Newsmax Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 13, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record second-quarter revenue rose 16.5% year over year to $54.1 million, while Newsmax reported its first quarterly profit as a public company, with $2.9 million in net income and $5.7 million in adjusted EBITDA.
  • Positive Sentiment: Revenue mix continued shifting toward higher-margin affiliate fees and licensing, helping gross margin expand to 43.1% from 38.0% a year earlier. The company ended the quarter with $128.3 million in cash and short-term investments and no debt.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management cited ongoing growth in audience reach, social followers, international licensing, and AI partnerships, including a multi-year content agreement with Meta. International licensing revenue is expected to reach approximately $16 million in 2026, up sharply from $3.6 million in 2025.
  • Negative Sentiment: Some consumer-driven revenue streams weakened: advertising revenue declined 3.5%, subscription revenue fell 9.9% due to lower new-customer acquisition, and product sales dropped 31.7%. Total digital revenue also declined 1.3% year over year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Newsmax reiterated full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $212 million to $216 million, representing approximately 13% growth at the midpoint, while emphasizing continued investment in programming, technology, streaming, and distribution.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Newsmax Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Please note, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Chris O'Day with Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon, and welcome to Newsmax's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I am joined today by Chris Ruddy, Chief Executive Officer, and Darryl Burnham, Chief Financial Officer. On this call, Chris and Darryl will provide prepared remarks on the most recent quarter. We will then take questions from the investment community. A recording of this conference call will be available on our investor relations website shortly after the call has ended. Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements regarding Newsmax's financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management's current expectations. Actual results could differ from what is stated due to certain factors identified on today's call and in the company's SEC filings. Additionally, this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 1

Reconciliations of these measures are included in the earnings release and our SEC filings, which are available in the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Chris Ruddy, Chief Executive Officer of Newsmax. Chris?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Chris, and welcome everyone to our second quarter 2026 earnings call. The story of the second quarter is simple. We did what we said we would do and more. Revenue came in at a record $54.1 million, up 16.5% year-over-year. For the first time as a public company, Newsmax was profitable. We delivered net income for the quarter of $2.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of $5.7 million. Let me put the profitability in perspective. The one-time costs of becoming a public company and legal costs are now largely behind us. These numbers carry less noise and give a cleaner view of the business. We are encouraged by what we see and will look to invest behind this growth. We remain in strategic investment mode. That will not change.

Speaker 2

We are also seeing growth in key areas of our business. Broadcast revenue rose 20.5% to $45.8 million, led by our higher-margin affiliate fees and licensing. Overall, the value creation opportunities of our multi-platform model are showing positive results. Our audience tells the same story. Despite the post-cycle normalization, total viewership rose again. We reached 26.9 million total viewers, up 4% year-over-year. This represents our highest second quarter reach in the past four years. Our total viewers also include 11.3 million adults 35 to 64. We remain the fourth highest-rated cable news channel and rank number 2 in the category for engagement among adults 35 to 64. Even when the news cycle slows, our viewers stay with us, and we continue to grow. Our audience is highly loyal. That is one of the great strengths of the Newsmax brand.

Speaker 2

The way people find news is not standing still, and neither are we. We maintain a strong presence on social media. Our growth there is resilient. Total followers climbed over 28% year-over-year to over 26 million. This shift in news consumption has also increasingly been moving to AI, and we continue to be at the forefront in meeting viewers where their preferences evolve. We are excited about our multi-year AI content partnership with Meta. Our journalism and reporting will help power AI answers across Meta's ecosystem, social, streaming, AI. We see this as the beginning of our AI efforts, and it's nice to start with a bang by partnering with one of the largest online companies in the nation. None of this works without a solid foundation.

