PodcastOne Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
June 24, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: PodcastOne said fiscal 2026 was a strong finish, with revenue up 18% year over year to $61.7 million and adjusted EBITDA swinging to positive $6.3 million from negative $0.5 million.
  • Positive Sentiment: Fourth-quarter results improved meaningfully, as revenue reached $15.7 million and operating loss narrowed to $460,000 from $1.8 million a year ago, helped by higher advertising revenue and operational efficiencies.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted continued expansion of the content network through new creator partnerships, renewals, and original programming, while Podtrac ranked PodcastOne as the 7th largest U.S. podcast publisher.
  • Positive Sentiment: Programmatic advertising revenue more than doubled versus the same period last year, which management said reflects stronger advertiser demand and better monetization tools such as dynamic ad insertion and automated buying.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Looking ahead, executives pointed to a pipeline of potential talent additions and M&A opportunities, but said fiscal 2027 growth will likely come from a mix of organic growth, talent acquisitions, and strategic deals rather than a precise single driver.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
PodcastOne Q4 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning. Thank you for standing by. The conference will begin shortly.

Operator

[Break]

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to PodcastOne's fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended March 31st, 2026, with financial results and a business update conference call. During today's call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be opened for questions. Presenting on today's call are Kit Gray, President and Founder of PodcastOne, and Craig Christensen, Interim Chief Financial Officer. I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking and 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.

Operator

Actual results may differ materially from those discussed on this call for a variety of reasons. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for information about factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those described in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31st, 2026, and subsequent SEC filings. You'll 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, June 24th, 2026.

Operator

Except as required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information after today's call. I'd like to highlight to all participants that this call is being recorded. The company will make it available to investors and media via webcast, and a replay will be available on its website in the investor relations section shortly following the conclusion of the call. Additionally, it is the property of the company, and any redistribution, transmission, or rebroadcast of this call or the webcast in any form without the company's expressed written consent is strictly prohibited. I would now like to turn the call over to PodcastOne's president, Kit Gray.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Welcome to our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026 earnings call. As a reminder, our fiscal year begins on April 1st. This quarter marked a strong finish to fiscal 2026 and reflected the continued execution of our strategy to grow podcasts. Through premium content, strategic talent partnerships, diversified monetization, and technology-driven operations. Throughout the year, we strengthened our position as one of the leading podcast publishers in the industry while expanding our network with established creator brands, developing original content, and driving meaningful growth across our advertising platform. PodcastOne continues to distinguish itself as the leading pure-play podcasting platform on the public markets through a vertically integrated model that combines talent development, content creation, distribution, analytics, monetization, and operational efficiencies, all supported by our AI-powered infrastructure. Our AI toolkit continues to enhance performance across every aspect of the business. Flightpath drives predictive profitability.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Boostr scales advertising management and proposal recommendations. Adobe Audition ensures best-in-class audio quality. AudEngine supports discoverability through SEO and insights. Magellan AI powers advertising attribution, and OpusClip converts long-form video into short-form content that fuels audience growth across platforms. Our team constantly uses AI-based search components to discover new talent, match trending topics to specific content created on our programs, and more. These tools directly support how we grow shows, monetize audiences, and operate more efficiently at scale. Throughout the quarter, we continued expanding and strengthening our content portfolio through a combination of new talent partnerships, creator renewals, and original content development. We added several established creator-led podcasts to the PodcastOne network, including The Wellness Cafe, No Filter with Zack Peter, and The Michelle Collins Show. These additions expand our reach across lifestyle, entertainment, and culture categories while providing advertisers with access to highly engaged audiences.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

