Stingray Group Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Stingray Group, Inc. Q3 2025 results conference call. Note that at this time, all participant lines are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session, and if at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also note that the call is recorded on Wednesday, February 5th, 2025. And I would like to turn the conference over to Marie-Hélène Fournier. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Stingray's conference call for its third quarter, ended December 31st, 2024. Today, Eric Boyko, President and Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, and Jean-Pierre Crahan, Chief Financial Officer, will be presenting Stingray's operational and financial highlights. Our press release reporting Stingray's third quarter result for fiscal 2025 was issued yesterday after the market closed. Our press release, MD&E, and financial statements for the quarter are available on our investor website at Stingray.com and on CEDA+. I will now provide you with the customary caution that today's discussion of the corporation's performance and its future prospects may include forward-looking statements. Their cooperation's future operations and performance are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include or are not limited to the risk factors identified in Stingray's annual information form dated June 4, 2024, which is available on SEDA Plus. 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. refers to Stingray's ND&E 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.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our third quarter results conference call. Stingray continued to exceed the expectations in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. I think it's going to be sixth quarter in a row, with a strong adjusted EBITDA of $40.2.1 million and reached unprecedented revenues of $108 million. These outstanding financial results were primarily driven by ongoing strengths in our fast channel business, in the Stingray business unit, and our SVODs. Focusing on our connected TV offering, or FAST, we've established strong partnership with major TV manufacturers like LG, Vizio, and Samsung. Notably, Samsung's latest product, Samsung TV Karaoke, powered by the Stingray Karaoke app, won the 2025 CES Innovation Award in the content and entertainment category. Samsung TV Karaoke offers a cost-effective karaoke solution by allowing users to sync into their mobile devices. The SINGRA app uses AI and vocal suppression technology to convert any song into an instrumental track, mixing the singer's voice with sound effects through the TV speakers. This award underscored our dedication to advancing entertainment technology. Our collaboration with Samsung has created a unique karaoke experience that connects people and their homes. In addition, we recently made the acquisition of Loop Heart, a small fast channel, a leading visual streaming service on smart TVs and digital signage. This is a strategic acquisition that enables Stingray to expand its presence on connected TVs and significantly enhance an offering for businesses, think about all the banks, particularly in the digital signage space. Loop Arts platform includes over 10,000 original artworks from more than 800 artists across 50 countries. Back to our third quarter results. Robust fast channels revenue contribution higher equipment and installation sales related to digital signage, and improved radio revenues, I'd say probably incredible radio revenues, were the primary drivers behind a 7.9% revenue growth year over year. These factors were partly offset by lower sales in our retail media advertising segment, driven by some of the large orders that we had last year in quarter 2024. Looking ahead, we intend to enhance the monetization of our audio retail media network which boasts more than 30,000 locations across North America by optimizing pricing and measurable data, adding sales staff and channels to improve the sell-out rate of our current inventory, maximizing the number of ads per hour for retailers and expanding our footprint. We also have created a complemented revenue stream by deploying in-store video advertising across 600 metro banners in the province of Quebec with the national deployments at Affiliates, Jean Cossu, and Brunet drugstores, planned for the upcoming year. Digital equipment installation at Metro grocery stores and related pharmacies, along with ongoing signage deployment at BMO banking locations and other banks, are expected to further boost revenue for our in-store advertising platform. Classically, retail media advertising remains a key growth vector for Stingray in 2025 and beyond. On the in-car entertainment front, we delivered incremental sales growth in the third quarter with Thing Race Karaoke, 100,000 songs, Cadillac increasingly becoming the default value-added service for connected cars on a global basis. I've got good news and bad news. I think every car in the world will have karaoke, so I think your families will be happy, but maybe not the parents. Finally, in partnership with BYD and The Singing Machine, we also announced the launch of a multi-featured microphone for the automobile manufacturer's fleet of new energy vehicles, fully compatible with our updated karaoke application. Altogether, revenue from our broadcasting and commercial music business increased 10% to $72.2 million in the third quarter of 2025, while radio revenue supported by strong digital sales and retail media rose 4% to $36 million. Finally, I'm pleased to report that we have recently secured an additional $80 million in financing from our banking syndicate to pursue growth opportunities. The refinancing consists of a $500 million revolving credit facility maturing in December 28. This new borrowing agreement provides additional liquidity for working capital and, most important, greater flexibility to explore strategic acquisitions. I will now turn the call to our friend Jean-Pierre for our financial review. Merci, JP.

