Q2 2025 comScore Inc Earnings Call

Good day, and thank you for standing by.

Welcome to the come score, second quarter, 2025 Financial results conference call.

At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.

To ask a question during the session. You need to press Start 1. 1 of your telephone you would then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.

To withdraw your question. Please press star, 1 1 again, please be advised. That today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first Speaker today, John Tinker head of investor relations. Please go ahead

Thank you, operator. Before we begin our prepared remarks. I'd like to remind all of you that the following discussion contains forward-looking statements

Fifth 2025.

Our actual results in future periods. May differ materially from those currently expected, because of a number of risks and uncertainties these risks and uncertainties. Include those outlined in our 10 K, 10 q and other filings with the SEC, which you can find on our website or at www.sec.gov.

We disclaim any QD or obligation to update our forward-looking statements, reflect any new information after today's call, we'll be discussing non-gaap measures during this call, which we have provided with reconciliations in today's press release. And on our website, please note, that we will be referring to slides on this call which are also available on our website www.comscore.com under investor relations events and presentations.

I'll now turn the call over to comscore to Chief Executive Officer, John Carpenter John.

Thanks everyone for joining us this evening.

With 4% year-over-year Revenue growth alongside 25% adjusted ebit. Dog, growth. We delivered a solid print in the second quarter on both the top and bottom line driven by accelerated growth across our cross-platform Solutions. Along with another quarter of double digit growth in our local TV offerings.

With 60% growth in cross-platform, I remain encouraged by our efforts to build and bring to market best-in-class products. That demonstrate comp course cross-platform measurement. Suite of capabilities products that are bullied by the audience scale that this company has across digital video.

Traditional TV and social.

Additionally comscore continues to establish itself itself as the gold standard for local audience measurement.

The go-to for both traditional and New Media clients here in the US.

Currently, we Remain the only TV measurement offering available to the market. That is both an accredited product by the MRC and that has been certified by the US, jick 2, independent bodies comprised of our media clients.

In the quarter, I'm also pleased to report that we're able to deliver.

Able to expand on our long-standing partnership with Google.

And deliver on a project earlier than we had anticipated, which from a timing perspective benefited Us in the quarter.

Our ability to deliver on projects, like this ahead of schedule. Highlights our progress and becoming a more agile and efficient organization.

At the beginning of the year, we laid out what I was going to take for us to drive growth execution across platform, coupled with a Relentless focus on driving currency, adoption.

And through the first half of the year, I'm proud of the progress that has been made.

Cross-platform growth through the midpoint of the year has been 40% driven by solid progress and proximity. Our cross-platform audience activation offering as well as great early adoption of our cross-platform content offerings, CCM.

In addition with MRC accreditation of our TV offering at both the local and National level coupled with an additional jig certification of our demos. Our comscore TV, currency product, delivers more accurate, stable and consistent TV measurement that our clients can count on

As we pivoted to the second half of the year, we've continued to sharpen our focus and our goals remain clear.

And we believe that the next era of measurement will be defined by comp scores ability to unlock our full stack of cross-platform measurement capabilities.

Breaking down the silos that act as a tax placed on today's market by a past that continues to hold on to old ways of doing things.

That's why we're so excited about Contour content measurement, a product we just launched in January.

Contour content measurement exists to answer questions about audience, Behavior, holistically, and across platforms. Tied to the content being consumed.

Whether it's a show being watched on traditional TV or the ability to reach an audience streaming a piece of content or engaging with an influencer on a social media platform through a mobile device. CCM is built for clients to plan and reach their desired audiences regardless of the platform.

The early adoption has been exciting and we continue to iterate. We've listened to client feedback and our product road map has us delivering against the number of the most important features by year end. Well, ahead of initial plans.

I'm encouraged by the momentum, we've seen, and I look forward to updating everyone on the progress. We make here down the stretch.

With that, let me turn it over to Mary Margaret for more details on our financial results. In the quarter. Mary Margaret.

Thank you, John.

.8 million the same quarter a year ago.

content and AD measurement revenue of 76.8 million was up 6.3% from the prior year, quarter driven by growth in our cross-platform and local TV offering

Cross-platform revenue of 12.8 million was up 60% compared to the prior year, driven by higher usage of our proxim and comscore campaign ratings Solutions, as well as the adoption of comscore content measurement, which launched at the beginning of the year.

Syndicated audience, revenue of 64 million was flat. Compared to the prior year quarter with the declines. We've seen in our national TV and syndicated digital products fully offset in Q2 by growth from our other syndicated offerings, including double-digit growth and local TV from higher renewals and new business.