We also continued investing in original content with the development and launch of It's Okay, We're All Gonna Die with Nurse Julie, demonstrating our ability to identify emerging talent and create new intellectual property within the PodcastOne ecosystem. Across our network, PodcastOne creators continued to attract high-profile guests and cultural influencers spanning entertainment, business, health, and public affairs. Notable appearances during the quarter include Mel Robbins on Off the Vine, Jerry Seinfeld on The Adam Carolla Show, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on The Adam Carolla Show, Meredith Marks on Let Me Save You 25 Years, and Morgan Stewart on Yestergays. These appearances demonstrate the reach, relevance, and influence of PodcastOne programming across multiple audience segments. Our momentum throughout the year was further reflected in PodcastOne's growing industry standing.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

During the quarter, Podtrac ranked PodcastOne as the seventh largest podcast publisher in the U.S., highlighting continued audience growth and the increasing scale of our platform. Our monetization platform continued to deliver strong results as advertisers increasingly embraced podcasting as a measurable and scalable media channel. Programmatic advertising revenue more than doubled compared to the same January through March period of the prior year, reflecting growing advertiser demand for premium podcast inventory and the continued success of our technology-enabled advertising solutions. This growth demonstrates the effectiveness of our investment in dynamic ad insertion, inventory expansion, audience targeting, and automated buying capabilities. As advertisers continue shifting budgets towards digital audio and podcasting, PodcastOne remains well-positioned to capture increasing demand through both direct sales and programmatic channels.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Together with our growing content portfolio, audience expansion, and creator partnerships, these monetization gains further validate our strategy of building a diversified and scalable media platform. Craig, back to you for our financial results.

Craig Christensen
Craig Christensen
Interim CFO at PodcastOne

All right. Thank you, Kit. As a reminder, our fiscal year began on April 1st, 2025, and ended on March 31st, 2026. Revenue in our fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 was $15.7 million. Operating loss in the fourth quarter was $460,000 compared to an operating loss of $1.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. This improvement was driven primarily by higher advertising revenue and operational efficiencies across production and distribution.

Craig Christensen
Craig Christensen
Interim CFO at PodcastOne

Net loss for the fourth quarter was $460,000, or negative $0.02 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1.8 million, or negative $0.09 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $1.9 million, compared to $888,000 in the same year-ago quarter, driven by revenue growth and contribution margin improvement. We ended the quarter with $3.5 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt on the balance sheet.

Craig Christensen
Craig Christensen
Interim CFO at PodcastOne

Switching now to the full year 2026 results, revenue increased 18% to $61.7 million, compared to $52.1 million in fiscal year 2025. Operating loss for the fiscal year of 2026 was $2.6 million, compared to an operating loss of $6.4 million in fiscal year 2025. This improvement was primarily driven by revenue growth, margin improvement, and disciplined cost management. Net loss in fiscal year 2026 was $2.6 million or negative $0.10 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $6.5 million or negative $0.26 per basic and diluted share in fiscal year 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year of 2026 was a positive $6.3 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA of negative $0.5 million in fiscal year 2025. With that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Kit.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Thanks, Craig. Fiscal 2026 was a transformational year for PodcastOne. We expanded our network with established creator brands, renewed many of our most successful long-term partnerships, developed original content, strengthened our monetization platform, and increased our industry standing among the largest podcast publishers in the country. As we look ahead, we remain encouraged by the broader trends shaping the podcast industry. Recent industry research shows total podcast listening time has increased approximately 386% since 2016 and now exceeds 800 million listening hours per week. The continued growth of audience engagement, video podcasting, and advertiser adoption reinforces our belief that podcasting remains one of the most compelling and fastest-growing segments of digital media. We are also encouraged by continued investment, strategic partnerships, and innovation occurring across the podcast industry. Under Steve Lehman's leadership, we continue evaluating opportunities that can strengthen our platform, expand our creator offerings, and enhance long-term shareholder value.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