Merci, Eric. Good morning, everyone. Revenues reached 108.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 25, up 7.9% from 100.3 million in Q3-24. The year-over-year growth was mainly driven by increases in fast-channel revenues, higher equipment and installation sales related to digital signage, and greater radio revenues. These factors were partially offset by lower retail media advertising sales driven by a one-time large order in the third quarter of 24. Revenues in Canada rose 6.2% to $54.2 million in the third quarter of 25. The growth reflects equipment and installation sales related to digital signage and improved radio revenues. Revenues in the U.S. grew 14.1% to $42.3 million in Q3 2025 on the strength of higher fast channel revenues, partially upset by lower retail major advertising sales following a substantial one-time order in the third quarter of 2024. Finally, revenues in other countries decreased 3.7% year-over-year to $11.7 million in the most recent quarter. The decline was mainly due to reduced subscription revenues. Looking at our results by business segment, broadcasting and commercial music revenues increased 10% to $72.2 million in the third quarter of 2025. The growth was primarily due to higher fast channel revenues and greater equipment and installation sales related to digital signage. Counterbalanced by a decrease in retail media advertising sales, partially due to a significant one-time order in 24. Regional revenues, meanwhile, improved 4% year-over-year to $36 million in 25 on the higher digital advertising sales, partially offset by lower national airtime revenues. On the digital side, we benefit from increased gambling advertisement year-over-year, along with ads related to hospitals and clinics, auto dealers and new homes builders. In term of profitability, consolidated adjusted BDA grew 9% to 42.1 million in the third quarter of 25 from 38.6 million in Q3, 24. Adjusted BDA margin reached 38.9% in Q3, 25 compared to 38.5% in the same period of 24. The year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin can be attributed to higher revenues as variable expenses remain relatively stable year-over-year. By business segment, broadcasting and commercial music adjusted EBITDA increased 13.1% to $31.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. The growth was largely driven by an improved gross margin on higher revenues. For its part, adjusted EBITDA for our radio segment rose 1.7% year-over-year to $12.5 million in the third quarter of 2025. Similarly, the improvement in adjusted EBITDA can be attributed to higher revenues. In terms of corporate adjusted EBITDA, it amounted to a negative $2 million in the third quarter of 2025 compared to a negative $1.6 million in the same period of 2024. Stingray reported net income of $15.7 million, or $0.23 per share, in the third quarter of 2005, compared to $9.1 million, or $0.13 per share, in Q3-24. The increase was mainly due to higher operating results and a lower unrealized loss on derivative financial instruments. Adjusted net income totaled 23.4 million or 34 cents per share in Q3 2025 compared to 18.5 million or 27 cents per share in the same period of 24. The increase can primarily be attributed to higher operating results. Turning to liquidity and capital resources, cash flow from operating activities reached 35.4 million in the third quarter of 2025 compared to $30.9 million in Q3-24. Lower negative net change in non-cash operating items and higher operating results were primarily responsible for the year-over-year improvement. These factors were partially upset by a non-recovery of income tax in 2024. Adjusted pre-cash flow amounted to $28.6 million in Q3-25, compared to $32.1 million in the same period of 24. The decrease was mainly due to non-recurring recovery of income taxes in the comparable period of 24, partially offset by higher operating results. From a balance sheet standpoint, seeing we add cash and cash equivalent of $19.3 million at the end of the third quarter and a credit facility of $370.8 million, of which $127.2 million was available. As Eric mentioned earlier, we successfully completed a refinancing agreement last December through a $500 million revolving credit facility that matured in December 28. Total net debt at the quarter end stood at $351.6 million, or 2.54 times pro forma registered BDA. As a result, we remain on track to lower our leverage ratio between 2 and 2.5 times by the end of the fiscal year. Finally, we made a dividend payment of $5.1 million in the third quarter and repurchased 271,000 shares for a total of $2 million under our normal course issuer bid. After nine months into fiscal 25, dividend payment totaled $15.4 million. while share buybacks amounted to $6.9 million. We intend to maintain a balance between investing and growth opportunities and rewarding our shareholders with healthy dividends and share buybacks. I will now turn the call back to Eric.

