PodcastOne Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 12, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Q3 revenue grew 22% year-over-year to $12.7 million, driving a narrower operating loss of $1.6 million and reducing net loss to $0.06 per share from $0.11.
  • Management reaffirmed fiscal 2025 guidance of at least $51 million in revenue (17% growth) and projected positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year.
  • The strategic partnership with Amazon’s ART19 secures a $15 million minimum guarantee over three years, offers cost savings, enhanced analytics and a new ad inventory channel with upside potential.
  • PodcastOne Pro and live-show initiatives are expanding high-margin service revenue, attracting major brands like Boost Mobile and Microsoft to its new production studio.
  • Adjusted EBITDA remained negative at $0.7 million in Q3, highlighting ongoing unprofitability despite improved financial metrics.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
PodcastOne Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Welcome to the PodcastOne Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. I'd now like to turn the call over to Aaron Sullivan, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the PodcastOne Fiscal Third Quarter 2025 Business Update and Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. During today's presentation, all parties will be in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions. On our call today is Kit Gray, President and Founder of PodcastOne, and myself, Aaron Sullivan, Chief Financial Officer. I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking and are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve various risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the future performance of the company, including expected future financial results and expected future growth in the business. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed on this call for a variety of reasons.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

Please refer to PodcastOne's filings with the SEC for information about factors which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those described in PodcastOne's Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2024, filed by the company with the SEC on July 1, 2024, and subsequent SEC filings made by the company. You will find reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures discussed today in the company's earnings release, which is posted on its investor relations website. The company encourages you to periodically visit its investor relations website for important content. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, contains time-sensitive information and reflects management's view as of the date of this call, February 12, 2025.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

Except as required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information after the date of this call. I would like to highlight to investors that this call is being recorded. PodcastOne is making it available to investors and the media via webcast, and a replay will be available on PodcastOne's IR website in the events section shortly following the conclusion of the call. Additionally, it is the property of the company, and any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of the call or the webcast in any form without the company's express written consent is strictly prohibited. Now, I would like to turn the call over to PodcastOne's President, Kit Gray.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Thank you, and welcome to our Fiscal Third Quarter 2025 earnings call. As a reminder, we are not on a calendar reporting year, and our fiscal year 2025 ends on March 31. Today, we will provide a brief overview of PodcastOne and the continuously growing podcast market and highlight our most recent successes before passing on to Aaron for the financial results. After his comments, I will close with an update on our strategic initiatives, including our recent partnership with Art19, Amazon's podcast hosting service, and what we are looking forward to in the quarter to come. Lastly, we will open it up for Q&A. PodcastOne is a premier podcasting network that has played a key role in the evolution of the podcast industry since its founding in 2012.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

As the only pure-play publicly traded podcast company in the United States, PodcastOne provides a platform for top-tier content creators, offering comprehensive support across production, marketing, sales, and distribution. Podcasting has become one of the most trusted and engaging media formats, with over 4 million podcasts registered worldwide as of 2025. The industry continues to grow, with advertisers projected to invest over $2.4 billion in podcast advertising this year. PodcastOne is a sales network of over 500 of the largest advertisers to reach core demographics effectively and efficiently. PodcastOne and its 196 shows are positioned at the center of its growth, capitalizing on both the increasing audience demand and the effectiveness of podcast advertising as a high-ROI media channel. PodcastOne has been ranked as a top 10 U.S. podcast publisher for the second consecutive month by Podtrac, with monthly unique U.S. audiences of 5.2 million and 16.2 million U.S.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Downloads and streams. Podcasting continues to be a culturally relevant medium, shaping conversations around major events. Previously, we saw its impact during U.S. elections, and more recently, it played a role in covering the recent California wildfires. As an L.A.-based company, we witnessed the devastation firsthand. Members of our own team saw their communities destroyed and lives upended in a matter of moments. While much of the country watched the tragedy unfold on television, others turned to podcasting for unfiltered perspectives. PodcastOne host, Adam Carolla, was among those directly impacted. Displaced from his home, he turned to his podcast to share his experience in almost real time. Broadcasting from my hotel room, he recounted the timeline of events leading to his evacuation, the uncertainty surrounding the status of his condo, and the mixed reports he received.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Despite the circumstances, Carolla used his platform to provide a raw and personal firsthand account of the disaster while blending his sharp, observational, and often sarcastic style of storytelling and social commentary into the situation. With millions of impressions, this moment reinforced PodcastOne's unique ability to inform, engage, and mobilize audiences in real time, turning personal stories into powerful conversations that drive awareness, empathy, and action. With our industry-leading platform, we empower podcast hosts to reach their full potential by providing comprehensive, world-class support. Our 360-degree marketing capabilities drive growth and exposure, enabling talent to focus on what they do best: creating great content. This support includes access to studio space, marketing, production, editing, distribution, and public relations. Additionally, our experienced direct sales team leverages long-standing relationships with advertisers and brands seeking to connect with the highly engaged audience of podcasts on our platform.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