While we remain disciplined in our approach, we believe the continued evolution of the industry creates meaningful opportunities for growth through our partnerships, technology, content development, and other strategic initiatives. As we enter fiscal 2027, we remain focused on expanding our content portfolio, enhancing monetization opportunities for creators and advertisers, growing our audience reach, and continuing to build durable value across the PodcastOne ecosystem. I want to thank our team, our creators, our advertising partners, and our shareholders for their continued support and trust. With that, we'll now open the line for questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Sean McGowan with Roth Capital Partners. Sean, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Thanks. Hey, Kit, how are you doing? Hello again, Craig. My first question is, regarding this Podtrac number, Kit, you and I have talked about this quite a bit over the last couple of years. Some of those numbers seem to kind of move around a little bit in terms of audience size and how it's classified. How should we think about that move to number seven in terms of the growth of podcasts versus either consolidation or other stuff going on in companies that are ranked higher than that? How much of this is real growth?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Hey, Sean. Good to hear from you. Thanks for the question. I appreciate it. Yeah. Podtrac is an interesting measure of success for how you're doing comparative to other people, just like all rankers when it comes to what's going on in the world in terms of timing, right? I would say these sports networks may be coming off of football, and it's a cyclical thing, right? Summertime is not as heavy for sports, although this year with the World Cup and stuff like that, it's an interesting time. It's typically cyclical based on what's going on. If we have shows we're covering that are live right now, those typically get some good numbers. Hard to tell where it's really coming from. I look at it as exciting for us as a group in terms of our presence in the podcasting world.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

I think that as we continue to grow up the ranks and grow, that's a good thing. That's a good thing for talent to see when we're going out there and acquiring them: that we have significant scale. We are a big player in that space. That's a good thing to say, and it's a good thing to say to advertisers. At the end of the day, that's not where we're paid, and that's not where we make our money. Our money is on it. Are the shows growing? Are we getting our CPMs higher? Are we getting our fill rates higher? That's where we're all graded on the real crux of the business. It really doesn't come down to Podtrac. It really comes down to how are the shows performing? Are we getting more ad dollars? That's how we look at it.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

That's helpful. I guess related to my next question is, if it isn't just Podtrac, what are some of the other metrics that you use internally to measure how you guys are doing relative to the overall industry?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Yeah. Well, when it comes to the industry, Podtrac's a good reference. It doesn't have all the podcasts or podcast networks out there. It's still finding its way through the video side of things and social media side of things, and they've got some things coming out this year that we'll try to incorporate some of that stuff into. I look at our competition, obviously, and what they're offering shows that maybe we're not like that and what's working out there. Really, my job and the team's job are to look at the shows that we have, the shows that we're trying to acquire, and just the whole blocking and tackling and running and doing the right things that we do every time with the show. It's, what are the sellout rates? Can we get the CPMs up? Is the show growing?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Are we marketing it the right way? Are the shows marketing it the right way? Are we getting them on other podcasts to grow? That's really important. Every two weeks, we as a team look through all our shows and how they're doing and what they're doing in the marketing side of things. As new things pop up, whether it's Podroll or new videos or social media techniques that are working, we are looking at how every show on our network can use those tools to move forward.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay. Thank you. A couple questions of a different nature. Again, we've talked a lot about using stock as a way of compensating the talent and keeping them more in line with shareholders. What should we expect for non-employee stock-based comps going forward? Should we expect the fourth quarter to be an indication of what we would see each quarter, or will it fluctuate going forward?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Yeah. The ones that we're able to do those types of deals with are seeing great value, right? Something that's unique that no one else can offer, really. Those partners that have jumped on early have reaped the reward, especially as the stock has gone up the last three or four months. That's been a great payout to those guys. We see them all, the ones that are currently doing that continuing. I believe you're going to see a lot more jumping into the fray, right? Because we now have the case studies of it working and people making more money and having some great upside on it and enjoying the process. I think you're going to see more of that over the next 12 to 24 months.

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

Just to jump in there for a second, Sean, this is a game changer, right? In that what you always want is your talent to get behind your company, right? We want everyone rowing in the same direction. You'll see my brother was on Adam Carolla this morning. Yeah, I'm going on Carolla, I think in two weeks on Fox with him, right? We're going to start to get our talent behind the company as well as behind the stock. When that happens, you get these big social media stars with big audiences. It's a great help to everybody here. It's a great help to building the network and building the audience and continuing to grow. We're really proud of this, and it gives us a huge leg up when negotiating with talent to be able to offer them a currency, right?

