6/11/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Stingray Group, Inc. Q4 2025 results call. At this time, all lines are in 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, June 11, 2025. I would now like to turn the I would now like to turn the conference over to Lloyd Feldman. Please go ahead.

speaker
Lloyd Feldman
Moderator

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for Stingray's conference call for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. Today, Eric Boyko, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, and Marie-Hélène Foulbier, Interim Chief Financial Officer, will be presenting Stingray's operational and financial highlights. Our press release reporting Stingray's fourth quarter and full year results for fiscal 2025 was issued yesterday after the markets closed. Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements for the quarter are available on our investor website at www.stingray.com and on SEDAR+. 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. The corporation's future operations and performance are subject to risks and uncertainties, and results may vary materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors identified in Stingray's Annual Information Form dated June 10, 2025, which is available on SetR+. 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 advised that some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. Refer to Stingray's 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 Boyka.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Merci, Lloyd. It's good to have a true Montreal-based Anglophone to start the conversation. Now we're going to go to a more bilingual person. So good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter conference call for fiscal 2025. Fiscal 2025 was a highly successful year, reflecting strong execution and market by the achievement of key milestones in our profitable growth strategy. First, advertising revenues from our broadcast and recurring commercial music segment, which compromised of our fast channels and retail media advertising unit, increased by more than 45% for a second consecutive year as advertisers increasingly rely on connected TVs to maximize their advertising dollars. Accordingly, we invested in our fast channels platform in 2025, including the recent launch of channels like Cozy Cafe, Movie Music, Stargaze, and Cityscapes. to position Stingray as the number one global supplier of musical and ambient channels for connected TVs. To leverage the growth on fast channels, we launched Stingray's premium ad inventory network, which I'll explain more in our questions. This is a strategic initiative that enables our tentative partners, vendors, to sell our unsold inventory. We anticipate that this will contribute significantly to our growth trajectory next year, or this year. Secondly, by partnering with the AIB Canada and Léger to release influential research on evolution of in-store audio advertising in Canada, we have further solidified our standing as a recognized leader in this expanding market. We are true trail-bearers in this market, evangelizing retailers about the on-top potential of in-store media ads, adding sales representatives and partners to increase inventory selling and optimize data and pricing structure to improve monetization. Third, the double-digit organic growth for second straight year reflects the judicious investment decisions Stingray has made to prepare revenue growth and drive profitability. In fiscal 2025, we delivered 12.3% year-over-year organic growth, excluding radio, on top of the 10.2% growth of 2024. So always impressive to do two years in a row. Stingrays emerging track record demonstrate consistent double-digit organic growth. We have successfully established the strategic and operational framework that outfits our capacity to continue this trend into this current year and beyond. Finally, we reduced our net debt by more than $27 million in fiscal 25, closing the year with a net debt to pro forma adjusted at the ratio of 2.28 and well within our target range. As a result, fiscal 25 stands as an outstanding year of performance clearly demonstrated by adjusted EBITDA growth outpacing total revenues. So we like that when we get scale. In this very encouraging context, broadcasting and commercial music revenues increased 17.8% to 254 million in fiscal 25, driven by higher fast channel revenues, greater equipment and installation sales related to digital signage, and positive foreign exchange impact. Radio revenues, meanwhile, improved 2.3%, and we did say at the start of the year that our goal was 2% to 3% for the year, so we hit it to $132 million in fiscal 25, mainly due to higher digital revenues. We are particularly pleased that our strategy to leverage the radio sales team in Canada to sell in-store audio and video ads is beginning to deliver tangible results. This latest facet of our growth plan helped to boost radio revenues by nearly 4% in the fourth quarter, despite a tight market environment. Looking forward to 2026, our capital allocation priorities are well-defined. We intend to sustain our momentum by reinvesting in high growth areas of our business, lowering our net debt leverage ratio below two times EBITDA, seeking credit acquisition on an opportunistic basis, and finally, rewarding our current shareholders with our well-established NCIB and dividend programs. I will now call over to Marie-Hélène for a financial overview of the fourth quarter. Merci, Marie.