As a result, during the quarter, we were thrilled to sign Stassi Schroeder to the PodcastOne platform in a multi-year, seven-figure deal. Along with being a New York Times best-selling author and reality television personality, Stassi has captivated podcast audiences for over nine years, consistently ranking among the highest-rated podcasts across platforms. The acquisition reinforces PodcastOne's mission to champion female voices in the podcasting space. As part of this collaboration, Stassi will also be integrated into the PodcastOne extensive promotional and marketing initiatives spanning multiple genres, with plans to expand into live shows, merchandising, and adaptations. The majority of our revenue continues to be generated via our direct sales team, with advertisers who want access to the unique audiences that we can reach on our platform.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

In addition to our direct sales team and programmatic ads, the strategic partnership with Amazon's Art19, announced in January, creates a third core revenue channel for the monetization of our library of shows. More on Art19 in a moment. To complement our core revenue channels, we also diversified our emerging revenue streams that provide additional avenues for high-margin growth while diversifying our revenue mix and service offering to the entire PodcastOne ecosystem. We officially launched PodcastOne Pro in conjunction with our new state-of-the-art podcast production studio, in Beverly Hills. We have seen great success from major brands such as Boost Mobile and Microsoft, who want to harness the power of podcasting and rely on our technology and talent to make it happen. PodcastOne Pro offers customizable services with à la carte options to meet exact production needs or a full 360 solution.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

The new studio enables creators to seamlessly produce, record, and broadcast their shows with unmatched clarity and precision. Another way PodcastOne and its talent generate additional revenue is through live shows. Stassi Schroeder was among the first to expand her podcast into a live event format in 2019, quickly selling out subsequent tours in 2020 and 2023. We look forward to supporting Stassi and our other hosts in exploring live show opportunities in 2025. Now, before going further, I'd like to turn the call over to Aaron, our CFO, to walk through the financial results for the financial third quarter. Aaron.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

Thank you, Kit. As Kit mentioned at the beginning of the call, I want to remind listeners that our fiscal year ends on March 31. Revenue in the fiscal third quarter of 2025 increased 22% to $12.7 million, compared to $10.4 million in the same year-ago quarter. Operating loss in the fiscal third quarter of 2025 was $1.6 million, compared to an operating loss of $2.6 million in the same year-ago quarter. This was primarily driven by lower non-cash stock compensation expense. Net loss in the fiscal third quarter of 2025 was $1.6 million, or $0.06 a share per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2.6 million, or $0.11 per basic and diluted share in the same year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in the fiscal third quarter of 2025 was negative $0.7 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA of negative $0.4 million in the same year-ago quarter.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

The change in adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to timing of content acquisition costs. We ended the fiscal third quarter with no debt on our balance sheet and $0.6 million of cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2024. As we look ahead, I'd like to also briefly touch on guidance. We're pleased with the progress this quarter, and given the revenue-generating deals that are currently in place for fiscal Q4, along with the equity-based revenue share deals with certain podcast talent also starting to be effective in fiscal Q4, we are comfortable reaffirming our fiscal 2025 guidance. We expect revenues for the full year to be at least $51 million, representing an increase of at least 17% when compared to revenues of $43.3 million in fiscal 2024. Given the continued strong double-digit revenue growth, we also project positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year of fiscal 2025.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