Speaker 2

Newsmax is the fastest-growing basic cable network since Nielsen began measuring us in 2020, up more than 280% across key day parts. That broadcast strength is what allows us to invest in the rest of the platform. Even as consumption shifts across platforms, there is still a strong place for linear news. We are well-positioned to maintain that presence. Streaming continues to be a strategic focus for us. It's a key investment area and the next frontier of our business evolution. On our year-end call, we said Newsmax+ needed stronger content and more on-demand programming and that we would put resources behind it. We have. The Newsmax+ catalog now tops 300 titles, including broadening our content library of family-friendly content, including more new original premium specials and documentaries.

Speaker 2

Newsmax2, our free streaming channel, keeps gaining ground on the major platforms, with news hours continuing to grow. Subscription revenue is still an area we are building. You will be hearing a lot more about those efforts in the months ahead. We will keep taking deliberate steps to improve engagement, strengthen retention, and translate the expanded lineup into subscriber growth. Our international business is building rapidly. In 2025, we reported $3.6 million in international licensing fees. This year, we expect fees of about $16 million, a 344% increase. During the past quarter, we officially launched Newsmax Polska, solidifying our already vast distribution footprint in more than 100 countries. These are true partnerships. The operators know their markets, run the channels locally, and license the Newsmax brand. We provide our high-quality content and the editorial framework. It is a capital-efficient way to add value for all parties, especially the viewers.

Speaker 2

Most importantly, we are bringing independent center-right journalism to these underserved audiences around the world. We believe Newsmax can become a truly global news brand, and we are building toward exactly that. Looking ahead, we are reiterating our full year 2026 revenue guidance of $212 million to $216 million, representing 13% growth at the midpoint. We continue to expect this growth to be structural, not cyclical, led by affiliate fee expansion and licensing. We also expect the full-year operating profile to improve compared to 2025. Let me close with the big picture. Nearly half the country feels underserved by legacy media, with trust at an all-time low. The center-right audience is underserved both domestically and internationally. That creates a significant and durable opportunity. This audience is not shrinking, and few media companies can reach it with the scale, credibility, and multi-platform presence of Newsmax.

Speaker 2

We deliver independent, values-driven journalism across cable, streaming, and digital. Our social audience is large and highly engaged. Our reach continues to expand. We are also positioning Newsmax at the forefront of emerging technology as AI becomes a more important channel for news discovery and consumption. I like to say that Newsmax is leading a news revolution, and I don't say it lightly. We continue to grow, reach millions of Americans digitally, on social, and on TV, both linear and streaming, as well as through our Plus service, podcasting, and radio, and now in a very robust way across the globe. This quarter showed that the foundation of our revolution is stronger than ever. Record revenue, a growing international footprint, our first profitable quarter as a public company, a strong cash position and debt-free balance sheet, financial flexibility to support investments in content and growth.

Speaker 2

We are operating from a position of strength, and we are excited about the journey ahead. To our readers, our viewers, our advertisers, and you, our shareholders, thank you. With that, I will turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Darryl Burnham, to walk through the financials. Darryl?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Chris, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. As Chris highlighted, we delivered record revenues and our first quarterly net income since becoming a public company. The way we got there is just as important as the result. Our revenue mix continued to shift toward affiliate fee and licensing revenues, and higher rates across both expanded gross margin to 43.1% from 38% in the prior year quarter. We are also operating with better visibility, absence of the prior year legal settlement expense allowing strong top-line growth to flow through to the bottom line. Importantly, profitability does not change our investment plans. Our capital allocation priorities remain focused on supporting long-term growth, which includes investment in programming, talent, technology, distribution, digital initiatives, and other strategic opportunities. With improved visibility into our cost base, our focus is on sustaining this operating leverage as we continue to grow.

Speaker 3

Turning to our second quarter results. In the second quarter, we delivered $54.1 million in total revenues, representing a 16.5% increase year-over-year. Breaking this down by revenue stream for the quarter, first starting with our reportable segments. Total broadcasting revenues grew by 20.5% year-over-year to $45.8 million in the second quarter of 2026. Our growth in broadcasting was driven by higher affiliate fee revenue attributed to new contractual relationships and rate increases that took effect in late 2025 and 2026, as well as expanded international licensing agreements. Total digital revenues declined 1.3% year-over-year to $8.3 million in the second quarter of 2026. Growth in digital advertising, driven by new contractual relationships, was offset by lower subscription revenue and product sales. Now turning to our revenue by component.

