, projections, or conclusions in these statements. We would also like to remind those on our call today, in addition to disclosing results in accordance with IFRS, courts also provide supplementary non-IFRS or non-GAAP measures as a method of evaluating the company's performance and to provide a better understanding of how management views the company's performance. Today, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP measures in our remarks. Additional information on these non-GAAP financial measures, the company's reported results, and factors and assumptions related to forward-looking information can be found in course of the second quarter 2025 report to shareholders and the 2024 annual report, which can be found on CDR Plus or Investor Relations-Financial Reports section of our website. All right, I'll start on slide three by sharing details of an important and significant step we have taken to progress our capital and debt plan. A few weeks ago, we completed a transaction that provides course with a more stable footing for our operations. The cooperation of lenders and constructive support of key debt investors, we assigned, amended, and extended our credit facility. The updated credit facility provides improved terms, including total debt-to-cash flow ratio of 9.5 times to 1 through December 31, 2025, an extension of the maturity date to March 20, 2027, increased access to up to $75 million of revolving credit, and a fixed interest rate of 7.29% on the entire facility compared to the prior floating rate. Effective March 21st, 2025, our debt is now comprised of the imaginary stated credit facility, which is made up of a drawn term loan and a $75 million revolver, and then along with the senior unsecured notes of $500 million due in 2028 and $250 million due in 2030. We're very pleased with this outcome, which better positions us to create sustainability in the business. provides necessary financial flexibility to adapt to ongoing shifts and factors affecting our industry in the near term as we continue efforts to right-size our cost structure through efficiency and cost reduction measures. Transaction also supports our commitment and ability to provide Canadians with the programming, news, and audio content they love and expect from Chorus. With that, I'll turn it over to Troy for our current view of the business.

Thank you, John. Moving to slide four. Given recent events in our country and abroad, we have witnessed a remarkable change in Canadians' consumer behaviour. The response to US tariffs and threats has created concerns, challenges and opportunities for brands. As a proud Canadian company, we are undertaking important initiatives to help rally our audiences to shop Canadian and protect our economy and Canadian workers. We believe it's our responsibility to champion this message and to ensure that Canadians have a trusted and reliable source of news and information. We were one of the first major media organizations to marshal all of our platforms, brands, and local programs to encourage listeners and viewers to support the local businesses that provide jobs in their communities. Porus is also working closely with our clients, offering them a variety of ways to show their support of the Buy Canadian movement. We do not expect our content supply to be disrupted by any potential tariffs should they actually materialize, and we have seen incredible response to our programming this year, providing an attractive multi-platform environment for advertisers to reach our highly engaged audiences. In addition to existing opportunities within the Corus ecosystem, we are also working with our clients to create custom content and help them connect with their Canadian customers during this pivotal moment of national resilience. We have leaned into our hundreds of weekly hours of Canadian original programming and homegrown brands like Flavor Network and Home Network to create new integration opportunities for clients who want to fly their Canadian colors across digital and digital environments alike. At the same time, there has never been a better time to re-examine the breadth and depth of our extensive multi-platform video and audio offerings. Investing in Canadian media supports our efforts to provide entertainment, critical news, and information for Canadians by Canadians. Over to slide five. Global news has witnessed tremendous gains in viewership, which is not surprising given the increased interest in events south of the border and globally, and the impact of the current federal election cycle. Audiences are embracing global news as a trusted source of information, driving 12% growth in total minutes viewed across both broadcast and streaming platforms. This increase reflects increased viewing to both linear and digital, up 11% and 18% respectively. On Linear TV, Global National is the number one national news broadcast in Canada, and we are number one in morning news. Additionally, Global News has the highest number of subscribers on YouTube compared to any other national Canadian news broadcaster. We're incredibly proud of our teams and their commitment to keeping Canadians informed during these turbulent times. Moving to slide six. Chorus is experiencing significant audience momentum on conventional television overall. Since January, Global's overall audience is tracking 11% ahead of last year and 25% ahead in core prime time. Global owns 11 of the top 20 shows, including the number one reality show, Survivor, number one comedy, Ghosts, number one late night show, Saturday Night Live, now celebrating its 50th anniversary. Turning to slide seven and our specialty portfolio, We own 16 of the top 20 specialty entertainment programs, including two programs from each of Flavor Network and Home Network. Impressively, Home and Flavor have landed as the number one and number two specialty lifestyle networks in only a few short months, with almost 11 million Canadians tuning into the network's attractive programming. This is a testament to our strong legacy of popular Canadian lifestyle programming and the strength of our team who built these all-Canadian brands from scratch in just a few short months. Audience momentum is building in our streaming portfolio as well, with the strongest Q2 ever for both monthly active users and hours streamed, the latter of which was up 18% over last year. Stack TV delivers the highest engagement of our digital platforms, drawing in audiences with its extensive offering of bingeable content and live streams. Our subscriptions also remain relatively resilient following our recent retail pricing increase of $2 a month on our standalone Stack TV product across platforms. On the advertising front, we are still experiencing low visibility given tariff-related activity and potential economic impacts and how that trickles down to advertising spend. We are beginning to see some benefits from the strong performance of our content. Sales on global were resilient in the second quarter, but we are still seeing some challenges in our specialty portfolio as a result of an oversupply of digital video inventory in the broader market and generally lower advertising demand on linear television. The Buy Canadian movement I referenced earlier is helping to mitigate some of the industry-wide advertising trends as companies adjust their business strategies and marketing campaigns to build on the increased interest in Canadian products from consumers. The federal election is also expected to provide a tailwind given the heightened interest in news and information in the current environment. However, increasingly we are seeing last-minute spending, particularly related to the uncertainty caused by the implementation of new tariffs. We remain committed to supporting our advertisers as they make necessary adjustments along the way. I'll now pass it over to John for the financial results of the quarter.