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

A pretty liquid currency now that they can jump into, and eventually, if the stock has a big run like it deserves, they'll eventually make additional money, but they'll also create enormous liquidity for the company. We're really excited about this, and it's something that Kit Gray and I have been working on for the better part of five years. Now the talent is getting so excited about where the company is going, and as we head towards breaking $50 million in revenues, now we break $60 million, and we start to talk about getting to $100 million, there's going to be more and more talent that wants to join and wants to join our platform. When you see guys like Dr. Phil join the platform, it's a great indication of how equity can really be a game changer in locking down talent.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay. That makes sense. Just to clarify, for non-employee stock-based compensation for PodcastOne, are all of those shares PodcastOne shares, or are there any LVO shares as well?

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

We've used—

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

They're all PodcastOne shares

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

We've used both. Right now it's all PodcastOne, but we've used both along the way, Sean. Right now, all these are in PodcastOne.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Okay, thank you. Thanks, [inaudible].

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Sure. Thanks, Sean. Good to talk to you.

Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners

Thanks.

Operator

A reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Your next question comes from the line of Leo Carpio with Joseph Gunnar. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Good afternoon, gentlemen. Actually, good morning for you, actually. Just kind of a quick question. First, on the fiscal 2027 guidance, could you break it down in terms of what is going to be organic growth driven versus acquisitions in terms of new talent that you're going to bring onto the platform? I have a few follow-up questions.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Sure. That's a little fluid in terms of where exactly that's going to come down to, but we've cut, like I mentioned in the call, three or four really exciting M&A opportunities that we don't know which ones are going to fall, but we know some of them will. We also have some really big shows and some other tech things that are in the works now. I can't tell you if it's going to be 10% this or 15% this or 70% this. What I will tell you is that we're seeing good growth, even as we're charging through the end of Q1 this year. We're seeing some good things on the sales, just organic growth just based on the medium, and you can read it in the trades. I don't even have to make it. These aren't secrets. The podcasting world is doing great.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

The ad spends are continuing to grow. The programmatic numbers are continuing to expand. The world is embracing not only the video side of things and the audio side of things but also social media and how to buy into communities better. It's really going to be a blend of all those three things to get us to where we need to be. There are always different things that come along the way, too. We talked a little bit about some of the AI content licensing opportunities that are really exciting as well. We don't really know exactly how it's going to go to the T, but we're pretty confident that by a blend of all those things, we're going to get to the number we need to get to.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay. Turning to the, just since you mentioned M&A—

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

Just to add to that for one second, that guidance is not acquisitions; it's acquisitions of talent because we continue to acquire talent every month. We probably add one to two new pieces of talent every month. We probably added 20 last year, but that does not include an acquisition of a company. That includes acquisition of talent. We're really excited about the pipeline, and maybe, Kit, you just want to talk a little bit about the pipeline right now and how robust it is.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

On the M&A side of things, we're not only talking to small podcast companies but also bigger podcast companies in the media space, which are all really exciting. There are a bunch of tech aspects that we're looking at too, in terms of them being a part of PodcastOne in interesting ways. Really, the talent side of things is as strong, if not stronger, than it always has been. Again, it comes down to how we are going to make the right decisions for the company so we can continue to grow both the top-line revenue and in terms of just making money. We've got a lot of things that we're really excited about. I'm traveling a lot. My team's traveling a lot. We're meeting with some really big people that have some big aspirations and we think would be great fits for PodcastOne.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay. Turning back to M&A of platforms, are you seeing a robust opportunity in terms of platforms that are available at a rational cost? Or is it just the same conditions that we saw in the prior year?