Now, I'd like to turn the call back to Kit for some additional comments on the quarter before wrapping up with questions from the audience.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Thanks, Aaron. As highlighted, the momentum we're building continues to drive meaningful financial results, which is a direct result of our extremely scalable platform and the execution by our team at PodcastOne. One of the biggest strategic and financial partnerships took place in January with the move of our library of shows to Amazon's podcast hosting service, Art19. This move underscores our commitment to innovation and delivering exceptional value to our talent, advertisers, listeners, and shareholders. By partnering with Amazon's Art19, we are not only future-proofing our hosting needs but unlocking new growth opportunities by leveraging their cutting-edge technology and advertising opportunities. For the listener, there will be no change. They will still be able to access PodcastOne's hit shows wherever they choose, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. For PodcastOne, it's a big change, and I would like to review some of the key benefits.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

As an overview, Amazon has already invested heavily in podcasting, acquiring both Wondery and Art19 in the last few years. While PodcastOne is now using Art19's hosting service, Art19 is paying us for access to our library of shows. Secondly, there are operational and technological advantages. Art19's advanced CMS content management system will improve efficiency, reducing the time and resources spent on back-end technology, allowing us to sunset most of our technology used for hosting, leading to cost-effective savings and increased efficiency on our staff. Art19 can provide enhanced analytics, including geotargeting and audience insights and targeting. Amazon's ongoing investment in podcasting technology should bring future advancements to Art19's capabilities. On top of that, we will see revenue growth and stability. PodcastOne will receive a minimum guarantee revenue stream of $15 million over three years, and as PodcastOne scales its network and impressions, the minimum guarantee increases, ensuring upside potential.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

This will allow us to better forecast the value of shows and improve cash flow predictability. Art19 acts as a complement to our current sales team and programmatic ad sales, leading to an increase in revenue through Art19's integration with Amazon's advertising ecosystem. Amazon can package PodcastOne's inventory with their premium ad offerings across podcasts and Amazon Prime TV, creating additional revenue streams beyond our reach previously. We also have a competitive edge and M&A potential. The deal strengthens PodcastOne's position as a top-10 podcast network, aiding in talent acquisition by providing better monetization forecasting. It has the potential to open PodcastOne up for future partnerships with Amazon's ecosystem as podcast hosts flock towards video and consumer preferences move towards watching their favorite hosts, not just listening.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Overall, the partnership with Amazon's Art19 provides immediate financial security, multiple revenue growth opportunities, better technology, and a stronger competitive position, making it a significant milestone for PodcastOne, all while aligning with PodcastOne's long-term growth strategy and reinforcing our leadership role in the evolving podcasting industry. In closing, we delivered a strong fiscal third calendar fourth quarter, achieving double-digit revenue growth once again. In fact, this was PodcastOne's largest revenue result for the period. The momentum continued into the start of calendar 2025, marked by major accomplishments, including the collaboration with Amazon, the retention and extension of flagship podcasts from Adam Carolla, Brendan Schaub, and Kaitlyn Bristowe. PodcastOne now hosts 196 shows, having added 64 new programs in 2024 and 10 exciting new shows in the last quarter alone. PodcastOne's talent roster continues to expand, supported by a debt-free balance sheet and multiple creative growth opportunities.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

We are actively evaluating M&A prospects, not only to acquire top content networks, but also to enhance our platform with production, sales, and technology acquisitions that strengthen our offerings for hosts and advertisers. PodcastOne remains the only pure-play publicly traded podcast company in the U.S. Our expanding content portfolio, strategic partnerships, and revenue diversification efforts continue to create long-term shareholder value. Thank you for joining us, and at this time, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A. Operator.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you'd like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Your first question comes from a line of Sean McGowan from Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Good morning, guys. Can you hear me okay?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yes. Hey, Sean. Good morning.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Hey, Sean. Good morning. Hi, Aaron. Yeah, a couple of questions. You have talked in the past about cost of sales reflecting content acquisition costs. I gather from you reaffirming the guidance that you are comfortable that is going to go down a lot in the fourth quarter. What drives that? Is it simply the timing, or is there something else behind that?

