Townsquare Media Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 9, 2023

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Morning, and welcome to Townsquare Media's Third Quarter 2023 Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and With that, I would like to introduce the first speaker for today's call, Claire Yenicay, Executive Vice President.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Townsquare's 3rd quarter financial update. With me on the call today are Bill Wilson, our CEO and Stuart Rosenstein, our CFO and Executive Vice President. Please note that During this call, we may make statements that provide information other than historical information, including statements relating to the company's future expectations, plans and prospects. These statements are considered forward looking statements under the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to risks and uncertainties that and could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements.

Speaker 1

These statements reflect the company's beliefs based on current conditions, but are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those that are detailed in Adjusted net income and adjusted operating income, which we may refer to as profit in our remarks. Such non GAAP financial measures should be used in conjunction with all and will be recorded. I would also encourage all participants to go to our corporate website and download in the prepared remarks. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Bill Wilson.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Claire, and thank you all for joining us this morning. It's great to reconnect with everyone today. We're very pleased to share with you that our Q3 results met our previously issued revenue and profit guidance despite the challenging macro environment. After July's promising start to Q3, as you are aware, the U. S.

Speaker 2

Advertising industry experienced a slowdown. According to Standard Media Index's U. S. Ad tracker, the U. S.

Speaker 2

Ad market rose plus 6.3% in July. However, In August, that growth slowed to +1.2 percent and in September was up only +0.1 percent, in essence, flat in September. Our performance through the 1st 9 months of this year has helped to demonstrate the efficacy of our digital first local media strategy and validated our focus on local markets outside of the top 50 U. S. Cities.

Speaker 2

Of particular note is how our business model allowed for industry leading digital Townsquare's digital platform sets us apart from others in local media. As highlighted on Slide 11, 52% Our total revenue was digital revenue in the 1st 9 months of 2023, more than 2 times the industry average. Even more impressive Is that 57% of our total profit was digital profit in the same period, which represents a healthy 30% profit margin. As anticipated, 3rd quarter revenue for Townsquare Interactive, our subscription digital marketing solutions offering outlined on Slide 13, Declined negative 13% year over year. As I previously shared with you, 2023 is a reset year at Townsquare Interactive.

Speaker 2

Townsquare Interactive's target clients, generally the smallest of the SMBs with less than 20 employees and less than $5,000,000 in annual revenue, Continue to struggle with inflationary and wage pressures, labor shortages and higher interest rates. All of these factors have contributed to elevated and moderately slower sales velocity. And while there is no clear end in sight for these hurdles, we are Confident that Townsquare Interactive will return to growth in 2024. We have already begun to see churn begin to moderate from its peak in Q2 and that's why you will note less subscribers lost in Q3 versus Q2, which we expect will translate to improved revenue and subscriber metrics in 2024. At Townsquare, we always look for the silver lining when faced with challenges in our quest to achieve our internal company motto, how high is high.

Speaker 2

2023 represents the first growth challenge we have encountered at Telstra Interactive. And as such, it presented us with an opportunity to step back and truly examine our operations, attack ourselves and evaluate all of our processes and procedures. As we mentioned on our last call, We made a number of important changes to optimize and improve our customer service platform, including moving from a one to one customer service model to a pooled model and implementing an interactive voice response system as the initial point of contact on customer inbound calls. These changes led to a meaningful increase in call answer rates, enhanced visibility to customer requests and concerns and improved response times. Those changes as well as other improvements we have made recently resulted in Townsquare Interactive's Google Business Review ranking increasing to over 4 stars.

Speaker 2

We believe we have positioned Townsquare Interactive to With an addressable market of nearly 9,000,000 target customers as outlined on Slide 14, a superior product offering, is geared for long term profitable growth and success. Although revenue at Townsquare Interactive as expected declined negative 13% in the 3rd quarter and we expect a similar rate of decline in the 4th quarter. Through careful expense management and thoughtful investment, we are very pleased to share that we were able to maintain a very strong 28% profit margin in Q3, in line with Q2's profit margin as well as Q3 2022's profit margin. Our digital advertising solutions segment Ignite is outlined on Slide 12 and has been a key driver of growth. In the Q3, digital advertising revenue increased approximately plus 5.5% year over year and through the 1st 9 months of the year, revenue increased plus 10%.