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

I wouldn't call it a robot. Let me just jump in for a second, Kit, in that it's not that there are a lot of smaller ones, just like we are; we're the microcap of podcasts, right? We're acquiring those podcasts that are doing less than $10 million in revenue. The same thing in terms of networks. The networks that we're seeing that are out there are too small for the big guys to gobble up. It's a great opportunity for us to pick up one, two, or three of these and really take this to over $100 million quickly. As we said, we're very excited about the M&A side of it and what is going to happen very shortly about accretive add-on acquisitions to it.

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

Separately, Kit was talking about the pipeline of the amount of podcasts and the actual talent that's coming to us, and some of that is because of our stock-based comp, but some of that is also because the industry's getting rolled up. A lot of acquisitions have happened for the first time in five years. They're starting to buy up podcast networks very aggressively again. OpenAI just paid a fortune, 13.5 times revenues, for a podcast network. Fox just bought two major networks, including Vox, and they're paying huge multiples again. For the bigger networks, they're going to take those out of the way.

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

For us, we're sitting in the sweet spot where Kit and his team really give such an advantage to talent because of that 360 play that those smaller networks really need our services in order to really stay in the game. I think this is probably the most robust lineup of smaller acquisitions we've seen in the last five to seven years.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay, in terms of just the advertising environment, it sounds like it's pretty rich and robust in spite of the economic backdrop we've been hearing in the last few weeks. Do you think that will persist in the coming quarters?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Everything is pointing towards good things on the podcasting front. Just because brands are seeing great results, they have the ability to do their digital attribution to see upticks and what shows are working and where their budgets are working and what demographics are working for their brands. We've seen great things on that. As always, when we go out to advertising agencies, we're not a spots-and-dots company. We do that, but really where you get your value is being able to buy into these communities that we offer. To not only buy into them, make sure that the campaigns are done the right way. That's the key.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

That's what we offer that's different than everybody else: we're meeting with talent, we're working on campaigns that fit into their community the right way, and the brands feel comfortable about it, and that's where they'll pay premiums on that. It's hard to do. There are a million companies out there that say they can do it, but actually getting the talent to do what the brands need to do, that's the name of the game, and that's where you're going to get paid higher CPMs and make more and get better rev splits and things like that. The talent that we have, whether they've been with us for seven, eight, or nine years, like a lot of them have been, or some of these new ones, are telling us.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

I literally had lunch with one of our shows on Monday in New York City, and they were with two or three other companies before us, and just how they're loving the experience, the relationships, and working hand-in-hand with the team to really understand the business that we're partnered in has been great to them. I think you're going to see more and more of that, and I think you're starting to see ad agencies and brands just buy the ones that they're comfortable with and making the right deals based on proven track records of doing what you'd say you'd do. That's our business.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Last question. Can you provide us an update on the Amazon relationship with R19? I recall you've been moving up in terms of the volume of activity, as you've been moving up on the thresholds for the contract. Does that momentum continue?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

The Amazon relationship has just been a great one. Andy and his team over there have been just amazing partners. The technology and the efficiencies that we've just been able to use by working with them have been just tremendous. We don't have to spend nearly as much time perfecting that and working on that. Just the efficiencies alone have been great. The connection to their sales platform and their sales team at Amazon took a little bit of a bumpy start over the first couple of months just in terms of getting set up and having their team package our programming and podcasting programming into what their offerings are. We're really hitting our stride, and we look at sellout percentages and CPMs almost daily, and they're all going in the right direction. We're really happy with that.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

If we can acquire some of these shows and networks that we're talking about, it'll keep moving us up on the next tier of the minimum guarantee. We're really excited and happy about where that is right now.