speaker
Marie-Hélène Foulbier
Interim Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Eric. Good morning, everyone. Revenues reached $96 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, up 14.8% from $83.7 million in Q4 2024. The year-over-year growth was largely due to an increase in fast channel revenues and a positive foreign exchange impact. Revenues in Canada rose 2.7% to $46.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. The growth can be attributed to an increase in radio revenues driven by higher local sales. Revenues in the United States grew 45% year-over-year to $38 million in Q4 2025, reflecting stronger fast-channel revenues and a favorable foreign exchange impact. Revenues in other countries decreased 5.5% to $11.2 million in the most recent quarter. The year-over-year decline was mainly caused by lower commercial revenues. Looking at our performance by business segment, broadcasting and commercial music revenues increased 20.9% to $64.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. The growth was primarily driven by greater fast channel revenues and a foreign exchange gain. For their part, radio revenues improved 3.9% to $31.4 million in Q4 2025, mainly due to higher local revenues. In terms of profitability, consolidated adjusted EBITDA rose 19% to $35 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 36.5% in Q4 2025 compared to 35.2% for the same period in 2024. The growth in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin was mainly due to higher revenues, partially offset by greater variable expenses related to higher salaries. By business segment, broadcasting and commercial music adjusted EBITDA increased 24% to $28.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase can be attributed to an improved gross margin on higher revenues. Adjusted EBITDA for our radio segment rose 4.6% year-over-year to $8.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Similarly, the year-over-year increase can be credited to a better gross margin on higher revenues. In terms of corporate adjusted EBITDA, it amounted to a negative 1.7 million in Q4 2025 compared to a negative 1.5 million in Q4 2024. SINGRI reported net income of 7.7 million or 11 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to a net loss of 46.3 million or 67 cents per share in Q4 2024. The variation was mainly due to a one-time impermanent charge of $56.1 million on Goodwill related to the radio segment in the comparable period in 2024 and higher operating results in Q4 2025. These factors were partially offset by our foreign exchange loss and an unrealized loss on derogated financial instruments in the most recent quarter. Adjusted net income totaled $18.6 million or $0.27 per share in Q4 2025, compared to $15.4 million on 22 cents per share in the same period in 2024. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to higher operating results partially offset by our foreign exchange loss. Turning into liquidity and capital resources, cash flow from operating activities totaled $39.7 million in Q4 2025 compared to $44.3 million in Q4 2024. The year-over-year decline was primarily due to a foreign exchange loss, higher income taxes paid, as well as greater acquisition legal restructuring and other costs. These factors were partially offset by improved operating results. Adjusted through cash flow amounted to $18.4 million in Q4 2025, compared to $15.6 million in the same period in 2024. The increase was mainly related to improved operating results, partially offset by higher income taxes paid. From a balance sheet standpoint, Stinger had cash-on-cash equivalents of $14 million at the end of the fourth quarter and credit facilities of $341.4 million, of which approximately $156.3 million was available. Total net debt at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 stood at $327.4 million, down $27.3 million from the end of Q4 2024, as the corporation reimbursed and retired the totality of its sub-debt. combined with improved adjusted EBITDA over the last 12 months, our net debt to pro forma adjusted EBITDA ratio improved to 2.28 times at the end of the fourth quarter. Finally, we bought back 1.2 million shares in fiscal 2025 under our NCIB program, including 275,000 shares in the fourth quarter for a total of 9.1 million. We also made dividend payments of 20.5 million during the past fiscal year to reward our shareholders. This ends my presentation. I will now turn the call over to Eric.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Okay. This, guys, concludes our prepared remarks. At this point, Marie-Hélène and I will be pleased to answer questions. And on behalf of the entire Stingray team, thank you for joining us on this conference call. I know you're very busy. We look forward to speaking with you again following the release of our first quarter results for fiscal 2026. Hopefully we'll have a great day. Alright, I think we're ready for questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the number one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first questions. Your first question comes from Adam Schein from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.