Speaker 2

Our growth in this segment has been due to our differentiated digital solutions, which are often the best and most and we will now begin the call to discuss our financial results. Although year over year growth rates have slowed from the start of the year, we believe our performance in this segment has held up better than many of our peers because of our limited reliance on national advertising, which has been particularly weak during the advertising slowdown. 3rd quarter digital advertising profit growth Increased in line with revenue growth, up plus 6% year over year with 3rd quarter profit margins in line with prior year margins at approximately 30%. As radio share of ad spend in the United States continues to decline along with that of other traditional media such as TV and print, As noted by S&P Global Research, it highlights our need to maximize our broadcast share, while simultaneously driving digital advertising growth through both share gain and share shift, and that's exactly what we're doing. Through the 1st 9 months of the year, our broadcast revenue declined negative 5% year over year and recorded.

Speaker 2

Yet according to Miller Kaplan, our total broadcast share in the markets in which we are measured by Miller Kaplan negative 19% year over year. Due to our focus on local, with only 8% of our total company revenue comprised of national advertising and therefore the national advertising steep decline has had less of an impact on our total results. At the same time that we are gaining broadcast share, We are also experiencing market share gains in our digital business. Of course, what truly matters is gaining total market share from our local media competition, including television and cable, and we are keenly focused on that. In fact, one of the largest areas of growth in the digital advertising Industry today is streaming or connected TV, which also happens to be a strong growth driver of our digital programmatic revenue stream.

Speaker 2

What is perhaps most encouraging is that we still have a long way to go. According to Burrell Associates, although Townsquare is steadily increasing our digital market Each year, we are still only capturing roughly 14% of the total obtainable digital revenue in our local markets, signifying meaningful upside that we are very confident we can capture. Although in the back half of twenty twenty three, advertising overall in the U. S. Has slowed down compared to the start of the year, While early, it does appear that advertisers are gearing up for a stronger and better 2024.

Speaker 2

Our annual customer appreciation sale, which we hold in October and which largely involves placing advertising buys for the year ahead, set an all time record with orders increasing by plus 10% over 2022 sale. That combined with our confidence that Townsquare Interactive will return to growth in 2024 and the current outlook on strong political spending solidifies our belief that the pressure to our top and bottom line will be temporary and thus short term in nature. One very important characteristic of our business model that we like to highlight as often as possible is our significant cash flow generation. Although we have experienced revenue and adjusted EBITDA declines in the 1st 9 months of 2023, we have generated $39,000,000 of cash flow from operations, up an impressive plus 21% year over year. We ended the Q3 with $38,000,000 of cash on hand, Having utilized our cash in the Q3 to repurchase and retire $14,000,000 of bonds at a price below par, Repurchase an additional 94,000 shares as well as make an $18,000,000 interest payment and pay $3,000,000 of dividends to our shareholders.

Speaker 2

I'm glad to share that our Board of Directors approved our next dividend of $0.1875 per share payable on February 1, which equates to Very confident with our current capitalization and the strength of our balance sheet. With $38,000,000 of cash on hand at quarter end, A fixed interest rate of 6.875 percent, no maturities until 2026 and net leverage of 4.5 times at the end of the 3rd quarter, and we are pleased that we can deliver attractive current cash returns for our equity shareholders. And now, I'd like to turn

Speaker 3

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. It's great to speak to you today. We are pleased to report that our 3rd quarter results met our revenue and profit guidance, supported by the continued growth in our digital advertising revenue. We're also very pleased that we continue to effectively deploy capital in the 3rd quarter by repurchasing shares and debt in the open market and announcing our next dividend payment. 3rd quarter net revenue declined 4.6% year over year to $115,100,000 which was within our guidance range of $115,000,000 to $117,000,000 Excluding political, 3rd quarter net revenue declined 3.8%.

