Q2 2024 Urban One Inc Earnings Call

August 8, 2024

Your conference will begin momentarily. Please continue to hold.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Urban One's second quarter earnings call. All participants are in a listen-only mode, and this call is being recorded.

Speaker Change: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Urban One's second quarter earnings call. All participants are in a listen-only mode and this call is being recorded. During this conference call, Urban One will be sharing with you certain projections.

Operator: During this conference call, Urban One will be sharing with you certain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or its future performance. However, Urban One cautions you that certain factors, including risks and uncertainties referred to in the 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and other reports it periodically files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by its projections or forward-looking statements. This call will present information as of August 8, 2024. Please note that Urban One disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements made in the presentation.

or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or its future performance.

Urban One cautions you that certain factors, including risks and uncertainties, referred to in the 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and other reports it periodically files with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by its projections or forward-looking statements. This call will present information as of August 8th.

Operator: In this call, Urban One may also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in talking about its performance. These measures will be reconciled to GAAP either during the course of this call or in the company's press release, which can be found on its website at www.urbanone.com. A replay of this conference call will be available from 5 p.m. ET today, August 8, 2024, until 11:59 at midnight on August 15, 2024.

2024. Please note that Urban One disclaims.

any duty to update any forward-looking statements made in the presentation.

In this call, Urban One may also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. In talking about its performance, these measures will be reconciled to GAAP either during the course of this call or in the company's press release, which can be found on its website at www.urbanone.com.

A replay of this conference call will be available from 5 p.m. Eastern Time today, August 8th, 2024, until 1159 or midnight on August 15th, 2024.

Operator: Callers may access the replay by calling 866-207-1041 from the U.S. International callers call direct at 402-9700-8472. The replay access code is 1733886. Access to live audio and a replay of the conference call will also be available on Urban One's corporate website at www.urbanone.com. The replay will be made available on the website for seven days after the call. No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized or may be relied upon. This time, I'll now turn the call over to Alfred Liggins, as Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, who is also joined by Peter D. Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Callers may access the replay by calling 866-207-1041 from the U.S. International Callers

Speaker Change: Call direct at 402-9700-847

The replay access code is 1733886. Access to live audio and a replay of the conference call will also be available on Urban One's corporate website at www.urbanone.com. And the replay will be made available on the website for seven days after the call.

Alfred Liggins: No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized or may be relied upon. At this time, I want to turn the call over to Alfred Liggins, Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, who is also joined by Peter D. Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Alfred Liggins: We've sent out the press release on our Q2 results, largely in line with, you know, how we've guided in terms of the different segments, radio, you know, coming in at minus, you know, three, you know, with political, you know, minus 5.6, you know, on a same station basis, ex-political, that's not including the acquisitions that we made with Houston, Texas. It's, you know, been, you know, a challenging environment in our cable television segment, mostly because of churn and audience delivery, something that's happening throughout the pay TV ecosystem. Peter's going to go into more detail about those results in Q2 in his comments.

We've sent out the press release on our Q2 results.

Alfred Liggins: largely in line with, you know, how we've guided in terms of the different segments.

Alfred Liggins: radio, you know, coming in at the.

Alfred Liggins: minus, you know, three, you know, with political, you know, minus 5.6, you know, on a same station basis, ex-political, that's not including the acquisitions that we made with Houston, Texas. It's, you know, been, you know, a challenging environment in our cable television segment, mostly because of churn and audience delivery, something that's happening throughout the pay TV ecosystem. Peter's going to go into more detail about those results in Q2 in his comments. Q3 radio.

Alfred Liggins: Q3 radio is currently pacing down 6.9% on the same station basis. It's going to be up 7%, you know, as reported. If you include Politico, it's pacing down in the mid single digits. However, we are, you know, feeling pretty optimistic about the strength of politics, and we're starting to see registrations and orders coming in on hold. We actually think it's going to be much more robust than we have currently forecasted. It's real-time action right now in terms of getting it laid in. The new political landscape and the closeness of the current race, I think, are going to bode well for us, you know, given our audience. So that is yet to be determined.

Peter: currently is pacing down 6.9% on the same station basis.

Peter: It's going to be up 7% as reported. If you include Politico, it's pacing down mid-single digits. However, we are, you know...

Speaker Change: you pretty optimistic about the strength of political and we are starting to see registrations and in orders you know coming in on hold we actually think it's going to be you know much more robust than we have currently forecasted it's real time action right now in terms of get laid and the new political landscape and the closeness the current race i think is going to boat well

Peter: for us.

Speaker Change: you know, given our audience. So, that is yet to be determined. You know, we're not, you know, we're not forecasting a big

Alfred Liggins: You know, we're not, you know, we're not forecasting a big beat on our political budget as yet. But, you know, but we're very optimistic. But even with the optimism and the increase in political ad spend coming, there's still softness in our cable television segment, which we have to address. And ultimately, we've got to find more impressions to offset the churn that we're experiencing. And we've got upside coming in terms of our connected TV offering as we switch ad servers that will allow us to better monetize the CTV inventory that we have on some of the new, you know, over-the-top platforms that aren't in place yet.

Speaker Change: beat on our political budget as of yet but but we're very optimistic

Peter: but even with the optimism in political ad spend coming,

Speaker Change: There's still softness in our cable television segment, which we have to address. Ultimately, we've got to find more impressions.

Peter: to offset the churn that we're experiencing, and, you know, we've got upside coming in terms of our connected TV offering as we switch ad servers that will allow us to better monetize the CTV inventory that we have on some of the new, you know, over-the-top platforms. That's not in place yet. We haven't had the benefit of that so far this year, but we will in the second half of this year. But given the softness in the cable TV segment.

Peter: I think that we are more likely to finish 2024 at the lower end of our EBITDA guidance, which was 110 to 120. And again, we're not...

Peter: We're not sure exactly what we think that the the upside on political is yet We think there is some you know, but you know, but we you know, just want to

Alfred Liggins: We think there is some, you know, but, you know, we just want to, you know, give, you know, an indication that, you know, we feel at this point that, you know, we're more likely to finish on the lower end of the guidance than the upper end of the guidance. So we can, you know, talk more about that during the Q&A. And so at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Peter to go into the details of the numbers, and then we can switch to Q&A. Okay?

Peter: give an indication that we feel at this point that we're more likely to finish on the lower end of the guidance than the upper end of the guidance. So we can talk more about that during the Q&A. And so at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Peter to go into the details of the numbers and then we can switch to Q&A.

Peter Thompson: Yeah, thank you, Alfred. I'll just walk you through the press release number. So consolidated net revenue was down by 9.2% year over year for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, at approximately $117.7 million. Net revenue for the radio broadcasting segment was $42 million, which was an increase of 7.2% year-over-year, but was down 3% on a same-station basis. Excluding politics, net revenue was up by 4.7% year over year, but down by 5.6% on the same station. According to Miller Kaplan, our local advertising sales were down 8.5 percent against a market that was down 7.1 percent.

Peter: Peter

Peter: Thank you, Alfred. I'll just walk through the press release number. So, consolidated net revenue was down by 9.2% year-over-year for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, at approximately $117.7 million.

Peter: Net revenue for the radio broadcasting segment was $42 million, which was an increase of 7.2% year-over-year, but was down 3% on a same-station basis.

Peter: excluding political net revenue is up by 4.7% year-over-year but down by 5.6% on the same station basis.

Speaker Change: According to Miller Kaplan, our local advertising sales were down 8.5% against a market that was down 7.1%, national ad sales were down 1.6% against a market that was up 7%.

Peter Thompson: National ad sales were down 1.6% against a market that was up 7%. Net revenue for the reach media segment was $18.9 million in the second quarter, down 5.6% from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA was $3.7 million for the quarter, down from $4.6 million last year. Net revenues for the digital segment decreased by 16% in the second quarter to $15.9 million. Direct national sales were down, driven by decreased advertiser demand, but connected TV and podcast revenues showed growth compared to last year.

Speaker Change: Net revenue for the Reach Media segment was $18.9 million in the second quarter, down 5.6% from the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.7 million for the quarter, down from $4.6 million last year.

Speaker Change: Net revenues for the digital segment decreased by 16% in second quarter to $15.9 million.

Peter: Direct national sales were down, driven by decreased advertiser demand, but connected TV and podcast revenues showed growth compared to last year. Justed EBITDA was 2.9 million dollars down 52 and a half percent.

Peter Thompson: Just at EBITDA was $2.9 million, down 52.5%. We recognized approximately $41.5 million of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 20.9%. Cable TV advertising revenue was down 26.7%. delivery erosion continued, down 30% in total day, persons 25, 54, resulting in an increase of $4.7 million to our audience deficiency reserve. However, increased volume through promo conversions partially offset the delivery shortfall. Affiliate revenue was down by 12.9% with contractual rate increases being offset by approximately $3.3 million in net subscriber churn impact. Table of subscribers for TV One, as measured by Nielsen, finished the second quarter at 39.8 million, compared to 40.7 million at the end of Q1, and CleoTV had 38 million Nielsen subscribers.

Peter: We recognized approximately $41.5 million of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 20.9%. Cable TV advertising revenue is down 26.7%.

Operator: Your conference will begin momentarily, please continue to hold Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Urban One's second quarter earnings call. All participants are in a listen-only mode and this call is being recorded. During this conference call, Urban One will be sharing with you certain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or its future performance. Urban One cautions use certain factors including risks and uncertainties referred to.

Peter: Delivery erosion continued down 30% in total day persons 2554 resulting in an increase of 4.7 million dollars

Peter: to our Audience Deficiency Reserve.

Peter: Increased volume through promo conversions, partially offset the delivery shortfall.

Peter: Cable TV affiliate revenue was down by 12.9 percent with contractual rate increases being offset by approximately 3.3 million dollars in net subscriber churn impact.

Peter: Cable subscribers for TV One, as measured by Nielsen, finished second quarter at 39.8 million, compared to 40.7 million at the end of Q1. And Clio TV had 38 million Nielsen subscribers.

Operator: In the 10Ks, 10Qs and other reports, periodically files of the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by its projections or forward-looking statements. This call will present information as of August 8th, 2024. Please note that Urban One disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements made in the presentation. In this call, everyone may also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in talking about its performance.

Peter Thompson: Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, and impairment of goodwill, intangible assets, and long-lived assets, decreased to approximately $93.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, down 0.4% from the prior year. However, radio operating expenses were up 6.4% or $1.9 million. The Houston radio acquisition, which was effective August 1, 2023, added approximately $2 million in expenses year over year. On a same station basis, event expenses were up $700,000, driven by two of the company's tentpole events, Birthday Bash in Atlanta and Women's Empowerment in Raleigh.

Peter: Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation and impairment of goodwill, intangible assets, and long-lived assets.

Speaker Change: decreased to approximately n threethirty point three million dollars for the quarter end june thirtieth two thousand and twenty four down zero point four percent from the prior year

Operator: These measures will be reconciled to GAAP either during the course of this call or in the company's press release, which can be found on its website at www.urbanone.com. And the replay will be made available on the website for 7 days after the call.

Peter: Radio operating expenses were up 6.4% or 1.9 million dollars. The Houston radio acquisition, which was effective August 1st, 2023, added approximately 2 million dollars expense year-over-year.

Peter: on the same station basis.

Peter: The rent expenses were $700,000.

Speaker Change: driven by two of the company's tentpole events, Birthday Bash in Atlanta, and Women's Empowerment in Raleigh. While variable expenses related to revenues such as sales commissions, bonus compensation, bad debt, and national rep fees were all down, the marketing costs were also down.

Peter Thompson: While variable expenses related to revenues such as sales, commissions, bonus compensation, bad debt, and national rep fees were all down, marketing costs were also down. REACH operating expenses were down by 1.3%, driven by reduced talent compensation and affiliate station fees. Operating expenses in the digital segment were up one and a half percent, driven by increased cross-platform marketing expenses and third-party cost of sales on audience extension revenue for digital audio.

Peter: reach operating expenses were down by one point three percent driven by reduced talent compensation and affiliate station fees

Speaker Change: Operating expenses in the digital segment were up 1.5% driven by increased cross-platform marketing expenses and third-party cost of sales on audience extension revenue for digital audio.

Operator: No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized or may be relied upon.

Operator: This time, I'll turn the call over to Alfred Liggins, Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, who is also joined by Peter D.

Peter Thompson: Operating expenses in the cable TV segment were down 4.7% year-over-year, driven by about an $800,000 favorable programming expense related to acquisitions that expired in 2023 and reduced sales and marketing expense, which was offset by increased operations costs associated with connected TV and VOD support. Operating expenses in the corporate and elimination segment were down by approximately $900,000, primarily as a result of a $4.5 million decrease for the CEO's TV One Award, offset by a $3 million increase in third-party consulting and audit expenses.

Speaker Change: Operating expenses in the cable TV segment were down 4.7% year-over-year, driven by about an $800,000 favorable programming expense related to acquisitions that expired in 2023.

Operator: Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you very much, Operator, and welcome everybody to our Q2 Results Conference call. Also, joining Peter and I are Karen Wishart, Chief Administrative Officer, Cody Drew, who's the Chief Financial Officer at TV1, and Christopher Simpson, who's our General Counsel. We've sent out the press release on our Q2 Results largely in line with how we've guided in terms of the different segments. Radio coming in at minus three with political minus 5.6. Now on the same station basis, ex-political, that's not including the acquisitions that we made with Houston, Texas.

Speaker Change: and reduced sales and marketing expense, which was offset by increased operations costs associated with connected TV and VOD support.

Speaker Change: operating expenses in the corpor and elimination segment were down by approximately nine hundred thousand dollars primarily as a result of the four point five million dollars decrease for the ceo's tv one award

Speaker Change: offset by a $3 million increase in third-party consulting and audit expenses.

Peter Thompson: For Adjusted EBITDA, we added back $4.1 million for non-recurring professional fees related to the remediation and audit efforts. However, the $6.3 million non-cash benefit for the TV One Award is not added back for the current year when assessing Adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker Change: For Adjusted EBITDA, we added back $4.1 million for non-recurring professional fees related to the remediation and audit efforts. However, the $6.3 million non-cash benefit for the TV One Award is not added back for the current year when assessing Adjusted EBITDA.

Alfred Liggins: It's been a challenging environment in our cable television segment, mostly because of turn and audience delivery, something that's happening throughout the pay TV ecosystem. Peter's going to go into more detail about those results in Q2 in his comments.

Peter Thompson: Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA was $28.4 million for the second quarter, down 24.2%. Consolidated Broadcast and Digital Operating Income was approximately $34.2 million, a decrease of 27.7%. Interest income was approximately $1.8 million in the second quarter compared to $1.9 million last year. The decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest-bearing investment accounts.

Speaker Change: Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $28.4 million for the second quarter, down 24.2%. Consolidated broadcast and digital operating income was approximately $34.2 million, a decrease of 27.7%.

Speaker Change: Interest income was approximately 1.8 million dollars in the second quarter compared to 1.9 million dollars last year. Decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest-bearing investment accounts. Interest expense decreased to approximately twelve point

Alfred Liggins: Q3 radio. Currently is pacing down 6.9% on the same station basis. It's going to be up 7%. As reported, if you include a political, it's pacing down mid-single digits. However, we are feeling pretty optimistic about the strength of political, and we are starting to see registrations and orders coming in on hold. We actually think it's going to be much more robust than we have currently forecasted. It's real-time action right now in terms of getting it laid in the new political landscape and the closeness of the current race.