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

Hey, Sean. Aaron, I'll take this one, Kit. Yeah, correct, Sean. It's timing. We had a few revenue deals we were expecting in Q3 that kind of moved into Q4. We had the kind of the content cost or the minimum guarantee in Q3 that we had to expense and pay to our talent without that revenue coming in in the same quarter. It is really a timing thing.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay. The level of G&A spending seen in the third quarter, is that what we should expect around that level to continue, or were there unusual positives or negatives in the quarter there? It became a little lower than we thought.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

It should be pretty consistent with that, Sean. Yeah.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Maybe a couple of questions for Kit. Where—and maybe you too, Aaron—where in the P&L would we see the financial benefits of working with Art19? Is it multiple places, or is it primarily in the kind of cost side? Where do you see that?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

I'll take this and you can—oh, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, you're going to see it with some cost efficiencies on our operational side of things, right? There will be less cost for our team to run tech and do some stuff there. There is a lot of efficiencies there, and I'll have our team be working on some other projects, not as much on that, which will be great. You will see, like I mentioned in the call, revenue growth on a consistent basis. We will have payments coming in from Art19 based on that minimum guarantee audience threshold that we will have. As we scale up, there will be more revenues on that. Those are the—I think you'll see that. Ancillary, which will not be as clear, I believe you'll see pressure on our CPMs for more demand, right?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

If we have effectively three units, our direct sales team, the Art19 Amazon team, and the programmatic channels monetizing our impressions, it all should work where all ships rise, right? We will see, hopefully, higher CPMs as we continue working with them. Aaron, I do not know if you want to add anything to that.

Aaron Sullivan
Aaron Sullivan
CFO at PodcastOne

No, I think you covered it. Just maybe to clarify a little bit for you, Sean, there will be a small impact in sales and marketing, right, because that is where some of the commission is. Yeah, obviously, that is a variable expense. If we have more revenue flowing through there, you will see a little bit more expense there. On the G&A side, where the hosting and operational costs are, you will see a drop in that particular line. Exactly what Kit said.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Thanks. Last question for you, Kit. I think everybody looking in this podcast world got a kind of eyebrow-raising positive surprise on the impact that podcasting seems to have had in these various events that you cited: the election, the fires. How has that changed the competitive landscape? It seemed like this time last year, there was maybe a retreat by some of the major players diminishing their commitment or not renewing at the same levels some of their content. Has that shifted now, and are you seeing competition kind of increase or get more aggressive?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

No. I mean, there's some activities out there, right? I think if you read the news, iHeartMedia did a deal with Fox over the last couple of days. There is definitely still activity in the M&A space, and we'll be a player in those types of deals as well moving forward. You're not really seeing that. What you're seeing is just more people listening and the medium strengthening and more dollars being spent into it, more attention by advertisers, more attention to big brands, obviously Amazon, no one bigger than them, and investing in relationship with us and continuing their commitment to podcasting, I think, is huge.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

I only think it's really helping everybody, just keeping the medium exciting, keeping advertisers in there, and just getting better based on using technology and working with great talent to not only do audio like we have for years, but the video aspect of things and social media and events and things like that as well.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Good to hear from you, Sean. Talk to you later.

Operator

Your next question comes from a line of Leo Carpio from Joseph Gunnar. Your line is open.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Good morning, gentlemen. A couple of questions regarding the quarter. Can you tell us about in terms of the quarter's revenues? Was it ad activity-driven? Was there some sort of seasonality? I mean, thinking of the third quarter, people are going to be back from the beach. There's new content being placed on the platform. I mean, how does that drive and think about for the fourth quarter in terms of the arc that you're projecting to hit your guidance?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

I can tell you this. You always are going to see seasonality in terms of consumption, production, and really ad spends. They're all a little different in November and December where people are taking some time off to be with their families. Maybe they're not producing as much content, but we've got an advantage because we can bank content in advance. As far as advertisers, they go heavy because that's when people are spending money. We had some good pickup in sales, and some of our new shows like Stassi, as we mentioned, did really well. I'm looking at January, and things are looking pretty good. We're fighting through. January is always a little slow based on people slowing down spends, but we've seen some nice numbers and nice direct sales on that front. The transition to Art19, Amazon's Art19, is taking place right now.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