Speaker 3

3rd quarter adjusted EBITDA declined 12.1% year over year to $27,200,000 which was within our guidance range of $27,000,000 to $28,000,000 3rd quarter broadcast advertising net revenue decreased in line with expectations with a decline of 8.6% year over year and 7.2% excluding political. 3rd quarter broadcast profit margins sequentially improved to 31% as compared to 27% the Q2. As Bill shared, 2023 is a reset year for Townsquare Interactive, our Subscription Digital Marketing Solutions segment and we expect top line and bottom line growth to return in 2024. In the Q3, net revenue decreased 12.6% as compared to the prior year and profit decreased 10.6% year over year. Margins were strong at approximately 28% in the 3rd quarter and in line with the Q3 2022 margins.

Speaker 3

As we have shared previously, we expect margins at Townsquare Interactive to be suppressed in the second half of twenty twenty three as we continue to invest for future growth given our confidence in our long term growth prospects and while we ramp the newly opened Phoenix location. Townsquare Ignite, our digital advertising segment was again a growth driver for the company, with net revenue increasing 5 0.5% year over year in the 3rd quarter and digital advertising profit increasing 6.3% year over year. The segment's profit margin was approximately 30% in the 3rd quarter. Our other category, which is comprised of live events activity, Generated $1,700,000 of revenue in the 3rd quarter, an increase of 42.4% year over year and at a small loss of approximately $400,000 a decrease of approximately $150,000 year over year. As a reminder, our live events activity should not be viewed as a growth driver or revenue center for Townsquare, but rather a marketing arm for the company.

Speaker 3

In the Q3 of 2023, we had non cash impairment charges of $31,000,000 of which $23,600,000 related to our FCC licenses. As I covered on previous calls, given the way that these non cash impairment charges are mathematically calculated, We expect the value of our FCC licenses to continue to be written down regularly over time. The 3rd quarter impairment charge was caused by Rising interest rates, which caused the discount rate in our calculations to increase by approximately 60 basis points from Q2, as well as decreases in the 3rd party broadcast revenue forecasts and higher initial capital costs due to rising prices, all of which are inputs in these valuations. These write downs of the decade old purchase price calculations have no bearing on our company's cash position, for our operating revenue, our operating expenses, our profitability, or the company's future prospects. They are nothing more The non cash accounting charges affecting only the historically recorded purchase price allocations made when we bought our radio station assets roughly 10 years ago.

Speaker 3

Our 3rd quarter net income declined from $2,800,000 in 20.22 to a net loss of $36,500,000 or $2.27 per share. The decline was largely due to the non cash impairment charges and a meaningful increase in the income tax provision related to the non cash impairment charges and their impact on the valuation of our deferred tax assets as well as our calculated effective tax rate. 3rd quarter adjusted net income, which adds back certain items, including the non cash impairments and adjusted for a normalized tax rate was approximately flat year over year. We'd like to remind you that any benefit or provision for income taxes and included on the face of our income statement is for GAAP financial statement purposes only. We maintain significant tax attributes, including more than $100,000,000 of federal NOL carry forwards and other substantial tax yields related to the tax amortization of our intangible assets.

Speaker 3

We continue to believe that we will not be a material cash taxpayer until approximately 2026. As Bill highlighted, and I would again like to emphasize, we consistently have strong cash flow generation. We generated $39,000,000 of Cash flow from operations in the 1st 9 months of 2023, that's up 21% year over year or $7,000,000 and we ended the quarter with $38,000,000 of cash. At the end of the third quarter, our net leverage was 4.5 times, down slightly year over year. We repurchased $14,200,000 of bonds below par during the Q3 at an average price of $96 bringing our year to date total bond repurchases to $27,100,000 In addition, we repurchased for $16,600,000 at an average price of $9.88 per share.

Speaker 3

As always, our number one priority is to invest in our local businesses through organic, internal investments that support our revenue and profit growth, particularly in our digital growth engine. We plan to continue to invest in our digital product technology, sales, content and support teams, specifically in our Townsquare Interactive and Townsquare Ignite businesses, in order to maintain our strong competitive advantage in markets outside the top 50 cities. In addition, we are focused on our balance sheet as we begin to prepare for a likely refinancing in late 2024 or early 2025. As Bill mentioned earlier, our Board has approved a dividend payable on February 1 to shareholders of record as of January 2. The dividend of $0.1875 per share, which equates to $0.75 per share on an annualized basis, implies an annual payment of approximately $12,000,000 based on our current share count and a dividend yield of approximately 8% based on our current We believe our strong cash flow characteristics will allow us to continue to invest in our businesses, support our new dividend and give us flexibility to opportunistically pursue debt and share repurchases in the open market.

