With executive restructuring, digital expansion, and entry into the Texas market, perhaps Spanish Broadcasting System Chairman and CEO Raúl Alarcón summed it up best when he called 2024 “very much a watershed year” for the Hispanic-focused broadcaster.
Speaking during the company’s annual financial presentation, Alarcón emphasized that Q4 was a “pretty accurate reflection of the corresponding year.” He said the company’s top priority was restoring EBITDA growth: “We began this process by fine-tuning, retooling and reinvigorating our live and local radio brands… by undertaking new talent rollouts in a majority of our markets and staying on the cutting edge of whatever is trending.”
Q4 saw SBS’ net revenue improve by 3% to $45.55 million, from $44.35 million. At the same time, operating expenses were slashed by 15%, to $25.13 million, from $29.66 million. The result was a net income bump to $3.08 million, rising from $2.98 million.
One move that Alarcón could not say enough about was the successful rollout of Raúl Brindis on newly acquired La Ley 92.1 (KROI) in Houston, even despite an act of sabotage. “Suffice it to say that the station is now ranked number one among all Hispanic competitors in Morning Drive and number two overall in Houston, irrespective of language or format,” said Alarcón. Since its debut, the show has attracted over 225,000 new unique streaming users with an average time spent of 75 minutes.
Alarcón also spotlighted the company’s “David Initiative,” referring to SBS’s real-time audiovisual expansion of radio content across its LaMusica app and YouTube channels, alongside a soon-to-be-announced Connected TV distribution partnership. “We believe this transformation of SBS into an audiovisual exhibitor of the most compelling Hispanic content… holds the key to the future of the company as a global content creator and distributor.”
Live event performance remained strong, and SBS continued to build its concert business with top Latin artists and brand sponsors. Alarcón underscored that these advances in content, streaming, and events were accomplished without sacrificing audience or revenue.
Looking ahead, he said SBS would “continue to innovate, create, regulate and propagate our company’s assets in order to best serve our audiences as well as our brand partners and our diverse constituency of stakeholders.”
