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Stingray Group Inc.
6/10/2026
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Stingray Group's Q4 2026 conference call. At this time, all lines are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. And at any time during this call, if you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also note that this call is being recorded on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. And I would like to turn the conference over to Mathieu Pellequin. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. And thank you for joining us for Stingrays Conference Call for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2026. Today, Eric Boyko, President, CEO, and co-founder, as well as Marie-Hélène Fournier, Interim Chief Financial Officer, will be presenting Stingrays operational and financial highlights. Our press release reporting Stingray's unaudited fourth quarter and full year results for fiscal 2026 was issued yesterday after the market closed. Please note that the financial information discussed on today's call is currently unaudited. Our final audited financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the fiscal year will be fine-lined, posted on our investor website at stingray.com, and filed on CEDR Plus by June 30, 2026. The additional time to close our audit this year reflects the scope of work involved in bringing TuneIn into our consolidated financial statements. 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 operation and performance are subject to risks 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 10, 2025, which is available on SEDAR+. 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 advised that some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. A complete definition and reconciliation of such measures to IFRS financial measures is included in yesterday's press release and will also be detailed in our upcoming MD&A. 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.
Hey, merci, Mathieu. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter and four-year results conference call for fiscal 26. Stingray delivered a strong financial performance in fiscal 26, reflecting strong execution in our key growth initiative. Thanks to the game-changing tune-in acquisition and a rapidly growing fast channel segment, revenues increased by 21.9% and adjusted EBITDA by 12.6%. That momentum carried rank two in the fourth quarter where revenues surged by 43% and EBITDA grew by 21.3%. TuneIn has truly transformative and synergistic impact on our business. Its programmatic advertising capabilities and extensive partner network of over 5,000 agencies will support the growth across all of our business units in the coming years. The success is driven by a number of factors. First, TuneIn is delivering strong organic growth both on and off platform. Second, StingRisk Freedom ad network launch, what we call backfill, just over a year ago is expanding rapidly. We've achieved 175,000 U.S. sales a day, which is a $90 million run rate over the last three months, directly benefiting from its demand partners in tuned-in advertising demand. This is creating a powerful flywheel effect across our advertising business. As a result, from our fast channel surge over 60% year-over-year, a major highlight is our region selection of a few CTV partners of choice to resell excess inventory. Additional, several platform partners have chosen us to introduce and resell audio ads inventory alongside the video offering. This proves the power of combining students' expertise with Stingray's reach. Today we stand as one of the few players, and I would say the only one, able to sell audio ads on connected TVs. The most noticeable impact is that we are well ahead of schedule on our planned acquisition synergies. In less than six months since the tune-in integration, revenue synergies have topped 42 million Canadian, and cost optimization has reached 12 million. Now looking at other growth of vectors. We continue to make progress on the retail media front with the integration of DMI, Walgreen, and the strengthening of our revenue streams through more profitable managed services accounts where retailers are integrating our offering into their sales report. We continue to work on enabling the introduction of programmatic advertising with retail media, which for us will be a game changer, where we should see some activity over the next two quarters. On retail media, we still have 400 million of unsold inventory, so we have a lot of inventory to sell. In the connected card space, we are excited to see the user engagement with our new European rollout of BYD Audio, the availability of Stingray in Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and the U.S. rollout of TuneIn in Nissan and Infiniti vehicles. Driven by this momentum, broadcasting commercial music revenue surged 33% to reach $339 million in 2026. As mentioned, this growth of fuel by TuneIn deal are expanded fast channels, but also strong hardware sales from the Stingray machine. In parallel, our radio revenues held steady at 132 million, with higher digital ad revenues successfully offsetting lower airtime sales. Well, now talking for 2027. We are very excited to say that we have an exceptional start of the year, probably the best start of the year since I've been CEO of this company, so for 20 years. Early signs of Q1 are very encouraging. Both April and May, are showing organic sales well above 20%. This is a direct impact of the synergies we talked about. So going from 11.7% in Q4 to over 20% in Q1 is very exciting for the management team. Combined programmatic ad sales across Stingray and TuneIn are now approaching the run rate of 275 million. We have told the market that one of our goals is to beat the 500,000 US a day so we're achieving 520,000 USD sales per day. This proves our scalable growth model based on unparalleled reach and distribution, best-in-class monetization capabilities, and the right content truly engaging audience worldwide across major platforms. An important note, while we are maintaining our adjusted EBITDA margin target of 35%, we know Q4 was lower for many reasons. but that we maintain that position. We see clear potential for long-term margin expansion as student synergies continue to scale. I will now turn over the call to Marie-Hélène for a financial review of the fourth quarter.
