iHeartMedia’s business has been in steady decline since the beginning of 2023 but showed signs of improvement in the second quarter. Total revenue rose 1% to $929 million, slightly above the company’s guidance, but was up just 0.1% excluding the impact of political advertising.
A spike in expenses — namely operating and selling, general and administrative — contributed to a 21% decline in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). “We’re seeing sequential improvement in our revenue growth,” CEO Bob Pittman said during the earnings call on Thursday (Aug. 8).
“While the marketplace continues to be dynamic — with a changing outlook on interest rates, inflation trends, global uncertainty and rapidly evolving domestic political landscape — we continue to see strong momentum in our podcast business, our digital ex-podcast business and the sequential improvement of our multi-platform groups’ year over year revenue performance.” iHeartMedia’s digital audio segment contributed to the company’s revenue uptick. Podcast revenue improved 8.
1% to $104.5 million, well below the previous quarter’s growth rates, while digital revenue excluding podcasts rose 10.3% to $181 million.
Overall, digital audio revenue climbed 9.5% to $285.6 million.
The multi-platform segment fell 3.4% to $575.9 million.
Broadcast radio, the company’s largest single source of revenue, declined 0.9% to $425.5 million.
Networks fell 12.8% to $106.6 .