Stingray Group Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Stingray Group in Q2 2024 results conference call. At this time, online is in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Pelquin. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you, merci beaucoup et bon matin à tous. Thank you for joining us for Stingray's conference call for its second quarter results for fiscal 2024, ended September 30, 2023. Today, Eric Boyko, President and CEO, co-founder, and Jean-Pierre Ferrand, CFO, will be presenting Stingray's operational and financial highlights. Our press release reporting Stingray's second quarter results for fiscal 2024 was issued yesterday after the market closed. Our press release and DNA and financial statements for the quarter are available on our website at stingray.com, as well on CEDR. I will now give you the customary caution that today's discussion of the corporation's performance and its future prospects may include forward-looking statements. The corporation's future operations 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 Forum, dated June 6, 2023, which is available on CETR. The Corporation specifically disclaims 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 over the course of 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. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter conference call for fiscal 2024. Stingray delivered solid second quarter results with organic growth of 7.1% year-over-year in broadcast and recurring commercial music revenues. resulting in an adjusted EBITDA of $29.5 million or an increase of 9.2% compared to last year. Our retail media and fast channels perform exceptionally well, delivering on the strength of 34.9% year-over-year revenue growth from our retail media advertising business and our fast channels, along with healthy contribution of our in-car entertainment segment. Seizing multiple opportunities, we believe we will hit double-digit revenue growth for the foreseeable future. Our retail audio advertising network in the U.S. and Canada continues to grow and strong contribution from pharmaceutical and packaged goods advertisers. We expect to grow our retailer footprint and provide more scale to the advertising network. During the quarter, we already added PVMark, the first hardware store chain in our Canadian retail ad network, connecting this brand with highly qualified consumers during their in-store shopping journey. As a result, we are on track and still maintain to achieve 40% revenue growth in retail media advertising for this fiscal year. In terms of free ad-supported streaming TV channels, 18 new Stingray channels appeared on Samsung TV Plus in the U.S. last month. This extended partnership is expected to quadruple listening hours of our audio and video products on the Samsung platform, highlighting our commitment to deliver top-tier music content to a broader audience and drive assets monetization to new heights. Last week, we announced the debut of Zen Life on Vizio free streaming service, watch free. and Samsung, which marks Stingray's entry into the wellness space for fast channels in the U.S. Zen life offers a rich music collection spanning various genres, such as spot, zen, healing, and meditation. In short, this new fast channel provides viewers with a uniquely emerged journey towards tranquility and serenity, which we need a lot at Stingray, while Stingray broadens its scope outside of its traditional entertainment. Turning to in-car entertainment, the beta launch of Stingray category application in 300,000 BYD car is scheduled for mid-December with an over-the-air system update due late January. We're addressing a fraction of BYD's total car fleet in Europe and Latin America. With this initial launch, we are highly optimistic to expand our footprint with the world's leading manufacturer of new energy vehicles. Already, our team is working on version 2.0. As for SVOD segment, revenues were slightly down in the second quarter as we continued transitioning towards the B2B-centric partners, which large and small customer base. The end result is that this business is more profitable in terms of event generated and sustainable for years to come. Finally, after completing a rigorous RFP process, we're proud to announce that we have renewed and extended our commercial background music and digital signage service with Bank of Montreal, BMO, for commercial locations in Canada and an additional period up to five years. In addition, Stateway will now proudly service BMO commercial locations in the United States, including Harris Bank and Bank of the West branches, for the same period up to five years. Across North America, this represents almost 2,000 locations that will receive both commercial background music and digital signage service. Although altogether revenues for broadcasting and commercial music business increased 10.9% to 49.9 million in the second quarter of 2024, while radio revenues remain stable year over year at 32.7 million as we continue outperforming the industry. I would like to add the announcement The announcement of a partnership agreement with Air Transat, as you know, we also service Air Canada, last week that we provide passengers with enhanced entertainment experience on their flights worldwide. To sum up, we're moving steam ahead with our growth initiative to maximize revenues on a long-term basis. We're talking about moderate investment in high-margin, high-growth sectors. We anticipate the trickle-down effect on the bottom line will be substantial, given that we're leveraging many businesses with 90% and above gross margin as we keep growing our revenue base. A final word about our capital allocation. Our number one priority remains debt reduction as we would like to reduce our net debt to adjusted EBITDA to the sweet spot between 205 and three times. We remain confident of bringing it down to close to three by the end of December of this quarter. and closer and closer to below 2.8 at the end of the year. During the second quarter, we were required to make a payment of 6.8 million to CRPC for tangible benefits related to past radio acquisition. This endured our ability to reduce our debt level in the quarter. Jean Plain will provide more explanation about our capital allocation and free cash flow over the next few quarters. So with this, Very positive, very happy with the quarter, and I'll pass you to our friend, JP.