Urban One - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Urban One’s Q2 2025 was materially weaker year-over-year: revenue fell 22.2% to $91.6M, Adjusted EBITDA dropped ~52% to $14.0M, and GAAP net loss widened to $(77.9)M ($(1.74) basic EPS), driven by steep declines in Reach Media and Digital and a $130.1M non-cash impairment primarily to radio licenses.
• Management cut full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA guidance to $60.0M from $75.0M previously; Q3 core radio pacings are currently down 8.3% (-5.6% ex-political), with local pacing flat YoY, and cable affiliate revenue continues to decline with subscriber churn.
• Cable Television held up comparatively better (ad revenue -4.2% YoY; affiliate -11.7%), with segment Adj. EBITDA up YoY; company continued delevering via $64.0M of note repurchases at ~51.8% of par, reducing gross debt to ~$492.3M by mid-August.
• Key near-term stock catalysts: the guidance cut to $60M, ongoing national radio softness (DEI pullback, AI-driven media-buy shifts), and visibility into further cost actions by end-Q3; deleveraging progress and any stabilization in TV delivery/CTV revenue share could provide partial offsets.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Cable Television profitability resilience: segment Adjusted EBITDA rose to $18.1M vs $16.0M YoY; management noted full-year TV One margins are “flat essentially” off a diminished revenue base.
  • Continued debt reduction: repurchased $64.0M of 2028 notes at ~51.8% of par in Q2; gross debt approx. $492.3M by Aug 13, 2025; interest expense declined YoY to $9.7M.
  • Cost discipline: operating expenses ex-D&A, SBC, and impairments fell to ~$78.1M from ~$93.3M YoY; Radio opex down ~7.8%, Digital opex down ~8.4%, and TV opex down ~19.6% YoY.

• What Went Wrong

  • Reach Media and Digital underperformance: Reach revenue fell 71.9% YoY (timing of Tom Joyner cruise; client attrition, lower CPMs); Digital revenue -27.1% YoY (lower demand, reduced streaming CPMs; loss of exclusive audio streaming deal, ~$1.6M impact).
  • National radio pressure: core radio ads down 11.8% ex-digital; national ad sales -23.6% versus market -13.1%; management cited DEI pullback and AI planning tools omitting radio.
  • Large non-cash impairment: $130.1M Q2 impairment (mainly radio licenses), reflecting declining industry cash flows; useful life changed to finite with ~$1.3M quarterly amortization beginning June 1.

Transcript

Speaker 4

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Urban One 2025 second quarter earnings call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. We will begin this call with the following safe harbor statement. During this conference call, Urban One will be sharing with you certain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or its future performance. Urban One cautions you that certain factors, including risks and uncertainties referred to in the 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and other reports it periodically files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by its projections or forward-looking statements. This call will present information as of August 13, 2025. Please note that Urban One disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements made in the presentation.

In this call, Urban One may also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures in talking about its performance. These measures will be reconciled to GAAP either during the course of this call or in the company's press release, which can be found on its website at www.urbanone.com. A replay of the conference call will be available from 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time, August 13, 2025, until 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time, August 20, 2025. Callers may access the replay by calling 1-800-770-2030. International callers may dial direct 1-609-800-9909. The replay access code is 3660282. Access to live audio and a replay of the conference will also be available on Urban One's corporate website at www.urbanone.com. The replay will be made available on the website for seven days after the call. No other recordings or copies of this call are authorized or may be relied upon.

I will now turn the call over to Alfred C. Liggins, Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, who is joined by Peter Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Liggins, please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Thank you, operator. Also joining us is our General Counsel Chris Simpson, our Chief Administrative Officer Karen Wishart, and our TV One CFO Jody Drewer. The earnings release press release is out. Consistent with what's going on in the industry, it was a tough quarter. Albeit, when Peter gets into the numbers, there are some adjustments that need to be taken into account that don't make the picture as dire. One of those is a difference in the timing of our Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage, which was in Q2 last year but has been moved to Q4, and that's a big revenue number. Also, there's a non-cash adjustment to the TV One Award, which has a significant impact on the downdraft on the EBITDA line as well.

I think the big news is that we have revised our guidance for the year, given the headwinds that we're experiencing, down from the original $75 million, which we had at the beginning of the year, to a $60 million full-year number. We have not instituted a second round of cost cuts and right-sizing as of yet. That's something that we've done over the next 30 days and looked at instituted by the end of Q3. It takes a, that's Q4. We have seen a bit of moderation, as I think we said last quarter in our TV business. Actually, that's the business that is doing better than we originally had budgeted, but the radio and the digital business, and Reach Media in particular, are undergoing significant headwinds.

