Pandemic Leads To Second Quarter Revenue, Income Declines At iHeartMedia

Q2 Down

iHEARTMEDIA second quarter 2020 revenue fell 46.6% year-to-year to $488 million (down 47.1% excluding political revenue), another victim of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company says that it has seen improvement each month since the APRIL low point and saw podcasting revenue double from last year.

Broadcast revenue declined 56.5% to $244 million, and Networks division revenue fell 38.4% to $96 million, but digital revenue rose 2.4% to $93 million, boosted by a 102.7% increase in podcasting revenue. Meanwhile, the Sponsorship and Events segment declined 65% to $15 million and the Audio & Media Services segment dropped 32.9% to $39 million. Adjusted EBITDA dipped from $263 million to negative $29 million.

Pay cuts and furloughs contributed to a reduction in direct operating expenses to 15.9%, a 19% reduction in general and administrative expenses, and a 36.1% drop in corporate expenses. Cash flow increased from negative $61 million to positive $11.4 million, and the company's net income fell from a gain of $38.8 million to a loss of $197.3 million.

“The challenges that we have faced due to COVID-19 were unprecedented and had a severe, negative impact on our revenue in the second quarter,” said Chairman/CEO BOB PITTMAN. “Despite those financial challenges, we retained our strong relationship with the consumer as the #1 audio company in AMERICA and the #1 media company in AMERICA by reach. As the advertising marketplace is recovering, we are working hard to ensure that we have the products and services to fully capitalize on the opportunity while proactively taking steps to fortify our balance sheet and our liquidity. Finally, I want to thank our employees for their commitment and creativity under such difficult and challenging circumstances.”

“In response to COVID-driven market weakness, we acted rapidly and decisively to further streamline our cost structure and capital-spending programs, while continuing to implement pre-COVID cost savings programs through our modernization initiatives,” said Pres./COO/CFO RICH BRESSLER. “These actions played an important role in minimizing the negative impact on our free cash flow results against the backdrop of the significant revenue declines we saw in the second quarter. We believe that these actions, in combination with our proactive capital structure management provides the Company with sufficient liquidity to operate effectively even in an extended period of economic weakness.”

The company had $517.7 million of cash on its balance sheet as of JUNE 30th and had about $5.8 billion of total debt and $5.3 billion of net debt, with no material debt maturities before 2023; combining cash and borrowing power, the company's total available liquidity stood at about $868 million.

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