We're in that phase, and we'll see how that starts to roll out in this quarter. Like we mentioned, we should be—we're pretty comfortable hitting those numbers that we quoted for the quarter/year.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay. And speaking of Art19, when are we going to see the real financial impact of the transition? Will it be like the next—I mean, two quarters from now in the beginning of 2026, or more of a summer 2025 calendar effect?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

No, you'll see it start to take place in the quarter that we're currently in. We're transitioning all our shows right now over to there, but there's some guarantees that start up, and they're pushing hard to already get that inventory out to their sales team and their system as well. We talk to them almost on a daily basis, so that's ramping up nicely. Our connects with the programmatic channels are staying input too, so that should help. As always, our direct sales team is doing their job too.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay. Speaking to the—in terms of the prior question, regarding competitive environment for talent, how does Art19 enhance your position versus, say, Spotify, Apple? Does having Amazon and Art19 behind you helpful in negotiations going forward, and if so, how?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yeah. Good question. It does help us because we're able to kind of forecast, like I mentioned, three revenue-generating channels earlier rather than two. We'll really have more of a science on understanding the value of shows just based on pure numbers, right? How many downloads you have a month. We'll be able to kind of look at how that's valued from those three channels, right? Not just two, which should help us calculate that. It should effectively make shows more valuable to us. In turn, that'll help us hopefully get some more shows with better deals based on the ability to know we have cash coming in every month. We know the value better than we had before on what these shows could bring in. That'll really help us on that front. As far as the technology and the use of their ad-serving technology, it's great.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

I mean, the system that we were on currently was good too. This is comparable, if not better. That is where you'll start to see some advancements with Amazon over the next couple of years on their CMS and ad-serving capabilities. There are cool things that they can do. You can cap commercial loads to end users. You can switch out copies if they've heard it once and things like that that we can offer advertisers. That will take place over the next couple of months. Yeah, we're excited about that. I mean, it's always easier saying you're hosted by a company like Amazon rather than your own thing. That also will help. Yeah, we're excited about it. It's a huge deal. We, as a company, spent the better part of all last year analyzing all the major platforms and potential revenue-generating cost-saving aspects of the deal.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

We really felt comfortable with Art19 and Amazon's Art19 and how they're structured, their team, their services, and how they're working with us. A guy I did a deal with, Andy Slater, has been a good friend of mine for 25 years in the radio business. He's great, and his team's great, and we're really excited about the deal.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay. Last question. I don't know if you saw this. Netflix is—the news is Netflix is exploring adding video content to their—a video podcast to their platform. Any sense in terms of how you might respond or too early to tell?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

They should have gotten into this a lot longer, a while ago. If you look at all the video companies out there, YouTube is now the number one platform for consumption of podcast listening, right? Spotify is investing heavily in the video aspect as well. There are some issues with that. It's good and bad. Discovery is great. Some of the ad dynamics are tough. That's hard to control. Netflix absolutely should be involved in this too. The fact that they haven't gotten more into some of their shows, having recap shows. If you look at some of the great podcasts out there, whether it's Severance on Apple, I mean, these are big podcasts now that people watch the TV show and then want to get involved in the community. Amazon should be involved in that.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

They also should be involved in the IP side of things, right? It's a very effective way to prove concept on a potential movie or television show. They should definitely be involved in the podcasting space. I'm excited to see that they're in there. Hopefully, we have some good talks with them moving forward. I did—yeah, I saw that note just a day or two ago. That's exciting.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

All right. Thank you, gentlemen, and I'll go back into queue.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Thanks, Leo.

Operator

Your next question comes from a line of Tom White from D.A. Davidson. Your line is open.