With that, I'm going to let Peter take you through the details, and then we'll open it up for Q&A and talk about the business in more detail.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Alfred. I'll just quickly run us through your numbers. Consolidated net revenue is approximately $91.6 million, down 22.2% year over year, for the three months ended June 30, 2025. Net revenue for the radio broadcast segment was $36.7 million, a decrease of 12.6% year over year. Excluding political, net revenue was down 10.3% year over year. According to Miller Kaplan, our local advertising sales were down 5.6% against a market that was down 11%. Our national ad sales were down 23.6% against a market that was down 13.1%. Our largest ad category was services, which was up 23.4%, driven by legal firms and legal services. Financial was also up 11.3%, and all of the other major categories were down. Net revenue for the Reach Media segment was $5.3 million in the second quarter, down 71.9% from the prior year.

For Reach Media, there was a loss of $1.7 million for the quarter. The Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage event, as Alfred said, was in the second quarter of 2024 and generated $9.6 million in revenue in Q2 last year. This year it is going to be held in Q4. You have a revenue and a profit timing difference there for the quarter. Aside from the absence of cruise revenue, client attrition and lower average unit rates drove the network advertising revenue decline. Net revenues for the digital segment were down 27.1% to $10.3 million. The decline was driven by the loss of an exclusive third-party audio streaming deal, which impacted us by $1.6 million of revenue. Direct and indirect digital sales were down by $1.2 million. It was a loss of $0.1 million compared to a profit of $2.7 million last year.

We recognized approximately $40.1 million of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 7.5%. Cable TV advertising revenue was down 4.2%. Total day delivery declined 12.5% for persons 25-54, which was offset by an increase in CTV and third-party platform revenue share. Cable TV affiliate revenue was down 11.7%, driven by subscriber churn, which was partially offset by an increase in subscriber rate and the launch of Now TV. Cable subscribers for TV One, as measured by Nielsen, finished the second quarter at 34.3 million, compared to 35.6 million at the end of Q1. CLEO TV had 33.7 million Nielsen subscribers. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, and impairments of goodwill and intangible assets, decreased to approximately $78.1 million for the quarter, a decrease of 16.3% from the prior year.

The overall decrease in operating expenses was primarily due to the absence of the Reach cruise event, which had $8.4 million of expenses in the second quarter of last year. Other notable expense decreases include corporate professional fees, overall payroll expenses, and cable TV advertising expense. A non-cash credit of $6.2 million was included in the prior year expenses for the reduction in the value of the CEO's TV One Award. That compares to a charge of $0.7 million, which was included in this year's second quarter total. That caused an unfavorable variance of $6.9 million year over year, which was non-cash. Normalizing for this, adjusted EBITDA was down $8 million year over year. Further adjusting for the timing of the Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage, EBITDA was down approximately $7 million year over year.

Radio operating expenses were down 7.8% or $2.5 million, driven by lower employee compensation and fewer station event expenses. Reach operating expenses were down by 55% due to the absence of a cruise event. Operating expenses in the digital segment were down 8.4%, driven by lower employee compensation. Operating expenses in the cable TV segment were down 19.6% year over year, driven by lower programming content amortization, lower marketing campaign expenses, and lower employee compensation expense. Operating expenses in corporate were up by approximately $2.1 million. Third-party professional fees were significantly down from last year. However, the non-cash compensation related to the TV One Award that I just mentioned increased by $6.9 million. Hence, the overall corporate expense was up. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $14 million for the second quarter, down 51.7%. Consolidated broadcast and digital operating income was approximately $25.7 million, a decrease of 25% year over year.

Interest and investment income was approximately $0.6 million in the second quarter compared to $1.8 million last year. The decrease was due to lower cash balances and interest-bearing investment accounts. Interest expense decreased to approximately $9.7 million in Q2, down from $12.4 million last year, due to lower overall debt balances as a result of the company's debt reduction efforts. The company made cash interest payments of approximately $0.8 million in the quarter. During the quarter, the company repurchased $64 million of its 2028 notes at an average price of 51.8% of par, bringing the balance to $492.3 million as of June 30, 2025. We recorded $130.1 million in non-cash impairments in Q2 against the carrying value of the FCC licenses in all of our markets, with the exception of Baltimore, and goodwill impairment for certain reporting units in the radio broadcasting segment and the digital segment.