Speaker 3

Advertising revenues decreased to $28.8 million, a 3.5% year-over-year decline, mainly due to lower customer order volume and a challenging comparison from election-related demand last year. This was partially offset by digital advertising growth of 21.3%. Affiliate revenues increased 81.9% year-over-year to $13.4 million, driven by new contractual relationships, as well as rate increases that took effect in late 2025 and 2026. Subscription revenues of $6.3 million were down 9.9% year-over-year due to lower new customer acquisition, partially offset by gains from expanded affiliate agreements that make Newsmax available on more linear cable providers. Product sales revenue decreased 31.7% year-over-year to $1.1 million, primarily driven by decreased book and supplement sales. Licensing revenues were $4.6 million, up from $0.7 million in the prior year quarter, driven by expanded international licensing agreements.

Speaker 3

We reported quarterly net income of $2.9 million, or $0.02 per share, compared to a net loss of $75.2 million in the prior year quarter. The improvement was primarily driven by higher total revenue, improved operating efficiency, and the absence of legal settlement expenses recorded in the prior year period. Our quarterly adjusted EBITDA was $5.7 million, an improvement of $9.5 million from negative $3.8 million reported in the same quarter last year, primarily due to growth in high-margin affiliate fee and licensing revenue and lower general and administrative expenses, partially offset by continued investment in programming, production, and OTT initiatives. We ended the quarter with $25.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and $102.4 million in short-term investments, bringing our total cash and investment position to $128.3 million with no debt on the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

We are encouraged by our performance through the first half of the year and remain confident in our previously disclosed full-year revenue guidance of $212 million to $216 million, representing 13% year-over-year growth at the midpoint of the range, an acceleration on the growth we realized in 2025. Our higher margin affiliate fees and licensing streams are the biggest levers to our margin improvement in the near term. At the same time, we continue to scale the business. We expect opportunities to improve margins through revenue growth from content investment, technology, and monetization across multiple platforms. In closing, we remain focused on disciplined execution as we continue to invest in content, distribution, and OTT initiatives that support long-term growth. With a strong balance sheet and a diversified multi-platform revenue model, we believe we are well-positioned to build on this quarter's progress and deliver sustainable value for our shareholders.

Speaker 3

Thank you for your time today, and we look forward to updating you on our continued progress during the next quarter earnings call. Now we would like to open the line for analyst questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will be conducting our question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue, and you may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question today is coming from Michael Kupinski with Noble Capital Markets. Your line is live.

Speaker 4

Thank you and good evening, everyone, and congratulations on a solid quarter. A couple of quick questions here. I know in your presentation you highlight that Newsmax affiliate rates are roughly seven times below peers on average, and that's in spite of the fact that your distribution ratings are increasingly comparable. I know that you've been reluctant to talk about this in the past, but I just thought I'd ask anyway. What percentage of your subscriber base is scheduled for renewal over the next 12 to 24 months? I guess the real question would be, how quickly do you think you can close that rate gap without sacrificing your distribution?

Speaker 2

Darryl, do you want to chat about the first part?

Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely. Michael, thank you for the question. It's good talking to you again. Consistent with what we've talked about before, we haven't really publicly disclosed what percentage of our affiliate fees are coming up for renewal. I think what is beneficial is to look at some of the history on this, right? We've talked about the fact that there's always a large opportunity for growth in affiliate fees, and that that comes with the fact of the renewal for the contracts because we're a relatively new entrant into the affiliate fee world. When you look at some of the changes that we've seen in 2026 compared to 2025, I think you can see that strategy already really kind of coming through to fruition. The goal really is to continue to execute on future renewals similar to what we have in the past.