Speaker 3

Turning to our 4th quarter outlook. We expect 4th quarter net revenue to be between $110,600,000 at $112,600,000 We expect 4th quarter adjusted EBITDA to be between 24 for $8,000,025,800,000 This implies that Townsquare's 2023 full year revenue will be between for $450,000,000 $452,000,000 and our adjusted EBITDA will be between $100,000,000 $101,000,000 both within our original guidance ranges we issued in the beginning of the year. And with that, I will now turn the call back over to Bill.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Stu, and thank you to everyone who joined us this morning. We greatly appreciate it. I want to close today's call by highlighting what our business model has delivered this year. Despite a challenging backdrop of rising interest rates and inflation Digital advertising platform delivered double digit revenue and profit growth through the 1st 9 months of 2023. Our mature CashCall broadcast advertising platform has and continues to generate a solid profit, contributing to our strong cash generation.

Speaker 2

Our net leverage remains below prior year levels and we have efficiently repurchased both debt and equity this year, while maintaining a high yielding dividend, delivering attractive current returns to our shareholders. Our performance this year has reinforced confidence in our digital first local media strategy and our deliberate focus on markets outside the top 50 cities in the United States and the long term profitable growth potential of our digital platforms. And again, thanks to each of you for taking the time to be updated on Townsquare's Q3 results this morning. We greatly appreciate it. Operator, at this time, please open the line for any and all questions.

Operator

And our first question comes from Michael Kupinski, Renewable Capital Markets. Please go ahead, Michael.

Speaker 4

Thank you and good morning. I'm Sorry for that if there was any background noise. A couple of questions. Can you talk about the tone of the market for your interactive services in Q4? This morning, are you still discounting at this point?

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning, Michael. Great to hear from you. I think the tone of the market in Q4 for 2023 is definitely a reset year for Townsquare Interactive. We've made a tremendous amount of improvements, I think to our processes and I don't see any difference. Quite honestly, from an overall company perspective, when you look at the guidance that Stu provided, Q4 net revenue down ex Negative 5% to negative 6%, Q3 was negative 4%.

Speaker 2

So we expect pretty much the same type of results in Q4 as an overall tone

Speaker 4

And are you still discounting in Interactive at this point, because I know that you were earlier in the year?

Speaker 2

We've really cut that back dramatically. So to your point, particularly in 2020, 2021, When these businesses under different scenarios were suffering, we did discount and part of the logic there was to bridge them to success. They were also receiving PPE money from the government multiple times throughout that 2 year period. Right now, the environment is much I think we touched on it on the last call, our interest rates overall in Q3 were actually higher than Q2. So I think The risk of a recession from the experts has come down, but in terms of the operating environment for these small businesses, as you know, Michael, we target businesses for Townsquare with less than 20 employees, less than $5,000,000 in revenue.

Speaker 2

So they are the smallest of the smallest SMBs. We also mentioned that we didn't know what the impact of the student loan Payback coming back online after being suspended for so long and we have definitely heard that particularly in the last 5 to 6 weeks from our client base, some of the people who are coming calling us with concerns as it relates to their cash flow. So going back to your original Definitely discounting less now because the businesses that are suffering are quite honestly going out of business. So it's not like giving them a discount is and bridge the gap for them. Given the inflationary pressures, the wage pressures, the higher interest rates, the impact on capital, Their business are really suffering.

Speaker 2

That's why we're seeing an elevation in churn historically. I think as I mentioned on the prepared remarks, Thankfully, I believe Q2 hit the peak of our churn. We started to recede in Q3. We cut our subscriber loss, which was $3,000 in Q2 to $16.50 in Q3, which I expect will be roughly the same in Q4 going back to your point about tone in the market, but discounting has really been suspended. We do some one offs where we believe it's the right thing, but I think you'll see our average price point creep up over the next several quarters as a result of that.

Speaker 4

And just one more question and I'll get back in the queue. In terms of Phoenix, can you just kind of give us where you are in terms of staffing there? Is it fully staffed now? Are you up and running? In terms of the business on the West Coast that you were anticipating, are you is that prospect still seeing in line with what you were expecting?