Due to the decline in the forecast cash flows in Q2, it continued to decline in the radio industry generally. The company prospectively changed the useful life of the FCC licenses from indefinite lived to finite lived intangible assets, effective June 1, 2025. We recorded amortization expense of approximately $1.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025. Benefit from income taxes was approximately $21.4 million. The company paid cash income taxes net of refunds in the amount of $0.2 million. Capital expenditures were approximately $1.2 million for the quarter. Net loss was approximately $77.9 million or $1.74 per share, compared to a net loss of $45.4 million or $0.94 per share for the second quarter of 2024.

During the three months ended June 30, 2025, the company repurchased 226,041 shares of Class A common stock in the amount of approximately $369,000, at an average price of $1.63 per share. We repurchased 200,549 shares of Class D common stock in the amount of approximately $117,000 at an average price of $0.59 per share. As of June 30, 2025, total gross debt was approximately $492.3 million. Our ending unrestricted cash was $85.7 million, resulting in net debt of approximately $406.6 million, which compares to $79.1 million of LTM reported adjusted EBITDA for a total net leverage ratio of 5.14 times. With that, I'll hand it back to Alfred.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Peter. Operator, could you open it up for Q&A, please?

Speaker 4

We will now begin the question and answer session. In order to ask a question, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one for any questions. Our first question will come from the line of Ben Briggs with StoneX Financial Inc. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Good morning, guys. Thank you for holding the call and for taking the questions.

Speaker 3

Sure.

Speaker 5

Yep. A couple of quick ones from me here. First of all, I'm looking at the margins here in your cable TV segment, and I'm noticing that the EBITDA margins have grown a bit. Am I right to infer that those are from this first round of cost-cutting initiatives? Is it?

Speaker 3

No, I think the timing. Yeah. Do you want to speak to it, Jody?

Speaker 2

It's just a timing issue. We did get some savings on programming. That'll be revealed this year, but the timing of our marketing campaign this year versus last year is what's giving you the positive blip.

Speaker 5

Gotcha. Understood. You know, after the second round of cost cuts, I know you mentioned that they're going to happen kind of by the end of the third quarter. Expect to see them flow through results in the fourth quarter. Can you give any granularity on what we should expect to see and how we should expect to see those cost cuts flow through the financials?

Speaker 3

Not yet. We haven't tapped it. We've started the process, but we're not finished. That's the reason they haven't taken effect. I don't suspect it's going to dramatically change the current guide. I think you'll see the majority of the impact come through for 2026. I don't have that answer for you just yet. Since we've talked about it on the call last quarter, I wanted to point out that we haven't gotten there yet. We wanted to go ahead and get the guide out there, sort of irrespective of what that cost cut was going to bring. I mean, could it bring $1 million or $2 million in the quarter? Maybe, we'll find out. We just haven't tabulated yet. It's not going to take it to $70 million.

Speaker 2

Right. Okay. Got it. All right. Go ahead. Sorry. Ben, just circling back on the TV One margins, I'm looking at the full-year projections, and the margins are, yeah, flat, essentially. We're holding margins pretty well off of, obviously, a diminished revenue base, but the margins are not, margins are flat. It's a good effort.

Speaker 3

Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. The next thing, and maybe the last thing from me, is obviously those $64 million of debt buybacks during the second quarter. How are you guys thinking about debt buybacks? Obviously, your bonds are trading a little up. They're closer to 60 now than I think they were when you were buying them. Are you guys planning on continuing those debt buybacks or maybe a pause now that the debt is rallying?

Speaker 5

Yeah. I think that our focus continues to be debt reduction and expense management. Whether or not we're going to be back opportunistically buying debt at this level remains to be seen. One of the reasons why we wanted to get our numbers out there is so the market can have a realistic view of where we're going to be this year. We'll still see how it all plays out. The vast, vast, vast majority of our cash is continued to be focused on our delivery. I don't have an answer to what we're going to do this afternoon or tomorrow in terms of debt buybacks, but our priority has not changed.

Speaker 3

Understood. I appreciate that. That'll be all from me. I'll hand it over to others. Thank you again for the call.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Speaker 4

Once again, for any questions, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question will come from the line of Ken Silver with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Hey, guys. Thank you for the time. Can you guys hear me?

Speaker 3

Yes, we can.

