iHeartMedia has announced its fourth-quarter earnings from 2023, which shows a slight drop in total revenue for the calendar year.
In the fourth quarter, the company saw $1.067 billion in revenue, down 5.2% year-over-year.
For the entire year, iHeartMedia saw revenue of $3.751 billion, which was down 4% overall. That drop was slightly better than the guidance range that predicted drops of high single digits, though.
In the political sector, the company was off by a 2% drop. However, digital audio revenue rose 5%, with podcast revenue rising 14% year-over-year.
“We’re pleased to report that our fourth quarter results were in line with our previously provided Adjusted EBITDA and Revenue guidance ranges,” said Bob Pittman, iHeartMedia’s Chairman and CEO, in a statement.
“This quarter the Digital Audio Group achieved the highest Adjusted EBITDA and margin in its history, illustrating the success of this high-growth business. We view 2024 as a recovery year in which the company returns to growth mode — we expect to see our Multiplatform Group performance improve quarter by quarter throughout the year, and we expect our Digital Audio Group, including our industry-leading podcast business, to continue to grow and reinforce its leadership position in the segment.”
“We continue to see signs of improvement throughout our business and the broader advertising marketplace. Our results this quarter are a strong indication that the reallocation of resources towards our high-growth Digital Audio Group has been successful – through our relentless focus on efficiencies we have reduced our Multiplatform Group expenses by approximately 7% since 2019, which has in part enabled us to build a Digital business that generated $1 billion of revenue in 2023 with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 33%,” added Rich Bressler, iHeartMedia’s President, COO and CFO.
“We expect to see a significant year-over-year improvement in our 2024 financial performance, supported by our ongoing efficiency efforts and what is anticipated to be a record-setting political advertising year.”
