With podcasting remaining the company’s strongest growth segment, iHeartMedia is seeking to “reignite growth” in the broadcast division, per CEO Bob Pittman, who was particularly impassioned about the power of AM/FM on Monday’s Q3 2025 earnings call.
Pittman spent significant time during the analyst Q&A discussing radio’s comparative advertising performance, positioning AM/FM as a cost-efficient and high-ROI complement to digital and social platforms. “Radio’s got a little bit of a renaissance here,” Pittman said. He described the company’s continued work to remove friction for media buyers, noting that most agencies still operate within “one platform and one screen of digital,” leaving radio as a separate, manual purchase.
“We think it’s a structural issue,” Pittman added. “And we’ve invested heavily in fixing that structural issue.”
iHeart’s third-quarter revenue totaled $997 million, down 1.1% from $1.01 billion a year earlier. While daily operating expenses declined in several categories, a large non-recurring impairment charge pushed total expenses to $1.11 billion and erased operating profits. The $208.5 million impairment, compared to just $412,000 a year ago, accounted for more than 20% of total revenue and shifted the company from a $76.7 million operating profit in Q3 2024 to a $116.3 million operating loss this year.
iHeart ultimately reported a net loss of $65.8 million for the quarter, widening from $41.3 million in the prior year.
Podcasting remained the company’s strongest segment, growing 23% year to date and posting consistent sequential gains. Management called its forecast of mid-teen percentage growth conservative, given the higher revenue base, adding that absolute dollar growth remains solid. Pittman credited the continued rise in audience size and engagement. “More people are listening to podcasts today than ever, and the people who are listening are listening to more episodes than ever,” he said.
iHeart reported that about half of its podcast ad revenue now comes from local markets, up sharply from 10% four years ago.
Cost reductions remain central to the company’s strategy. iHeart continues to implement aggressive savings measures that began in 2024, including multiple waves of layoffs in its Multiplatform Group. Sales, marketing, and support account for 55% of the reductions, followed by programming and content at 30%, with the rest spread across product, tech, and administration. By function, 65% of total savings stem from headcount reductions, 20% from lower cost of sales, and 10% each from vendor and occupancy cuts.
President, COO, and CFO Rich Bressler said the new $50 million cost-cutting program will take full effect at the start of 2026, following the cadence of last year’s $150 million plan. “Yes, it is a full run rate beginning of the year action,” Bressler told analysts. “We’re taking advantage of all technology, AI, and other investments to bring more down to the bottom line.” He said the program will phase in gradually, with smaller impacts in Q1 before leveling out through the remainder of the year.
Pittman said the company’s Digital Audio Group generated $342 million in Q3 revenue, up 13.5% from last year. “In Q3, approximately 50% of our podcasting revenue was generated by our local sales force, up from about 11% in Q3 of 2020, demonstrating the unique advantage of having what we believe is the largest local sales force in media with a presence across 160 markets,” he said.
For the Multiplatform Group, which includes iHeart’s more than 860 terrestrial radio stations, iHeart reported revenue of $591 million, down 4.6% year over year, or 2.5% excluding political advertising.
The company reported capturing 41% of total revenue across Miller Kaplan’s measured US radio markets.
Bressler said the company’s diversified advertiser base continues to stabilize results. “There is no advertising category greater than about 5% of our total advertising revenue and no individual advertiser that is more than about 2%,” he said. Top ad categories for Q3 included healthcare, home improvement, financial services, auto, and entertainment, while telecom and political advertising saw the steepest declines.
