It’s complicated. Yet, MediaCo President/CEO Albert Rodriguez insists the parent of Estrella Media and iconic New York radio stations WBLS and WQHT “HOT 97” is in “growth mode” and will continue to be — even with a bit of a debt cloud growing greyer over the company largely backed by Soohyung Kim’s Standard General and Blackrock.
MediaCo’s fourth quarter earnings report is out, and that led the publicly traded company to crow about a 17.9% year-over-year gain in its net revenue, moving to $38.7 million. For the full year, revenue grew 39.5%, to $133.3 million.
Alas, MediaCo took a $23.1 million non-cash impairment charge in the final quarter of 2025, pushing its Q4 net loss to $32.3 million, growing from $4.2 million in Q4 2024.
Full-year net loss came in at $66.2 million versus $1.3 million in 2024.
The video segment, built around EstrellaTV and its digital operations, nearly doubled revenue year-over-year, moving to $78.6 million from $38 million.
The audio segment, along with the Estrella radio stations in Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas, saw revenue dip $2.8 million to $54.7 million, driven by declines in events and sponsorship revenue.
Meanwhile, digital revenue across the company surged by 181%, to $57 million, as digital advertising crossed 50% of total ad sales for the first time. Full-year revenue posted its strongest growth since the formation of the company’s current structure, driven almost entirely by the video and digital side of the business.
Pre-existing MediaCo was largely transformed with the acquisition of Estrella Media, formerly Liberman Broadcasting, and plucking key leadership from Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) after naming Rodriguez — a former No. 2 to Raul Alarcon Jr. — its day-to-day leader.
While the fiscal report is largely positive, MediaCo’s auditors at Deloitte issued a going concern warning alongside the results, citing near-term debt maturities, a $49 million working capital deficit, and liquidity constraints.
MediaCo has $10 million in debt coming due in just three months. In December, the NASDAQ market sent a deficiency notice after the company’s stock fell below the $1.00 minimum bid requirement. The company has until June 17 to regain compliance; with minutes remaining in Wednesday’s trading session, “MDIA” was trading at $0.7161, up 9% from March 31.
Deloitte also flagged an unremediated material weakness in internal controls related to the accounting for the Estrella acquisition.
Even with the presence of said risks and concerns, Rodriguez reported, “In our first full calendar year of operation, we achieved substantial gains across every facet of our plan, reflecting disciplined execution and a relentless focus on growth, as we build on our leadership position in serving multicultural audiences at the national and local level … We are building a modern, cross-platform, multicultural media ecosystem designed for scale, spanning television, radio, digital, and FAST platforms, with precision targeting and measurable results for our partners. Our unique pipeline of culturally relevant, high-impact programming is resonating with our audiences, as reflected in our strong ratings performance.”
On the distribution and content side, the company has been active heading into 2026. Hot 97 launched a new morning show with local personality Kid Mero in January, and followed that with “Hot 97 News,” a daily national TV show streaming out of Atlanta.
The Don Cheto Network added a Phoenix affiliate in KZOM in late 2025, and EstrellaTV secured new over-the-air agreements in New York via WMBC-TV and in Orlando via WDYB-CD. Furthermore, Katz Television Group signed on as national sales rep for EstrellaTV’s owned-and-operated stations across six major markets.
February also saw MediaCo launch Sigma Audio Networks as a national multicultural audio network designed to consolidate its Hispanic, Black, Asian American, and bicultural reach into a single national buy.
In closing, Rodriguez stated, “Going forward, we remain in growth mode as we capitalize on our platform expansion and ratings gains to attract a greater share of advertising dollars … Targeting a multicultural population of 150 million nationwide, we believe we are well-positioned on all fronts to pursue our vision and deliver further gains in the year ahead.”