Bonne chance, Marie. Good morning, everyone. Revenues reached $137.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, up 43.6% from $96 million in Q4 2025. The year-over-year growth was mainly driven by higher advertising and subscription revenues from the recent tune-in acquisition, along with greater equipment sales related to the singing machine acquisition. These factors were partially offset by a negative foreign exchange impact. Revenues in Canada decreased 5.5% to $44.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2026. The year-over-year decline can be attributed to lower radio revenues stemming from softer airtime sales. Revenues in the U.S. grew 117% to $82.5 million in June 4, 2026, for the same reasons previously outlined for the consolidated revenues. Revenues in other countries decreased 0.6% to $11.1 million in the most recent quarter, The year-over-year decline was mainly due to lower subscription revenues, partially offset by greater fast channel sales. Looking at our performance by business segment, broadcasting and commercial music revenues increased 68.4% to $108.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2026. The growth was driven by higher advertising and subscription revenues from the tune-in acquisition. Greater equipment sales from the singing machine transaction and higher fast channel revenues. These factors were partially upset by a negative foreign exchange impact. Now looking at the breakdown by products for the full year. The broadcast and commercial divisions performance was highlighted by exceptional growth in advertising which surged 74% to 150.7 million. This was further supported by a 63% increase in equipment and labor to $46.1 million, while our core subscription revenues remain stable, going 2% to $142.3 million. For that part, radio revenues decreased 7.5% to $21.1 million in Q4 2026, largely due to lower airtime sales. In terms of profitability, consolidated adjusted EBITDA improved 21.3% to 42.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2026. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 30.8% in Q4 2026 compared to 36.5% for the same period in 2025. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was mainly driven by increased revenues from the tune-in acquisition. The decline in EBITDA margin meanwhile can be attributed to lower goals margins on higher sales related to the tune-in and the singing machines acquisition. By business segment, broadcasting and commercial music adjusted EBITDA grew 32.4% to $37.3 million in Q4 2026, primarily driven by the tune-in acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA for our radio business dropped by 18.6% year-over-year to $7 million in the fourth quarter of 2026. The decrease is primarily due to a higher cost of sales reflecting a change in sales makes. coupled with lower airtime revenues, partially affected by increased digital advertising sales. In terms of corporate, I just said a bit that it amounted to negative $1.8 million in the fourth quarter of 26 compared to negative $1.7 million in the same period of 2025. Stingray reported a net loss of $64.6 million or $0.95 per share in the fourth quarter of 2026, compared to net income of $7.7 million or $0.11 per diluted year in Q4 2025. The year-over-year decline is primarily due to a goodwill and license and permit charge for the radio division of $64.7 million, along with higher acquisition costs, amortization expenses, and restructuring costs. These factors were partially upset by an income tax recovery in the most recent quarter versus an income tax expense in the same period last year, as well as improve operating results. Adjusted net income totaled $20.8 million, or $0.31 per day, with a share in Q4 2026, compared to $18.6 million, or $0.20 per day, with a share in the same period in 2025. The increase is largely due to higher operating results and an income tax recovery in Q4 2026, compared to an income tax expense for the same period last year, partially offset by a greater interest expense. Turning to liquidity and capital resources, cash flow from operating activities amounted to $35.2 million in 2024-26 compared to $39.7 million in 2024-25. The decline was mainly due to increased legal fees and settlements and higher restructuring and other expenses. Adjusted free cash flow totaled $20.1 million in 2024-26 compared to $18.4 million in the same period of 2025. The improvement can be attributed to NN's operating results, partially upset by higher interest expense and greater realized foreign exchange loss. For a balance sheet standpoint, Stingray had cash-on-cash equivalence of $20.7 million at the end of the fourth quarter and accrued a status ease of $524.1 million. Net debt at the end of the fourth quarter of 2026 total $503.4 million, up $1 million sequentially, while our leverage ratio improved to 2.38 times at the end of the fourth quarter. Finally, we repurchased 185,772 shares for a total of $2.8 million during the fourth quarter under our NCIB program. Overall, this year we repurchased 1.1 million shares for $12.9 million. This ends my presentation. I will now turn the call back to Amy.