Speaker 0

Okay. Sorry about that. There's an echo on my end. Just a few questions. You sort of just addressed this with the last caller, but your sales and marketing expenses on a consolidated basis were down a lot year over year in the second quarter. Is that like the new normal, or are they going to, like I think you kind of, are they going to reverse a lot in the second half of the year?

Speaker 2

There is a timing difference that Jody just mentioned for TV One, so that there's some element of reversal there. I mean, we're just obviously tightening our belts across everything we can. I don't think there's going to be a major rebound on those.

Speaker 0

Okay. If you're tightening sales and marketing a fair amount, is it, are you seeing any sort of unintended consequences negatively from top line, or do you feel like that hasn't affected you?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, it's almost the other way around. It's like the sales commission, because.

Speaker 5

Yeah, exactly. It's variable, right? We have not gone in and taken out, you know, salespeople in our cost effort. That's not, you know, and in fact, if anything, in markets like Washington, DC, where we're looking to deep up, right? We're not, you know, sales is not an area where we're looking to take out a bunch of costs, right? Now it's really kind of, we actually need to be reorienting our efforts in the radio business to actually increase our digital, our local digital revenue generation. I think that that cost reduction in that area has got to be largely related to just the revenue being down, right? You know, okay.

Speaker 0

Yeah, I get it. I understand. I thought it was something marketing expenditure too. I got it. No, I understand. Okay. Peter, I think I heard you say that national radio was down 22% in the quarter versus like a market down 11%. Is that right? If that's right, can you maybe just talk about that a little more?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Nationally, we were down 23.6% against a market that was down 31%. We've been struggling nationally with big clients and big agencies. There's some.

Speaker 5

Yeah. We got a couple of things happen. One, you got the natural pressure, you know, secular pressure on our businesses, cable television, broadcast radio, and national radio. You also have the pullback in DEI dollars, which have absolutely, you know, hurt our performance. It's a combination, you know, of those things.

Speaker 2

We're also hearing about AI, you know, AI-related, excluding radio altogether.

Speaker 5

Yeah. These large language models that people are now using to do marketing campaigns are not, you know, they're omitting broadcast radio as part of it. We got to figure out what the solution is for that. Again, that's more of the digital transformation that puts pressure on us.

Speaker 0

Got it. Okay, great. Lastly, on your asset-based lending facility, I think it was undrawn, but is it fully available? Are there covenants? Can you just remind us?

Speaker 2

Yeah. No, it's fully available to be drawn. There's a maintenance covenant, you know, a fixed charge ratio covenant, which we're in compliance with. If we needed to draw on it, we could.

Speaker 0

What is the covenant?

Speaker 2

I think it's one point, I think it's one ratio, and we're at one point. I don't know off the top of my head. We got significant headroom on that, and it's just fixed charge.

Speaker 0

Okay. Great. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. That's it.

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from the line of Marlene Pereira with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. I was wondering if at a very high level, you can just let us know how you're thinking about free cash flow for the remainder of the year and for the full year. Obviously, given the reduction in the EBITDA, there should be some cost-saving elements in the second half of the year, although I know that still could be determined. Also, has there been any tax benefits? Sorry if I had missed that, but just if you can provide some context, that would be great.

Speaker 2

Sorry, what was the last bit?

Speaker 5

Tax benefit?

Speaker 1

From the new legislation.

Speaker 2

What new legislation?

Speaker 1

I was wondering if there's any interest or benefit from the Big Beautiful Bill.

Speaker 5

Oh, I don't. Yeah.

Speaker 2

No, nothing that's impacting me.

Speaker 1

Nothing on the interest side? Okay.

Speaker 2

No, look, we're projecting at the moment, if we don't do any more debt buybacks, we're projecting about a $95 million cash balance a year, right?

Speaker 5

Nine-five?

Speaker 2

Nine-five. Obviously, even with the lower EBITDA, we think we're going to generate something, we're going to generate some additional cash in the back pocket. Was there a third part to the question? I went to.

Speaker 1

Nope. That was it. Just, you know, any context on the moving parts, but that's helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 4

That will conclude our question and answer session. I'll hand the call back over to Alfred Liggins for any closing comments.

Speaker 5

Great. Thank you, operator. Thank you, everybody, for joining the call. As usual, we're available offline for any additional questions that you may not have had a chance to ask. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Thank you, operator.

Speaker 4

Thank you. This will conclude today's call. You may now disconnect.