Peter Thompson: Interest expense decreased to approximately $12.5 million and $4 million for Q2, down from $14 million last year due to low overall debt balances as a result of the company's debt reduction strategy. The company made cash interest payments of approximately $1 million in the quarter related to the repurchase of the note. During the quarter, the company repurchased $35.5 million of its 2028 notes at a price of 78 cents a pass. An impairment charge of $80.8 million, which was non-cash, was recorded in Q2 entirely from the broadcasting licenses in nine of the 13 radio markets in the broadcast segment. The primary factors leading to the impairments were a decline in projected gross market revenues, an operating profit, and an increase in the discount rate.

Speaker Change: $4 million for Q2 down from $14 million last year due to low overall debt balances as a result of the company's debt reduction strategy. The company made cash interest payments of approximately $1 million in the quarter related to the repurchase of the notes.

Speaker Change: During the quarter, the company repurchased $35.5 million of its 2028 notes at a price of 78 cents a pass.

Speaker Change: An impairment charge of $80.8 million.

Speaker Change: which was non-cash, was recorded in Q2 entirely from the broadcasting licenses in 9 of the 13 radio markets in the broadcast segment.

Alfred Liggins: I think it's going to boat well for us, given our audience. That is yet to be determined. We're not forecasting a big beat on our political budget as of yet, but we're very optimistic. But even with the optimism in political ads-spin coming, there's still softness in our cable television segment, which we have to address. Ultimately, we've got to find more impressions to offset the turn that we're experiencing. We've got, upside-coming in terms of our connected TV offering as we switch ad servers that will allow us to better monetize the CTV inventory that we have on some of the new, you know, over the top platforms.

Speaker Change: the primary factors leading to the empairments

Speaker Change: who are declining projected gross market revenues and operating profits and an increase in the discount rate.

Peter Thompson: The benefit from income taxes was approximately $18.5 million for the second quarter, and the company paid cash income tax in the amount of $600,000. The net loss was approximately $45.4 million, or $0.94 per share, compared to net income of $70.4 million, or $1.48 per share, for the second quarter of 2023. During the second quarter, the company repurchased 449,277 shares of Class A common stock for an amount of approximately $900,000 at an average price of $2.06 per share and 113,283 shares of Class D common stock for an amount of approximately $200,000 at an average price of $1.57 per share.

Speaker Change: the benefit from incometaxes was approximately eighteen point five mill doars for the second quarter and the company paid cash income tax in the amount of six hundred thousand dollars

Speaker Change: Net loss was approximately $45.4 million, or $0.94 per share, compared to net income of $70.4 million, or $1.48 per share, for the second quarter of 2023.

Alfred Liggins: That's not in place yet. We haven't had the benefit of that so far this year, but we will in the second half of this year. But given the softness in the cable TV segment, I think that we are more likely to finish 2024 at the lower end of our EBITDA guidance, which was 1-10-120. And again, we're not sure exactly what we think that the upside on political is yet, we think there is some, but we just want to give an indication that we feel at this point that we're more likely to finish on the lower end of the guidance than the upper end of the guidance.

Speaker Change: during the second quarter of the company repurchased four hundred and forty nine thousand two hundred seventy seven shares of class a common stock in the amount of approximately nine hundred thousand dollars

Speaker Change: and an average price of two dollars and six cents per share and one hundred and thirteen thousand two hundredand eighty three shares a class d comllmon stock and the amount of approximately two hundred thousand dollars and average price of a dollar fifty seven per share capital expenditures were approximately two point two million dollars in the second quarter

Alfred Liggins: So, we can talk more about that during the Q&A.

Peter Thompson: Capital expenditures were approximately $2.2 million in the second quarter. As of June 30, 2024, the total gross debt was $614.5 million. The ending unrestricted cash balance was $131.9 million, resulting in net debt of approximately $482.6 million compared to $110.5 million of LTM reported adjusted EBITDA for a total net leverage ratio of 4.37 times. And finally, we'll be timely filing the 10-Q tomorrow at some point. So it's good that we're back on track in terms of meeting our deadlines and filing timely. And with that, I will hand it back to Alfred.

Speaker Change: as of june thirtieth two thousand and twenty four total growrossth debt was six hundred and fourteen point five million dollars

Speaker Change: The ending unrestricted cash balance was 131.9 million dollars

Speaker Change: resulting in net debt of approximately $482.6 million compared to $110.5 million of LTM reported adjusted EBITDA for a total net leverage ratio of 4.37 times.

Speaker Change: And finally, we'll be timely filing the 10-Q tomorrow at some point, so good that we're back on track in terms of meeting our deadlines and filing timely. And with that, I will hand back to Alfred.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you, Peter. Operator, we can go to the lines for Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press...

Peter Thompson: And so at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Peter to go into the details of the numbers, and then we can switch to Q&A.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you, Peter. Operator, we can go to the lines for Q&A.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press 1 then 0 on your phone's keypad. You'll hear an indication that you've been placed in queue. And repeating that 1-0 process will remove you from the queue. Once again, if you have questions, please press 1 then 0. At this time, we do not have any callers queuing up.

Peter Thompson: Peter. Yeah, thank you, Alfred. I'll just walk through the press release number.

Speaker Change: ladies and gentlemenif you'd liketoask a question please press one then zero on your phones kekeep ad you'll ar your indication 've been placingin q and ' repeating that one zero process will movie from the q once again if you have questions please press one than zero

Peter Thompson: So, consolidated net revenue was down by 9.2% year-over-year for the quarter end of June 30th, 2024, at approximately $117.7 million. Net revenue for the radio broadcast and segment was $42 million, which was an increase of 7.2% year-over-year, but was down 3% on the same Excluding political, now revenue was up by 4.7% year over year, but down by 5.6% on the same station basis. According to Miller Kaplan, our local advertising sales were down 8.5% against the market, down 7.1%, national advertising sales were down 1.6%, and against the market that was up 7%.

Operator: Oh, can I take that back? Take that back, we're just a little bit late. Alright, we'll go first to Dominic Laib with Faithful. You go ahead, please.

Speaker Change: and at this time we do not have any colars queuing up

Speaker Change: Oh, can I take that back? Take that back, we're just a little bit late. Alright, we'll go first to Dominic Leab with Faithful. You go ahead, please.

Dominic Laib: Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. Yeah, I just had two things, a couple things for me.

Dominic Leab: Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. Yeah, I just had two things, a couple things for me. One, could you just comment on...

Speaker Change: the digital is kind of been trending a week for a couple of quarters can just kind of offer some guidance then what that markets looking like you guys expecting that

Alfred Liggins: One, could you just comment on digital has kind of been trending weaker for, you know, a couple quarters now? Can you just kind of offer some guidance on what that market's looking like? Are you guys expecting that to pick up, you know, versus kind of like a national local area or kind of just what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, yeah, we, yeah, digital, you know, there's been weaker demand for digital, you know, associated with, you know, the pullback in national advertising, but also a pullback in, you know, DE, you know, diversity and inclusion, ad dollars that, you know, we felt that way was ultimately gonna crest and be a thing.

Peter Thompson: Now revenue for the reach media segment was 18.9 million dollars in the second quarter, down 5.6% from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA was 3.7 million dollars for the quarter, down from 4.6 million dollars last year. Now revenue used for the digital segment decreased by 16% in second quarter to 15.9 million dollars, direct national sales were down driven by decreased advertiser demand, but connected TV and podcast revenues show growth compared to last year, adjusted EBITDA was 2.9 million dollars down 52.5%.

Speaker Change: the pick up you know versus kind of like a national local area or kind where your thoughts ' see yeah we yeah digital you know there's there's been weaker demand in digital now associated withyou

Speaker Change: the pullback in national advertising, but also

Speaker Change: a pull back in diversity inclusion add dollars that we we've felt that wave was ultimately going acst the effect by the national ad pull back however the second half is looking is looking better

Alfred Liggins: It's gonna crest and be affected by the national ad pullback. However, the second half is looking better, and we're also optimistic there that we're gonna see more political ad dollars than we had budgeted. So, yeah, today, you know, we are still forecasting our digital segment to meet its budget, which is, you know, yeah, you know, off of last year, but not that, but not that far off. So we're feeling decent about digital. Our TV business is really what's hurting us.

Peter Thompson: We recognize approximately 41.5 million dollars of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 20.9%. Cable TV advertising revenue was down 26.7%. Delivery erosion continued down 30% in total day, persons 25.54 resulting in an increase of 4.7 million dollars to our audience deficiency was increased volume through promo conversions, partially offset the delivery shortfall. Cable TV affiliate revenue was down by 12.9% with contractual rate increases being offset. By approximately 3.3 million dollars in net strike a churn impact.

Speaker Change: and we're also optimistic there that we're going to see more political add dollars than we had budget ed so

Speaker Change: Yeah, today, you know, we are still forecasting our digital segment to meet its budget, which is, you know, yeah.

Speaker Change: You know, off of last year, but not that, but not that far off. So, we're, we're feeling decent about digital. Our TV business is really what's, is what's hurting us, you know?

Alfred Liggins: Yeah. Okay, thank you. And based on the backdrop of you guys keeping your EBITDA guidance, I think you gave a range of like 110 to, 120 on last call. Is that sort of still in line?

Speaker Change: Okay, thank you. Based off the backdrop of you guys keeping your EBITDA guidance, I think you gave a range of like 110 to 120 last call. Is that sort of still in line?

Dominic Laib: Yeah, yeah, as I said at the top of the call, you know, we're more likely to be on the lower end of that guidance, but yes, we're, you know, we're maintaining our current guidance.

Peter Thompson: Cable subscribers for TV 1 is measured by Nielsen, finished second quarter at 39.8 million, compared to 40.7 million at the end of Q1, and Clio TV at 38 million Nielsen subscribers. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, and each harem of goodwill intangible assets from long-life assets decreased to approximately 93.3 million dollars for the quarter and June 30 of 2024 down 0.4% from the prior year. Radio operating expenses were up 6.4%, or 1.9 million dollars.

Speaker Change: yes yes i've said at the top of the call we're more likely to be on the lower end of that guidance but yes we're we're maintaining our current guidance

Dominic Laib: Okay, sorry, I joined a little late here. Yeah, no worries. A couple more things. With DepFibex, do you guys continue to kind of maintain a similar cadence in terms of repurchases if price is kind of...

Speaker Change: OK. Sorry.

Speaker Change: joined a little late here.

Speaker Change: Yeah, in words.

Speaker Change: couple more things the deep buybacks you guys continue kind of continuing a similar cadence in terms of repurchases this prices going on don't want to commit to the cadence you know because the cadence really kind of depends on

Alfred Liggins: I don't want to commit to the cadence, you know, because the cadence really kind of depends on... The cadence depends on where we see the debt trading, you know, but you can rest assured that our primary focus is to make sure that we're managing our leverage and looking to march that down. And it's challenging right now with EBITDA, you know, falling, right? You know, so quite frankly, being able to buy debt back opportunistically at attractive prices is important.

Speaker Change: oh

Speaker Change: The cadence depends on where, you know, we see the debt trading, you know, but you can...

Peter Thompson: The Houston radio acquisition, which was effective August 1, 2023, added approximately 2 million dollars expense year over year. On the same station basis, the then expenses were up $700,000 driven by two of the company's 10 poll events, which birthed cash in Atlanta, the Women's Empowerment in Raleigh. While variable expenses related to revenues such as sales, commissions, bonus compensation, bad debt, and national revenues were all down, the marketing costs were also down.

Speaker Change: You can rest assured that

Speaker Change: are our primary focus.

Speaker Change: is to make sure that we're managing our leverage and looking to march that down. And it's challenging right now with EBITDA falling, right? So quite frankly, being able to buy debt back.

Alfred Liggins: So, you know, very high priority for us. That's the reason you saw us buy $35 million worth of debt right before our window closed. That ended up being a negotiation, you know, that, you know, to buy that piece of debt at $35 million was probably a week-long negotiation that only closed right before the window was happening. So, you know, we're trying to be opportunistic and smart about it.

Speaker Change: opportunistically at attractive prices is important. So, you know, very high priority for us. That's the reason you saw us buy 35 million dollars.

Peter Thompson: Reach operating expenses were down by 1.3% driven by reduced talent compensation and affiliate station fees. Operating expenses in the digital segment were up one and a half percent driven by increased cross-platform marketing expenses and third-party cost of sales on audience extension revenue for digital audio. Operating expenses in the cable TV segment were down 4.7% year-old year, driven by about a $800,000 favourable programme in expense related to acquisitions they expired in 2023, and reduced sales and marketing expense which was offset by increased operations costs associated with connected TV and VOD support.

Speaker Change: worth a debt right before our window clones

Speaker Change: that ended up being end a negotiation you know that you know buy that piece of debt third upto thirty five milliondollars was probably a week long negotiation

Speaker Change: that only closed right before the window was happening so we're trying to be opportunistic and smart about it

Dominic Laib: That makes sense. Yeah, and then just last one. I think you guys mentioned, maybe you might have commented on this, but last quarter, you guys mentioned you were under an NDA to potentially purchase Bounce from EW Scripps. To the extent you can offer any commentary, is there any update regarding that?

Speaker Change: okay

Speaker Change: it. That makes sense. Yeah, and then just last one.

Speaker Change: Maybe you might have commented on this, but last quarter you guys mentioned you were under NDA to potentially purchase bounce from EW scripts. The effect you can offer any commentary, is there any update regarding those?

Alfred Liggins: No, there's a process going on, we're involved in it, and there's no update at this point in time.

Speaker Change: No, there's a process going on, we're involved in it, and no update at this point in time.

Peter Thompson: Operating expenses in the corporate and elimination segment were down by approximately $900,000, primarily as a result of a $4.5 million decrease for the CDO's TV1 award, offset by a $3 million increase in third-party and consulting and audit expenses. For adjusted EBITDA we added back $4.1 million for non-recurring professional fees related to the mediation and audit efforts. However the $6.3 million non-catch benefit for the TV1 award is not added back for the current year when assessing the adjusted EBITDA.

Dominic Laib: Okay, got it. Okay, I appreciate you answering the questions. That's it for me.

Hal Steiner: Thank you. Our last question comes from Hal Steiner with BNP. Please go ahead. Hey, guys. Good morning.

Speaker Change: Okay, got it. Okay, appreciate you answering the questions. That's it for me.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Speaker Change: Our last question comes from Hal Steiner with BNP. Please go ahead.

Hal Steiner: Hey guys, good morning. Thank you for taking the questions. So my first one was, I was just wondering, do you have any early thoughts on...

Hal Steiner: Hey guys, good morning. Thank you for taking the questions. So my first one was, I was just, do you have any early thoughts on...

Hal Steiner: Some of the things you could try to do in TV to sort of improve audience and audience delivery is maybe changing measurement providers, a possible solution. And I think you also commented on sort of CTV ad upside. Could you just share a little more color or help quantify that at all? That would be very helpful. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Some of the things you could try to do in TV to sort of improve audience and audience delivery Is maybe like changing measurement providers a possible solution, and I think you also commented on

Speaker Change: Sort of CTV ad upside it could you could just share a little more color or help quantify that at all That would be very helpful. Thank you. Yeah So we are looking at different measurement solutions

Peter Thompson: Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $28.4 million for the second quarter down 24.2%. Consolidated broadcast and digital operating income was approximately $34.2 million decrease of 27.7%. Interest income was approximately $1.8 million in the second quarter compared to $1.9 million last year. The decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest bearing investment accounts. Interest expense decreased to approximately $12.4 million for Q2 down from $14 million last year due to lower overall debt balances.