Speaker 4

Just to add a little color on what's going on in Phoenix.

Speaker 2

Yes. No, really pleased with Phoenix. I think last time we talked about that we were approaching 25 to 30 employees, we're now over 30 employees. We're onboarding new sales people out there. The talent pool was one of the major The reasons that we opened the second location was we felt the ability to recruit and hire while we continue to do that in Charlotte, but to add the Phoenix location would be beneficial.

Speaker 2

So it's still a small team, call it roughly 30 low 30s. But in terms of While we open the market, our prospects for the market are all proving out to be very beneficial and we think that is one of the reasons that the business will Return to growth later in 2024 and really set us up for not only 2024, but 2025, 2026 and 2027. So very pleased with Phoenix, Michael.

Speaker 4

Great. I'll get back in queue. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Michael.

Operator

And our next question comes from Jim Goss from Barrington Sir, please go ahead, Jim.

Speaker 5

Hi. I might tag on a couple of things along the lines Mike was asking. One, with regard to Phoenix, Is it providing an offset right now to some of the issues that the that TSI is facing? Or Are there startup costs that caused it to sort of delay the beneficial impact?

Speaker 2

Hey, Jim. Good to hear from you this morning. As it relates to financials, as we've always shared, it takes a new salesperson around a year, 12 months to actually breakeven. So given the ramp of hiring and we're primarily right now been hiring salespeople out there, there are some incremental other people on the service side, but Primarily, it is sales focused. It is not really it's actually suppressing our profit margins and we said that would happen when we announced the rollout of Pfenex at the beginning of the year.

Speaker 2

I expect that probably to roll off sometime in the back half of Because we did some hiring in the first half, we did a good bunch of hiring in Q3. So I think we'll be hitting that 12 month breakeven point and you'll see the benefit in the back half of twenty twenty four for that. In general, sales velocity is suppressed in Townsquare Interactive because of the environment that I just talked Michael through, including student loans coming back and higher interest rates and all of those things. So That's kind of where Pfenex sits. And as I shared with Michael, just really pleased with the team there and the prospects as we go forward.

Speaker 5

And when you're talking about a return to growth in 2024, I know it's not going to flip a switch, but what sort of Things you think need to happen, aside from a couple of items you've just mentioned, that to Create that better environment and to sort of relaunch the like the new business establishment or The sort of things that are going to drive creation of the market, you can reach out to with TSA.

Speaker 2

Yes. No, great question, Jim. And I expect us to return to growth from a subscriber basis, from a revenue and profits basis in the back half of Next 6 months is predicated on what's happened over the last 3 to 6 months. So I think the timeframe is Q3, Q4. I think there's a number of things that we've done internally that I've outlined on this call as well as previous calls.

Speaker 2

We've also increased some Product features, in terms of like we're now offering a CRM, we're now offering things like invoicing for our clients, Email marketing is enhanced. So we continue to make product improvements. Most importantly, I think our service model is Being improved and continues to be improved, we're building certain tools. Some of those are helping us, leveraging AI, to be smarter when people are calling in, we have more information

Speaker 3

and

Speaker 2

and that interest rates start to come down in the back half of next year, but at a minimum don't continue to increase at the pace they did so far this year. I think Outside of one other time in the last 50 years, interest rates raised the most in the last 12 month period than any other period. And the good news, I think, is inflation looks like it's starting to come down. And if that continues and that is correct, I think that has a dramatic impact on these smaller businesses that I'll turn it back to you, Jim.

Speaker 5

Okay. Just a couple of other things. One is, political It is a small but important and meaningful category for you. But I'm wondering if you think To the extent there are more options, especially along digital lines, if that potentially eats away at some of the political revenues we're used to Having you generate, which has been enough to tilt the balance a little bit in your revenue line, especially in the 3rd and 4th quarters?

Speaker 2

You're exactly right. Great question. And we're obviously very much looking forward to next year in political. I think we shared In 2020, the last presidential election, it was an all time high in terms of political revenue. There was obviously a lot of competition from digital and other things out there for any media like So I think in particular, obviously TV benefits tremendously.