Tom White
Tom White
Analyst at D.A. Davidson

Hey, this is Floyd Swanson on for Tom. Thanks for taking our questions. Could you talk a little bit about how Art19 helps to drive your programmatic advertising and maybe your expectations of how that ramps up over the next 12 to 18 months? Do you kind of expect programmatic ads to outpace direct sales, or how should we think about that?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Good question. Thanks for jumping on, and I appreciate the time. No, Amazon really doesn't have anything to do with the programmatic side of things. It basically goes like this. If you have three channels, right, how I mentioned, our direct sales team, you've got Amazon's deal, their sales team basically, and then you have the programmatic desk. It's kind of a waterfall, right? We have access to our inventory like no one else does. We have that first. Typically, that's because we know our CPMs on direct sales deals would be higher. We're able to use the talent to voice ads, choose particular shows, particular programs, use the technology to get higher CPMs in terms of behavioral targeting or geo-targeting or vendor targeting, whatever that might be. That's our primary area where we'll make most of our revenue.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

I still think that's where it's going to be. That's where for at least the next 18 months, for sure, that'll still lead the way. I believe that'll still lead the way no matter what. Amazon then will be the second funnel in terms of impressions they get to access. After that, it will be the programmatic side of things. Amazon will be hopefully selling higher CPMs than programmatic. Programmatic revenues or CPMs are typically in that $8-$12 range. Amazon's hopefully will be higher than that. Why it will increase, to your question, both on the Amazon side of things and programmatic and even the digital side of our sales team revenue channel is because every episode that goes out, it stays in lists forever, right?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

We're now monetizing another year of Adam Carolla's show and A&E's Cold Case Files and Keltie and The LadyGang are having another year. We keep building our library, and more and more people are finding out how great podcasting is, and they're going back and consuming all these shows. Where we'll have an advantage is as our library and impressions grow, we'll be able to have those three channels in there funneling in as much money as possible. I hope that gave you kind of an answer on your question or helped you out.

Tom White
Tom White
Analyst at D.A. Davidson

Got it. Yeah. That's very helpful. I appreciate it. I just have one follow-up.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yeah. Programmatically, you're still going to see big money. Sorry, just to add to it. You're still going to see more money going in that space. Again, the brands are really excited about the podcast end user, right? I believe with a political change in our country, there's not going to be as much restrictions on who's saying what, where for these brands if they want to reach people. I think that'll help. I also think you're going to just see more and more in the audio space as audio catches up with video banner network programmatic capabilities. That's what we're seeing. I still think you'll see some great revenue growth on the programmatic channel as well.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Got it. That's super helpful. I appreciate it. I just had one follow-up. I was reading about LaunchpadOne. It seems like a really interesting way to discover new talent. As it relates to Art19, given that you're sunsetting most tech used for hosting, would you maybe expect an uplift in users joining Launchpad to host their podcasts, or do they host through Art19 now, or just how should I think about that?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yeah. We're still going to be working with our old company to still run Launchpad and grow Launchpad. I agree with you. It's still a very exciting free ability to host podcasts. We'll be doing some things this year. A couple of years ago, we did kind of a Find Your Next Great Podcast show where some of our great podcasters were great from the shows and so forth. We'll be doing some things like that to grow that and expand on the tech there too, right? Now that we don't have to spend as much time on all the other stuff that we're doing because Art19 is taking over some of it, we'll be able to still do those things. Launchpad is definitely on our radar to focus more of our time and efforts in moving forward.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Great. Thank you very much.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Thank you.

Operator

Your final question today comes from the line of Barry Sine from Litchfield. Your line is open.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield

Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Actually, good afternoon, I guess, now. I want to talk about the content. Kit, maybe you can talk about what podcasts are really hot right now, what's up and coming, what new podcasts have you added that you're really excited about, and what's on the runway for potentially give us a sneak preview of what you might be adding over the next month or two.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yeah, sure. I highlighted Stassi, and Vanderpump actually starts up again shortly. Vanderpump is like a phenomenon. We have two shows that are focused on that, soon to be three, based on a partnership ending and doing their own shows with Jax and Brittany. That is really killing it. Kailyn Lowry, who does the KILLR Network and Inside of PodcastOne with her network of shows, they are also launching another show associated with that as well. That is our wheelhouse. When we look at female programming, moms, that is still what people are always asking for in terms of advertising, and the audience is really expanding there. We will continue to focus our efforts on shows like that. We have over 100 shows that we are talking to right now. Many of them fit in that world, as well as true crime.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