Alfred Liggins: We're looking at different measurement solutions, and we're in the middle of the upfront right now, so I don't want to have a public adjudication of our upfront strategy and our audience measurement strategy, but suffice it to say, yes, we are engaged in those kinds of conversations and looking at several different alternatives, one of which has more of a positive impact than others, right? But that's an active negotiation right now because it's not just us switching audience measurement; it's getting the advertising holding companies and the clients to actually accept a currency too. And so that's a real-time negotiation as we speak. But the answer to your question is, yes, we're looking into that.

Speaker Change: a public adjudication of our upfront strategy in our audience measurement strategy but suffice it to say yes we are

Speaker Change: We are engaged in those kinds of conversations and looking at several different alternatives, one of which

Peter Thompson: As a result of the company's debt reduction strategy, the company made cash interest payments of approximately $1 million in the quarter related to the repurchase of the notes. During the quarter, the company repurchased $35.5 million of its $20.28 notes at a price of $78.5%.

Speaker Change: has as more of a positive impact than others

Speaker Change: right

Speaker Change: So...

Speaker Change: But that's an active negotiation right now, because it's not just us.

Speaker Change: Switching audience measurement, it's getting the advertising holding companies and the clients to actually, you know, accept it as currency, too. And so that's a real-time negotiation as we speak.

Peter Thompson: An empowerment charge of $80.8 million, which was non-catch, was recorded in Q2 entirely for the broadcasting licenses in nine of the 13 radio markets and broadcast segments. The primary factors leading to the impairments were decline in projected gross market revenues and operating profits and an increase in the discount rate. The benefit from income taxes was approximately $18.5 million for the second quarter and the company paid cash income tax in the amount of $600,000.

Alfred Liggins: Second, at CTV, we basically were on an ad server that didn't allow us to transact on a programmatic level and had some, you know, other limitations that really severely limited our ability to monetize that inventory. It has taken us, and, you know, don't ask me all of the why, but it's taken six months for us to identify, negotiate, and then ultimately get activated a new ad server that will allow us to more effectively monetize it, and we're almost at the end of that road.

Speaker Change: reing

Speaker Change: On CTV, we basically were on an ad server that didn't allow us to transact on a programmatic level and had some other limitations that really severely limited our ability to monetize that inventory. It has taken us...

Speaker Change: And, you know, don't ask me all of the why's, but it's taken six months, actually, for us to...

Peter Thompson: Net loss was approximately $45.4 million or $94 cents per share compared to net income of $70.4 million or $1.48 per share for the second quarter of 2023. During the second quarter, the company repurchased $449,277 shares of class A common stock in the amount of approximately $900,000 but an average price of $2.6 per share and 113,283 shares of class D common stock in the amount of approximately $200,000. An average price of $1.57 per share.

Speaker Change: identify, negotiate, and then ultimately get activated a new ad server that will allow us to more effectively monetize it and we're at the, you know, we're almost at the end of that road. I think it goes live within the next, you know, 30 days or so. Jody, do you know when, you know, the new CTV ad server goes live?

Alfred Liggins: I think it goes live within the next, you know, 30 days or so. Jody, do you know when the new CTV ad server goes live offhand? This month. This month. Okay, this month, yeah.

Speaker Change: Bye.

Alfred Liggins: So, you know, people, you know, advertisers like CTV a lot because they can do it programmatically, and the ad server that we were on didn't allow us to do that, you know, so that's just, you know, that's the real deal. Just moving to, you know, a system that allows us to monetize it the way the majority of advertisers want to do business is a tangible upside just because we haven't been able to participate in that marketplace. So, you know, that's the elaboration on it. And obviously, more and more ad dollars are moving to connected television too.

Speaker Change: now hand of this month this month they this month yeah so the people advertisers like t t v a lot because they could do it programmatically and they asked wer that we were on didn't allow to do

Speaker Change: thatyeah know so so that's just you know that's real ajust

Speaker Change: cappe ableof just just moving to a system that allows us to monetize that the way the majority of advertisers want to do business

Speaker Change: is tangible upside, just because we haven't been able to participate in that marketplace. So, yeah, that's the elaboration on it. And obviously, more and more ad dollars are moving to connected television, too.

Peter Thompson: For a total net leverage ratio of 4.37 times and finally, we'll be filing timely filing the 10Q tomorrow at some point, so good that we're back on track in terms of meeting our deadlines and filing time.

Hal Steiner: Um, and then I guess on financial policy, you know, with the operating environment being a little bit weaker, do you sort of feel like it's more prudent to maybe hoard more cash, or is, like, sort of, the minimum cash you want to hold in the business maybe higher than it was before? And I heard your comments on debt buybacks. But I might also just wonder, you know, how do you view M&A in the current environment? We view M&A...

Speaker Change: got your gotyouokay that' helpple

Speaker Change: And then I guess

Speaker Change: I just saw an...

Speaker Change: You know, financial policy, you know, with the operating environment being a little bit weaker, you know, do you sort of feel like it's more prudent to maybe hoard more cash or is like sort of the minimum cash you want to hold in the business maybe higher than it was before?

Alfred Liggins: With that, I will hand back to Alfred. Thank you, Peter. Operator, we can go to the lines for Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press one then zero on your phone's keypad, you'll hear your indication that you've been placing Q. And I'm repeating that one zero process where we move you from the Q. Once again, if you have questions, please press one then zero. And at this time, we do not have any callers queuing up. Okay, I'll take that back. Like that back, we're just a little bit late.

Speaker Change: And I heard your comments on debt buybacks, but I maybe also just wonder, you know, how do you view M&A in the current environment? And I'll pause there. We view M&A,

Alfred Liggins: M&A, um, oh. And I think I've said that before.

Alfred Liggins: Look, in the current environment, you can't count on top line growth, right? Not in the media business, right? If we were a software company, you know, maybe so. M&A has got to be, you know, not only, Thank you for listening! You've got to assume that there's going to continue to be downward top line pressure in the industry, right? You know, you know, whether it's radio or television.

Speaker Change: And I think I've said it before, look, in the current environment, you can't count on top-line growth, right? Not in the media business.

Speaker Change: If we were a software company, you know, maybe. So, M&A has got to be.

Dominic Laib: All right, we'll first sit down dominically up with faithful. You go ahead, please. Hey, guys, thanks for sticking the questions. Yeah, I've got two things, a couple of things for me. One, could you just comment on the digital is kind of been trending a week or for a couple of quarters now? Can you just kind of offer some guidance on what that market's looking like? Are you guys expecting that to pick up versus kind of like a national local area or kind of your thoughts on that?

Speaker Change: You know, not only...

Peter: highly accretive. It's got to be de-levering. And Peter and I were actually talking about it this morning before, you know, the call. And any M&A deal that you do that's de-levering out the box, you've got to

Dominic Laib: Yeah. Yeah, digital, there's been weaker demand in digital, associated with the pullback and national advertising, but also a pullback in DE, diverse in inclusion, add dollars that we've felt that wave was ultimately going to crest on the effect by the national ad pullback. However, the second half is looking better and we're also optimistic there that we're going to see what political add dollars than we had budgeted. So, you know, today, you know, we are still forecasting our digital segment to beat its budget, which is, you know, off of last year, but not that, but not that bar off. So we're feeling decent about the digital. Our TV business is really what's hurting us, yeah.

Alfred Liggins: And so you got to take that into account, you know, when you're, you know, figuring out what that M&A does to you from a deal. So, very comfortable with our Houston acquisition last year and our Indianapolis acquisition and radio. And so, that's how we think about it, you know. You can, you know, expect us not to do anything that is contrary to that because that would be, that would be way too risky.

Speaker Change: you've gotta assume that there's gonna continue to be downward top line pressure in the industry, right? Whether it's radio or television. And so you gotta take that into account when you're figuring out what that M&A does to you from a D-U,

Peter: de-levering standpoint.

Speaker Change: So, very comfortable with our Houston acquisition, you know, last year and our Indianapolis acquisition and radio. And so, that's how we think about it, you know. You know, you can, you know, expect us not...

Speaker Change: to do anything, you know, that is contrary to that because that would be, that'd be way too risky. And we are, again, conscious of the fact that it's not just.

Alfred Liggins: And we are, again, conscious of the fact that it's not just, it's something de-levering day one, you know, is it going to continue to be de-levering, you know, with, you know, the downward, you know, trend, you know, from an industry standpoint. Finding those deals is hard, but my sense is... They will come about because everybody's kind of got the same problem, and, you know, I mean, we're, you know, substantially free cash flow positive, you know, to date.

Speaker Change: is something de-levering day one.

Speaker Change: Is it going to continue to be delevering with a downward trend from an industry standpoint? Finding those deals is hard, but my sense is...

Speaker Change: They will come about because everybody's kind of got the same problem.

Speaker Change: um and

Speaker Change: i mean we're we're substantially free cash flow positive you to date there' ing that reducing debt particularly reducing debt that discount does ful increes in ourfreecash flow right

Alfred Liggins: The thing that reducing debt, particularly reducing debt at a discount, does is it also increases our free cash flow, right? And so we don't really have a cash flow problem such that we have to afford a bunch of cash.

Alfred Liggins: Okay, thank you. Based off the back, I'll be you guys keeping your EBITDA guides. I think you gave range of like one 10 to 120 last calls. That's sort of still in one. Yeah, yeah. I said at the top of the call, you know, we're more likely to be on the lower end of that guidance, but yes, we're maintaining our current guides.

Speaker Change: And so we don't really have a cash flow problem such that we have to afford a bunch of cash. And if we are looking for a deal that is substantially de-levering, you know, particularly at the levels, you know, you know.

Alfred Liggins: And if we are looking for a deal that is substantially de-levering, you know, particularly at the levels, you know, you know, that we're trying to get down to. Let's say, I think, you know, our leverage level, we just reported was 4. Rawr.

Alfred Liggins: Okay, sorry, I joined a little late here. Yeah, a couple more things. The DEF 5X, do you guys continue kind of continuing a similar cadence in terms of repurchases? This price is kind of... I mean, I don't want to commit to the cadence, you know, because the cadence really kind of depends on.., the cadence depends on where, you know, we see the debt trading, you know, but you can rest assured that our primary focus is to make sure that we're managing, you know, our leverage and look in the marked step down and it's challenging right now with EBITDA, you know, following, right?

Speaker Change: that we're trying to get down to. Let's say, I think, you know, our leverage level, we just reported was 4.

Alfred Liggins: 4.37 times, right? 4.37 So, let's say we were looking for something that, you know, de-levers us a turn, right? So, it gets us down to 3.3. You know, if the synergies are really there and it does that, then that's probably in the strike zone as something that you can finance. So, the point is I don't think we have to hoard cash for an M&A, you know, situation; the kind of M&A that we're looking for should produce, you know, a financeable scenario in and of itself, and we can, you know, look at that cash, you know, to de-lever, you know, and buy, you know, debt opportunistically. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

Speaker Change: 4.37 times, right? 4.37. So, let's say we were looking for something that, you know,

Speaker Change: the strike zone.

Speaker Change: So the point is, I don't think we have to hoard cash for an M&A situation, the kind of M&A that we're looking for.

Speaker Change: should produce, you know, a financeable scenario in and of itself, and we can, you know, look at that cash, you know, to de-lever, you know, and buy, you know, debt opportunistically. Does that make sense?

Alfred Liggins: You know, so quite frankly, you know, being able to buy, you know, debt back opportunistically at attractive prices is important. So, you know, very high priority for best of the reason, you saw us buy 35 million dollars worth of debt right before our window closed. That ended up being a negotiation, you know, that, you know, to buy that piece of debt at 35 million dollars was probably a week long negotiation that only closed right before the windows happening. So, you know, we're trying to be opportunistic and smart about it. Okay, got it, that makes sense.

Speaker Change: Yes, it does. It does. Thank you, Alfred. Okay, that's all my questions for now. Thank you guys so much.

Operator: And once again, for additional questions, please press 1 and 0 at this time on your phone's keypad. We have a question now from Marlene Piero with BOA. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking the question.

Speaker Change: yeah

Speaker Change: And once again, for additional questions, please press 1 and 0 at this time on your phone's keypad.

Speaker Change: for i mean

Speaker Change: We have a question now from Marlene Piero with BOA. Please go ahead.

Marlene Piero: Thank you for taking the question. Hi Alfred. Hi Peter. Hi.

Marlene Piero: thank you for taking the question high alfred hiy peter

Marlene Piero: Just wanted a quick sanity check on free cash flow, just kind of given the commentary you've given this quarter versus, you know, last quarter. So I think it kind of worked out to roughly around $40 million, given, you know, kind of some one-offs related to that. Cash tax is around $3 million. I think CapEx is around $9 million. So I just wanted to sanity check if, you know, kind of in the ballpark and that my inputs are correct. Okay, I'm gonna...

Alfred Liggins: Yeah, and then just last one. I think you guys mentioned, maybe you might have commented this, but last quote you guys mentioned, you were under NDA, potentially purchased Bounce from EW scripts, the effect you can offer any commentary, is there any update regarding those? No, there's a process going on, you know, we're involved in it and, you know, no update at just one time. Okay, got it.

Alfred Liggins: Okay, I appreciate the answer to the questions. That's it from me.

Marlene Piero: Hi, just wanted a quick sanity check on free cash flow, just kind of given the commentary you've given this quarter versus

Speaker Change: you know, last quarter. So I think, you know, it kind of worked out to roughly around $40 million, given, you know, kind of some one-offs related to, you know,

Alfred Liggins: Thank you.

Speaker Change: TV One, you know, cash taxes around 3 million, I think cap backs around 9 million, so I just wanted to sanity check if, you know, kind of the ballpark and that my inputs are correct.

Peter Thompson: Towards the lower end of the guidance. So you probably need to take, if we were coming off of the midpoint, right, you'd probably take $5 million off of that number and be in the mid-30s. And then, obviously, the other comment he made at the top of the call was, we don't know where politics is going to come out. It feels good, right?

Speaker Change: Yeah, I think, look, alpha guided.

Hal Steiner: Our next question comes from Hal Steiner with me and Pape, please go ahead. Hey guys, good morning. Thank you for taking the questions. So, my first one was, I was just, do you have any early thoughts on some of the things you could try to do in TV to sort of improve audience and audience delivery? Is maybe like changing measurement providers a possible solution? And I think you also commented on sort of CTV ads upside, you could just share a little more color or help quantify that at all, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

Speaker Change: towards the lower end of the...

Speaker Change: for the guidance. So you probably need to take...

Speaker Change: If we were coming off at a midpoint, right, you'd probably take $5 million off of that number and be in the mid-30s.

Peter Thompson: It feels like the developments on the Democratic side are going to be really helpful to us. So yeah, maybe there's some upside to that. To the downside, we're still going through all the remediation of the material, and there's going to be incremental effort there from a consultant standpoint and also from an audit standpoint. So our old $2 million audit fee isn't coming back this year. So there's some incremental one-time remediation and audit costs. So I think we're... because somewhere in the 30s, depending on where politics comes out, I would say.

Speaker Change: And then obviously the other comment he made at the top of the call was, we don't know where political is going to come out. It feels good, right? It feels like the developments.

Speaker Change: on the democratic citing going to be really helpful to them so yes maybe it's some upside on that to the downside you know we're still going through all the remediation of the material and there's going to be incremental effort there

Alfred Liggins: Yeah, so we are looking at different measurement solutions and we're in the middle of the upfront right now, so I don't want to have a public, a public adjudication of our upfront strategy in our audience measurement strategy, but suffice it to say, yes, we are engaged in those kinds of conversations and looking at several different alternatives, one of which has more of a positive impact than others. But that's an active negotiation right now, because it's not just a switching audience measurement, it's getting the advertising holding companies and the clients to actually, you know, accept a discurrency too.