Okay. Merci, Marie. Again, this concludes our prepared remarks. At this point, Marie and I are pleased to answer your questions from our fantastic analysts. So, very proud of the analysts that we have.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. And should you wish to withdraw from the polling process, please press star followed by two. And if you're using your speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Thank you. 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 a lot. Good morning. Eric, if we remove the revenue synergies, obviously tracking ahead of plan for tune-in, What sort of growth rate at the top line are you seeing? Because I think at the time when the deal was announced, I think the expectation was, you know, 10%, 15% top line growth initially. Can we start there? I've got a few others.
Yeah. And our budget this year, I think, you know, our budget is we're planning to be, I think, you know, between 12% and 14% growth for the standalone stingray budget. But what's happening, Adam, which is out of our control, is incredible news. On the backfill, we were doing 30,000 a day in January, February, March. And we started doing audio ads on connected TVs with the help of TuneIn and the Stingray team. And now the backfill went from 30,000 a day. Our dream was to do 100,000 U.S. a day. And now we're hitting 175,000 U.S. a day. So the backfill went from a $20 million business, and now we're rolling at $90 million. So that's why the organic sales are jumping in April and May. So the only issue is the backfill of $175,000 a day U.S. or $90 million, and we feel it's going to go to $200,000 a day, which we'll see maybe in June. But that's the big difference. So that's where the synergies have tuned in and are really coming up. So the backfill is all coming on our side.
Okay, understood. And just in terms of retail media, I think in the press release yesterday, you talked about pursuing more profitable managed service capabilities. Can you elaborate a little bit further on that?
Yeah, good question. So on retail media, a bit of a change in direction, but also I think very good news. So the first change is a lot of retailers do co-op programs So when people buy via the core program, we'll charge a managed service fee, which is higher EBITDA margin than what we would make with us selling and the share that we give the retailers. So on the EBITDA side, it's going to improve our EBITDA margin, because it's 100% EBITDA, but for a period of change, it's going to affect a bit of the organic sales, because we're going from gross, instead of selling $100 and making $20, we're charging $20 and keeping $20. But it's not that material for the company as a whole. So that's the first change that's happening. The second change is that one of our partners, Stratacash, is having financial difficulties. So a lot of retailers were promised big MGs from that company. So now all retailers are accepting non-endemic. And the importance of accepting non-endemic in stores is that that's where we can get tune-in involved And for us, working very hard to get the multiplier. So the multiplier is to accept that there is 40 person in a store listening to an audio ad. I think we're two quarters away. And once we can start bringing the tune-in inventory into our retail stores, again, reminding you that we have 400 million of unsold inventory on the retail media, that for us will be a game changer. And we will be the first company, again, pioneering of bringing... the programmatic cells into retail media. So I think we're two quarters away from that, and that will be a game changer for us and for the retail media.
I'll let someone else ask on the margin profile, but just on capital allocation, I think last quarter you talked about leverage ultimately perhaps getting below two times in F27. I mean, the stock has pulled back. I would assume that you might step up some of your buyback activity, but Maybe just talk about some of the priorities for capital allocation in F27.
Again, we are very confident that by December, not by year end, by December we'll be very close to two or below two times EBITDA. We will finish the year well below two times EBITDA. The tune-in acquisition is, don't forget, we also have $200 million of tax losses. The tune-in acquisition in terms of a cash basis is, The EBITDA equals cash. Very low capex in tune-in and lots of tax savings. So we're very happy with our cash flow generation. I think the forecast from you guys, from Adam, from the analysts, sales up 40%, EBITDA roughly up 50%, and our free cash flow up 60%. So I think the analysts are expecting us to deliver about $2.30 a share as a free cash flow. And we as a company and as a board, our budget is above the consensus of our analysis of your group of peers. So very confident to deliver a strong year and very confident for the delivery. So that is very happy about that. Right now, our number one focus is just executing the tune-in deal.