A ton of true crime shows out there that are really exciting and fun. We have got a great true crime network that a lot of them will fit into. We just launched this past week A&E's Ancient Aliens. It is actually the History Channel, which is under the A&E umbrella. We are part of that family now. We have worked with A&E for almost eight years with Cold Case Files, I Survived, and a couple others. I am really high on this show. I think that the alien phenomenon is tremendous. There are some great stories, and everybody has an opinion on these things. Recently, there has been some alien stuff coming up on the news. I think that is a really good one.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

We have got the power of A&E and their TV and social media behind that as well. Those are some of the ones we are really excited about.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

We're going to be continuing the path of the Varnamtown of the world and owning IP and continuing to grow that library and reaching out and trying to sell more of those shows to networks for second-window type opportunities. There is great focus on our company on that as well. Those are a couple of them. We're really excited about the network and the opportunities coming forward. I think we're positioned really well.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield

Okay. And just elaborating on some of the things you said in terms of some of the female programming. I know, for example, Lady Gang has a three-day weekend event coming up in September. I do not think you guys are actually running that, but presumably that has spillover effects in terms of popularity and advertising. Anything on that and any other special events in addition to just podcasts you may have in the works?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yeah, we're going to be involved in that. That's actually if you guys know where I live in Florida, it's maybe 10 minutes from where I live here in Destin, Florida. Yeah, we're going to be involved in that. I'm actually meeting with the Keltie Knight and Lady Gang next week about finalizing some deals and some ideas down here. That's a cool event. We'll be doing more of those types of things with our talent. If you notice on the roster, you'll see Kaitlyn Bristowe, Lady Gang, and Stassi, right? There are other great podcasts that aren't PodcastOne, The Office Ladies, and a couple others. Those are three of our biggest, most powerful shows all here. We're going to do some fun things and be involved in that. It's cool.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

I mean, that's what you can do when you have a podcast community or you have a social media community. You can drive things like that where there's going to be a weekend of content, music. There's a graph that's coming down. There's going to be eating and yoga and paddleboarding and really just kind of a fun event. PodcastOne will be involved in that as well.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield

Turning to emerging monetization, things like movies and so on, where are we in terms of a composition of revenue? I assume what, 95% or more of revenue is still traditional advertising sales and that the emerging streams are not that significant. On a forward-looking basis, are there any negotiations in process? I'm not asking which specifically, but what's the forward-looking view on emerging monetization?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Yeah. I think when you look at advertising, it's still going to be a big part of what we do. It's that 90-95% zone. It's more diversified now having Art19, Amazon involved in that with some, you're hedging your bets a little bit if you look at that on the financial side of things. That protects us a little bit. PodcastOne Pro is ramping up. I mentioned Boost and Microsoft, but Lovesac, which is, I think, I believe I saw they had a TV commercial around the Super Bowl as a growing brand. We've got a great show with them. MotorTrend continues. They're now going to be in their fourth season with us. That's a really nice business. We are focusing on that.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

That'll help us with our margins quite a bit because we have the talent booking and the infrastructure in terms of producers, video, audio. When we charge people for that, our margins will be really nice. That will be something else that will continue in merch, shows, owning. Our parent company, LiveOne, is doing stuff with a liquor brand and a coffee now. We are going to be doing more of that for some of our partnerships in the talent space. Over the next year, year and a half, you'll start to see that change a little bit. Again, the advertising is really our core business.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Sure. Good to talk to you. Thank you, Barry.

Operator

That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President at PodcastOne

Hey, guys. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and interest in PodcastOne. We'll be at the Roth event in March, and we'll be constantly updating everybody on things as they happen within the quarter. Again, we appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you guys soon. Take care. Bye.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Aaron Sullivan
      Aaron Sullivan
      CFO
    • Kit Gray
      Kit Gray
      President
Analysts
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