speaker
Adam Schein
Analyst, National Bank Financial

Thanks a lot. Good morning. Of course, my thoughts are with JP and his family. So turning to your performance, obviously a very strong finish to a solid year, Eric. Can you just help us a little bit? I think my guess is fast revenues were probably around $30 million or so for the year. Can you speak to know your expectations for fiscal 2026 and you know maybe also in the context of you know a second year in a row of 45 plus fast and retail media add you to growth you know how you would characterize growth uh for fiscal 2026 on that metric as well then i'll just add a couple more if you don't mind yeah and adam and it is the key question so the good news is uh q1 because because it's the end of the year

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Q1, we're already looking to be up again on advertising, fast, and retail above 40%. So we're starting the year very strong. So very happy about that. The fast channel, for us, it's a big surprise. We're launching more channels. We launched another six audio channels on Vizio. We're launching more channels with Roku, different partners. We're launching with LG, so new channels, more partners. Our partners are growing. So very excited about that growth. Second big news for us is, you know, our partners sell on average 40 to 50% of their ads. The other 50% is like, you know, like in radio, if you don't sell it, you lose it. So we started what we call our premium advertising network. We also call it backfilling. So we do the backfilling on those channels. So that for us is a brand new project that started just in April. And I must say the programmatic sales and that The potential to where we have eight partners selling on the backfilling is just, it's impressive results. Happy to give you more information at the end of Q1, but this could easily double the size of our fast channel because we have LG and Samsung and Vizio selling, and then we sell after with the same inventory. So again, for us, getting involved in that backfilling program itself is a game changer. We're investing in it technology-wise and with a few people, but you don't need a lot of people to do tens of millions of cells. So it's very, very accredited and very scalable, which I must say I've never seen scale like that in my business history. And also, good news to announce, we've officially, you know when you have your Samsung and your LG or your remote, so officially we're going to be on every on and visio remote. So ON is the brand of our friends at Walmart. So we're looking to be on eight to 10 million remotes with Walmart ON. So that means at the bottom of the remote, usually you'll have Netflix, we'll have Amazon Prime, and then you're gonna have Stingray Music. So we're very happy that we have a music button on the remote to send people directly to our section. So that for us, it's a big, It's a good investment, but also it's a big honor to be next to Netflix and Amazon Prime. And we're looking to do the same thing with all the Vizio TVs. So we're looking at between 16 to 20 new million active users a year coming in for the next four to five years. So again, a lot of growth coming over a good period of time. So I must say, Adam, we're very excited with the fast growth, the backfilling. and our partnerships.

speaker
Adam Schein
Analyst, National Bank Financial

So if I could just unpack a little bit of that. First off, just in the context of the fast channel ad growth, I mean, you've had a tremendous run over the last two, three years, almost from a standing start, more than doubling. Are you suggesting to us that this could be $60 million in F2026, or should we think about that a bit more conservatively?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

I think that we're in a position to double our fast channels this year, our revenues with the backfilling. And the backfilling will give you a lot more color in Q1. But for us, and again, these sales came in with us. It wasn't even in our budget. So our board yesterday said, oh, Eric, you're already sandbagging. But no, I think it's going to be interesting to show you the numbers in Q1, Adam. I think you'll be impressed. Okay.

speaker
Adam Schein
Analyst, National Bank Financial

And, you know, again, FAST has also contributed to some of the mix and margin advantage that you've had in the quarter and also, frankly, over the past year or so. Any additional color around the economics? Did the economics change a little bit in terms of this backfilling?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, that's a very good question, and I'm happy you asked it. When our partners sell it, when LG and Vizio – we recognize the revenue on a net basis. So they give us, whatever they give us is net. So the margins are much, much higher. And we're confident to maintain our 42% EBITDA margin for this year, for 2026, like we've done over the last two years. So on that side, it's a much higher gross margin. When we sell, we report gross. So now we have to pay the Vizio share or the LG share. So let's say it's 50-50. So in that case, our gross margin is more like in the 40%. So a big difference depending if it's they sell it or we sell it in terms of revenue recognition. But I'm sure with Marie-Hélène, we can go in details about that.

