That’s what CFO Richard Bressler reported Thursday on iHeart’s Q2 earnings call. iHeartMedia revenue was up 1.9% to $884.4 million compared to $867.9 million in Q2 of 2016. The increase was due to higher national revenue, more programmatic buying, and an increase in trade and barter. Local revenue was down. Bressler said Q3 is pacing down 1.6% at this moment in time. iHeart faces $11 million in political comps from the third quarter of 2016.
On the debt side, as the company continues to try to refinance, that big number has pretty much remained the same. As of June 30, the company still has $20.3 billion in debt. As far as debt maturities go, iHeart has $317.6 million due this year, $324 million due next year and $8.4 billion due in 2019. Through the first six months of the year, iHeart paid $876 million in interest payments and the company expects to pay a total of $1.8 billion in interest payments in 2017.
During the earnings call, one analyst heaped praise on the company for continuing to invest in new and innovative products and services despite a somewhat soft advertising environment. And Bressler stated the company would continue to do that. And a lot of that investment has to do with digital.
As advertisers migrate more and more to digital the management team at iHeart understands the importance of being there for advertisers in addition to being wherever consumers want to listen. Bressler said, “It’s critical we are there to compete with other digital companies.” Advertisers want the ability to target their ads and they want the ability to buy and plan at much greater scale. Bressler says iHeart is investing in the future so advertisers can deliver highly optimized plans and take advantage of all of iHeartMedia’s inventory and radio stations.
And while Bressler said the company would continue to invest he also said the company will continue to actively manage costs.
A little more than 16 million a quarter. 65 million a year. WITHOUT interest and sustainable growth, they can pay their debt off in less than 25 years if they don’t expect a profit.