Okay, merci JP. I think you know we have great numbers, great quarter. Excited to have our partners, the analysts, give us their questions. So merci tout le monde. Oh, this ends our call before the questions here. I think, Madame, if you have a chance.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by two. And if you're using your speakerphone, please lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. First, we will hear from Adam Schein at National Bank Financial. Please go ahead, Adam.

Thanks, Locke. Good morning. Eric, a year ago on this call, you talked about Fast Channel's revenue getting maybe up to a $24 or $28 million range for F-25. Can you speak to where you might be tracking at this point with two months to go in the fiscal year and any additional color in terms of ongoing momentum into fiscal 26, and then I'll circle back with one more question on retail media.

Yeah, thanks, Adam. Good question. The fast channels, we were at a meeting in October, and we had about seven or eight partners. It was in Toronto, and I was sitting with all of our partners of Roku, LG, Samsung, Pluto, and I said, hey, how do you see the business? On general, the market for fast is growing by 20 to 40%, and some even from 40 to 60. So we're lucky to be on a lake, and the lake is increasing. So at the end of the day, we're getting $70 billion of ads that was going on ABC, NBC, and CBS in the U.S. are switching to the fast channels with the cut-cutting. So I know we're very, you know, the fasts are growing better than our budget, faster. And I think for you, some of the Inclination is the number of channels that we've launched all over our partners. With Samsung now, we're over with 32 channels. LG, 24. Vizio, we're up to about 16. Also, we've launched new channels. StairGazer, we've launched Cozy Cafe. Our channel that we created last year, NatureScape, did very well during the vacation, for sure. It's all about holiday and holidayscapes. So we have new channels, more launches, new platform, Roku, Pluto. I won't list them. We probably have 20, 30 platforms. So it's really going to be this momentum is good for the next three, four years. And I think that the TV manufacturers and those platforms are really leveraging the strength of the hours that are being listened to. So, yeah, I think you're comfortable to answer a question item that will easily beat the $24 million budget.

Okay, thanks. And maybe I'll combine that a little bit with retail media. I mean, obviously, as you and JP alluded to, it was a tough comp in retail media. But, you know, for the last two quarters, you've signed up additional mandates and you've talked about, you know, a step-up opportunity in growth, you know, through the H2 and especially in DEF 26. Can you talk a little bit more about how we should think about the potential of growth? Forget about the sort of evangelizing the sector, but just in terms of what you see ahead of you in terms of contracted revenues, can you talk about stepped-up growth for retail media, either specifically or maybe, as you've done before, in combination, retail media and fast channel, what you think the growth profile might be over coming quarters?

Again, the retail media and fast, we said last year we're going to grow by 40, we grew by 50. Again, this year, we said we're going to grow by 40, so we're comfortable this year to grow that segment, the advertising sale and broadcasting, by another 40%, so we're on track for that. Retail media, our inventory in Canada is north of $100 million. Our retail in the U.S. is $600 million to $800 million in the U.S., so it's not the inventory. It's really for us to leverage that market. I think we're very positive that that's our growth story for the next three, four years. Last quarter was an incredible quarter. I think they grew by 86%, so it's tough to grow when last year you were up 86%. So we knew last year, we were, wow, this is a great quarter. This will be tough to do next year. But still, if you look at the advertising revenue line, even with that, we're still able to grow by 15.6%. So very confident. And for us, the next step with retail media, Adam, is going to be for sure more salespeople, data, monetization, but it's also to start partnering with with some key partners like Odyssey, our friends at iHeart, AdWiz, Cat, Dax. So we're really partnering with them to help us also, help us sell national ads on the audio side. So it's gonna be interesting. Everything is getting to be connected. And believe it or not, but there seems to be an over demand for audio ads, but they need the unique users. So they're ready to share because they need more people to listen to audio. So I think we're in a good position for retail media in 26 and 27.

Okay, thanks. I'll circle back.

Thanks, Adam.

Next question will be from Arvinda Galapitant at Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll just start off with a follow-up to your comments. Eric, that you just made about the size of the retail media market in the U.S., the $600 to $800 million. Can you just let me know what that encompasses? Are you talking just audio? Is video included in that? Is that a sort of industry-level projection? I just wanted a little bit of clarity on that.