speaker
Adam Schein
Analyst, National Bank Financial

Okay, and just lastly on leverage, obviously good progress as you had telegraphed at the start of the year. You said under two times, the press release says approaching two times. It's just semantics, but maybe you could just clarify that. And also, if indeed It's around the two times mark. It looks to me like you have almost $30 million or so of room to do buyback and or M&A. Is there anything in the pipeline that's beyond sort of tuck-in or should we just think of acquisitions this year as tuck-ins?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

So, and by the way, I must say you're a very good analyst. You're very close to that. Yeah, we expect to be below two times by December. So... And to finish the year, we'll have a capacity of 30 to 40 million, if things go well, to do extra dividends, extra buyback, extra deals. You know, we've been working on some very good deals over the last six months. But I must say that, you know, when the story in March and April, the tariffs, the dollar, it was U.S. deals. The dollar was moving. Our stock price was moving. So I must say that the board and myself, we just put a bit of a hold on bigger deals. I'm talking about deals that are in the $200 million to $400 million range because it was moving too much. So we put everything on hold. Maybe if things are more quiet, more stable, and geopolitically and tariff-wise over the next six months, we can revive those deals. But right now, we're more focused on small tokens. And also, I must say, Adam, when your organic sales are double-digit, and again, because we're so advanced in Q1, Q1 will be another double-digit quarter. We have a lot of work to do on investing in technology for the ad selling, tech selling, getting new partners on board. You know, yesterday we were with 80 customers in Denver. It's the big connected TV show, the biggest show of the year. And we had the chance to invite 80 customers to go see Coldplay. So I don't think any other broadcaster in the world has the relationship that we seem to have. Because we were a cable company, We had this ability to be B2B sales, and all the people from the cable side, they switched over to the fast TV side. So our connections, I've been with them for 20 years. And our sales team is a very experienced sales team in the market. So I think we're taking advantage of our ability to really deliver great products that deliver great results. Adam.

speaker
Adam Schein
Analyst, National Bank Financial

Okay. Thanks, Eric. Much appreciated.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Your next question comes from . Please go ahead.

speaker
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on another solid quarter. You know, on the fast channels, obviously, there's no question. I mean, the growth momentum is really there. Just to sort of, you know, assess the risk side of things, Eric, can you just talk to the level of diversification that you have right now among the different platforms? And also, you know, any space that grows like this as quickly as this, you know, you're going to see other kind of competitors take a look. Are you seeing any of that? I know that you have a dominant position and you're, you know, firming that up with some of the new channel launches. But I wanted to see if you were spotting something on the horizon in terms of other players getting in.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, so, you know, we were lucky because, In the U.S. market, we didn't have much of the audio channels in the U.S., and on the cable side, because that was the music choice out of all the cable market. So when the fast channel started six, seven years ago, we were the first one to be all in. So we were the first player advantage. We are still, as of now, the only audio music partner with all of our partners. And on the ambient side, we have now eight channels of ambience, And we're the only one that really does a great ambiance style. And the beauty of our product, our sweet spot is really laid-back listening. When you listen to 70s or 80s music at home, and our number one channel audio is still spot. So people come home, they want to relax, they put the spot channel on, and they cook. So it's a unique experience. The market is $70 billion. The market was $70 billion on NBC, ABC, and CBS, and all of that is switching over. It's the same ads that are switching over to the fast channels. So I must say the demand side, that lake is very deep. We're surprised how deep that lake is. And we're just getting better and better at it. We're launching more and more channels. We're getting better at selling and helping our partners. And what I'm happy about us doing the backspinning is we're less dependent on LG, Samsung, and Vizio. So if they sell less of the ads, the good news is we have more of the backfilling to sell. If they only sell 40, then we have 60% to sell. If they sell 60, we're happy because they're selling, and then we have 40. So I think by doing this with all of our partners will really position us even more as a great partner because we're double selling, and they make us much money when we sell the ads than when they make the ads. So it's a win-win for us and our partners. And the fact that, again, for me, the fact that our friends at Divizio and Walmart took us as one of their three partners to be the button on the remote is a great honor. So I think we're well positioned. So for now, I'd say no. It's looking very – the lake's increasing, so all the boats are rising.