Speaker 2

But when you look at radio's reach and we don't talk a lot about this on these calls because for us we treat radio as a mature cash cow business, but we love radio. And it is the number one reach medium in the United States reaching 93% of Americans on a weekly basis. When I tell people more people to AM FM Radio today than 10 years ago and 20 years ago, they can't believe it. So I think as it relates to the reach and impact for political Candidates, they know and political issues. So I expect, if not matching the $16,000,000 our expectation is $14,000,000 to $16,000,000 of political next And that's coming off of this year being under $3,000,000 So going back to your main point, Jim, next year I think is Great opportunity for us in terms of political revenue, the Townsquare rebuild coming back on and growing in the back half of the year.

Speaker 2

And obviously, our digital advertising and continues to be differentiated in driving and propelling our growth for the last several years.

Speaker 5

Okay. One last one, just sort of a general thought. The SEC now has the chair and the full complement. Is there anything on the docket that might have any impact for Townsquare?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, A, I'm very glad that's transpired. As you know, there was also a Ruling recently where they had to do the quadrennial review, which they didn't do. So in general, I think people on this call know from prior times, I believe we should be deregulating and the fact that we're capped in general to 4 FMs and 2Ms in our size markets when We're facing competition that's uncapped, be it a Spotify or be it others in the zone, I just don't think is appropriate and fair. So My expectation is that I don't know when, but I think it's a when question, not an if question, when the FCC starts to Recognize the media landscape has tremendously changed in the last 20 years.

Speaker 2

I mean, it's changing dramatically every few years. So to keep the same archaic rules that were in place 20 years ago, I personally believe does not make sense. And I'm glad the FCC is now at a full quorum, and I

Speaker 5

All right. Well, thank you very much for taking my questions.

Speaker 2

As always, thank you, Jim.

Operator

And we do have follow-up questions from Michael Kupinski from Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead, Michael.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Just a couple of quick ones. You mentioned Connected TV is one of the key categories in Ignite. And I was just wondering if you can just talk a little bit about what's driving that performance? And then also, is it just more fast channels, more connected TVs or just that we're seeing more support, more volume?

Speaker 4

And then also, how much is Connect TV related advertising as a percent of total Ignite advertising?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Michael. Yes, we're tremendously excited. For the first time really in our company's history, we're able to Competes head to head with television. We couldn't do that even 5, 6 years ago. And today, getting to your second part of your question too, it's the fastest Growing part of our programmatic offering.

Speaker 2

Obviously, we're competing with great local television providers in our markets who have owned and operated and as well as programmatic. And we see a great advantage because we're not favoring anything. We're focused on the audience and the results and We don't need to look at, okay, how do we how are we managing our own cable inventory or TV spots because we don't have it. So I think it's been very Beneficial for us, a big part of Ignite, but in particular, Michael, Connected TV and now creating commercial Spots, television spots for our clients, we've really beefed up our creative service offering, because obviously historically we didn't need to create Television spots and now we do. We're starting to use artificial intelligence in that creation as well.

Speaker 2

Obviously, creative is tremendously important in any Marketing and advertising that we do, but for us, the connected TV and producing these TV spots is somewhat new. I think as you noted, for us, Ignite is so differentiated. We've got this full funnel from reach with radio all the way down to activation. And the fact that we can marry this programmatic side of our Ignite Digital Advertising with a Huge large scale owned and operated websites and mobile apps that give us incredibly valuable first party data, which gives us audience insights and allows us to audience target, I think, more effectively than anybody in our size market. Really is the reason I think that our digital Not only in Q3 year to date, but for the last several years has outperformed the industry.

Speaker 2

And that's why when you look at digital overall being 52% of our revenue, which 2 times the average in the industry and 57 percent of our profits, we're tremendously excited. And I think Connected TV will continue To grow and grow, you see more and more ad supported. You've seen Netflix. You see I don't you may have heard that Amazon Prime is talking about introducing advertising into their video platform. So particularly in our size markets, as more and more people cord cut and more and more streaming inventory opens up.

Speaker 2

I cannot emphasize what a tremendous tailwind and opportunity for us at Townsquare with Connected TV. With that said, we're having tremendous success with social and other targeting vehicles, including just standard So we're excited by Connected TV. It is the fastest growing part of programmatic currently. It is for us as well, Tremendously excited about our digital advertising business overall, Michael. So I'll turn it back to you.