Speaker Change: from a consultant standpoint and also from an audit standpoint. So our old $2 million audit fee, you know, isn't coming back this year. So there's some incremental one-time remediation in audit costs. So, you know, I think we're

Speaker Change: because somewhere in the 30s depending on where political comes out I would say.

Marlene Piero: That's still roughly the same as $3 million. Thank you.

Speaker Change: I don't know about it, but the cash taxes in CapEx, that's still roughly that far of $3 million effectively.

Peter Thompson: Yeah, and the other lever that's in there, I say lever, the other interesting thing that's in there is how much cash programming we spend versus what we're amortizing. At the moment, we have a $10 million cash usage in the numbers I just gave you, so if we can, if we can, if we end up saving some of that, then that would also boost free cash flow.

Speaker Change: Cash usage in the numbers. I just gave you so if we can if we can If we end up saving some of that then that would also boost free cash flow

Marlene Piero: And sorry if I might have missed this sooner, but have you disclosed if you've bought any bonds back post the quarter?

Alfred Liggins: And so that's a real-time negotiation as we speak. But the answer to your question is just we're looking at that. Second, on CTV, we basically were on an ad server that didn't allow us to transact on a programmatic level and had some other limitations that really severely limited our ability to monetize that inventory. It has taken us, you know, don't ask me all of the why. So it's taken six months actually for us to identify, negotiate, and then ultimately get activated a new ad server that will allow us to more effectively monetize it.

Speaker Change: And sorry if I might have missed this sooner, but have you disclosed if you've, you know, bought any bonds back, you know, close to the quarter?

Marlene Piero: I'm sorry Marlene, I couldn't hear the question; it's a bit faint.

Marlene Piero: Sorry, I was just curious, and apologies if I missed this, but have there been any bonds repurchased post-free queue?

Speaker Change: I'm sorry Marlene, I couldn't hear the question, it's a bit faint. Sorry, I was just curious, and apologies if I missed this, but have there been any bonds repurchased post 3Q?

Peter Thompson: No, the last ones we did were the 35 12 in Q2. We haven't done any more since then. Got it. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: No, the last ones we did were the 35 and a half and Q2. We haven't done any more since then. Thank you very much.

Marlene Piero: Got it. Thank you very much.

Kevin Chapman: We have a question next from Kevin Chapman with PRV. Please go ahead.

Speaker Change: thank

Speaker Change: We have a question next from Kevin Chapman with PRV, please go ahead.

Kevin Chapman: Yes, hi. Thank you. I would like to expand, if you can, on the political advertising. I know you're very optimistic about it. Are you seeing interest from both parties, and it was possibly at historic levels when you look at that, what you're seeing so far?

Kevin Chapman: Yes, hi. Thank you.

Alfred Liggins: And we're almost at the end of that road. I think it server goes live by this month. This month. Yeah. So, you know, people, you know, advertisers like CTV a lot because they could do it programmatically and the ad server that we were on didn't allow us to do that. Yeah. So, so that's just, you know, that's real. Just, just moving to, you know, a system that allows us to monetize it the way the majority of advertisers want to do business.

Kevin Chapman: I would like for you to expand, if you can, on the political advertising. I know you're very optimistic about it. Are you seeing...

Kevin Chapman: Interests with both parties?

Speaker Change: at historic levels when you look at what you're seeing so far.

Alfred Liggins: Um, the answer is yes, we're seeing interest from both parties. However, you know, the ratio of what Dems spend against our audience to what ours spend is, you know, is, you know, is very, very, very, very, wide, right? So, you know, an increase in interest from the R's is, you know, is not going to move the needle, right? You know, but on a percentage-wise basis off the low base, I think it's, you know, a substantial increase. Do you understand what I mean?

Speaker Change: The answer is, yes, we're seeing interest from both parties, however, you know,

Speaker Change: the ratio of what dem spend against our audience to what are suspended ye is yel

Alfred Liggins: You know, it's tangible upside just because we haven't been able to participate in that marketplace. So, you know, that's the elaboration on it. And obviously more and more ad dollars are moving to connect the television to. Gotcha. Okay, that's helpful.

Speaker Change: did

Kevin Chapman: is very, very, very, very wide, right? So, you know, an increase in interest from the Rs is...

Alfred Liggins: And then I guess, just on, you know, financial policy, you know, with the operating environment being a little bit weaker, you know, do you sort of feel like it's more prudent to maybe hoard more cash or it's like sort of the minimum cash you want to hold in the business maybe higher than it was before. And I heard your comments on debt buybacks, but I maybe also just wonder, you know, how do you view M&A in the current environment?

Kevin Chapman: you know is not

Kevin Chapman: move the needle, right, you know, um, yeah, but it's

Kevin Chapman: On a percentage-wise, off a low base, I think it's a substantial increase. But it still doesn't compare to what the Dems spend between the campaigns and the PACs and all that.

Alfred Liggins: But, you know, it still doesn't compare to, you know, what the Dems spend between the campaigns and the PACs and all that because the primary audience that we have is obviously critical to, you know, democratic success. We also got some significant exposure in We've got some key markets, so we've got a big Atlanta position. Georgia has been our most robust political market over the last two cycles. We are in Charlotte and Raleigh, so North Carolina's in play. Pennsylvania is also in play. We're in Philadelphia.

Speaker Change: The primary audience that we have is obviously critical to, you know, democratic success. We also have got some significant exposure in...

Alfred Liggins: We view M&A, and I think I've said it before, look, in the current environment, you can't count on top lying growth, right? Not in the media business, right? Fleurist software company, you know, maybe so M&A has got to be, you know, not only highly accreted, it's got to be de-levering. And Peter and I were actually talking about it this morning before, you know, the call. And any M&A deal that you do that's de-levering out the box, you've got to assume that there's going to continue to be downward top line pressure, you know, in the industry, right?

Speaker Change: some key markets, you know, so we've got a big Atlanta, you know, position, Georgia, you know, has been our most robust political market, you know, over the last, you know, you know,

Kevin Chapman: We are in Charlotte and Raleigh, so North Carolina is in play.

Alfred Liggins: And so, you know, we've got some decent, you know, exposure. And then, you know, we've got a, you know, we've got a big digital business, right? And I would say, over half of the spend that's going to come from the Dems this year is going to be in digital. So, you know, you know, In comparison to others in other cycles, Peter, what was the big, what was the big year that we had? Yeah, we've had it, we've.

Kevin Chapman: Pennsylvania's in play, we're in Philadelphia, and so, you know, we've got some decent, you know, exposure, and then, you know, we've got a, you know, we've got a big digital business, right, and I would say...

Alfred Liggins: You know, whether it's radio or television. And so you've got to take that into account, you know, when you're, you know, figuring out what that M&A does to you from a de-levering standpoint. So very comfortable with our Houston acquisition, you know, last year and our Indianapolis acquisition and radio. And so that's how we think about it, you know. You know, you can, you know, expect us not to do anything, you know, that is, is contrary to that because that would be, that'd be way too risky.

Speaker Change: Over half of the spend that's going to come from the DIMMs this year is going to be in digital.

Speaker Change: In comparison to others, other cycle, Peter, what was the big year that we had, you know? Yeah, we've had two, right?

Peter Thompson: The high water mark was, in 2020, we did In radio alone, we did $18.8 million in 2020, so that was the biggest. And then in 22, we did about $13 million in radio. So there you go.

Speaker Change: The high water mark was... In 2020, we did...

Speaker Change: In radio alone, we did $18.8 million in 2020. So that was the biggest. And then in 22, we did about $13 million in radio.

Alfred Liggins: And we are again conscious of the fact that it's not just is something de-levering day one, you know, is it going to continue to be de-levering, you know, with, you know, with the downward trend, you know, from an industry standpoint. Um, finding those deals is hard, but my sense is They will come about because everybody's kind of got the same problem and we're substantially free cash flow positive today, the thing that reducing debt, particularly reducing debt at a discount does, and it also increases our free cash flow, right?

Alfred Liggins: If you want to elaborate, yeah, well, I, yeah, I mean, look, I think.

Kevin Chapman: So they were our two biggest.

Kevin Chapman: Yeah, and Peter, if you want to elaborate, yeah, well, I, um, uh, yeah, I mean, look, I think, I think you covered it, but the, yeah, there are, there are, there are, it's not just the presidential race was the only point I was going to make. There are some races. Yeah. Yeah. In the market, in the markets you mentioned, you know, the North Carolina government race, the Maryland Senate and the Ohio Senate, and then some other, you know, other issues, redistricting issues. So it's not all going to be presidential money. There are other things that we're participating in as well.

Alfred Liggins: Yeah, it's not just the presidential race. The only point I was going to make is that there are some other races. Yeah, yeah.

Alfred Liggins: In the markets you mentioned, you know, the North Carolina government race, the Maryland Senate, and the Ohio Senate, and then some other, you know, other issues, redistricting issues. So it's not all going to be presidential money. There are other things that we're participating in as well, right? Yeah, but obviously that change on the Democratic side is going to help us in some of those markets that would probably may not have been in play that are now like Georgia and Pennsylvania, where we're well positioned.

Speaker Change: Yeah, but but obviously that change on the on the Democratic side is going to help us in some of those markets that will probably may Not have been in play that now are like Georgia and Pennsylvania where we're well positioned

Alfred Liggins: And so we don't really have a cash flow problem such that we have to hoard a bunch of cash and if we are looking for a deal that is substantially delivering, you know, particularly at the levels, you know, that we're trying to get down to, let's say, I think, you know, our leverage level, we just reported, it was 4.7 times, right, 4.37, so let's say we were looking for something that, you know, delivers us, you know, a ton, right? So it gets us down to 3.3, you know, if the synergies are really there and it does that, then that's probably in the strike zone is something that you can finance, you know?

Kevin Chapman: Just one follow-up, will you update as? All of these bands come in. I'm sorry, will we update?

Speaker Change: Just one follow-up, will you update as these bands come in?

Alfred Liggins: I'm sorry, will we update as what comes in? as you get buys, advertising buys. I mean, we'll give an update when we do our next earnings call, just as we have here, and it'll flow into whatever our guidance is. Our next earnings call, yeah, we'll give the market a view of, we always give a view of where we're pacing. And, you know, in the last couple of years, we've given guidance, and, you know, we feel we'll have an obligation to continue to update that guidance, you know, as we report.

Speaker Change: I'm sorry, will we update as what comes in?

Speaker Change: as you get buys, advertising buys. We'll give an update when we do our next earnings call, you know, just as we have here, and it'll flow into whatever our guidance is.

Speaker Change: We'll give the market a view of what's going on.

Speaker Change: We always give a view on where we're pacing.

Alfred Liggins: So the point is, I don't think we have to hoard cash for an M&A situation, the kind of M&A that we're looking for, you know, should produce, you know, a financeable scenario in and of itself, and we can, you know, look at that cash, you know, to deliver, you know, and by, you know, debt opportunistically, does that make sense?

Kevin Chapman: Okay, thank you.

Speaker Change: as we report.

Speaker Change: okay thank you

Ben Briggs: For additional questions, press 1 and 0. And we're going now to Ben Briggs from Stone X. Go ahead. Hi, this is James Godwin on.

Speaker Change: Yep.

Speaker Change: for additional questions press one than zero

Speaker Change: And we're going now to Ben Briggs from StoneX. Go ahead.

Alfred Liggins: Yes, it does, it does, thank you Alfred. Okay, that's all my questions for now, thank you guys so much.

James Godwin: Hi, this is James Godwin on for Ben Briggs. Thank you guys for taking the questions. I was wondering, can you provide any clarity on what the revenue and EBITDA impact of TV1 and Clio joining the Xfinity lineup will be?

Operator: Yeah, once again for additional questions, please press 1.0 at this time on your phones keypad.

Alfred Liggins: It's not the Xfinity lineup, it's TV Now, which is their over-the-top skinny bundle. It's a $20 a month service, and it will be positive, although we just launched it in August, right, beginning of August, in July. We launched in July, and it's a growing service. So there are a small number of subscribers now that we think will ultimately grow larger. So it's a positive impact, but it's not a hugely positive impact on our numbers. Thank you, guys.

Marlene Pereira: Now we have a question now from Marlene Piero with BOA, please go ahead. Thank you for taking the question, hi Alfred, hi Peter. Hey, I just wanted to quick sanity check on free cash flow, just kind of given the commentary, you've given this quarter versus, you know, last quarter, so I think, you know, it kind of worked out to roughly around $40 million, given, you know, kind of someone off-related to, you know, PV1, you know, cash taxes around $3 million, I think catbacks around $9 million, so I just wanted to sanity check if, you know, kind of the ballpark and that my inputs are correct.

Speaker Change: Actually, it's not the Xfinity lineup, it's, you know, it's, it's

James Godwin: It's.

James Godwin: TV Now, which is their over-the-top

Speaker Change: Skinny Bundle. It's a $20 a month service.

Speaker Change: And it will be positive, although we just launched, I think, Jody, we just launched, you know, in August , right? Beginning of August ?

Speaker Change: in July .

Speaker Change: We launched in July , and it's a growing service, so it's a small number of subs now.

Peter Thompson: Yeah, I think, look, Alfred guided towards the lower end of the, of the guidance, so you probably need to take, if we, if we were coming off of the midpoint, right, you'd probably take 5 million off of that number and be in the, in the mid 30s. And then obviously the other comment he made at the top of the call was, we don't know where political is going to come out, it feels good, right, it feels like the developments on the democratic side are going to be really helpful to us.

Speaker Change: that we think will ultimately grow larger. So it's a positive impact, but it's not a hugely positive impact to our numbers.

Jody: Awesome. Thank you.

Operator: For additional questions, please press 1 and 0. And we have no more questions in queue. All right.

Jody: Sure.

Speaker Change: we have the f t

Speaker Change: For additional questions, please press 1 and 0.

Peter Thompson: So, yeah, maybe there's some upside on that. To the downside, you know, we're still going through all the remediation of the material we just, and there's going to be incremental effort there from a consultant standpoint and also from an audit standpoint. So our, our old 2 million audit fee, you know, isn't coming back this year. So there's some incremental one-time remediation and audit costs. So, you know, I, I think we're, was somewhere in the third, he's dependent on what political comes out.

Speaker Change: And we have no more questions in queue.

Speaker Change: allright thank you everyone and we look forward to talking with you next quarter and as usual we're available offline thank you very much

Alfred Liggins: Next quarter, and as usual, we're available offline. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, everybody.

Operator: In this call, Urban One may also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in talking about its performance. These measures will be reconciled to GAAP either during the course of this call or in the company's press release, which can be found on its website at www.urbanone.com. A replay of this conference call will be available from 5 p.m. ET. You can register in time today, August 8th, 2024, until... 11-59 Callers may access the replay by calling 866-207-1041 from the U.S.; call direct at F402-9700-8472 using Axis Code is one.

Operator: This call will be available through midnight on... That's a replay from the U.S. Dial 402, of Skoda One 1-886-INTERNATIONAL; international callers use 402-970-0847. Domestic callers use 866207, conference call for today. We're sorry, your conference is ending now. Please hang up. [music]

James Godwin: no

Speaker Change: it is gentlemen once again a replay for this conference call will be available through midnight on august fifteenth to access to replay from the u s style four zero two nine seven zero zer eight four seven

Peter Thompson: I would say. But the cash taxes in CapEx that's still mostly that part of three million and not actively. Yeah, and the other lever that's in there, I say the lever, the other thing that's in there is how much cash program and we spend, what we're amortizing at the moment, we have a ten million dollar cash usage in the numbers that I just gave you. So if we can, if we end up saving some of that, then that would also boost free cash, well.