Speaker 3

Whether or not we'll be able to close the seven times gap is going to be contingent on our continued execution of our strategic Vision by increasing in programming and talent and distribution across all of the areas that we can, so that we're in the best position to be able to negotiate any of those renewals.

Speaker 4

Got you, Darryl. Are your licensing-

Speaker 2

I would just add that-

Speaker 4

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2

I would just add that the best leverage is always ratings and that are growing brand value, and I think that has carried us forth through a lot of years. People have said when we first started in the mid-2015 period, "You're never going to get on any cable systems." We got on all the systems. "You're never going to get a cable fee." We got cable fees from everyone. "You'll never get renewals." We've gotten renewals from every major player. We just keep growing. Affiliate fees were up 81% year over year. I think that is the start of a lot of these are rolling agreements. We're going to continue to see strength there.

Speaker 4

Gotcha. Thanks, Chris. I know that licensing revenue is obviously incredibly growing fast there as well. I was just wondering how much of that $16 million in terms of your guide is already contracted versus dependent on additional agreements? Then looking to 2027, how should we think about licensing as a recurring base that, what should it grow from $16 million as we look into 2027? Darryl?

Speaker 3

Well, the guidance that we've given on licensing so far this year was based on factual evidence of agreements that we had in place. The $16 million that we gave for this year is not contingent on any future agreements. The $25 million that we talked about as an annualized run rate for next year gives you some indication of the overall growth, and we're very excited with the growth in the interest really in conservative news internationally and globally. It's become an area of focus within the company now where we want to continue to focus on that because we do believe that there's an interest in conservative news across the country or across the world. As a result of that's something we've got a number of different projects that we're continuing to look at.

Speaker 3

Right now the 16 million is, I think, a very stable number. You can see that based on the results of the first two quarters. Right now we are continuing, we are not giving any guidance past the 25 million that we have already put out in a press release for 2027. We are excited that there are additional opportunities in international licensing in the future.

Speaker 2

All our agreements are multi-year agreements. We are not doing this just as a one-off for one year or two years. I think you can see something over the horizon on these deals, and then we hope we get renewals in years out. We have gotten renewals on our main deal that started in Serbia some years ago, so we are hoping that that continues, and we do not have any reason to believe it will not for the moment. We do think this is a huge area of opportunity for the company that was somewhat surprising for us. It was not something we talked about much in the IPO process, and it is just another add-on, and the market for the global news is huge.

Speaker 4

Yeah, it is pretty exciting. If I can squeeze one more in. Your Meta agreement is your first major AI content partnership, and I was just wondering if you can maybe discuss the economics of that relationship, without obviously getting into contractual specifics, but if you can just give us some more color there. Are you currently in discussions with other major AI platforms as well?

Speaker 2

I would say that we are not revealing the financial details of that agreement. It is a multi-year agreement, and we think it is consistent with market, and it is very powerful. Think about this, our first major AI agreement is with Facebook Meta, which is a huge internet company. I think it shows the value again of Newsmax as a brand. Meta, which is investing, I think over $100 billion in AI, sees Newsmax as an important partner, and that they were interested in doing a partnership with us. I think it is a very good milestone for the company. We say in our release, and what we have talked about is that this is the beginning. We are in discussions with a number of AI companies and we hope to have more developments on that in the future.

Speaker 2

We do think it's an area of incremental and strong supplemental revenue, but also the company hopes to develop its own approaches to AI that we think will be beneficial to the shareholders in the company, not just as a licensing, but also incorporating AI into our infrastructure.

Speaker 4

Chris, if I could just follow up quickly on that. Can this partnership, I'm just trying to understand the AI licensing. Could it become a meaningful standalone revenue stream going forward? I'm just curious on how that relationship would work.

Speaker 2

Well, I'm not an accountant. I don't know what standalone revenue stream means. It's already a standalone revenue stream.

Speaker 4

Much like your licensing.