Our movies business also remains strong generating, 9.6 million of Revenue in the second quarter up 3.6% from the prior year.

Research and insight Solutions, revenue of 12.6 million was down 7.4% from Q2 of 2024, in line with our expectations.

Primarily due to lower renewals and the timing of deliveries for certain custom digital products.

Adjusted even up for the second quarter was 8.9 million up. 24.5% from the prior year quarter resulting in an adjusted ebit margin of 10%.

The year-over-year increase in adjusted Eva out was largely driven by Revenue growth from our cross platform products, which as previously mentioned are expected to generate higher margins.

While we remain disciplined in our cost execution, our core operating expenses increase in the second quarter, primarily due to higher employee compensation approvals and an increase in cloud computing costs related to work. We're doing for a large Enterprise platform client.

we also continue to transform how we operate and invest in new products and capabilities which include enhancements to existing products upgrades to our Tech data, providing faster data, delivery and increasing interoperability as we continue to roll out key Integrations,

Based on current trends and expectations, we're maintaining the revenue guidance. We gave on our last earnings call with Revenue expected to be in the low end of our range of 360 to 370 million.

We remain encouraged by the growth in our cross-platform and local TV offerings and believe our guidance, reflects, the reflects a balanced view of what we expect to see in the back half of the year.

We currently expect Revenue in the third quarter to be roughly flat compared to the prior year quarter, which accounts for the shift in Revenue related to the goo Google contract that John mentioned earlier.

We are also maintaining our adjustable guidance for the full year with an anticipated margin of 12 to 15%.

Thanks very much before we open it up for questions. Uh, a quick update, uh, in that our boards on our boards ongoing strategic review, we hired golden staff. Goldman Sachs has been retained to advise on strategic and capital structural alternatives for the company that should benefit our shareholders.

We expect to be able to provide our shareholders with an update on this engagement and any potential outcomes on or before our next earnings call.

With that. Let's go ahead and open it up for questions, operator.

Thank you. At this time. We will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star 1, 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced to withdraw your question. Please, press star, 1 1 1, again please stand by. While I compare the Q&A roster.

Our first question comes from Jason Kerr. From Craig Holland.

Capital group, please go ahead.

Thank you. Uh, this is Cal on for Jason and congratulations on the quarter, uh, maybe just to start on the cross content, measurement product. Uh, you know, you noted in the slide deck, substantial client, demand some positive feedback. You know, this is a newer product that we haven't really heard much about. So just curious if you can talk more about what you're seeing early on and and the longer term opportunities, you see in this product,

Hey Cal. Uh, thanks for the question.

uh, as, as we as we talked about in the, in the prepared remarks, um, our cross-platform content measurement product really brings together a

A holistic view of of audiences across platform.

Content and audiences, uh, that allows both the the buy side and the sell side of media to plan and act, um, on a, on a complete cross cross-platform view of the world. And I think as we look at, who's, who's engaged, I mean, given given the product's capability. Um,

And, and the scope of the product. It's, it's not surprising to us that we're seeing strong interest here from broadcasters to streamers, to advertisers, to, to agencies and, and, and platforms. So we're, we're really encouraged by the the strong response we've received here in the early Innings of, uh, the products, uh, products development.

Great. And then, just as a follow-up, you know, it seems like this is another strong quarter for proximity, so just kind of curious where you guys continue to gain traction, you know. Is this more with Partners or is this more of an organic direct? Go to market strategy? That's resonating in the market.

Yeah, the vast majority of the business continues to scale with the the partner set that we have across the programmatic ecosystem. The team's done a really nice job of of engaging, uh, with our with our partners, um, in in that space. But also the efforts in the second quarter here around direct selling, um, really working closely with our agency partners and and their brand clients to, to, to, to Really help Drive. Uh, demand of the, the cross-platform, activation product, that that continues to scale really nicely

So we've been pleased with, with a combination of both, the efforts of the team to direct sell against Brands and agencies, as well as the momentum that we're seeing across. Uh, some of the biggest programmatic platforms.

Great. Appreciate the details.

I am showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn it back over to CEO, John Carpenter for final remarks.

Okay, great. Uh, thanks everyone again, uh, let me just take a moment here to recognize our employees and, and thank everyone for their hard work here to help us. Uh, really deliver a strong quarter. Uh, and and continuously help us stay in and day out deliver for our clients. And then further, uh, would like to thank our investors uh, as well as our, our clients for uh your continued trust and and support and Partnerships. So, thanks everybody for joining us this evening and we'll look forward to talking to everybody soon.

Thank you for your participation. In today's conference, this does conclude the program. You may now disconnect