Speaker Change: Use access code 1733886. International participants, use for, uh...

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, once again, a re- This call will be available through midnight on August 5th. Access to replay from the U.S. dial 402-9700, using the code 1. 186 for the National Participants, they use them for.

Speaker Change: Scratch that. International callers use 402-970-0847. Domestic callers use 866-207-1041. And again, that access code is 1733886. That does conclude your conference call for today. You may now disconnect.

Operator: International callers use 402-970-0847. Domestic callers use 866207, and that access code for the conference call for today. We're sorry, your conference is ending now. Please hang up.

Operator: Access to live audio and a replay of the conference call will also be available on Urban One's corporate website at www.urbanone.com. The replay will be made available on the website for seven days after the call. No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized.

Operator: Next time, I want to turn the call over to Alfred Liggins, Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, who is also joined by Peter D. Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Peter Thompson: Sorry if I might have missed this sooner, but have you disclosed, if you've, you know, bought any bonds back, you know, post the quarter? I'm sorry, Marlene, I couldn't, I couldn't hear the question, it's a bit saying. Sorry, I was just curious and apologies if I missed this, but have you, have there been any bonds repurchased post-req? No, the last ones we did were the 35 and a half in Q2, we haven't done any more since then. Got it, thank you very much.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you very much, Operator, and welcome everybody to our Q2 results conference call. Also joining Peter and me are Karen Wishart, our Chief Administrative Officer; Jody Drewer, who's the Chief Financial Officer at TV One; and Christopher Simpson, who's our General Counsel. We've sent out the press release on our Q2 results, largely in line with, you know, how we've guided in terms of the different segments, radio, you know, coming in at minus, you know, three, you know, with political, you know, minus 5.6, you know, on a same station basis, ex-political, that's not including the acquisitions that we made with Houston, Texas.

Alfred Liggins: It's, you know, been, you know, a challenging environment in our cable television segment, mostly because of churn and audience delivery, something that's happening throughout the pay TV ecosystem. Peter's going to go into more detail about those results in his comments.

Alfred Liggins: Q3 radio is currently pacing down 6.9% on the same station basis. It's going to be up 7%, you know, as reported. If you include Politico, it's pacing down mid single digits.

Alfred Liggins: However, we are, you know, feeling pretty optimistic about the strength of politics, and we're starting to see registrations and orders coming in on hold. We actually think it's going to be much more robust than we have currently forecasted. It's real-time action right now in terms of getting it laid in. The new political landscape and the closeness of the current race, I think is going to bode well for us, you know, given our audience. So that is yet to be determined.

Kevin Chapman: We have a question next from Kevin Chapman with PRV, please go ahead. Yes, hi, thank you. How would life be to expand if you can on the political advertising? I know you're very optimistic about it. Are you seeing interest with both parties? And at historic levels, when you look at that, what you're seeing so far? The answer is, yes, we're seeing interest from both parties. However, you know, the ratio of what DIMS spend against our audience to what R suspend, you know, is, you know, is very, very, very wide, right?

Alfred Liggins: You know, we're not, you know, we're not forecasting a big beat on our political budget as yet. But, you know, but we're very optimistic. But even with the optimism and political ad spend coming, there's still softness in our cable television segment, which we have to address. You know, ultimately, we've got to find more impressions to offset the churn that we're experiencing. And, you know, we've got upside coming in terms of our connected TV offering as we switch ad servers, that will allow us to better monetize the CTV inventory that we have on some of the new, you know, over-the-top platforms that aren't in place yet.

Alfred Liggins: We haven't had the benefit of that so far this year, but we will in the second half of this year. But given the softness in the cable TV segment, I think that we are more likely to finish 2024 at the lower end of our EBITDA guidance, which was between 110 and 120. And again, we're not, you know, We're not sure exactly what we think that the upside on politics is yet. We think there is some, you know, but, you know, we just want to, you know, give an indication that, you know, we feel at this point that, you know, we are more likely to finish on the lower end of the guidance than the upper end of the guidance.

Speaker Change: We're sorry, your conference is ending now. Please hang up.

Alfred Liggins: So we can, you know, talk more about that during the Q&A. And so at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Peter to go into the details of the numbers, and then we can switch to Q&A.

Peter Thompson: Yeah, thank you, Alfred. I'll just walk you through the press release number. So consolidated net revenue was down by 9.2% year over year for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, at approximately $117.7 million. Net revenue for the radio broadcasting segment was $42 million, which was an increase of 7.2% year-over-year, but was down 3% on a same-station basis. Excluding politics, net revenue is up by 4.7% year over year, but down by 5.6% on the same station. According to Miller Kaplan, local advertising sales were down 8.5%, against a market that was down 7.1%.

Peter Thompson: Just to leave it there, it was $2.9 million, down 52.5%. We recognized approximately $41.5 million of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 20.9%. Cable TV advertising revenue is down 26.7%. Delivery erosion continued to decline 30% in total day, persons 25, 54, resulting in an increase of $4.7 million to our audience deficiency reserve. Increased volume through promo conversions partially offset the delivery shortfall. However, affiliate revenue was down by 12.9%, with contractual rate increases being offset by approximately $3.3 million in net subscriber churn impact. Cable subscribers for TV One, as measured by Nielsen, finished the second quarter at 39.8 million compared to 40.7 million at the end of Q1. And Clio TV had 38 million Nielsen subscribers.

Peter Thompson: Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, and impairment of goodwill, intangible assets, and long-lived assets, decreased to approximately $93.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, down 0.4% from the prior year. However, radio operating expenses were up 6.4% or $1.9 million. The Houston radio acquisition, which was effective August 1st, 2023, added approximately $2 million of expense year over year. On a same station basis, event expenses were up $700,000, driven by two of the company's tentpole events, Birthday Bash in Atlanta and Women's Empowerment in Raleigh.

Peter Thompson: While variable expenses related to revenues such as sales commissions, bonus compensation, bad debt, and national rep fees were all down, marketing costs were also down. REACH operating expenses were down by 1.3%, driven by reduced talent compensation and affiliate station fees. Operating expenses in the digital segment were up one and a half percent, driven by increased cross-platform marketing expenses and third-party cost of sales on audience extension revenue for digital audio.

Peter Thompson: Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA was $28.4 million for the second quarter, down 24.2%. Consolidated Broadcast and Digital Operating Income was approximately $34.2 million, a decrease of 27.7%. Interest income was approximately $1.8 million in the second quarter, compared to $1.9 million last year. The decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest-bearing investment accounts.

Peter Thompson: Interest expense decreased to approximately $12.1 million and $4 million for Q2 down from $14 million last year due to low overall debt balances. As a result of the company's debt reduction strategy, the company made cash interest payments of approximately $1 million in the quarter related to the repurchase of the note. During the quarter, the company repurchased $35.5 million of its 2028 notes at a price of 78 cents a pass. Additionally, an impairment charge of $80.8 million, which was non-cash, was recorded in Q2 entirely from the broadcasting licenses in 9 of the 13 radio markets in the broadcast segment. The primary factors leading to the impairments were a decline in projected gross market revenues, an operating profit, and an increase in the discount rate.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you, Peter. Operator, we can go to the lines for Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1.

Operator: Oh, can I take that back? Take that back, we're just a little bit late. Alright, we'll go first to Dominic Laib with Faithful. You go ahead, please.

Dominic Laib: Hey guys, thank you for sticking around for the questions. Yeah, I've had about two things, a couple of things for me.

Dominic Laib: One could just comment on the digital is kind of intrending a weeker for a couple of quarters. Can you just kind of offer some guidance on what that market is looking like? Are you guys expecting that to pick up versus kind of like a national local area or your thoughts on that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alfred Liggins: Digital, you know, there's been weaker demand for digital, you know, associated with the pullback and national advertising, but also a pullback and, you know, the second half is looking better and, you know, we're also optimistic there that we're going to see what political adds dollars, then we had budgeted for it. So, Yeah, today, you know, we are still forecasting our digital segment to meet its budget, which is, you know, yeah, you know, off of last year, but not that, but not that far off. So we're feeling decent about digital. Our TV business is really what's hurting us.

Alfred Liggins: Yeah. Okay, thank you. And, um, based on the backdrop of you guys keeping your EBITDA guidance, I think you gave a range of like 110 to 120 on last call. Is that sort of still in line?

Alfred Liggins: Yeah, yeah, as I said at the top of the call, you know, we're more likely to be on the lower end of that guidance, but yes, we're, you know, we're maintaining our current guidance.

Dominic Laib: Okay, got it. Sorry, I joined a little late here. Yeah, no worries. A couple more things. The Def-5X, do you guys continue to kind of maintain a similar cadence in terms of repurchases? If price is kind of... Oh, man.

Dominic Laib: Yeah, and then just last one, I think you guys mentioned, maybe you might have commented on this, but last quarter, you guys mentioned you were under an NDA to potentially purchase Bounce from EW Scripts, to the effect that you could offer any commentary. Is there any update regarding that?

Alfred Liggins: No, there's a process going on, you know; we're involved in it, and, you know, no update at this point in time.

Dominic Laib: Okay, got it. Okay. Appreciate you answering the questions. That's it for me.

Hal Steiner: Thank you. Our last question comes from Hal Steiner with BNP. Please go ahead. Hey, guys. Good morning.

Hal Steiner: Hey guys, good morning. Thank you for taking the questions. So my first one was, I was just, do you have any early thoughts on some of the things you can try to do in TV to sort of improve audience and audience delivery, maybe like changing measurement providers, a possible solution, and I think you also commented on sort of the CTV ad upside. If you could just share a little more color or help quantify that at all, that would be very helpful. Thank you. Yeah

Alfred Liggins: So that's an active negotiation right now because it's not just us switching audience measurement; it's getting the advertising holding companies and the clients to actually, as we speak. But the answer to your question is yes, we're looking at that second. On CTV, we basically were on an ad server that didn't allow us to transact on a programmatic level and had some, you know, other limitations that really severely limited our ability to monetize that inventory.

Alfred Liggins: It has taken us, and, you know, don't ask me all of the why, but it's taken six months, actually, for us to identify, negotiate, and then ultimately get a new ad server that will allow us to more effectively monetize it, and we're almost at the end of that road. I think it goes live within the next, you know, 30 days or so. Jody, do you know when, you know, the new CTV ad server goes live? I'll hand it over this month, this month, this month.

Alfred Liggins: Yeah. Um, people, you know, advertisers like CTV a lot cause they can do it programmatically, and the ad server that we were on didn't allow us to do that. Yeah. So, um, so, so that's just, you know, that's real. Just moving to, you know, a system that allows us to monetize it the way the majority of advertisers want to do business is a tangible upside just because we haven't been able to participate in that marketplace. So, you know, that's the elaboration on it. And obviously, more and more ad dollars are moving to connected television too.

Alfred Liggins: Um, and then I guess on financial policy, you know, with the operating environment being a little bit weaker, do you sort of feel like it's more prudent to maybe hoard more cash, or is, like, sort of, the minimum cash you want to hold in the business maybe higher than it was before? And I heard your comments on debt buybacks. But I might also just wonder, you know, how do you view M&A in the current environment? We view M&A...

Alfred Liggins: M&A, um, oh. And I think I've said that before.

Alfred Liggins: Look, in the current environment, you can't count on top line growth, right? Not in the media business, right? If we were a software company, you know, maybe so. But M&A has got to be, you know, not only, You've got to assume that there's going to continue to be downward top line pressure in the industry, right? You know, whether it's radio or television, and so you got to take that into account when you're, you know, figuring out what that M&A does to you from a financial point of view.

Alfred Liggins: So, very comfortable with our Houston acquisition, you know, last year and our Indianapolis acquisition and radio. And so that's how we think about it, you know. You can, you know, expect us not to do anything, you know, that is contrary to that because that would be, that'd be way too risky.

Alfred Liggins: And if we are looking for a deal that is substantially de-levering, you know, particularly at the levels that we're trying to get down to. Let's say, I think, you know, our leverage level we just reported was 4.8, ahhhhhhhhhh, 4.37 times, right? 4.37. So, let's say we were looking for something that, you know, de-levers us a turn, right? So, it gets us down to 3.3. You know, if the synergies are really there and it does that, then that's probably in the strike zone as something that you can finance.

Alfred Liggins: So, the point is I don't think we have to hoard cash for an M&A, you know, situation, the kind of M&A that we're looking for, you know, should produce, you know, a financeable scenario in and of itself, and we can, you know, look at that cash, you know, to de-lever, you know, and buy, you know, debt opportunistically. Does that make sense? Yes.

Kevin Chapman: So, you know, an increase in interest from the R's is, you know, is not a move the needle, right? You know, but it's, you know, on a percentage wise off a low base, I think it's, you know, a substantial increase, you know, I mean, but it's, you know, it still doesn't compare to, you know, what the DIMS spend between the campaigns and the PACs? And all that because the primary audience that we have is, is obviously critical to, you know, democratic success.

Kevin Chapman: We also got some significant exposure in some key markets, you know, so we got a big Atlanta, you know, position Georgia, you know, has been our most robust political market, you know, over the last, you know, you know, two cycles. You know, we are in Charlotte and Raleigh, so North Carolina's in play. Pennsylvania's in play when in Philadelphia. And so, you know, we've got some decent, you know, exposure. And then, you know, we've got a, you know, we've got a big digital business, right?

Operator: [music] Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Urban One's second quarter earnings call. All participants are in a listen-only mode, and this call is being recorded. During this conference call, Urban One will be sharing with you certain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or its future performance. However, Urban One cautions you that certain factors, including risks and uncertainties, are mentioned 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and other reports it periodically files with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause the company's actual results to differ materially. Projections, or Forward Looking Statements, call will present information as of August. 2024. Please note that Urban One does not have any duty to update any forward-looking statement. Presentation.

Marlene Piero: Thank you for taking the question. Hi Alfred. Hi Peter. Hi. Just wanted a quick sanity check on free cash flow, just kind of given the commentary you've given this quarter versus, you know, last quarter. So I think it kind of worked out to roughly around $40 million, given, you know, kind of some one-offs related to that. Cash Tax is around $3 million, and I think CapEx is around $9 million, so I just wanted to sanity check if they are in the ballpark and that my inputs are correct.

Peter Thompson: I'm Peter.

Peter Thompson: Towards the lower end of the guidance. So you probably need to take, if we were coming off of the midpoint, right, you'd probably take 5 million off of that number and be in the mid-30s. And then obviously, the other comment he made at the top of the call was, we don't know where politics is gonna come out. It feels good, right?

Peter Thompson: It feels like the developments on the democratic side are gonna be really helpful to us. So yeah, maybe there's some upside to that. To the downside, you know, we're still going through all the remediation, and there's gonna be incremental effort there from a consultant standpoint and also from an audit standpoint. So our old 2 million audit fee isn't coming back this year. So there's some incremental one-time remediation and audit costs. So, you know, I think we're were somewhere in the 30s, depending on where politics comes out, I would say.

Peter Thompson: That's still roughly the same as $3 million. Thank you. Bye.

Alfred Liggins: It's not the Xfinity lineup. It's, you know, TV Now, which is their over-the-top skinny bundle.

Alfred Liggins: It's a $20 a month service, and it will be positive, although we just launched, I think, Jody, we just launched, you know, in August, right? Beginning of August? in July. We launched it in July, and it's a growing service. So it's a small number of subs now that we think will ultimately grow larger. So it's a positive impact, but it's not a hugely positive impact on our numbers. Awesome. Thank you, guys.