Okay, appreciate that. I'll queue up again. Thanks.
Thank you, Adam.
Next question will be from Aravinda Galapadich at Canaccord Uinty. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. With respect to the organic growth numbers that you quoted, Eric, the 11.6% for Q4 and the 20% plus, it seems that obviously much of that is coming from tune-in, sort of the pro forma growth within tune-in. Can you just give us a sense of what the growth rates have been, in particular on the advertising side, and perhaps on an aggregate revenue side for TuneIn since you closed the acquisition? I realize it's still a short period of time, but just kind of help us with modeling.
Yeah, again, I know there's a lot of numbers, but what we call the premium ad network, which is the backfill. So when Vizio, LG, or Samsung doesn't sell the ad, they only sell 40% to 50%. We now have the right to sell after them. So we call it the backfill, but we need a better word than that. So right now, that backfill segment, we were doing 30,000 a month in Q4, so in January, February, March. The backfill went from 30,000 a day U.S. to 175,000 U.S. a day. So right now we're running at a 90 million Canadian run rate. That backfill is 100% stingray. This is us selling on connected TVs with the synergies, with tune-in. What happened, the big change? The big change is that a lot of our partners accepted audio ads. So you're watching TV, and you'll see a photo, and then while you see this photo, you'll hear an audio ad, and that's tune-in doing that, and that's where we get the 42 million of positive synergies. We have over 500 million of unsold or partners that have over 500 million of unsold inventory on CTV. So it's unlimited inventory for us to sell, and that's really coming on our side. TuneIn also, TuneIn is growing, and TuneIn, their organic growth of TuneIn right now, because of the synergies, their growth right now is between 60 to 70%. So TuneIn is growing at a very high rate, and Stingray organic cells are growing highly. And April and May, again, we doubled the organic cells from from January, February, March to April and May, and June is looking even stronger. So very excited to speak to you on August to report our Q1. I think Q1, you will see the real numbers of Stingray and TuneIn. This Q4 of last year, it was a start. We also had, when we first started selling the synergies in January, February, we buy the inventory from our CTV partners and so there's a cost, and we were buying and selling at the same price, so our gross margin for the first two months of the year, of the calendar year, was zero, but now we've arranged everything, but it's great to get synergies, but the first two months, we had synergies at a 0% margin, which explains a bit what happened in Q4, but the beauty about Stingray, we adjusted quickly. In March, we were back in line, and now we're happy that the backfield is generating above 30% gross margin, So very excited about that move and excited to report more in August.
Thanks, Eric. And then just to follow up on your comments about retail media, I just wanted to be clear. So what you're saying is within six months, so let's say by the end of the calendar year, you're in a position to be deploying programmatic ad sales within the retail platform as retail media platform as well. I just wanted to clarify that. And what kind of needs to happen between now and then? What are kind of the bumps on the road that you need to kind of get past to make sure that that execution happens? Because obviously that's another material piece going forward.
Yeah, so the multiplier, it's a very simple concept, is the multiplier is the fact that all of TuneIn audience and every ad we sell right now on the CTV is one-to-one. So one ad, one person. But in a retail store, there's 40, 60 people. So the multiplier is the same concept that's been given for auto homes. So when you drive on the highway and you see a billboard, the billboard is not a one-to-one. They estimate the number of cars, and there's a multiplier. So we're bringing this multiplier into effect in the audio space, and we're not the only one that wants it. So you can imagine that XM Sirius also would like the multiplier for their satellite. For the radio business, we would like to use programmatic cells. to have the multiplier for terrestrial and for retail media. So a lot of companies are working together to try to get the multiplier. The biggest issue there is not the technology, it's for the agencies to accept that you have 1 to 40. And I think that, you know, because a lot of us are working on this project, I think we're six months away from the agencies accepting it. So it's not about technology, it's really about acceptance of the new technology.
Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you, Eric. I'll pass the mic. Thank you, sir.
Next question will be from Stephanie Price at CIBC. Please go ahead, Stephanie.