speaker
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst

Okay, that's great, Carla. Eric, just to follow up on the backfilling. So you have backfilling rights on all the platforms, right? Samsung included. And I just want to clarify, it's all programmatic as well.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yes. So the answer is no, not on all. We're trying to convince them that we're doing a great job. I think that would be a big win. On most platforms, we have backfilling rights. And yes, it is all programmatic. That's a word I need to practice with my addiction coach. Because that word programming, I think, is very difficult for French Canadians.

speaker
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst

Okay. And last question from me. On the retail media side, I know the momentum is still there, but obviously as kind of the base grows, the growth rates moderate. Maybe just talk to your expectations there. I know that video could be a tailwind for you in fiscal 26. Any sort of additional color on that front?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

And very good, yeah. We had very high growth in retail media over the last three, four years, like in the 30s and 20s and 40s. And so finally, this year we expect double-digit growth, but on the low end. We reorganized a bit of the sales team. We merged U.S. and Canada. We put a new person in charge, a new GM in charge of that unit. So this year will be more a year of reestablishing ourselves. We're also trying to give more data. from the retailers to the advertisers to make it more like a digital sell. So I'd say we're looking more for this year, like a 10% growth. Double digit, but low, low double digit.

speaker
Unidentified Analyst
Analyst

Understood. Thank you. I'll pass the line.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Hey, thank you very much for your question.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Scott Fletcher from CIBC. Please go ahead.

speaker
Scott Fletcher
Analyst, CIBC

Hi, good morning. I'll stick with the broadcasting and commercial segment, but something we don't talk about as much as the subscription line. That was sort of surprising to me to see the 7% growth rate number in the quarter. Can you sort of unpack what drove the growth and what you expect for that line?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, very good question. We did have a bump this quarter. We did have like a special promotion that gave us a lot of subscription. So this quarter is not a usual quarter. I would... I would look more at the growth that we had year over year than quarter over quarter for your forecast. We did have a positive blimp this quarter.

speaker
Scott Fletcher
Analyst, CIBC

Okay, thanks. That's helpful.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

So be careful. Don't put this growth for the rest of the year for your forecast because it might be too high for us.

speaker
Scott Fletcher
Analyst, CIBC

And then on the M&A, you mentioned some of those larger deals. If those were to be the case, can you sort of walk through the financing plan there? Would that be likely an equity issuance?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

No. The good news of being at two times debt EBITDA, because we're reimbursing debt every week, and EBITDA is growing every quarter, is that we're in a very good position to do a big acquisition without raising any equity. And for us, myself as an entrepreneur, the last thing I want to do is issue equity. Equity is the most, right now our free cash flow yield is anywhere from 15 to 17% depending on how you measure it and if you look at our budget and our forecast. So for us issuing shares at 15, 17% is too expensive. And right now we're borrowing at 4.5% at the bank. So the interest rate are very, very good. So I'd say no. And also, we don't want to go, if we do a deal, we want to stay below three times EBITDA. With these types of markets right now, so the deal have to be accretive. We had a few that were very accretive and that we were able to maintain below the three times EBITDA. We don't want to, there's a lot of things moving right now, so we are more safe. And also, when you have two years of positive organic sales of plus 10%, like we had 10 and 12 and you start your Q1 and your Q1 is still double digit organic. And we have so much wind on our back that there's less, not as much pressure to do deals and more, more focused on investing on our growing strategy.

speaker
Scott Fletcher
Analyst, CIBC

Okay. Yeah, no, definitely. And, and then just to confirm one last thing on the, on the broadcasting commercial. So you, even with the lower margin revenue growth, you still think, can you sort of point to, Just remind me again what you think the margin, EBITDA margin target.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, I think, you know, last year we did 41.9. This year we did 42.3. This became my sheet, EBITDA margin. So, yeah, I think 42% is a good goal for us. We make more money when Vizio and LG and Roku and all of our partners sell. A bit less money on the backfill, but I think we'll be able to maintain our 42%. Okay.

