Getty Images Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Getty Images posted modest Q1 revenue growth to $226.6 million, but profitability weakened as adjusted EBITDA fell and margins compressed due to mix shifts, Olympics-related costs, and higher operating expenses.
• Editorial demand outperformed creative: editorial revenue rose 11% on strong sports and entertainment coverage, while creative revenue declined and agency revenue dropped 14% amid ongoing pressure in the microstock and agency markets.
• The company kept full-year guidance unchanged and said underlying business trends remain solid, while also noting progress on its merger review, continued AI licensing efforts, and improved free cash flow in the quarter.

Getty Images NYSE: GETY reported modest reported revenue growth for the first quarter of 2026 while management pointed to continued pressure in agency and microstock markets, stronger demand for editorial coverage, and unchanged full-year guidance.

Chief Executive Officer Craig Peters said first-quarter revenue was $226.6 million, up 1.1% on a reported basis and down 2.5% on a currency-neutral basis. Adjusted EBITDA was $61.6 million, down from the prior year, which management attributed to higher cost of revenue from mix and timing impacts as well as elevated costs tied to Winter Olympics coverage.

“We are operating in a dynamic market environment, particularly across parts of creative,” Peters said, citing long-term challenges in agency revenue and pressures across the microstock category.

Creative Pressures Offset by Editorial Demand

Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Leyden said corporate revenue remained a growth driver, rising 6%, while media revenue was flat. Agency revenue declined 14%, consistent with recent trends, and now represents less than 15% of total revenue, according to Peters.

By geography, Leyden said the Americas grew 1.9% on a currency-neutral basis. EMEA revenue declined 6.9% due to weakness in agency and production, while APAC fell 11.7%, driven primarily by agency weakness and the absence of certain one-time projects from 2025.

Creative revenue was $126.2 million, down 4.5% year over year and down 8% on a currency-neutral basis. Leyden said creative was affected by a revenue allocation shift from creative to editorial as Premium Access customers downloaded more editorial content during the quarter, largely due to Olympics coverage. That shift reduced creative revenue growth by about 380 basis points and contributed about 620 basis points to editorial growth.

Editorial revenue rose 11% year over year to $91.7 million, or 7.1% on a currency-neutral basis, driven by demand for global sports coverage, including the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, entertainment events and continued strength in the company’s archives.

Other revenue was $8.6 million, down from $9.3 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Subscriptions Remain Central, but iStock Changes Weigh on Metrics

Annual subscription revenue represented 57.4% of total revenue, up from 57.2% in the prior-year quarter and 54.2% for full-year 2025. Total subscription revenue increased 1.4% on a reported basis and declined 2% on a currency-neutral basis.

Getty Images’ annual subscription revenue retention rate was 90% for the first-quarter trailing 12-month period, compared with 92.7% in the corresponding 2025 period. Active annual subscribers totaled 258,000, down from 318,000 a year earlier.

Leyden said the subscriber decline reflected the company’s decision in June 2025 to discontinue the iStock free-trial customer acquisition program, which she said produced lower revenue per subscriber, annual renewal rates below 10% and weaker customer lifetime value. She said the effects of that discontinuation are expected to persist through the third quarter.

Peters said Getty Images is increasingly focusing iStock merchandising and marketing on higher-quality exclusive content and customers who value it. He said more than 70% of iStock revenue comes from signature content, which is exclusive content, and that signature customers spend about twice as much annually as essentials customers.

“While it can negatively impact some KPIs in the near term, it is a deliberate shift that should only improve our relative financial performance within this category,” Peters said.

Margins Decline, Free Cash Flow Improves

Revenue less cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue was 70.8%, compared with 73.1% in the first quarter of 2025. Leyden attributed the decline mainly to product mix, timing elements and higher costs tied to event coverage.

SG&A expense was $102.2 million, or 45.1% of revenue, compared with 43.9% a year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation, SG&A was $98.8 million, or 43.6% of revenue. Leyden said the increase was primarily related to incentive compensation, annual merit increases, elevated Olympics-related coverage expenses and professional fees, partially offset by lower marketing spending.

Adjusted EBITDA fell 12.2% to $61.6 million, or 15.2% on a currency-neutral basis. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.2%, down from 31.3% in the prior-year quarter. Leyden said the company expects margins to normalize over the rest of the year and return to its typical range of approximately 30%.

Capital expenditures were $16.1 million, or 7.1% of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures was $45.5 million, down 16.3% year over year. Free cash flow improved to $24 million from negative $300,000 in the first quarter of 2025, helped by lower cash interest paid, lower merger-related cash outflows and working capital timing.

Guidance Held Steady as Management Cites Core Business Strength

Getty Images maintained its full-year guidance, expecting revenue of $948 million to $988 million, representing a year-over-year change of down 3.4% to up 0.6%. On a currency-neutral basis, the company expects revenue to be down 4.5% to up 0.5%.

The company also reaffirmed adjusted EBITDA guidance of $279 million to $295 million, down 12.9% to 8.1% year over year, or down 13.9% to 9.1% on a currency-neutral basis. Management said adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be about 30%.

Leyden said the expected year-over-year decline in revenue and adjusted EBITDA is primarily tied to revenue recognition timing associated with two large multi-year licensing agreements signed in the fourth quarter of 2025. Excluding about $40 million of accelerated revenue recognized in the fourth quarter of 2025, she said the 2026 revenue outlook would reflect underlying growth of 0.7% to 4.9%.

During the question-and-answer session, Leyden said the company continues to see strong fundamentals, including growth in corporate revenue, subscriptions, custom content and Unsplash. She said creative is expected to be down in the low single digits for the full year, editorial roughly flat and other revenue down in the mid-single digits, with those declines heavily affected by the prior-year revenue recognition comparison.

Merger Review, Litigation and AI Licensing in Focus

Peters said Getty Images’ pending merger has been cleared without conditions in all jurisdictions except the U.K., where the Competition and Markets Authority is continuing its review. He said the CMA’s process has an end date of June 14 and that Getty Images expects clarity by then on whether the regulator identifies a significant lessening of competition and any required remedy.

Peters said the company continues to pursue the transaction and believes in the value creation it could unlock, while disagreeing that it would lessen competition.

Management also addressed the Alta and CRCM warrant litigation. Leyden said Getty Images drew $120 million from its revolving credit facility after the Second Circuit Court denied its petition for rehearing and used a portion of the proceeds to pay an approximately $110.9 million judgment and associated interest. The company also received approximately $30 million from insurance carriers after the payment.

On artificial intelligence licensing, Peters said Getty Images did very little AI licensing in the first quarter and expects more contribution in the second half of the year. He said the company remains selective and is focused on integrating its content into large language models and AI experiences where its archive and editorial coverage can support context and accuracy.

About Getty Images NYSE: GETY

Getty Images NYSE: GETY is a leading global provider of digital visual content, offering an extensive library of stock photography, editorial imagery, video footage and music. The company supplies creative and rights-managed assets to a broad range of industries, including advertising, media, corporate communications and publishing. Through its online platform and licensing services, Getty Images enables customers to search, license and download multimedia content for commercial and editorial use.

Founded in 1995 by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein, Getty Images pioneered the aggregation of photographic archives into a centralized, digital marketplace.

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