Kevin Chapman: And I would say over half of the spend that's going to come from the dims this year is going to be a digital. So, you know, in comparison to others, other cycle, Peter, what was the big, what was the big year that we had? You know, yeah, we've had, we've had, we've had two, right? So, the high water mark was in 2020, we did in radio alone, we did 18.8 million dollars in 2020.

Marlene Piero: Sorry if I might have missed this, but have you disclosed if you've bought any bonds back post the quarter?

Operator: For additional questions, please press 1 and 0. And we have no more questions in queue. All right.

Marlene Piero: I'm sorry Marlene, I couldn't hear the question; it's a bit faint.

Alfred Liggins: Next quarter, and as usual, we're available offline. Thank you very much.

Marlene Piero: Sorry, I was just curious, and apologies if I missed this, but have there been any bonds repurchased post-free queue?

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, once again, a replay of this conference call will be available through midnight on August 15th. To access the replay from the U.S., dial 402-970-0847. Use access code 1733886. International participants use... Scratch that. International callers use 402-970-0847. Domestic callers should use 866-207-1041. And again, that access code is 1733886. 886. That does conclude your conference call for today. You may now disconnect.

Peter Thompson: No, the last ones we did were the 35 12 in Q2. We haven't done any more since then. Got it. Thank you very much.

Marlene Piero: Got it. Thank you very much.

Kevin Chapman: We have a question next from Kevin Chapman with PRV. Please go ahead.

Kevin Chapman: Yes, hi. Thank you.

Kevin Chapman: I would like you to expand, if you can, on political advertising. I know you're very optimistic about it. Are you seeing interest from both parties and the possibility of... at historic levels when you look at that? What you're seeing so far.

Alfred Liggins: The answer is yes, we're seeing interest from both parties, however, you know, the ratio of what Dems spend against our audience to what ours spend is, you know, very, very, very, very, wide, right? So, you know, an increase in interest from the R's is, you know, is not going to move the needle, right? You know, but on a percentage-wise basis off the low base, I think it's, you know, a substantial increase. Do you understand what I mean?

Kevin Chapman: And so, that was, that was the biggest. And then in 22, we did about 13 million in radio. So, they were up to the biggest. Yeah. And Peter, you want to elaborate? Well, I think you covered it. Yeah, there are, there are, it's not just a presidential race, was the only point I was going to make. There was some race. Yeah, yeah. In the market, in the market, you mentioned, you know, the North Carolina government race, the Maryland Senate and the Ohio Senate and then some other, you know, other issues redistricting issues.

Alfred Liggins: But it's, you know, it still doesn't compare to, you know, what the Dems spend between the campaigns and the PACs and all that because the primary audience that we have is obviously critical to, you know, Democratic success. We also got some significant exposure in We've got some key markets, so we've got a big Atlanta position; Georgia has been our most robust political market over the last two cycles. We are in Charlotte and Raleigh, so North Carolina's in play. Pennsylvania's in play, too. We're in Philadelphia.

Alfred Liggins: And so, you know, we've got some decent, you know, exposure. And then, you know, we've got a, you know, we've got a big digital business, right? And I would say, over half of the spend that's going to come from the Dems this year is going to be in digital. So, you know, you know, In comparison to others in the other cycles, Peter, what was the big year that we had? Yeah, we've had it. We've had it.

Peter Thompson: We've had two, right? So, the high water mark was, in 2020, we did $18.8 million in radio alone. So that was the biggest. And then, in 22, we did about $13 million in radio. So there you go.

Alfred Liggins: to collaborate. Yeah, well, I'm yeah, I mean, look, I think.

Alfred Liggins: Yeah, it's not just the presidential race; there are some races in the markets you mentioned, you know, the North Carolina governor's race, the Maryland Senate, and the Ohio Senate, and then some other issues, such as redistricting issues. So it's not all going to be presidential money. There are other things that we're participating in as well. Yeah, but obviously that change on the Democratic side is going to help us in some of those markets that would probably may not have been in play that are now like Georgia and Pennsylvania, where we're well positioned.

Kevin Chapman: Just one follow-up, will you update as? All of these bands come in. I'm sorry, but what we update is what.

Alfred Liggins: I'm sorry, will we update as what comes in? as you get buys, advertising buys. I mean, we'll give an update when we do our next earnings call, just as we have here, and it'll flow into whatever our guidance is. Our next earnings call, yeah, we'll give the market a view of, we always give a view of where we're pacing. And in the last couple of years, we've given guidance, and we feel we'll have an obligation to continue to update that guidance, as we report.

Kevin Chapman: Okay. Thank you. Yep.

Ben Briggs: For additional questions, press 1 and 0. And we're going now to Ben Briggs from Stonex. Go ahead. Hi, this is James Godwin.

Speaker Change: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Kevin Chapman: So, it's not all going to be presidential money. There are other things that we're participating in as well. But, but obviously that change on the, on the democratic side is going to help us in some of those markets that will probably may not be in play. The now outlined Georgia and Pennsylvania, well, well, position. This one, one, one follow up, will you update as these bins come? Yeah. I'm sorry, will we update as what comes in?

Speaker Change: A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by

Kevin Chapman: As, as you get by advertising. I mean, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll give an update when we do our next earnings call. Yeah, just as we, as we have here and in a flow into whatever our guidance is. So, right, you know, our next, yeah, we'll give the market, you know, a view of, we always give a view on where we're pacing. And, and, you know, the last couple of years we're giving, you know, we've given guidance and, you know, we feel we have an obligation to continue to update that guidance. Yeah. Um, as, as we report. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. For additional questions, press one and zero. Right.

James Gobbin: Going out of Ben Briggs from StoneX. Go ahead. All right. This is James Goblin on for Ben Briggs. Thank you guys for taking the questions. I was wondering, can you provide any clarity on what the revenue and keep it that impact TV one and Cleo joining the Xfinity line up will be? Actually, it's not the extended line up, it's TV now, which is there over the top skinny bundle. It's a $20 a month service and it will be positive although we just launched, I think in August, right, beginning August, in July.

James Gobbin: We launched in July and it's a growing service so it's a small number of subs now that we think will ultimately grow larger so it's a positive impact, but it's not a hugely positive impact to our numbers. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. For additional questions, please press 1-0. We have no more questions in queue. All right. Thank you, everyone, and we look forward to talking with you next quarter and as usual. You were available offline. Thank you very much.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, once again, a replay for this conference call will be available through midnight on August 15th to access the replay from the U.S, now 402-9700-4847. Use access code 1733-886 in an national participants use for scratch that international call is use 4-029-700-4847, domestic call is use 866-207-1041, and again that access code is 173-388-6.

Operator: That does conclude your conference call for today. You may now disconnect. We're sorry, your conference is ending now. Please hang up.

Speaker Change: A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by A film by

Operator: Thank you for your time, and I'll see you in the next video. [inaudible] and thank you very much[inaudible] your time, and thank you very much for your time[inaudible] claims any duty to update any forward-looking statements made in the presentation. In this call everyone may also discuss some non-gap financial measures in talking about its performance. These measures will be reconciled to Gap either during the course of this call or in the company's press release which can be found on this website at www.urbanone.com. The replay will be available on the website for 7 days after the call. No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized or may be relied upon.

Speaker Change: Go to Beadaholique.com for all of your beading supplies needs!

Speaker Change: or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or its future performance.

Speaker Change: Urban One cautions you that certain factors, including risks and uncertainties referred to in the 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and other reports it periodically files with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by its projections or forward-looking statements. This call will present information as of August 8th.

Speaker Change: 2024. Please note that Urban One disclaims.

Speaker Change: any duty to update any forward-looking statements i mean but in the presentation

Speaker Change: In this call, Urban One may also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. In talking about its performance, these measures will be reconciled to GAAP either during the course of this call or in the company's press release, which can be found on its website at www.urbanone.com.

Speaker Change: A replay of this conference call will be available from 5 p.m. Eastern Time today, August 8, 2024, until 1159 at midnight on August 15, 2024.

Speaker Change: Callers may access the replay by calling 866-207-1041 from the U.S. International Callers

Speaker Change: called direct f four zero two nine seven zero zero eight four seven

Speaker Change: The replay access code is 1733886. Access to live audio and a replay of the conference call will also be available on Urban One's corporate website at www.urbanone.com. And the replay will be made available on the website for seven days after the call.

Speaker Change: No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized or may be relied upon. At this time, I will now turn the call over to Alfred Liggins.

Speaker Change: Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, who is also joined by Peter D. Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you very much, Operator, and welcome, everybody, to our Q2 results conference call. Also joining Peter and I are Karen Wishart, our Chief Administrative Officer, Jody Drewer, who's the Chief Financial Officer at TV One, and Christopher Simpson, who's our General Counsel.

Speaker Change: We've sent out the press release on our Q2 results largely in line with, you know, how we've guided in terms of the different segments.

Speaker Change: radio, you know, coming in at.

Speaker Change: minus three with political, minus 5.6 on a same station basis, ex-political. That's not including the acquisitions that we made with Houston, Texas. It's been a challenging environment in our cable television segment, mostly because of churn and audience delivery, something that's happening throughout the pay TV ecosystem. Peter's going to go into more detail about those results in Q2 in his comments. Q3 radio.

Speaker Change: currently is pacing down 6.9% on the same station basis. It's going to be up 7%, you know, as reported. If you include Politico, it's pacing down mid-single digits. However, we are, you know...

Speaker Change: feeling pretty optimistic about the strength of political, and we're starting to see registrations and orders, you know, coming in on hold. We actually think it's going to be, you know, much more robust than we have currently forecasted. It's real-time action, you know, right now in terms of getting it laid in, the new political landscape and the closeness of

Speaker Change: of the current race I think is going to bode well for us.

Speaker Change: you know, given our audience. So that is yet to be determined. You know, we're not, you know, we're not forecasting a big beat on our political budget as of yet, but, you know, but we're very optimistic.

Speaker Change: but even with the optimism in political ad spend coming,

Speaker Change: There's still softness in our cable television segment, which we have to address. Ultimately, we've got to find more impressions.

Speaker Change: to offset the churn that we're experiencing, and, you know, we've got upside coming in terms of our connected TV offering as we switch ad servers that will allow us to better monetize the CTV inventory that we have on some of the new, you know, over-the-top platforms. That's not in place yet. We haven't had the benefit of that so far this year, but we will in the second half of this year. But given the softness in the cable TV segment.

Speaker Change: I think that we are more likely to finish 2024 at the lower end of our EBITDA guidance, which was 110 to 120. And again, we're not...

Speaker Change: We're not sure exactly what we think that the the upside on political is yet We think there is some you know, but you know, but we you know, just want to

Speaker Change: you know, give, you know, an indication that, you know, we, you know, we feel at this point that, you know, we're more likely to finish on the lower end of the guidance.

Alfred Liggins: and Alfred Liggins.

Speaker Change: Peter

Alfred Liggins: Net revenue for the radio broadcasting segment was $42 million, which was an increase of 7.2% year-over-year, but was down 3% on a same-station basis.

Alfred Liggins: excluding political net revenue is up by 4.7 percent year-over-year but down by 5.6 percent on the same station basis.

Speaker Change: According to Miller Kaplan, our local advertising sales were down 8.5 percent against a market that was down 7.1 percent. National ad sales were down 1.6 percent against a market that was up 7 percent.

Speaker Change: net revenues for the digital segment decreased by sixteen percent in second quarter to fifteen point nine million dollars

Speaker Change: Direct national sales were down driven by decreased advertiser demand, but connected TV and podcast revenues showed growth compared to last year. Just at EBITDA was 2.9 million dollars down 52 and a half percent.

Speaker Change: We recognized approximately $41.5 million of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 20.9%. Cable TV advertising revenue is down 26.7%.

Speaker Change: Delivery erosion continued down 30% in total day, persons 25, 54, resulting in an increase of 4.7 million dollars.

Speaker Change: to our Audience Deficiency Reserve.

Speaker Change: Increased volume through promo conversions, partially offset the delivery shortfall.

Speaker Change: Cable TV affiliate revenue was down by 12.9% with contractual rate increases being offset by approximately $3.3 million in net subscriber churn impact.

Speaker Change: Cable subscribers for TV One, as measured by Nielsen, finished second quarter at 39.8 million, compared to 40.7 million at the end of Q1. And Clio TV had 38 million Nielsen subscribers.

Speaker Change: Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock base compensation and impairment of goodwill, intangible assets and long-lived assets.

Speaker Change: Decreased to approximately $93.3 million for the Pagoda Entrance on June 30th, 2024, down 0.4% from the prior year.

Speaker Change: Radio operating expenses were up 6.4% or 1.9 million dollars. The Houston radio acquisition, which was effective August 1st, 2023, added approximately 2 million dollars of expense year-over-year.

Speaker Change: on the same station basis.

Speaker Change: The rent expenses were $700,000.

Speaker Change: REACH operating expenses were down by 1.3%, driven by reduced talent compensation and affiliate station fees.

Operator: This time I'll turn the call over to Alfred Liggins, Chief Executive Officer of Urban One who is also joined by Peter D. Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Speaker Change: Operating expenses in the cable TV segment were down 4.7% year-over-year, driven by about an $800,000 favorable programming expense.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you very much operator and welcome everybody to our Q2 results conference call. Also joining Peter and I are Karen Wishart, Chief Administrative Officer. Here's the Chief Financial Officer at TV1, Christopher Simpson, who is our General Counsel. We've sent out the press release on our Q2 results largely in line with how we've guided in terms of the different segments. Radio coming in at minus 3 with political, minus 5.6 on a same station basis, ex-political.

Speaker Change: related to acquisitions that expired in 2023.

Speaker Change: and reduced sales and marketing expense, which was offset by increased operations costs associated with connected TV and VOD support.

Speaker Change: Operating expenses in the corporate and elimination segment were down by approximately $900,000, primarily as a result of a $4.5 million decrease for the CEO's TV One Award.

Speaker Change: offset by a $3 million increase in third-party consulting and audit expenses.

Speaker Change: For Adjusted EBITDA, we added back $4.1 million for non-recurring professional fees related to the remediation and audit efforts.

Alfred Liggins: That's not including the acquisitions that we made with Houston, Texas. It's been a challenging environment in our cable television segment mostly because of turn and audience delivery, something that's happening throughout the pay TV ecosystem. Peter's going to go into more detail about those results in Q2 in his comments. Q3 radio currently is pacing down 6.9% on the same station basis. It's going to be up 7%. As reported, if you include political, it's pacing down mid single digits.

Speaker Change: However, the $6.3 million non-cash benefit for the TV One Award is not added back for the current year when assessing adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker Change: Interest income was approximately $1.8 million in the second quarter compared to $1.9 million last year. Decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest-bearing investment accounts. Interest expense decreased to approximately $12.5 million.

Alfred Liggins: However, we are feeling pretty optimistic about the strength of political and we're starting to see registrations and orders coming in on hold. We actually think it's going to be much more robust than we have currently forecasted. It's real-time action right now in terms of getting it laid in the new political landscape and the closeness of the current race. I think it's going to boat well for us given our audience. That is yet to be determined.

Speaker Change: During the course of the company, we purchased $35.5 million of its 2028 notes at a price of 78 cents a pass.

Speaker Change: An impairment charge of $80.8 million.

Speaker Change: which was noncash was recorded in q two entirely from the broadcasting licenses in nine of the thirteen radio markets and broadcast segment

Speaker Change: The primary factors leading to the impairments.

Speaker Change: who are declining projected gross market revenues and operating profits and an increase in the discount rate.

Alfred Liggins: We're not forecasting a big beat on our political budget as of yet but we're very optimistic. But even with the optimism and political ads been coming, there's still softness in our cable television segment which we have to address. Ultimately, we've got to find more impressions to offset the turn that we're experiencing. We've got upside coming in terms of our connected TV offering as we switch ad servers that will allow us to better monetize the CTV inventory that we have on some of the new over-the-top platforms.