Leo Carpio
Analyst at Joseph Gunnar

Okay. Thank you.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Sure. Thanks. Yeah. Good to talk to you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Barry Sine with Litchfield Hills Research. Barry, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

Hey, good afternoon, Kit and Rob and Craig. The first question should be an easy one. I didn't see the number of shows in the press release. How many shows did you have in the March quarter that you're reporting? Where are you now in terms of the number of shows? What are your top three? I'm particularly interested in how the Dr. Phil Show is going, given the high hopes you had for that when he first came on.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Okay. Lot of good questions there. Thanks. I don't know the exact numbers of where we were when we ended the quarter to where we are exactly right now, but it's in that 200-185 show range, give or take one or two. The podcasts that still remain atop the world in podcasting for us, Adam Carolla, Jordan Harbinger, and the A&E properties, those remain our top dogs. Stassi has been doing really great. There's a good solid group of those that continue to remain at the top of the PodcastOne ranker. I don't know if I got all your answers in there for all your questions. Did I miss something?

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

Dr. Phil McGraw.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

Dr. Phil. Yes. Dr. Phil, it's been good. Dr. Phil has two really good shows, right? He's got The Dr. Phil Podcast, which he does a bunch of times a week, and then the Mystery and Murder show. I always get that back the wrong way, but that's been going great, too. They fit well into the network we continue to promote in our lifestyle and really our male network. The Dr. Phil Show and then the Mystery and Murder show fit really well in our crime network when we go out and sell the crime space. It's been a good one. He's in very big demand. We have high hopes that he does a tour through Austin in the next couple of months to hit up some of those big podcasts that he has great relationships with. Phil's been amazing. We're really happy with that relationship to date.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

Sean asked about the Podtrac data. I know you said that there are some better data items. Things like CPMs, you guys don't report, so it's kind of the best we can do, and it does come out monthly. One flaw that we've talked about with the Podtrac data is, and you just alluded to it, it does not pick up all of the viewing sources, and in fact, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't believe it picks up the largest viewing source, which is YouTube. What percentage, do you think, of views do they pick up? How might we adjust the Podtrac numbers upward to get a broader number?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

We're in constant contact with the Podtrac team, and they're in a world where they're testing some things to include video as well. YouTube, Rumble, all of those. They're even looking at social reach, where now that'll include everything from LinkedIn to X to TikTok and Instagram, all that. That number is going to get wild. It's hard for you guys to do a full analysis on that because it doesn't correlate from impression to impression in terms of sales. The Podtrac world doesn't have all the shows; it doesn't have all the networks, but we look at it as at least a good tracker in the industry for where we are and our continued growth.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

It comes down to the internal side of things, which I know you guys don't see, but the sell-out rates, the increased CPMs, the growth of the marketing, and the backlog of content to monetize that. That's where we live, and that's how we try to do the best that we can. You're seeing more and more video numbers, and we have seen a little bit of press on how video can't be quantified as strongly as maybe the audio experience. That seems to be evening out recently in some of the press out there and some of the attribution on it, and seeing really good sales results or ROI results just on the video side of things, which is great news for the industry, right? It's really hard to answer and give you all the information because Podtrac just doesn't have that.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

They just do the best that they possibly can. They're continuing to evolve, so you'll have more information to look at. I would hesitate to say the millions and millions of social media followers that we have are going to just grow our revenue exponentially when you do see that stuff. It's more how we use it to package individual sales deals and buy into communities, and it's really hard to kind of quantify for you guys, but that's our world.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

Okay. Just to clarify on that Podtrac point. In the past, I think you've said to me that YouTube is the largest source. They're not in there, and they represent about 22% of viewing. Are those three data points still directionally correct, do you think?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

I think so. It really is hard because not every show has YouTube, right? Where if they do, they put it out on YouTube as still imagery, right? Because look, we have A&E Cold Case Files, and that network of shows is one of our biggest groups, right? They're not on YouTube, right? The reason they're not on YouTube is because they're on A&E. We don't do the video side of things, so they lose out on some of the discovery to that. Other crime shows are not conversations that you can just put on YouTube. There's a lot of research, a lot of writing, and a lot that goes into it behind the scenes, so it's not something that you could add video to.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

You can just put the still imagery out there and put your commercials in and use YouTube for discovery and shareability and consumption. It's different, right? Everything's a little different. Again, it comes down to the shows: How much can we package them together, video, audio, and social media, and just go from there?