Speaker 2

Correct. We're hoping that the licensing, we are hoping, I can't promise that, but it could potentially be a significant licensing stream for us. AI is taking as a revolutionary thing, and it's happening in very big ways. We have a lot of content. AI companies need content.

Speaker 3

I think that's kind of the key on this one, Michael, if I can add a little bit. AI is becoming an important channel for news discovery, and I think as Chris said, it shows the strength of the Newsmax brand with the fact that Meta wanted to partner with us to help kind of train the AI model. We're all aware of the fact that there's a lot of capital that's being invested into AI. There's no real way that we can predict what that might be. But I think we're very excited that we're able to participate in that, and hopefully we can continue to participate in that in a meaningful way. As that grows, could it be its own standalone revenue stream in the future? We certainly hope so, but we're not giving any guidance specific to that.

Speaker 4

Got you. It sounds exciting. Thank you. That's all I have. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Alicia Reese. Ma'am, your line is live.

Speaker 5

Hi, thank you. Thank you for taking my questions today. I wanted to dig into a couple different things. One, the gross margin or the margin improvements that you cited that were related to improved operating efficiencies outside of just higher affiliate fees. Can you dig in a little on that and detail some of the improvements that you've made perhaps over the last quarter or the last year?

Speaker 3

Sure. Well, I think it's a couple of areas, right? The obvious ones are increases in the affiliate fee and the licensing revenue because those are both high margin contributors to the business overall. The other part would be just operating efficiencies that we've seen now that we're kind of through that first year as a public company. We don't have some of those same first-year public company expenses, a lot of the legal expenses we've gotten through that wouldn't affect the margins as much. But overall, we've just seen the ability to focus more on the business, and we're focused on some of those high margin components of the business. We're constantly looking at ways that we can utilize new tools to become more efficient within the business as well.

Speaker 3

There's been a total transformation in broadcasting over the last 10 years, and the things that, the equipment and the content generation that used to be significantly more expensive, advances in AI, all of these things are tools that we're looking at as ways to become as efficient as we can on containing the cost within the business overall.

Speaker 5

Yeah. I think that might answer at least some of my follow-up question with that, because you had mentioned you expect to get more margin expansion, of course, from affiliate fees in the future, but more so from tech and content investments. I wanted to focus on that content investment category. Is that due to the lower cost of content due to the AI implementation, or are there other avenues by which you can come to those lower content fees, or is it just driving higher users that would create the better margins on content?

Speaker 3

Well, I think one of the key areas for-

Speaker 2

I think it's the-

Speaker 3

Go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I think that the obvious one is the ability AI helps you create and put together content. It's not perfect. It's not something you can go to print with just because it's. It helps speed up what our editors noticed on the digital side, on the TV production side. It speeds up the process of putting content together. Gives you a lot of background information. It all has to be double-checked, but it's putting it together in a very coherent, logical, typically good manner, but needs to be checked and verified. We're finding that it is speeding up the process and reducing some costs, and we hope more on the digital side. TV production has seen similar things. And graphics, too. It's very good at producing graphics and charts, which are usually time-consuming and costly on the television side.

Speaker 2

In social media, we use a lot of graphics. I think that's where the reduction of cost comes in. We're not implementing so far like an AI feature on Newsmax, so we're not really getting any users from that yet. But we are hoping that other companies we can partner with for our content, they can have access to that that way, like we're doing on the Meta deal.

Speaker 3

I might add the other area-

Speaker 5

That's actually helpful.

Speaker 3

I focused on. The other area, just to add one more point to that I think is important to understand, is that when you're looking at our investment in content and programming and technology and some of the things that we referenced in the press release, some of those investments are across multiple product streams, right? So when we're investing, for example, in programming and content and efficiencies within our Newsmax One channel, we get the benefit, and that's all to drive ratings, and ratings will increase advertiser demand, right? So that gets the benefit of driving increased margins just through economies of scale because we're driving increased demand for advertising because news is still a primary source that advertisers covet because people are still watching news live.