That would be if we had the two great vectors of a fill rate of above 80% and much higher CPMs, four times higher CPMs that we're able to achieve right now, So I won't get specific numbers, but once you add the CPM and the fill rate, our inventory is very large. So for us, it's a great market that we already have. We don't need to get new customers. We don't need new retailers. Just with the ones we have right now in Canada and the U.S., that's our potential. And it's our number one objective to sell that inventory like we do in radio. In radio, you know, we sell 100%. So that's the efficiency of radio. But one of our strategies, you see it again. The reason the radio did well is we're leveraging the sales team of radio to sell retail media. That's the same thing we want to do in the US with some radio players. I think it's going to be interesting how we start becoming a leader in audio ads, which is a very niche market. I think that's a bit of our direction.

Thank you. That's very helpful. On the rollout of video for retail media, you've given some color on the call. Can you talk about the prospects of getting that across to the U.S.? Is there even a discussion there at that point about deploying video in your locations there?

That's interesting. So this came to us a bit by surprise because if you're selling audio, why don't you sell video? So we're getting much more demand for video. Also, banks want to go in that space. Very surprised, so you'll see probably in the future. In the U.S., we're getting help from our partners. So our main two partners on the TV side is we sell Samsung TVs and we sell LG TVs, and both partners, which have installation in the U.S., are asking us if we can help them monetize video also, not only audio. So interesting vector that started this year. I must say it was a bit of a we were really focused on audio, but I think that what people are looking for is somebody to sell both at retail media, which includes audio and video, and we've done a great feature, which we call do a takeover, and maybe it's not the right word right now with the US politics, but we're in the store, if you do an ad, all the TV sets go to that ad, and at the same time, the audio goes to the same ad, so you take over the store. So it's a feature that we're able to do, and I must say there's a lot of demand for that type of ad, It is, you really, for sure, everybody in the store at that moment knows that this ad is coming in, so interesting to see what happens with video. We're doing our budgets right now, but it's gonna be interesting what the team puts for video.

Thanks, and the last question from me. On the in-car side, we know that from a revenue generation perspective, it's just the two OEMs right now, Tesla and BYD. Can you maybe just give us a sense of what is coming up next based on the trials? I know that there are a number of OEMs that are kind of trialing the product. From kind of a turn-on-the-pay perspective, sort of what's next, maybe just some kind of color on what we can expect there? Thanks.

Yeah. You know, for us, the car market, you know, when I was in school in business and we say let's create a product, We said we can create a product for cars that will make a lot of money, even if you do one wiper, because you sell all the wipers around the world. But the car is long projects. A lot of our projects are 24, 26, to 38, 2038. And I must say, we came back from CS. We met the top 30 car manufacturers. In three of the booths of the cars, the featured product, when you came into their large booth at CS, was karaoke with Stingray. So moving well, our two key products that we're installing in cars is karaoke, which I know you say, how can it be so popular? But I think karaoke will become stable. There will be stable stakes. Everybody will have karaoke in their car and hope we're one of the major players of karaoke worldwide. And music, they really want, they want to be able to monetize music. For all these years, there was XM Sirius, And AM, FM, using cars, they had to pay for those chips, and they weren't making money. And now the car, the OEMs say, we want to make money with our media in the car. They want to control that. So very exciting for us to become their music partner. I think you'll see a couple of announcements. We got three or four car companies that are going to be launched in the next few months. Karaoke, that's moving along. But again, the only negative, if you start, you know, Some of the car companies will be able to switch 50 million cars overnight because they can change their system. But a lot of them is you start with 10,000 cars and you grow and you grow. But if it's really a new EV, then we have to wait for the growth of that segment. But they're getting better and better at, how we say, retrofitting their system and going to the cars before. So very excited. 26, we'll see some good revenues. But for 27 will be the year that will make a big impact on our numbers. Thank you. Is that okay? That's great. Thank you, Eric. Hey, thank you. Thank you for your report. Six quarters in a row.

Next question will be from Drew McReynolds at RBC. Please go ahead, Drew.

Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. Just turning back to retail media, you know, in the tough comp last year, You know, Eric, like in terms of the one-time order or orders, you know, is that just essentially one-time revenue on a bunch of contracts that thereafter you had recurring revenue, but obviously, you know, lower than kind of the upfront? I'm just trying to understand kind of the dynamics here.