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

Okay. My last question is regarding the competitive environment versus the other podcast publishers. If I look at the rankings, are the bigger guys that are above you getting more or less aggressive in going after talent? It seems to me that a lot of the ones that are above you are really just only doing their own content, not third-party as you do. Below you, the smaller podcast publishers, historically, you've had a competitive advantage because you just give your podcasters a lot more data, and they're able to run their businesses more effectively. What are you seeing both above you in terms of competing for talent and above you, your ability to perhaps take talent away from some of the smaller publishers that are below you?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Yeah. When you look at the ranker, iHeartMedia's good. The top two spots there, I don't know. They've explained that to me a couple of times on how that works. I think what it is is their original shows and then the ones that they represent in air quotes, right? Some of those other shows that you see above us, Libsyn, host a lot of large-run network-type sales that they do on their end. They also have shows that they work on hand in hand. We're stealing from a bunch of those companies. iHeart have their own financial issues that they're working through. Every time you listen to them talk about what they're talking about on their earnings calls, it's really strong in terms of podcast growth, right?

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

That's probably picking up for a lot of the other lagging verticals in their world. They're concentrating on podcasts and they can make different deals than we can just because they can funnel money different ways and show growth in certain things. They like to do that. They're a great place for us to go and steal content. We say that in the right way because we're very connected. If you look at all the shows that they have, it's almost impossible to manage all of those the right way. When we go to podcasters that are with them, we talk about what we do, and people really like it. They like the attention. They like the things that you mentioned earlier about being able to see the numbers and run their business that way based off of that.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

I think that's a real competitive advantage for us. When you look at some of the smaller ones behind us, I think it's the same story, right? It's the hand-holding ability to use all our marketing, our talent booking, our hosting, and our sales team. That's still attractive to some of these other shows that are with some of these smaller networks. We're able to offer scale, right? It's nice to be able to say, Well, you're going to get all that attention, but you're also going to get scale where we can offer you 30 million or 25 million downloads a month, right? Genres and get you on a bunch of podcasts in our network and offer our network to grow.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

We like to kind of, I guess, for lack of better words, attack both the bigger ones and the smaller ones, just by knowing what we do best.

Barry Sine
Barry Sine
Analyst at Litchfield Hills Research

All right. That's it for me. Thank you very much, Kit.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Sure. Good to talk to you.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Kit Gray for closing remarks.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Thank you, everyone. I really appreciate your time today. It's been a tremendous Q4 and year. We learned a lot. We continued to grow. We made some great relationships. It's been just really a thrill to get a PodcastOne stock heading in the right direction. We feel really good about where we are and the huge upside. Rob mentioned it earlier when he was talking. We think we're a great value play, a great growth play. We're a great company in a great medium. We're really excited about the next year and what we're going to do with PodcastOne and the industry. We just wanted to say thank you for your time today. We appreciate you guys following us, listening to our podcast, and understanding our medium.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to talking to you guys throughout the year and updating you as we continue to grow and have great success. Thank you so much and have a great day.

Rob Ellin
Rob Ellin
Executive Chairman at PodcastOne

I'm just adding one last thing. LiveOne will continue to buy back a substantial amount of PodcastOne stock every quarter. We are extraordinarily proud of Kit and the team and what they've done. This is a world-class team that has really held us together this year in a tough year coming off the heels of Slacker. PodcastOne has just shined and done a great job. We will continue to do buybacks and continue to add to it. If the stock continues to trade way below the industry levels, we'll just keep buying back as much stock as we can, and we'll start again next week. Thank you, everyone, for joining, and thanks, Kit.

Kit Gray
Kit Gray
President and Co-Founder at PodcastOne

Thanks, Rob.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Kit Gray
      Kit Gray
      President and Co-Founder
    • Craig Christensen
      Craig Christensen
      Interim CFO
    • Rob Ellin
      Rob Ellin
      Executive Chairman
Analysts
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