“We are pleased to report that our first quarter 2023 results were a bit above the high end of our adjusted EBITDA and revenue guidance ranges — and that more importantly, while both the macroeconomic climate and the advertising marketplace remain uncertain, the audio and digital advertising markets appeared to be stronger in the quarter than we had initially anticipated.”
That’s the positive summation from Bob Pittman, Chairman/CEO of iHeartMedia, of the Q1 2023 results released early Tuesday by the nation’s leading audio content creation and distribution company.
While the Q1 ’23 results pleased Pittman, COO/CFO Rich Bressler and the iHeartMedia C-Suite, a year-over-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA release was nevertheless the bigger story.
Oh, and there’s the much bigger net loss.
For iHeart in Q1 ’23, the net loss attributable to the company surged to $222.26 million from $48.58 million.
Revenue declined to $811.24 million from $843.46 million. But, the Q1 ’23 revenue still came in well ahead of the consensus estimate of $796.84 million based on the computations of 7 analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance.
Adjusted EBITDA declined to $93.42 million from $145.22 million. This was above the $80 million-$90 million guidance range previously provided by iHeartMedia.
Even so, iHeart registered a Q1 2023 operating loss of $48.86 million, shifting from operating income of $12.34 million in Q1 2022.
A non-cash impairment charge of $3.95 million was taken in Q1 ’23, compared to $1.33 million in the year-ago quarter.
As investors began to digest the results, IHRT was trading at $3.70 in pre-market trading, up 2.5% from Monday’s close.
GROWING MOMENTUM
Speaking ahead of iHeart’s Q1 2023 earnings call at 8:30am Eastern on Tuesday, Pittman offered some encouraging words as to how the remainder of the first half of 2023 is shaping up for iHeartMedia. “We expect that our second quarter Adjusted EBITDA, while below 2022 levels, will be approximately double what we generated in the first quarter,” he said. “This, in combination with our Q1 first quarter performance relative to guidance, gives us confidence that our Adjusted EBITDA results will continue to improve throughout 2023, and that we will be well positioned to build further in 2024 in terms of revenue growth, profitability, and Free Cash Flow generation.”
Bressler, also in prepared comments ahead of the earnings call, added, “We remain committed to driving shareholder value, and while we can’t predict when the advertising marketplace will fully recover, we believe that our Multiplatform revenues will continue to recover and that our Digital Audio Group revenues will continue to grow throughout 2023. With the benefit of what are expected to be record levels of political spend in 2024, and the annualized impact of the cost reductions we have made over the past six months, in 2024 we expect to resume our growth trajectory that was interrupted by this period of recent advertising softness.”
THE REVENUE BREAKDOWN
Lastly, iHeartMedia’s cash on hand as of March 31, 2023 was $187.9 million, compared to $336.2 at the end of December 2022. However, as Pittman noted early in the Q1 2023 earnings call for investors and analysts, the first quarter of the fiscal year is typically the slowest for Free Cash Flow.
What about the long-term debt? It stands at $5,395,500,000, down from $5,414,200,000.