speaker
Scott Fletcher
Analyst, CIBC

Good to hear. Thank you.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Hey, thank you, Scott.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Drew McReynolds from RBC. Please go ahead.

speaker
Drew McReynolds
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. A couple for me. First, Eric, on the M&A, you provided, I think, some broad commentary on where your focus is on that. Can you just kind of remind us, you know, where that focus is? And then secondly, on the connected car contribution, I think your commentary in previous quarters is to see a bigger uptick in fiscal 2027 than fiscal 2026. Just wondering if that's still the trajectory of that revenue contributor.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yep. So for sure, all of the M&A acquisitions that we're looking at are in our growth vectors. So in the fast segment, in advertising, programmatic sales. So we're very much where we're seeing our growth right now. So, and there's a good list of companies there for us to be talking to. So we're excited about that. Can't get too much in details, as you know. And regarding cars, good question. Cars, it's a long-term project. We are talking to every car company in the world. We went four times to China in the last six months, very involved with the Chinese company. We went two times to Japan, Korea. We're all over the U.S. I don't want to say names, but we have many of our partners coming here for the Grand Prix this weekend. So many cars, company, and many clients are coming. We're taking advantage of the Grand Prix in Montreal to invite customers. But these are long-term deals. But I'm happy that this year, you know, we're officially going to hit eight digits. So we're officially going to be able to be in the eight-digit market. So it's growing well, but still a small unit. It's not as big as the advertising for now. But very excited to see the launches in cars. And, again, I... Karaoke will be, for the kids, the best thing ever. Karaoke will be in every car, and maybe for the parents, they won't be happy with me. But karaoke will be, how do you call this, table stakes for a car. And even now, the big discussion is us producing mics, microphones, so you're able to sing and score yourself in the cars.

speaker
Drew McReynolds
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

All right, can hardly wait there. Just shifting gears a little bit, on the retail media side, when you think about your growth outlook there, and some of the levers that you're still working on, whether it's pricing, sellout rate, ad frequency. Where within those levers are you prioritizing to get the most bang for your buck this year? Where do you see the lever here in fiscal 2026, or maybe it's all three?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, for us, the issue with the retail media is there's still no bucket. There's a bucket for TV. There is a bucket for in-store where they invest directly with Loblaw. They invest directly with Metro. There's audio, and then there's digital sales or digital ads like CTV. So one of our main focus here is to be able to get data from the retailers to make retail media audio more of it, to give them more digital data reports that make it more, they can measure a better return on investment. So we're still evangelizing the market. So I must say it's a lot of work compared to programmatic sales that it just opened the tap and the money starts coming in. Here we're really knocking on doors. We're meeting a lot of agencies. We're traveling. We're going to New York. But I think we are the number one audio retail media player in the world, both in Canada and the U.S. So we're positioned to to continue that market. But a lot of work.

speaker
Drew McReynolds
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Yeah, okay. Now that's helpful. And last one for me, maybe for you, Mary Helen, is CAFET. I think came in roughly $15 million in fiscal 2025. Just wondering what we should pencil in for fiscal 2026.

speaker
Marie-Hélène Foulbier
Interim Chief Financial Officer

It should be very similar. No big variances on that one.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Okay. That's great. Thank you very much. And even for us, the interest rates came down fast. So even the interest rate, I think we're looking at more 18 million that will pay an interest this year instead of the 24, 26 in the last two years. Great. Okay. Thank you. So looking good there. All right. Thank you, Drew.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Jerome from the Jordans. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jerome
Analyst, Jordan’s