Speaker 3

The other benefit to that is that it continues to add to the value proposition for our Newsmax+ streaming service, and that continues to potentially give us the ability to attract additional subscribers to the Newsmax+ service. It puts us in a better position, as Chris mentioned earlier, with the ratings when we're negotiating for additional affiliate fees. So, we get an economy of scale with this as well, where the investment starts to have a higher ROI just as we grow.

Speaker 5

Excellent. That all makes a lot of sense. I have one more, if I may. I was wondering, and I hope this isn't too naive of a question, but I'm wondering about the funnel as you acquire new users. I assume a lot of it is through the social media, but I wonder to what extent people stay there, and you're fine with that because it's useful as its own means of delivering news to users on those platforms. But to what extent is that a funnel to perhaps Newsmax2 and Newsmax+ now or any potential for that in the future?

Speaker 2

Well, I'm not so sure that we have a funnel out of social media. I always like to say that we're for all people on all platforms, and we've discovered the old days where you were siloed, you were a newspaper or radio business. Those days are over. Even digital means a lot, right? Podcasting is included. That includes video on digital side. So there's a lot going on. Social media falls under the umbrella of digital. There's some people that just want to consume news on social and not come to our platform. So, that we try to service those people, we try to give them information. We really do like it when they see us on social and they're more likely to come to the website.

Speaker 2

They're more likely to download our app, which then leads them to the Newsmax+ service to check their cable guide and watch us on cable. We're constantly, what I like to use the word instead of funnel, is cross-promoting. TV will promote digital promotes TV, and TV being both linear and the streaming. Then we have the app, and the app notifications promote the TV channel and the digital stuff. If you looked at a line chart, there'd be lines going all over the place. It seems to work, and the overall impact is pretty significant because you have synergies, the synergistic effect of all of those promotions and mentions.

Speaker 2

I think it's a key reason if you look, Newsmax, consider our revenue base, consider what we come from, and that we're, Reuters in one of the recent studies had one of the top 12 U.S. news brands. We're frequently listed as one of the top major. Marquette University Law School just did a survey of viewership and news coverage, and they listed us as one of the top news media outlets in the country. I think our revenue monetization is going to grow pretty significantly because of the brand and the reach that we have. People obviously, hopefully, we hope shareholders and investors see that, but we certainly see it.

Speaker 5

Excellent. That's very helpful, and that makes a lot of sense. Appreciate you taking my questions today.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Tom Forte with Maxim Group. Your line is live.

Speaker 6

Hey, this is Henry Dare. I am calling in for Tom. Just one quick question. Chris, you have talked about this in the past, but we would appreciate your current thoughts on what the midterms could mean for your audience engagement, both for your cable news network and digital efforts, as well as your sales and profits for the back half of 2026.

Speaker 2

Well, elections are always good for engagement, even if we do not necessarily get a lot of advertising fees. A lot of the midterm elections are very local-oriented, and people do not see them as national elections. They are state races, congressional races, and what have you there. Those advertising campaigns do not typically, we get some increase, but we do see a lot more engagement because we are covering a lot of those races around the country. I would certainly think right after that election, the midterm is over, I think you will see even more engagement. You will see it for two reasons. One is I think there is a great likelihood of the Democrats getting control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then there is a potential likelihood of them controlling the U.S. Senate. Divided government tends to mean more news, more conflicting stories, and more engagement, I think, by both sides.

Speaker 2

The second is the presidential campaign really begins in earnest. Some would argue it has already begun. But the first Iowa debate typically is in the summer of the following year. So next year would be the summer. So Iowa is going to be in play and discussed going in. There will be probably at least a half dozen candidates from what we are hearing running for president. So that will be good for engagement, we believe, for some revenues. It is very exciting. I think we have a two-year great window to continue building out post-IPO now and continuing our reach on all of the different platforms that we are engaging people.

Speaker 6

Thank you. That was very helpful.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as we have no further questions on the lines at this time, this will conclude our question and answer session and today's call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you so much for your participation.

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