Speaker 4

Yes. Just one last question. On the broadcast side, I know that National is a small component, but you mentioned that national has been down and it's been affecting you. And I was just wondering, some broadcasters have indicated that national advertising seems to be improving, especially as they look into 2024. I was just wondering if you can kind of give us a tone of What you're seeing in terms of national in the Q4?

Speaker 4

And then are you seeing pacings for national improve as you go into the Q1?

Speaker 2

Great question, Michael. Again, I appreciate you being with us this morning. So just as a recap for everyone on the call, as Michael is asking about national, Q1 national broadcast advertising and was down 28%. Q2 moderated to 21%, moderated is generous. That's obviously down quite a bit.

Speaker 2

Q3 was still down negative 19%. It actually got a little bit worse in the quarter. Part of that is the ad tracking that we shared where the U. S. Ad tracking was plus in July, plus 1 in August and flat in September.

Speaker 2

So we saw the quarter we saw that activity throughout the quarter. To your question, Michael, about Q4, we definitely see national getting better. We see national getting better. We see local Getting better. Probably most importantly, we mentioned our customer appreciation sale, which the team did a tremendous job on, 10% more orders that I mentioned in the Prepared remarks, as it relates to Q1 pacing, we don't spend a lot of time usually talking about our pacing because We'd rather talk about the results versus what we expect to come, because it can change quite a bit.

Speaker 2

So I'm a little hesitant to share this, but since you asked, I will tell you that At this point, last year for Q1, as it relates specifically to broadcast, we've got about 2% more business booked for Q1 specifically for broadcast than this time last year. And when you look at the broadcast decline we've experienced in Q3, That's a material change. So hopefully that holds, but in our view that is a very, very, very positive sign for Q1. We're seeing also an uptick in Q1 on the digital advertising side too. And you've probably heard from others what you alluded to that to be pacing better for, I think, the industry, a large broadcast as well as digital advertising, and we're seeing the same thing.

Speaker 2

For Q4, as I shared earlier, we gave the guide, which I think is net revenue pretty much in line with where we ended Q3 3x political, so maybe a point or 2 below that, but in general in line. But obviously excited for 2024 for all the reasons we just talked about, And what I just mentioned was broadcast having more on the books for Q1 at this point than last year, which is if that holds, that's a very positive development. Michael, hopefully that gives you some color for 2024 as we enter the holidays here.

Speaker 4

Yes. Thanks, Bill. That was perfect. That's all I have. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you again for dialing in Michael.

Operator

And at this time, there are no further questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Bill for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator. I appreciate your help this morning. I just want to give a shout out to the Townsquare team. The results we talk about, the But quite honestly, their communities and their clients and their audiences. So can't thank them enough and I appreciate everybody dialing this morning.

Speaker 2

We obviously look forward to updating you on our year end results in 2024, but we're also excited to share how Q1 is shaping up when we report in the beginning of March. So wishing everybody a great Thanksgiving and thank you again for dialing in this morning. Take care.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.

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Key Takeaways

  • Q3 financials met guidance despite a slowdown in US advertising, with 52% of total revenue and 57% of total profit generated from digital operations year-to-date.
  • Townsquare Interactive saw a 13% revenue decline in Q3 as SMB clients faced inflation and rate pressures, but churn moderated after peaking in Q2 and profit margins remained at 28%, positioning it for growth in 2024.
  • Ignite digital advertising revenue rose 5.5% and profit grew 6% in Q3, driven by differentiated programmatic solutions and connected TV, while limiting national ad exposure helped maintain ~30% margins.
  • Broadcast segment revenue fell 5% year-to-date and national ad revenues were down 19% in Q3, yet Q1 2024 broadcast bookings are pacing 2% above last year, signaling a potential rebound.
  • Strong cash flow generated $39 M in operations YTD, with $38 M cash on hand; Townsquare repurchased $14 M of debt, $16.6 M of shares, and declared a $0.1875 per-share dividend, supporting an ~8% yield.
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Earnings Conference Call
Townsquare Media Q3 2023
00:00 / 00:00