Hi, it's Sam Schmidt on for Stephanie Price. I wanted to ask around tune-in cost synergies. It looks like those are progressing more slowly compared to the revenue synergies. Can you share some color on that and how you're thinking about the timing of executing on those cost synergies?
Well, you know, what's happening is that... The tune-in rate now, how can I say, they're beating their budget by 30% to 40%. Like I said before to Adam, I think organic sales or tune-in are between 60% to 70%. So our sales are so strong, we're executing so well with the positive synergies that there is less plan to do cost saving because right now we've got a team that's in the Stanley Cup winning every game. We don't want to change the players on that team because we have the winning team. So the focus is really on the positive synergies. We've achieved 42 million, and I think that we have achieved that after six months. And I think we have a long way to go on the synergies because, again, because of the fact that the CTV manufacturers, Vizio, Samsung, and LG are accepting audio ads. Those synergies are so important that we're just focused on that side. I think there's more value creation for Stingray. And on the cost saving, we've achieved our goals. So on the cost saving, we told the market $10 million. We've achieved $12 million. So we're very happy on that side.
Okay, thank you. And then maybe just on the advertising demand environment more broadly, what are you seeing at this point, and can you share some color on the organic advertising revenue outlook? Thanks.
Yeah, so advertising for us, like, you know, We told the market that one of our dreams was to do 500,000 USD a day of programmatic sales. We've achieved 550, so that's why we know, we mentioned today, so right now our run rate is 275 million of programmatic ad sales. A year ago it was zero. So a lot of it's coming from TuneIn, so you got about 180 million from TuneIn that were no, and then the rest, the other 90 million is coming from the backfield we talked about. So very excited about what's happening there. And to be on that side, we don't see, it's not, you know, we have, we'll do 90 million of sales this year, our run rate is, and we have one person. So it's not based on number of sales people you have. It's about, you know, the fact that we have seven to 8,000 commercial partners or advertising partners buying. And what happens is that, let's say you got Subway once, gives us 20,000 a day. But if we bring in a CTV with one of our partners and we increase our reach, then automatically the next day they'll give us 30,000, just because we have more reach. So the programmatic advertising is all about scale. And now we got 75 million users on TuneIn, and we're teaming up with the 25 million users of Vizio, the 100 million users of Samsung. So we're able to reach everybody in the U.S., So we are in a unique position to really reach everybody, and we don't know where that will stop. But I must tell you that this, and programmatic ad sales are a bit like Costco. Our average CPM is between $6 to $8, but the beauty about Costco is that even if the economy goes well or bad, people still go to Costco.
Great. Thank you, El Paso. Was that a good answer? Thank you very much.
Okay.
Next question will be from Jérôme Dubreuil at Desjardins. Please go ahead, Jérôme.
Hello, Jérôme. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to jump on something you said earlier in the Q&A. You were talking about the budget being about consensus. I'm just not sure if you were referring to free cash flow there in what you said or all of the revenue EBITDA and free cash flow line that you're seeing.
Roughly, what we see with our consensus, I can look at our sheet here, but Roughly, I think the market's at 226, Marie? 226 million of EBITDA. So I think our budget is above that, and we're ahead of budget, so good news. But Marie doesn't want you guys to change your consensus. So that's a lot of pressure from Marie on that one. So please, Jérôme, don't change your consensus. But right now we're looking, again, the year started. To have organic cells growing by above 20% in the first two months of the year and June looking even stronger than April and May. We're starting the year, we're doubling organic cells compared to last year. And again, one point I want to mention that we haven't mentioned, it's going to be a third year in a row that we have organic cells above double digit. So that's something we should, when you do your reports, I think our EV to EBITDA should be higher. Right now we're trending at 7.11 EV to EBITDA. for a company growing with our cash flow at double digits. And right now, we're starting the year above 20%. So, no, we're very, very, I think it's a strong start.
Great. Second for me, so you're pretty upbeat on the fast bouncing back or accelerating in the next quarter. You said one of the reasons for that is the audio quality. ads now being sold, but I'm also seeing in the press release that you're talking about Vizio allowing you to resell of excess inventory. Can you clarify what exactly that is and if this could be another fundamental reason for the bounce back and growth on fast?