Yeah, I know. Last year we were very happy. We were having a great quarter, a good quarter. And then on November, like, 20th, one customer said, well, we have – whatever extra budget, and we'll give you this order for December. And so we were very, very happy. But again, those budget things don't happen every year. So again, if you look at advertising, we did $60 million this year. We're confident to grow by 40%. So that means you're looking at $24 million growth in the fast and retail media. Both vectors, fast and retail media, are growing, both in Canada and the U.S., But last year, we were up 86%. Tough, very tough, Drew, when you're up 86% to grow by another 40%, so that's why we're up 15.6. But very focused, and it's, like I said, it's not only getting more salespeople, but getting new partners to sell the audio space. So a growth factor for us for the next three years.

Yeah, thanks, Eric. And then on top of that... What are you seeing in that channel with respect to engagement? Obviously, you're trying to measure it and transparently show that for advertisers. How's the engagement, and are you able to see incremental engagement with video over audio in the retail media channel?

Very good question, and we'll do this for the analysts. We've probably done, I'd say, close to 50 market research with different tests and different products, so I'll see which one we can share with you. But the results have been very good. I'm very happy to share those research, and I'll share that with all the analysts, the ones that I think we can, but there's at least 20. So for sure there's a big return on investment when you do audio ads with video even stronger. The biggest issue right now is, again, getting the retailers to agree with the endemic, non-endemic, agree with the ads, So the retailers have to get used to, sometimes we'll bring some great campaigns, they'll say, we're not sure about this campaign. So we have to evangelize the advertisers and we have to evangelize the retailers on both sides. But that's our job and that's why we're right now the number one audio retail media player in the world. And our goal is to keep growing this segment. We're very unique. So, yeah.

Okay, no, that makes sense. And, yeah, that would be great if whatever you can share, that would be fantastic. Last question for me.

Yeah, because I don't want to give you numbers that I'm not sure, but it's because it's more marketing. So I'll just give you the research because I guess you can get the exact number instead of me trying to figure a number out for you.

Yeah, I understood. Okay, great. And that last one for me on the radio side is, Um, you know, just kind of wow, relative to the rest of the industry, uh, what you're able to accomplish. So it seems as if tying into kind of the retail media piece, you get larger local market share, and then you talk about digital advertising. also growing kind of double digits. Just talk to the sustainability of kind of positive growth in radio. Obviously, you're going to outperform the rest of the industry just based on your playbook. But what do you see in terms of growth in Q4, but more broadly through fiscal 2026?

Yes, Drew, and again, we were very proud of the radio team. Also, we did, as you know, Steve is our new president. And Ian became more of the chairman. So very happy the new team and Steve and what he's doing. So radio, I said at the start of the year that we'll grow two to 4%. I think that both my CFO and Marie were kicking me under the table because again, we gain market share that helps us. Secondly, our digital presence is strong. We're also selling on CTVs and we're also selling on some audio products. And third of all, which is important, The retail media sales that we do from the radio team goes on the radio income statement. So for sure, the radio team is getting much better. So we'll say to somebody in Ottawa, do a $50,000 campaign on the radio and do another $25,000 campaign for the stores in your area. And that's slowly, from the wheels to the aisles, that's slowly kicking in. Now, we have over 100 reps across the country, and we're also giving them budget. So I think that just on the retail media side, that growth could be good for the next three, four, five years. So excited that we're finally getting leverage from radio and Stingray Broadcasting. And maybe you guys can upsell the EBITDA ratio of radio, like take it from five to eight. Maybe that could be a good idea. Multiple there.

All right, well, we'll have to think about that one. But, yeah, thanks for all that.

I'll see your report today, and I'll see if you brought the mouthful up a bit. Yeah, and I agree. You know, the other point is that if you look at our peers, as you know, our peers were minus 14 in the market. Our peers were minus 14 and were plus 4. So there is a disconnect. But we see the trends going forward. This quarter also very strong. January, February, March, very, very strong again. So we'll be positive numbers, again, because of those factors. Can predict 2026, you know, with tariffs and if there's a recession. But if there's no recession, we see growth because of digital and retail media. Thank you, Drew. Got it. Yep, got it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question will be from Jerome Dubreuil at Desjardins. Please go ahead, Jerome.

Oui, bonjour, Timon. Thanks for taking my question. I just want to jump on one of your comments that you've made in answer to Adam's question with regards to fast. Eric, you said that the momentum for growth in fast in general is good for the next three to four years. I mean, when we speak to investors, they definitely see that growth is very good right now. But some, it's a new market. They're not sure what's going to be going on. Going forward, what are the tells? What is telling you that this momentum is going to be good for as long as you said?