Speaker Change: The benefit from income taxes was approximately $18.5 million for the second quarter and the company paid cash income tax in the amount of $600,000.

Alfred Liggins: That's not in place yet. We haven't had the benefit of that so far this year but we will in the second half of this year. But given the softness in the cable TV segment, I think that we are more likely to finish 2024 at the lower end of our EBITDA guidance which was 110 to 120. Again, we're not sure exactly what we think that the upside on political is yet we think there is some but we just want to give an indication that we feel at this point that we're likely to finish on the lower end of the guidance than the upper end of the guidance. We can talk more about that during the Q&A.

Speaker Change: Net loss was approximately $45.4 million, or $0.94 per share, compared to net income of $70.4 million, or $1.48 per share, for the second quarter of 2023.

Speaker Change: During the second quarter, the company repurchased 449,277 shares of Class A common stock in the amount of approximately $900,000.

Speaker Change: at an average price of $2.06 per share and 113,283 shares of Class D common stock in the amount of approximately $200,000 at an average price of $1.57 per share. Capital expenditures were approximately $2.2 million in the second quarter.

Speaker Change: As of June 30, 2024, total gross debt was $614.5 million. The ending unrestricted cash balance was $131.9 million, resulting in net debt of approximately $482.6 million.

Speaker Change: compared to $110.5 million of LTM reported adjusted EBITDA for a total net leverage ratio of 4.37 times.

Peter Thompson: At this point, I'd like to turn it over to Peter to go into the details of the numbers and then we can switch to Q&A. Yeah, thank you, Alfred. I'll just walk through the press release number. So consolidated net revenue was down by 9.2% year-over-year for the quarter end of June 30th, 2024, at approximately $117.7 million. Net revenue for the radio broadcast and segment was $42 million, which was an increase of 7.2% year-over-year, but was down 3% on a same station basis.

Alfred Liggins: Thank you, Peter. Operator, we can go to the lines for Q&A.

Speaker Change: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press 1 then 0 on your phone's keypad. You'll hear an indication that you've been placed in queue. And repeating that 1-0 process will remove you from the queue. Once again, if you have questions, please press 1 then 0.

Speaker Change: And at this time we do not have any callers queuing up.

Peter Thompson: Excluding political, net revenue was up by 4.7% year-over-year, but down by 5.6% on a same station basis. According to Miller Kaplan, our local advertising sales were down 8.5% against the market that was down 7.1%. National advertising sales were down 1.6% against the market that was up 7%. Net revenue for the reach media segment was $18.9 million in the second quarter, down 5.6% from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA was $3.7 million for the quarter, down from 4.6 million dollars last year.

Speaker Change: Oh, can I take that back? Take that back, we're just a little bit late. Alright, we'll go first to Dominic Leab with Faithful. You go ahead, please.

Dominic Leab: Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. Yeah, I just had a couple of things for me. One, could you just comment on...

Speaker Change: Digital's kind of been trending weaker for you know a couple quarters now can you just kind of offer some guidance on what that markets looking like are you guys expecting that?

Speaker Change: to pick up, you know, versus kind of like a national local area or kind of.

Speaker Change: future.

Speaker Change: as well as the pullback in national advertising but also a pullback in, you know, DE, you know, diversity and inclusion, ad dollars that, you know, we, you know, we felt that wave was ultimately going to crest and be affected by the national ad pullback. However, the second half is looking, is looking better.

Peter Thompson: Net revenue for the digital segment decreased by 16% in second quarter to $15.9 million. Direct national sales were down, driven by decreased advertiser demand, but connected TV and podcast revenues showed growth compared to last year. Just at EBITDA was $2.9 million, down 52.5%. Recognized approximately $41.5 million of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 20.9%, cable TV advertising revenue was down 26.7%. Delivery erosion continued down 30% in total day, persons 25.54, resulting in an increase of $4.7 million to our audience deficiency, increased volume through promo conversions partially offset the delivery shortfall.

Speaker Change: And, you know, we're also optimistic there that we're going to see more political ad dollars than we had budgeted. So thank you.

Speaker Change: Yeah, today, you know, we are still forecasting our digital segment to meet its budget, which is, you know,

Speaker Change: You know, off of last year, but not that far off, so we're feeling decent about digital. Our TV business is really what's hurting us.

Peter Thompson: Cable TV affiliate revenue was down by 12.9% with contractual rate increases being offset by approximately $3.3 million in net driver churn impact. Cable subscribers for TV one is measured by Nilsen first, second quarter at $39.8 million, compared to $40.7 million in Q1 in Clio TV at $38 million Nilsen subscribers. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock base compensation and each having good, well, intangible assets and long live assets decreased to approximately $93.3 million for the quarter end June 30, 2024, down 0.4% from the prior year.

Speaker Change: Okay, thank you. Based off the backdrop of you guys keeping your eBeta guidance, I think you gave a range of like 110 to 120 last calls. That's sort of still in line?

Speaker Change: Yeah, yeah, as I said at the top of the call, you know, we're more likely to be on the lower end of that guidance, but yes, we're, you know, we're maintaining our current guidance.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: joined a little late here. A couple more things. The debt buybacks, do you guys continue kind of continuing a similar cadence in terms of repurchases if price is kind of... I don't want to commit to the cadence, you know, because the cadence really kind of depends on...

Speaker Change: Oh.

Speaker Change: The cadence depends on where, you know, we see the debt trading, you know, but you can...

Peter Thompson: Radio operating expenses were up 6.4%, or $1.9 million. The Houston radio acquisition, which was effective August 1, 2023, added approximately $2 million expense year over year. On the same station basis, the event expenses were $700,000 driven by two of the companies 10 poll events, which birthday bash in Atlanta, the women's empowerment in Raleigh. While variable expenses related to revenue such as sales commissions, bonus compensation, bad debt and national referees were all down, the marketing costs were also down.

Speaker Change: you can rest assured that

Speaker Change: are our primary focus.

Speaker Change: opportunistically at attractive prices is important. So, you know, very high priority for us. That's the reason you saw us buy $35 million.

Peter Thompson: Reach operating expenses were down by 1.3% driven by reduced talent compensation and affiliate station fees. Operating expenses in the digital segment were up one and a half percent driven by increased cross-platform marketing expenses and third-party cost of sales on audience extension revenue for digital audio. Operating expenses in the cable TV segment were down 4.7% year over year driven by about $800,000 favourable programing expense related to acquisitions they expired in 2023 and reduced sales and marketing expense which was offset by increased operations costs associated with connected TV and VOD support.

Speaker Change: worth of debt right before our window closed.

Speaker Change: that ended up being end a negotiation you know that you know buy that piece of debt thir up thirty five million dollars 's probably a week long negotiation

Speaker Change: that only closed right before the window was happening so we're trying to be oortunistic and smart about it

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: Yeah, and then just last one, I think you guys mentioned...

Speaker Change: Maybe you might have commented on this, but last quarter you guys mentioned you were under NDA to potentially purchase bounce from EW Scripts. The effect you can offer, any commentary, is there any update regarding those? No, there's a process going on, you know, we're involved in it and, you know, no update at this point in time.

Peter Thompson: Operating expenses in the corporate and elimination segment were down by approximately $900,000 primarily as a result of a $4.5 million decrease for the CEO's TV1 award, offset by a $3 million increase in third-party and consulting and audit expenses. For adjusted EBITDA we added back $4.1 million for non-recurring professional fees related to the mediation and audit efforts. However the $3 million non-cash benefit for the TV1 award is not added back for the current year when assessing adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker Change: Okay, got it. Okay, appreciate you answering the questions. That's it for me.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Speaker Change: our est p comes from how der with b n people iss glad

Speaker Change: hey guys goodmorning thank you for taking the questionsso my first one is i was just give any early thoughts on

Speaker Change: Sort of CTV ad upside it could if you could just share a little more color or help quantify that at all That would be very helpful. Thank you. Yeah So we are looking at different measurement solutions

Peter Thompson: Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $28.4 million for the second quarter down 24.2%. Consolidated broadcast and digital operating income was approximately $34.2 million decrease of 27.7%. Interest income was approximately $1.8 million in the second quarter compared to $1.9 million last year the decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest bearing investment accounts. Interest expense decreased to approximately $12.4 million for Q2 down from $14 million last year due to lower overall debt balances as a result of the company's debt reduction strategy.

Speaker Change: a public adjudication of our upfront strategy and our audience measurement strategy. But suffice it to say, yes, we are engaged in those kinds of conversations and looking at several different alternatives.

Speaker Change: one of which

Speaker Change: has more of a positive impact than others.

Peter Thompson: Company made cash interest payments of approximately $1 million in the quarter related to the repurchase of the notes. During the quarter the company repurchased $35.5 million of its 2028 notes at a price of 78 cents per pass. An empowerment charge of $80.8 million which was non-cash was recorded in Q2 entirely for the broadcasting licenses in 9 of the 13 radio markets and broadcast segment. The primary factors leading to the impairments were decline in projective gross market revenues and operating profits and an increase in the discount list.

Speaker Change: But that's an active negotiation right now, because it's not just us.

Peter Thompson: The benefit from income taxes was approximately $18.5 million for the second quarter, and the company paid cash income tax in the amount of $600,000. Net loss was approximately $45.4 million or $94 cents per share, compared to net income of $70.4 million or $1.48 cents per share for the second quarter of 2023. During the second quarter, the company repurchased $449,277 shares of class A common stock in the amount of approximately $900,000, at an average price of $2.6 per share, and 113,283 shares of class D common stock in the amount of approximately $200,000, an average price of $1.57 per share.

Speaker Change: And, you know, don't ask me all of the why's, but it's taken six months, actually, for us to...

Jody: This month. This month. Okay. This month. Yeah. So, you know, people, you know, advertisers like CTV a lot because they can do it programmatically, and the ad server that we were on didn't allow us to do that. Yeah. So.

Peter Thompson: Capital expenditures were approximately $2.2 million in the second quarter. As of June 30th, 2024, total gross debt was $614.5 million. The ending unrestricted cash balance was $131.9 million, resulting in net debt of approximately $482.6 million, compared to $110.5 million of LTM reported adjustity that for a total net leverage ratio of 4.37 times. And finally, we'll be filing, timely filing, the 10Q tomorrow at some point, so good that we're back on track in terms of meeting that debt lines and filing timing.

Speaker Change: So that's just, you know, that's real.

Speaker Change: EJ

Speaker Change: Just moving to a system that allows us to monetize it the way the majority of advertisers want to do business.

Speaker Change: is tangible upside just because we haven't been able to participate in that marketplace. So, yeah, that's the elaboration on it. And obviously, more and more ad dollars are moving to connected television, too.

Speaker Change: Gotcha, gotcha, I'll get a tupple.

Speaker Change: And then I guess

Speaker Change: I just saw an...

Speaker Change: you know financial policy you know with the operating environment being a little bit weaker you know do you sort of feel like it's more prudent to maybe board more cash or is like sort of the minimum ash you want to hold in the business may be higher than it was before

Alfred Liggins: And with that, I will hand back to Alfred. Thank you, Peter.

Operator: Operator, we can go to the lines for Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press 1.0 on your phone's keypad. You're on your indication that you've been placing in Q. And I'm repeating that 1.0 process when we move you from the Q. Once again, if you have questions, please press 1.0. And at this time, we do not have any callers queuing up. Okay. I'll take that back. We're just a little bit late.

Speaker Change: And I heard your comments on debt buybacks, but I maybe also just wonder, you know, how do you view M&A in the current environment? And I'll pause there. We view M&A,

Speaker Change: And I think I've said it before. Look, in the current environment, you can't count on top line growth, right? Not in the media business, right? If we were a software company, you know, maybe. So M&A has got to be, you know, not only

Dominic Laib: All right, we'll go first to Dominic Leab with Sleifel.

Dominic Laib: You go ahead, please. Hey, guys, thanks for taking the questions. Yeah, I just had two things, a couple of things for me. One, could you just comment on that digital has kind of been trending a week or a couple of quarters? I can just kind of offer some guidance on what that market's looking like. Are you guys expecting that to pick up versus kind of like a national local area, or kind of your thoughts on that?

Speaker Change: thehighly accretive thatit's got to be delevering and peter and i were actually talking about it this morning before the call and any emanate deal that you do that delevering out the box you've got a

Dominic Laib: Yeah, digital, there's been weaker demand in digital, you know, associated with, you know, the pullback and national advertising, but also a pullback in, you know, DE, you know, the first in inclusion at dollars that, you know, we, you know, we felt that wave was ultimately going to, going to crest the effect by the national ad pullback. However, the second half is looking, is looking better, and, you know, we're also optimistic there that we're going to see more political ad dollars than we had budgeted.

Peter: You've got to assume that there's going to continue to be.

Peter: downward top line pressure you know in the industry right you know know whether it's radio or television and so you' got to take that into account when you're figuring out what that iminate does to you from a deal

Speaker Change: delovering standpoint

Speaker Change: So, very comfortable with our Houston acquisition, you know, last year and our Indianapolis acquisition and radio. And so that's how we think about it, you know, you know, you can, you know, expect us not

Speaker Change: to do anything you know that is is contrary to that because that would be that the way too risky and we are again conscious of the fact that it's not just

Dominic Laib: So, um,[inaudible] what's, what's, what's, what's, what's,[inaudible] what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, has more of a positive impact than others, right? But that's an active negotiation right now because it's not just us switching audience measurement. It's getting the advertising holding companies and the clients to actually, you know, accept a discurrency too. And so that's a real time negotiation, as we speak. But the answer to your question is just we're looking at that.

Speaker Change: is something de-levering day one.

Speaker Change: is it going to continue to be delevering you know with with a downward trend you know from from an industry standpoint finding in those deals with hard but my sense is

Speaker Change: They will come about because everybody's kind of got the same problem.

Speaker Change: And, you know, I mean, we're, you know, we're substantially free cash flow, you know, positive, you know, today, the thing that reducing debt, particularly reducing debt at a discount does it also increases our free cash flow, right? And so we don't really have a

Speaker Change: a cash flow problem such that we have toafford a bunch cash and if we are looking for a deal that is substantially delevering particularly at the levels

Speaker Change: that we're trying to get down to. Let's say, I think, you know, our leverage level, we just reported was four point.

Speaker Change: No.

Speaker Change: 4.37 times, right? 4.37.

Speaker Change: delevers us you know a put the a turn right though get us down to the to three three you know if the synergies are really there and it does that then that's probably in the strike zone is something that you can finance

Speaker Change: So the point is, I don't think we have to hoard cash for an M&A situation, the kind of M&A that we're looking for.

Speaker Change: Yes, it does. It does. Thank you, Alfred. Okay, that's all my questions for now. Thank you guys so much.

Speaker Change: debt

Speaker Change: And once again, for additional questions, please press 1 and 0 at this time on your phone's keypad.

Speaker Change: over i mean

Speaker Change: We have a question now from Marlene Piero with BOA. Please go ahead.

Speaker Change: Thank you for taking the question. Hi Alfred, hi Peter.

Marlene Piero: Hi, just wanted a quick sanity check on free cash flow, just kind of given the commentary you've given this quarter versus

Speaker Change: So I think it kind of worked out to roughly around $40 million, given some one-offs related

Speaker Change: tv one

Speaker Change: Cash Tax is around $3 million, I think CapEx is around $9 million, so I just wanted to sanity check, kind of the ballpark, and that my inputs are correct.

