We haven’t heard that often, if at all, from Pandora executives. Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said topline revenue was slightly below expectations in Q2 due to softness in national advertising in the entertainment and telco sectors.
The pure-play streamer took in $343.0 million in the quarter, but when you back out revenue from TicketFly, which the company did not own a year ago, revenue was $320.3 million, which is still an increase of 12% over Q2 2015.
Advertising revenue increased 15% in the quarter to $265.1 million and local advertising revenue accounted for 28% of total advertising revenue in Q2. Second quarter subscription and other revenue was $55.1 million, an increase of 1%. And paid subscribers increased 23,000 to 3.9 million, an increase of 1% year‐over‐year. CFO Mike Herring noted that, while revenue was slightly lower than expectations, “we were able to make up the shortfall through expense controls.”
The company also lowered revenue expectations for the year. Due to softness in national advertising in the second quarter and uncertainty around political ad spending, Pandora has lowered its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $1.385 billion to $1.405 billion. Back on April 28, Pandora raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $1.41 billion and $1.43 billion, up from $1.40 billion to $1.42 billion.
