Again, this comes as no surprise with the government mandated shutdown of the national economy earlier this year. Entercom’s Q2 revenue was down 54% with April being the bottom.
Excluding the impact of canceled sports play by play, which the company is a major player in, Entercom’s Q2 revenue decline was only 37%. Digital revenue, including podcasting were up double-digits and Entercom’s Audio Network posted positive growth.
Entercom’s core spot revenues, local plus national, were down about 65% for the quarter. Events, which usually accounts for about 3% of Entercom’s second quarter revenue, was down close to 100%. Digital revenue, including podcasting accounted for 24% of Entercom’s total revenues in the quarter, and that was up 19% year-over-year.
Entercom was able to cut expenses by $97 million and more cuts are being looked at to help offset the revenue pounding the company took due to the coronavirus crisis.
Things are starting to look better as Entercom, and every other broadcaster looks to climb out of this deep revenue ditch. CEO David Field says third quarter revenues are $60 million stronger than Q2. “In other words we currently have $235 million of business on the books for the third quarter versus the $175 million when we finished second quarter. The vast majority of the improvement in the third quarter is from our core local and national spot business. We would expect to build on that number over the remaining two months of the quarter.”
According to CFO Rich Schmaeling, third quarter is pacing down in the low 30’s. July came in down 36%. August is pacing down low 30’s and September is pacing down mid 20’s.
Field also expects record political spending as we get closer to the election. The company is hoping to bank about $7 million in political in the third quarter, that’s $5 million more than Q3 of 2019.
