When it comes to Comscore CEO Jon Carpenter‘s assessment of the company’s first quarter 2024 earnings report, he’s well aware of the results, which saw revenue finish “slightly below our expectations.”
That said, Carpenter said that this did not deter the company from making “encouraging progress against a number of key initiatives” deemed critical to its “transformation.”
For the company that sees to vigorously compete against Nielsen in the audience measurement and consumption data analytics space, Q1 revenue declined to $86.8 million, down 5.2% from $91.6 million in Q1 2023. The result was primarily driven by a decline in Cross Platform Solutions revenue of 9.7% from Q1 2023 — due to lower national TV revenue.
At the same time, lower syndicated digital revenue led to a Digital Ad Solutions revenue decline of 1.5% from Q1 2023.
Even so, Comscore lowered its quarterly net loss to $1.1 million in the quarter, from $8.7 million a year ago. After accounting for dividends on Comscore’s convertible preferred stock, the loss per share attributable to common shares was -$1.08, down from -$2.66.
Based on current trends and expectations, Comscore is maintaining its guidance for full-year 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA; it expects to have revenue between $375 million and $390 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin between 12% and 15%.
But, there is a warning: Comscore anticipates that its national TV revenue will continue to be impacted by the linear ad spend pressure that major networks are experiencing, it said. Further, it believes demand for custom digital products “will continue to be unpredictable due to the macroeconomic environment.”
As a result, Comscore expects revenue in the second quarter of 2024 to be lower than in Q2 2023, with revenue growth building in the back half of the year as revenue from Comscore’s Proximic and CCR products continues to grow.