Again, we call it backfill. For marketing terms, we call it the stingray premium ad network, but at the end of the day, it's that Vizio, Samsung, LG, they only sell 40% of the ads on their channels. What the partners are giving us, which only a handful of partners have the right to, is to resell the inventory that they're not selling on all their channels. Not only on our channels, but all the channels of Vizio, all the channels of Samsung, all the channels of LG. We're talking about billions of impressions a day. That's a big advantage for us. This inventory seems to be increasing, and that's why our backfill went from, again, 30,000 U.S. a day to 175,000 U.S. a day. So we had budgeted for the backfill this year 25 million, and now we're humming at 90 million Canadian of run rate per year. So I think this is exciting, and here's the good news, is that when we do backfill, we give back the money to our partners, and the more money we give them, It's a bit like, you know, they become addicted to the money. They put it in their budget. And so these will be partners, as long as we give them money, they'll be partners for life. I can tell you in the case of Vizio, they told us that our number with them is so strong that it even gets reported to Walmart. So one of our dreams was to tell Vizio, maybe it's time for us to get their Walmart account for audio and digital media in the U.S. So that will be one of our dreams.
Yeah, Mallmark is a huge retail media player there. So, all right, thanks for the answers. Merci, Jerome.
Next question will be from Tim Casey at BMO. Please go ahead, Tim.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, Tim, we're having trouble hearing you.
Sorry, Tim. Okay, now we can hear you, yes.
Now, what happened in radio this quarter? I mean, if you look at the revenue run rate, year over year, it's been positive or very marginally negative for many years and you're down seven and a half. Was that airtime sales? Was that digital advertisers moving away from the radio websites? So what happened in radio in the quarter and how are you thinking about radio in 27 and 28?
So a very good question. So you're correct on both points. So point number one, I think the Olympics. The Olympics did not really help us in radio. A very tough quarter. I agree. It was the toughest quarter we had since COVID. So I think maybe the Olympics were not harm said sure. And the second point is the online gambling in Ontario. Huge customers for us on the digital side. So online gambling, there's a lot of competition in Ontario. So that also dipped. So with both of them coming at the same time. The good news is radio for Q1. Radio is on budget. The budget was we were looking to be down about 3%, but at least we're both on budget on sales and on budget on EBITDA, so we're stabilizing. And the very good news on online gambling is the fact that Alberta is also doing the same thing in Ontario. So the online gambling in Ontario is going to be a $10 billion business. Incredible. Good for Ontario. And what we like about Alberta is we have 43 radio stations. We are dominant. And I think you're going to see a lot of buying coming this year because we're going to be dominant for Alberta and the opening of the online gambling. Online gambling includes also sports betting and all these jackpots and all these websites. I'm not a big gambler myself. I'm not against it, but I'm just saying. But I think it's going to be good for us this year. But there's no doubt that the terrestrial markets radio ads are declining. And that has to be offsetted by digital ads. And the third line that we're doing, that we're very successful, is I think the radio business will sell this year $3 million of ads on TuneIn. And the beauty about that is that $3 million is 100% EBITDA margin because there's no cost on TuneIn. So that's one of our strategies. So that should help the EBITDA. And on the radio side, there's no doubt that we'll need to look at the at cost savings, because OPEX there is 62 million, and with the business being tougher growth. But the goal is to have digital compensate for terrestrial radio, but terrestrial radio is coming down, and the trend is it will go down, so we have to adjust ourselves with that, and hopefully we'll be able to bring programmatic cells to radio. I think that not only us, but in the U.S., XM, iHeart, everybody's looking at that, How can we put all that together and bring programmatic cells to radio? We have about 10 to 15 million of unsold inventory on terrestrial, and that could be filled up by programmatic cells. So we've got to work with technology, and we've got to diversify.
And what do you – so if you consider an operating environment where you've got declines in radio, you talked about cost savings. How do you think about the margin outlook for radio?