Hello, everyone. Same for me. Best wishes to JP. Thinking about him. First question is on the macro situation in the advertising business. Sometimes we're wondering if we see some cyclicality or maybe you're your vectors are too much in the early innings of their growth. So I'm wondering if you're seeing any impact from the uncertain macro situation right now in your advertising sales.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, so again, good news that I have a chance to mention is that, again, we're so advanced in the quarter. Because of the year-end, it's a 90-day period. You know, radio again, this quarter, radio we're looking to be at about plus 5%. So April, May, June was a very strong radio period. We are getting market share from other players. And also our digital strategy is doing well, and radio is really embracing retail media. So that radio seems good for Q1, we'll see for Q2. But happy about that. Who would think that radio would grow by 5%? If you look at some of our competition that starts with the word C, I think you'd be surprised. And regarding the fast channels and retail media, but mostly the fast channels, the bucket is a $70 billion market from traditional TV moving to fast. So we're not creating a new advertising. We're just switching all the viewership that was done on ABC, NBC, CBC, and all of the cable side and switching it to the other side. So we're transferring market share, we're not building market share. You understand, Jerome? Is that clear?

speaker
Jerome
Analyst, Jordan’s

Yeah, absolutely makes sense.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

I don't like the word stealing, but we're taking it on that bucket side. So at the end of the day, Coca-Cola, and it's the same as you see on our fashion. If you're Volkswagen, you want to reach 10 million Americans, then you put some money and then it goes to us, CTV, or it goes to NBC. So it's the same ad. So we're really leveraging.

speaker
Jerome
Analyst, Jordan’s

Yeah, makes sense. Thank you. Another one on the fast, maybe in terms of the inflection we've been seeing in the watched hours, really, you have a graph there in the presentation. So that is not related to the backfilling because that wouldn't have an impact on the watched hours. Has something happened this quarter? In terms of the hours being watched, can this be repeated? Is this a new forum which you'll be building upon?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

You know, again, we've launched six channels on Vizio. We're launching another six on Roku. We were never on Roku. Roku is Vizio's 20 million active users, but they're going to be going from 20 to 40 to 60 to 80 million. As you know, Vizio got bought over by Walmart. If you go into Walmart in the U.S., All you're going to see is On, which is the Walmart TV, and Vizio. And their pricing is good, but all of those will be managed with the Vizio TV Plus system. So just on the Vizio side, we see them doubling to tripling in the next two years. We've launched more channels with Vizio. We're launching more channels with LG. We launched more channels with Samsung. So we're really well positioned. We've also launched on Amazon Fire 30 of our channels, audio and video. We're launching also 30 channels on iSense. So all these platforms are coming on, and people are really, the good and bad news, are getting off cable, and they see that they have all these channels for free. So it's really a great win-win for the consumer and win-win for the broadcasters like us.

speaker
Jerome
Analyst, Jordan’s

Yeah, it makes sense. And last one for me, back to retail media. Looking at the presentation, hearing what you've been saying in the past, you seem to be talking maybe a bit more openly about increasing the CTNs on retail media. That's at least how I interpret it. Do you feel that you've done enough in terms of approving the ROI to do this? Have you earned the right or you're going to be testing the water there?

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Yeah, it's still, like I said, retail media, it's totally opposite of programming. Programming is you need very few people and they do millions of sales. And retail media, you need a lot of people that bang on the doors, bang on the agencies and meet people. So one, retail media is less scalable than selling on fast.

speaker
Jerome
Analyst, Jordan’s

I don't know if that's a good answer, but... Yeah, no, makes sense. Merci, Eric.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Merci, Jean.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The last question comes from Tim Casey from BMO. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jerome
Analyst, Jordan’s

I'm good. The questions have been asked and answered. Thank you.

speaker
Eric Boyko
President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Thank you, Tim. So I guess this will be, I guess, all I have to ask are questions. Again, on behalf of the Stingray team, A lot of work here that was done to be year-end. Great results. Every department from marketing to content to IT to sales. And I will say to you, Lloyd, legal and finance. But we're in a good position and happy to hopefully deliver another year of double-digit growth, higher EBITDA, and also strong cash flow for our shareholders. I think we're well-positioned for that. happy about the interest rates and position. Hopefully, maybe have a nice significant acquisition. Thank you very much, and have a good day.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Thank you.

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