Speaker Change: Yeah, I think, look, alpha guided.

Marlene Piero: Towards the lower end of the...

Speaker Change: for the guidance. So you probably need to take...

Speaker Change: if we were coming in off of the midpoint right you'd probably take five million off of that number and being in in the mid thirty's

Speaker Change: And then obviously the other comment he made at the top of the call was we don't know where politicals are going to come out. It feels good, right? It feels like the developments.

Speaker Change: on the democratic side are going to be really helpful to us. So, yeah, maybe there's some upside on that. To the downside, you know, we're still going through all the remediation of the material and there's going to be incremental effort there.

Speaker Change: from a consultant's standpoint and also from an audit standpoint. So our old 2 million audit fee, you know, isn't coming back this year. So there's some incremental one-time remediation and audit costs. So, you know, I think we're...

Speaker Change: We're somewhere in the 30s, depending on where political comes out, I would say.

Speaker Change: But the cash taxes in CapEx, that's still roughly that farce of $3 million, effectively.

Speaker Change: Yeah, and the other lever that's in there, I say lever, the other interesting thing that's in there is how much cash programming we spend versus what we're amortizing. At the moment, we have a $10 million cash usage in the numbers I just gave you. So if we can, if we end up saving some of that, then that would also boost free cash flow.

Speaker Change: And sorry if I might have missed this sooner, but have you disclosed if you've, you know, bought any bonds back, you know, close to the quarter?

Dominic Laib: Second, on CTV, we basically were on an ad server that didn't allow us to transact on a programmatic level and had some, you know, other limitations that really severely limited our ability to monetize that inventory. It has taken us, you know, don't ask me all the why, so it's taken six months actually for us to identify, negotiate, and then ultimately get activated a new ad server that will allow us to more effectively monetize it. And we're at the, you know, we're almost at the end of that road.

Speaker Change: I'm sorry Marlene, I couldn't hear the question, it's a bit faint. Sorry, I was just curious, and apologies if I missed this, but have there been any bonds repurchased post-ReQ?

Speaker Change: No, the last ones we did were the 35 1?2 and Q2. We haven't done any more since then. Got it. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: ok

Speaker Change: We have a question next from Kevin Chapman with PRV. Please go ahead.

Kevin Chapman: Yes, hi, thank you.

Speaker Change: I would like for you to expand, if you can, on the political advertising. I know you're very optimistic about it. Are you seeing...

Alfred Liggins: I think it goes live within the next 30 days or so. So do you know when, you know, the new CTV ad server goes live by this month, this month, this month. Yeah. So, you know, people, you know, advertisers like CTV a lot because they can do it programmatically and the ad server that we were on didn't allow us to do that. So that's just, you know, that's real. You just, just moving to, you know, a system that allows us to monetize it the way the majority of advertisers want to do business.

Kevin Chapman: Interests with both parties?

Speaker Change: at historic levels when you look at what you're seeing so far.

Speaker Change: The answer is yes, we're seeing interest from both parties. However, you know,

Speaker Change: The ratio of what Dems spend against our audience to what ours spend, you know, is, you know,

Alfred Liggins: You know, it's tangible outside just because we haven't been able to participate in that marketplace. So, you know, that's the elaboration on it. And obviously more and more ad dollars are moving to connect the television to. Gotcha. Okay. That's helpful.

Speaker Change: did

Speaker Change: is very, very, very, very wide, right? So, you know, an increase in interest from the R's is, you know, is not a,

Alfred Liggins: And then I guess just on, you know, financial policy, you know, with the operating environment being a little bit weaker, you know, do you sort of feel like it's more prudent to maybe hoard more cash or is like sort of the minimum cash you want to hold in the business maybe higher than it was before. And I heard your comments on debt buybacks, but I maybe also just wonder, you know, how do you view M&A in the current environment?

Kevin Chapman: move the needle, right? You know, yeah, but it's, you know, on a percentage wise off a low base, I think it's, you know, you know, a substantial increase.

Kevin Chapman: You know what I mean? But, you know, it still doesn't compare to, you know, what the Dems spend between the campaigns and the PACs and all that, because...

Kevin Chapman: The primary audience that we have is obviously critical to, you know, democratic success. We also have got some significant exposure in...

Alfred Liggins: I, we view M&A, and I think I've said it before, look in the current environment, you can't count on top lying growth, right? Not in the media business. We were a software company, you know, maybe so M&A has got to be, you know, not only highly accretive, it's got to be delivering and Peter and I were actually talking about it this morning before, you know, the call. And any M&A deal that you do that's delivering out the box, you've got to, you've got to assume that there's going to continue to be downward top line pressure, you know, in the industry, right?

Speaker Change: key markets so we've got a big atlanta positioned georgia has been our most robust political market over the last

Speaker Change: Pennsylvania's in play, we're in Philadelphia, and so, you know, we've got some decent, you know, exposure, and then, you know, we've got a, you know, got a big digital business, right, and I would say...

Alfred Liggins: You know, whether it's radio or television, and so you got to take that into account, you know, when you're, you know, figuring out what that M&A does to you from a deal. Delivering standpoint. So very comfortable with our Houston acquisition, you know, last year and I ended up with acquisition and radio. And so that's how we think about it, you know, you can, you know, expect us not to do anything. You know, that is, is contrary to that because that would be, you know, that'd be way too risky.

Speaker Change: Over half of the spend that's going to come from the DIMMs this year is going to be in digital.

Speaker Change: In comparison to others, other cycle, Peter, what was the big year that we had, you know? Yeah, we've had two, right?

Peter: The high water mark was... In 2020, we did...

Speaker Change: In radio alone, we did $18.8 million in 2020. So that was the biggest. And then in 22, we did about $13 million in radio.

Alfred Liggins: And we are again conscious of the fact that it's not just is something delivering day one, you know, is it going to continue to be delivering, you know, with, you know, with the downward, you know, trend, you know, from, from an industry standpoint, finding those deals is hard, but my sense is. They will come about because everybody's kind of got the same problem and we're substantially free cash flow positive today, the thing that reducing debt, particularly reducing debt at a discount does, and it also increases our free cash flow, right?

Speaker Change: So they were our two biggest.

Speaker Change: Yeah, and Peter, if you want to elaborate, yeah, well, I yeah, I mean, okay, I think I think you covered it. But yeah, there are there's there are it's not just the presidential race was the only point I was going to make. There's some race. Yeah, yeah. In the market in the markets you mentioned, you know, the North Carolina government race, the Maryland Senate and the Ohio Senate.

Speaker Change: and then some other issues, redistricting issues. So it's not all going to be presidential money, there are other things that we're participating in as well.

Speaker Change: Yeah, but obviously that change on the democratic side is going to help us in some of those markets that probably may not have been in play that now are, like Georgia and Pennsylvania, where we're well positioned.

Alfred Liggins: And so we don't really have a cash flow problem such that we have to hoard a bunch of cash and if we are looking for a deal that is substantially delivering, particularly at the levels that we're trying to get down to, let's say I think our leverage level, we just reported it was four point, four point every seven times, right? 437. So let's say we were looking for something that delivers us a ton, right?

Speaker Change: Just one follow-up, will you update as these bands come in?

Speaker Change: i'm sorry will we update is what comes in

Speaker Change: As you get buys, advertising buys. I mean, we'll give an update when we do our next earnings call, you know, just as we have here and it'll flow into whatever our guidance is.

Speaker Change: We'll give the market a view of what's going on.

Alfred Liggins: So it gets us down to 333. If the synergies are really there, and it does that, then that's probably in the strike zone is something that you can finance. So the point is, I don't think we have to hoard cash for an M&A situation, the kind of M&A that we're looking for should produce a financeable scenario in and of itself, and we can look at that cash to deliver and buy debt opportunistically. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. It does. Thank you, Alfred.

Speaker Change: as we report.

Speaker Change: Okay, thank you.

Speaker Change: Yep.

Speaker Change: We're going now to Ben Briggs from Stonex. Go ahead.

Speaker Change: Hi this is James Godwin on for Ben Briggs. Thank you guys for taking the questions. I was wondering can you provide any clarity on what the revenue and EBITDA impact of TV1 and Clio joining the Xfinity lineup will be?

Alfred Liggins: Okay, that's all my questions for now. Thank you guys so much. Yeah.

Marlene Pereira: Once again for additional questions, please press 1-0 at this time on your phone's keypad. Now we have a question now from Marlene Piero with BOA. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking the question. Hi Alfred, hi Peter. Hi. Hey, I just wanted to get a quick sanity check on free cash flow. Just kind of given the commentary, you've given this quarter versus last quarter. So I think it kind of worked out to roughly around $40 million, given some one-off related to PV1, cash taxes around 3 million.

Speaker Change: Actually, it's not the Xfinity lineup, it's, you know, it's

Speaker Change: It's.

Speaker Change: TV Now, which is their over-the-top

Speaker Change: Skinny Bundle. It's a $20 a month service.

Speaker Change: And it will be positive, although we just launched, I think, Jody, we just launched, you know, in August , right? Beginning of August ?

Jody: in July .

Speaker Change: we launched in july and and and it's a growing service so you know it's a small number of subs now that we think ultimately grow larger so it's it's a positive impact but it's not a hugely positive act to our numbers

Marlene Pereira: I think catbacks around 9 million. I just wanted to just sanity check if the ballpark and that my input are correct. Yeah, I think, look, Alfred guided towards the lower end of the guidance. So you probably need to take, if we were coming off of the midpoint, right, you'd probably take 5 million off of that number and be in the mid 30s. And then obviously the other comment he made at the top of the call is we don't know where political is going to come out.

Speaker Change: Awesome, thank you guys.

Speaker Change: Sure.

Speaker Change: we haveest the f

Speaker Change: For additional questions, please press 1 and 0.

Marlene Pereira: It feels good, right? It feels like the developments on the democratic side are going to be really helpful to us. So yeah, maybe there's some upside on that. To the downside, we're still going through all the remediation of the material. And there's going to be incremental effort there from a consultant's standpoint and also from an audit standpoint. So our old 2 million audit fee isn't coming back this year. So there's some incremental one time remediation and audit costs.

Speaker Change: And we have no more questions in queue.

Speaker Change: All right, thank you, everyone, and we look forward to talking with you next quarter, and as usual, we're available offline. Thank you very much.

Speaker Change: no

Speaker Change: Ladies and gentlemen, once again, a replay for this conference call will be available through midnight on August 15th. To access the replay from the U.S., dial 402-970-0847.

Marlene Pereira: So I think we're was somewhere in the 30s, depending on why political comes out. I would say. Yeah, on the other lever that's in there, I say the lever, the other thing that's in there is how much cash program and we spend versus what we're advertising. At the moment, we have a $10 million cash usage in the numbers that I just gave you. So if we can, if we end up saving some of that, then that would also boost free cash.

Speaker Change: use act of code one seven three three eight eight six national participants use before scotch that international callle used for zero two nine seven zero zero four seven domestic callllars use eight six six two zero seven one zero four one and again that access coes one seven seven or one seven three three

Speaker Change: 886, that does conclude your conference call for today, you may now disconnect.

Peter Thompson: Sorry if I might have missed this sooner, but have you disclosed if you've bought any bonds back? I'm sorry, Marlene, I couldn't hear the question. It's a bit saying. Sorry, I was just curious and apologies if I missed this, but have you, have there been any bonds repurchased post 3Q? No, the last ones we did were the 35 and I think Q2, we haven't done any more since then. Got it, thank you very much, so we'll have it.

Kevin Chapman: We have a question next from Kevin Chapman with PRV. Yes, hi, thank you. I would like you to expand if you can on the political advertising. I know you're very optimistic about it. Are you seeing interest going with both parties? And at historic levels, when you look at that, what you're seeing so far? The answer is, yes, we're seeing interest from both parties. However, you know, the ratio of what dims spend against our audience to what are suspend, you know, is, you know, is very, very, very wide.

Kevin Chapman: So, you know, an increase in interest from from the ours is, you know, is not a move the needle, right? You know, you know, but it's, you know, on a percentage wise off a low base, I think it's, you know, you know, a substantial increase. You know, I mean, but it's, you know, it still doesn't compare to, you know, what the dims spend between the campaigns and the packs and all that, because the primary audience that we have is obviously critical to, you know, democratic success.

Kevin Chapman: We also got some significant exposure in some key markets, you know, so we got a big Atlanta, you know, position Georgia, you know, has been our most robust political market, you know, over the last, you know, you know, two cycles. You know, we are in Charlotte and Raleigh, so North Carolina is in play. Pennsylvania's in play when in Philadelphia. And so, you know, we've got some decent, you know, exposure. And then, you know, we've got a, you know, we've got a big digital business, right?

Kevin Chapman: And I would say over half of the send that's going to come from the dims this year is going to be a digital. So, you know, you know, in comparison to others, other cycle, Peter, what was the big, what was the big year that we had, you know, yeah, we've had, we've had, we've had two, right? So, the high water mark was, you know, in 2020, we did in radio along, we did 18.8 million dollars in 2020.

Kevin Chapman: So, that was, that was the biggest. And then in 2022, we did about 13 million in radio. So, they were out two, out two biggest. Yeah, and Peter, you want to elaborate, you know, well, I, yeah, I mean, I think I think you covered it, but yeah, there are, there are, there are, it's not just the presidential race was the only point I was going to make. There was some race. Yeah, yeah.

Kevin Chapman: In the market, in the market, you mentioned, you know, the North Carolina government race, the Maryland Senate and the Ohio Senate. And then some other, you know, other issues redistricting issues. So, it's not all going to be presidential money. There are other things that we're participating in as well. Yeah, but, but obviously, that change on the, on the demographic side is going to help us in some of those markets that probably may not have been in play that now are like Georgia and Pennsylvania, where we're well I'm sorry, will we update as what comes in?

Kevin Chapman: As, as you get by, I mean, we'll give an update when we do our next earnings call, you know, just as we, as we have here, and it'll flow into whatever our guidance is. So, right, you know, our next, yeah, we'll, we'll give the market, you know, a view of, we always give a view on where we're pacing. And, and, you know, the last couple of years we're giving, you know, we've given guidance and, you know, we feel we'll have an obligation to continue to update that guidance, you know, as, as we report. Okay. Thank you. Yep. For additional questions, press one and zero. Right.

James Gobbin: We're going out of Ben Briggs from StoneX. Go ahead. Hi, this is James Gobbin on for Ben Briggs. Thank you guys for taking the questions. I was wondering, can you provide any clarity on what the revenue and keep it that impact TV1 and Cleo joining the extended E-line up? Actually, it's not the extended E-line up. It's, you know, It's TV now, which is there over the top skinny bundle. It's a $20 a month service.

James Gobbin: And it will be positive, although we just launched, I think, Jody. We just launched, you know, an August, right? Beginning August. We launched in July. And it's a growing service. So, you know, it's a small number of subs now that we think will ultimately grow larger. So, it's a positive impact, but it's not a hugely positive impact, you know, to our numbers. Awesome. Thank you. For additional questions, please press one than zero. We have no more questions in queue. All right.

Operator: Thank you, everyone. And we look forward to talking with you next quarter. And as usual, we're available offline. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, a replay for this conference call will be available through midnight on August 15th to access the replay from the U.S, now for zero two nine seven zero zero eight four seven. Use access code one seven three three eight six international participants use for scratch that international college use four zero two nine seven zero zero eight four seven.

Operator: Domestic college use eight six six two zero seven one zero four one. And again, that access code is one seven seven or one seven three three eight six. That doesn't include your conference call for today. You may not.

Q2 2024 Urban One Inc Earnings Call

Request a DemoDemo

UON

Urban One

Earnings