Yeah, so we're very confident that our EBITDA for this year and our budget for this year and for next year, radio budget, the EBITDA will be growing. So EBITDA will not be coming down. We'll have a growing EBITDA in terms of dollars. And I think, you know, the margin will be also very stable. So we got a great plan for radio because what we're doing on the digital side. And, you know, for us, the home run for us on the radio side, for everybody in Canada, now that we're much more involved in the U.S., The U.S. are allowed to have eight radio stations per city, and the FCC is looking to take away that rule. There's really unlimited radio stations. The CRTC going from two to three was a ridiculous decision because everybody owns two stations, so nobody's going to sell you one station. So really you've got to push the minister. We've got to push the CRTC to go to four stations. At four stations, then the market can consolidate, and we all start making more money. So that for us will be the major win in Canada. Radio will keep on doing the 42 million EBITDA, almost 42 million free cash flow, well-run organization, and we do the positive synergies with TuneIn. Also, just a quick note, not material, but our TuneIn listenership in Canada, because we're promoting it through radio, has gone up 571% in the last three months. So just to show you the power that radio can do to a product like TuneIn. I understand Canada is not the U.S., so it's not going to be billions of dollars, but as Canadians and as Montrealers and Quebecois, I'm very proud that TuneIn is becoming a known name in Canada.
When you think about the potential ownership rule changes, would you be willing to put new capital to work and acquire radio, or would it be more about trading stations so you can consolidate, so operators can consolidate markets?
Yeah, it would really be about, there's a big advantage, you know, it would be about trading, absolutely, and there's a big advantage. You own two radio stations, you own three radio stations, you have one sales force, you have four radio stations, you have one sales force, there's a lot of savings to having four radio stations or three We're happy that we bought a third one in Calgary. The synergies there are incredible. And I think that, you know, one day the CRTC and the government, if you want to protect local media, both on the TV and radio side, you'll need to accept to have more dominant players per city because, you know, it's the only way that, you know, that you will get.
Eric, you just took a $65 million write-down on radio. I mean, you're not suggesting you're going to put more capital into radio, are you?
No, no, it would be trading. Not more capital, but it would be good for us to trade certain cities that were strong. We would love to get two more stations than Ottawa. In Ottawa, we have one and two. We'd love to get two more stations than Ottawa. You know, where we're very strong, it would be great to add stations. And where we're weaker, it would be great to let go of stations.
The other thing I'd like to see if you could flesh out is you have a line in the press release where you talk about $275 million of revenue. Can you explain to us what is in that bucket? Because I think one of the challenges we have is what buckets do all these revenue items fall in as we try and model out the business? So could you flesh out what's in that 275 and where the growth is coming from?
Yeah, so roughly the 275 is $90 million of backfill and $185 million of tune-in. programmatic sales. So TuneIn does 185, and we do 90 million. So that is legacy TuneIn before backfill? That's what TuneIn does as sales, and the backfill is what we're doing incremental sales.
And what's the growth rate on that TuneIn? Like 185 this year, what did it do last year, notionally?
I think that the last year, because we're talking U.S. and Canadian, but, you know, I think, you know, tune-in right now is growing around 50%.
Eric, let's stick with Canadian. So you've talked about 275 Canadian, 90 of it is backfill, and 185 is tune-in? Yes. So what, notionally, what did tune-in do last year, legacy tune-in, that's comparable to the 185 you're looking to this year.
So tune in roughly to about 120 Canadian last year, and right now we're running at 185. Got it. Okay. Canadian.
Perfect. Got it.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Tim, you know a lot of numbers, huh?
That's what we do, Eric. We just look at numbers all day long. I agree. Show us some money, Eric.
You're nice. You're nice.
You have lunch. I agree.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder to please press star 1 if you have any questions. And at this time, we have no other questions registered. I will turn the call back over to Eric.
Okay. Thank you, everyone. So on behalf of the entire Stingray team, thank you for joining us on the conference call. We look forward to speaking with you in August for the first quarter results, and that's going to be quick. It's going to be in less than two months. So excited about that. and excited to have more view and execution on the tune-in acquisition, that we're very pleased, and excited to officially be able to tell you the exact numbers for Q1. And again, thank you for all the analysts, your time and work you dedicate to us. We're very happy. And the good news is we might have a couple of new friends joining us in next quarter. So I think we have a few new analysts that are looking, and maybe one or two from the U.S. So step by step, but we'll have more friends. Okay, 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 line.