Revealing its Q3 2023 earnings on Thursday morning, iHeartMedia, the largest owner of AM/FM stations in the US leaned into digital audio revenue, particularly in podcasting. The company reported a revenue of $952.99 million, a decrease of 3.6% from Q3 2022.
With the majority of iHeartMedia’s revenue coming from its Multiplatform Group, CEO Bob Pittman of iHeartMedia reported how adjusted EBITDA fell by 19.2% to $203.78 million, and operating income was $69 million, a significant improvement from the previous year’s operating loss of $211 million. This improvement helped iHeartMedia reduce its net loss to $9.05 million.
A notable contributor to this was the $45.3 million from the sale of 122 tower sites.
As mentioned, podcasting continues to be a robust growth area for iHeart, with revenue increasing to $102.7 million from $91.3 million. The Digital Audio Group saw a 5.2% increase in revenue.
For the fourth quarter, iHeartMedia expects a high-single digit decline in consolidated revenue and a low-single digit decline excluding political influences. October 2023 revenue was down by 8%, with significant declines expected in the Multiplatform Group and Audio Media Services Group, largely due to the cyclical nature of political advertising.
For Pitchman ONLY losing 9 mil in a quarter is a huge WIN!