Yeah, so one of the things on the fast channels, our two strong segments is we have ambience channel. Ambiance meaning we started with the fireplace, and then it's nature escape. Then we have holiday escape. And now we just launched Cozy Cafe, so it's a nice cafe with nice music. So every channel, the link with us is the music that we curate behind those images. And then we launched Cityscape, and we launched Stargazer. So we're launching a lot of new channels, and all of our clients are taking them. Ambiance works really well because it's laid back. You put it at home, you cook, you do a bit of work, so that works well. And then the second thing that we did, which is – this is why it's so – Incredible. It's the good old Galaxy. It's the good old 4D audio channels you have on your TV. And we were able to convince the TV manufacturers and the fast channels people that audio is an amazing product, radio on TV. And just with Samsung, you know, this month we launched four new audio channels. Not very exciting, but that's what people like. We launched a new soft hits. We launched jukebox ODs. which in three weeks became our number six channel. So Jukebox, all these. But we knew, because on the TV side, on the cable side, our top three channel is Spa, Nature, and Jukebox, all these. So it's the people who want to relax. So we're launching new channels. We're launching more audio. We are by far the number one broadcaster with Samsung and LG. We want to be stronger. We're going to be launching on Roku. We want to launch on Pluto. So that's one. Number two is our partners are growing internationally. Our friends at Roku are going to Mexico, going in Europe. Pluto's also growing. Number three, we're finally able to monetize Mexico, Brazil, and Europe. So they're getting better and better. It used to be only Canada, U.S., and the rest would be very low numbers. So better monetization, more clients. And then you also have the cable operators growing. with Comcast and Canada Bell and all the cable operators launching fast channels. So really, that whole segment is just growing fast, which I think is a play on words. The fasts are growing fast. And we're lucky that our product has a unique fit. And the more audio channels we have, the more we have the bundle, the more people see us as a destination. So that's why we get excited when we launch more audio channels. Sorry that's a long answer, Jerome, but again, We see the growth on this market, and you can look at the ones for the next three to five years. The more people cut the cable and they switch over to the Amazon, the Roku, the Pluto, and the LG, the Samsung, and their platforms get better, the more that all of us will make more money and better monetization.

Yeah, that all makes sense. Don't mind the long answer for that type of question. Thanks. I have a follow-up. In the commentary you made on the press release, it sounds like you're kind of switching gears in terms of your retail media efforts, at least on what you're doing, maybe playing a bit more on the pricing aspect of it, which we haven't seen so much in the last little while. I'm wondering if there's been a particular milestone that allows you to now be considering this. Maybe you have better data, or am I reading that wrong? Thanks.

No, no. You know, the retail media, you know, once we get that segment and we get more partners involved, like I was mentioning in the U.S., we're looking to have discussions with our friends at iHeart, AdWiz, our friend at XM Serious that sell audio ads, Spotify. We're working together, so those are the type of partners we want to get involved in retail media to enhance our leverage. So now we see good growth, and like I said, I talked about the inventory before to one of your partners. We have a lot of inventory to sell. The retailers are becoming more and more open to the type of ads. You know, when you do non-endemic, at the start they were like non-endemic, but there's a big market in non-endemic ads in stores. Not everybody was used to it. They're getting more open. At the end of the day, the retailers, the brick and mortars, are competing with Amazon. And Amazon, if they sell pampers, Amazon has a lot of ads and monetization they do on all over their websites. So the retailers have to compete, and one day they're going to be as aggressive as Amazon is to get the best pricing for their customers. So no, our focus is there, not only on the pricing, but on really the fill rate and the data. So, yeah, the answer, Jerome, is we're very confident for that growth vector. Merci beaucoup. Merci, Jerome.

Thank you. Next question will be from Scott Fletcher at CIBC. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. I wanted to ask on M&A. You mentioned in the press release that you're, you know, with leverage coming down and the additional capacity that you'll look to more M&A. Can you maybe give us an idea of what the targets might look like? Like we've seen you do some smaller tuck-ins, and those are all understandable. But if you are going to get more aggressive, what kind of categories are you looking at for acquisitions?

