Stingray Group Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Stingray Group Incorporated's second quarter 2022 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. If anyone has difficulties hearing the conference, please press star followed by zero for operator assistance at any time. Before turning the meeting over to management, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, November 10, 2021. I will now turn the conference over to Matthew Feloquin, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much. Good morning. Thank you for joining us for Stingray's conference call for the second quarter ended September 30, 2021. Today, Eric Boyko, President, CEO, and co-founder, Jean-Pierre Carin, CFO, will present Stingray's financial and operational highlights. Our press release reporting Stingray's second quarter results for fiscal 22 was issued yesterday after the market closed. Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements for the quarter are available on our investor website at stingray.com, also on Setter. I will now give you the customary caution that today's discussion of the corporation's performance and its prospect may include forward-looking statements. The corporation's future operation and performance are subject to risk and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the risk factors identified in Stingray's Annual Information Form dated June 2, 2021, which is also available on CETR. The corporations specifically disclaim any intention or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law. Accordingly, you are advised not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Also, please be reminded that some of the financial measures discussed during this conference call are non-IFRS. Please refer to Stingrays MD&A for a complete definition and reconciliation of such measures to IFRS financial measures. Finally, let me remind you that all amounts on this call are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. With that, let me turn the call over to Eric.

Thank you, Mathieu. Great to be here today. So good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter results conference call of fiscal 2022. I'm pleased with our financial performance in the second quarter as we took advantage of improved market conditions to deliver robust revenue growth. Revenues increased 11% year-over-year to $71.4 million, reflecting higher advertising revenues, a gradual easing of COVID-19 restrictions, and the progression to normal commercial operations. Organic growth improved 2.5% year-over-year in broadcast and recurring commercial music revenues, including solid double-digit organic growth in the United States. In terms of our bottom line, adjusted EBITDA decreased 17% to $25.6 million in the second quarter. The decrease is attributed to significantly lower contribution from the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy Program in Q2 2022, compared to the same period last year. A return to more typical expense level after last year's pandemic-related temporary and aggressive cost-cutting measures, and higher investment to take advantage of long-term opportunities, including expanding and staying with business footprint in the U.S., growing advertising revenues, and building Chatter's research international customer base. Looking at our business segments, broadcasting and commercial music revenues were essentially flat at $39.1 million in the second quarter. We generated an increase in advertising revenue in the quarter, but was offset by a negative impact of $1.1 million due to FX. In terms of gross opportunities for broadcasting commercial music in Q2, we reported one of our best quarterly growth results for streaming subscriptions since the start of the pandemic and generated year-over-year growth of 27% and sequential growth of 7% to reach 611,000 subscribers. Expanding in Mexico, Brazil, and Canada was largely responsible for subscriber growth along with the recent Calm Radio acquisition, which provides Stingray with a strong foothold in the niches wellness and relaxation markets. Second, shifting to connected cars. Our latest success story with Stingray, Karaoke, and Tesla is widely regarded as one of the best infotainment offerings in the industry. has triggered interest among many other car manufacturers. As a result, our best-in-class music solution for the connected car space represents a new growth opportunity for Stingray in upcoming quarters. Moving on to our commercial offering, it has admittedly taken longer than anticipated to secure enterprise brand contracts due to the slower-than-expected ramp-up following the impact of the pandemic. That being said, we remain excited about the long-term potential for significant growth, particularly in the U.S. market. We continue to be very excited with the progress we're making with our AI-driven customer insight platform, Chatter. We have successfully launched Chatter in over 3,000 retail store locations with 16 partners. New partners in the last six months include Pink, Metro, Rogers, Nike, Circle K, and Kind Snacks. Weekly usage continues to increase as store locations are added. Partner satisfaction has been strong for this business, so we're anticipating that new brands and ongoing customer traction will deliver healthy revenue streams starting in Q4. Finally, turning into our audio retail media initiative, which is the link between our radio business and Stingray business. As you know, we have completed our test of retail media, also known audio auto home advertising. in 30 metro store. The test was positive. With positive customer feedback and retail feedback, we are now officially launched in over 300 stores in Ontario. Advertisers are interested in this market space as it allows them to reach customer at the point of sale with digital dynamic audio ad insertions. This past October, COMB, the Canadian Auto Home Advertising and Measurement Bureau, the trusted source for Canadian advertisers, introduced a new place-based audio out-of-home measurement methodology. Stingray is proud to be the first comm member to bring this new measurement to the Canadian marketing industry. Looking ahead, this business represents an exciting new group opportunity for Stingray. We are seeing keen interest from our agencies, and have already started our bookings for January. Turning to our radio segment, Red News improves 28.6% to 32 million, as the chain economy gradually reopened during the quarter at varying degrees provincially. Although the business is now approaching pre-pandemic levels, global supply chain issues are impacting some of our larger advertisers like car dealers, who have little or no inventory available, and therefore are less interested in advertising their products. Finally, from a capital allocation standpoint, We recently increased our credit facility to $575 million and extended their maturity dates five years. This initiative provides Stingray with more operational flexibility, drive power for strategic acquisition. Similar to the recent com radio acquisition, we are looking for content that can be leveraged across our multiple platforms. So thank you again, and I will pass you to our friend, JP, for the financial overview.