Yeah, so I think, you know, I must say that, you know, I've been saying for the last eight quarters, you know, the market's tough, the private equity team, our customers, they're still, even if interest rates went up and the market is tougher, they're still at a very high multiple. But now I must say, finally, we're getting into the zone where, Everybody is more open, good discussion. So we have about two or three good M&As in the pipeline. So I think we're excited. That's something, you know, a very core M&A, very in the broadcasting unit, exactly in our sweet spot of streaming and fast and broadcasting. So I think we're excited that we might have a few good deals coming in. Always careful about saying the size of the deal. but deals that are more tuck-ins, bigger than just two or three million. So we have a couple of good deals that are double digits or even in the, how do you say that, 10 million plus and even some deals we're looking at over 100 million. So we're working hard. The M&A team is fully engaged. So we'll see. So you know the way deals come. They fall or they don't fall. So we'll see in the next couple weeks or months.

Okay, great. Then just a couple follow-ups on the retail media side. You mentioned that when the radio team is selling retail media ads, they're getting recorded in their income statement. Is that the case for the segmented breakdown? If they sell a retail media ad, it ends up in the radio segment on your financials? Okay.

Yes. And that's where radio sales are up because, for sure, they start – last year it was zero. So if they're up 2%, it gives them 2%. We just wanted to reflect who is the cell unit of that item. So that's why you'll see more and more of retail media going under the radio unit. And our goal with that, when we spoke to our investors and our partners, we were like, you know, and they said no. The radio team, if we're able to show that radio is able to have positive organic sales for the next few quarters and years, then our goal is for you, Scott, to re-rate the radio unit and see radio as a growth vector. So I know what I'm telling you seems like I'm having too much fun, but I think radio could become a growth vector with all those digital sales and retail media sales. We're very effective. Radio is highly effective at selling locally and speaking to smaller locations that don't have a CMO. So we're really able to guide our customers to work with us to become their CMO or their agency. And again, I don't want to say this, with our peers that are not focusing on radio in Canada, for us, we have a much better market, more presence, and more loyalty. So they're open to trying new products with us.

Okay, thanks. And then just one more one on the partnerships there you spoke about. If you think about the margin contribution on those, would those be at a sort of lower margin profile on partnership sales? I assume there's another sort of sharing that you have.

No, it's not.

It's very surprising how, you know, as you know, in Canada, we have a deal for national sales. We have a deal with Bell. We have cooperation there. So Bell and us, we sell national ads together. And the rate that we have is very, very market-driven, very fair, and a high margin. If we're able to do the same thing in the U.S. and do national ads with partners, it's a better margin because it costs less than paying salesperson's salary commission. So you make more money with partnerships than you make with a, I don't have to be careful, but with the cost of a sales team. Okay.

Interesting. Thank you. Appreciate the answer.

Thank you, Scott. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. Next, we will hear from Tim Casey at BMO. Please go ahead, Tim.

Thanks, good morning. I was dropped off the call, so I apologize if you answered this already, Eric. But when we look at the reported revenue in the quarter, are you able to unpack how much of that was, what was the growth rate of traditional airtime sales? Are you outpacing your peers on the traditional business as well, or is the reported number more a reflection of what you're doing on the retail media side?

Yeah, you know what? It's a very good question, Tim. We are by far – it is – no, we get every radio company in the big markets. We share our numbers. We give it to an accounting firm, and we're able to see what the market's doing. So, yeah, and so for Halifax, Ottawa, for the big cities, and we are beating by far the markets. It is – What our team is doing is we're really getting a lot of market share. So radio, airtime, believe it or not, this year to last year, we were flat. But the market was down, I got to be careful, but was much, much lower. So we're very happy with that. And after that, we get all the upside from digital sales and retail media. So our team is doing great compared to the market. And look, I don't want to put names, but there's another person that gave the numbers in January for the radio division. And when we saw that, we were like, the group was minus 14, so a big gap between minus 14 and plus four. I agree with you, Tim. Thank you. Hey, thank you, Tim. And also, Tim, we're going to make sure we're below two. That's one of our focus when we met. Okay. All right. Take care, Tim.

Thank you. And at this time, Mr. Boyko, we have no other questions registered. Please proceed.

All righty. On behalf of the Stingray team and also from our radio team, thank you very much for joining us on this conference call. We look forward to speaking with you again following the release of our fourth quarter and also our year end. So I'm excited also to have some great announcement for our investors, and thank you for the confidence in Stingray and our management team. Merci tout le monde.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.