iHeartMedia Q1 2025 slides: Podcast revenue surges 28% as company targets $150M savings

Introduction & Market Context

iHeartMedia Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) presented its first quarter 2025 financial results on May 12, 2025, highlighting continued strong performance in its digital audio segments while traditional radio operations faced headwinds. The company’s stock closed at $1.26, up 2.38% for the day, though it slipped 3.88% in after-hours trading to $1.24.

The presentation comes as iHeartMedia continues to navigate a challenging media landscape, balancing its legacy radio business with growing digital audio operations while implementing a significant modernization program aimed at reducing costs.

Quarterly Performance Highlights

iHeartMedia reported consolidated revenue of $807 million for Q1 2025, representing a modest 1.0% increase year-over-year, or 1.8% growth when excluding political revenue. Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA remained flat at $105 million, while the company reported negative free cash flow of $(81) million.

As shown in the following comprehensive summary of Q1 2025 results:

The company’s performance varied significantly across segments. The Digital Audio Group delivered revenue of $277.3 million, up 16.0% year-over-year, with an impressive Adjusted EBITDA of $87.1 million, representing 27.8% growth. Meanwhile, the traditional Multiplatform Group saw revenue decline 4.2% to $473.0 million, with Adjusted EBITDA falling 9.3% to $70.0 million.

The detailed segment breakdown reveals the divergent performance across the company’s business units:

Digital Audio Success

iHeartMedia’s digital strategy continues to pay dividends, particularly in podcasting where revenue grew 28% year-over-year to $116 million. The company maintained its position as the leading podcast publisher in the United States according to Podtrac rankings, with 177,567,000 US streams and downloads and a unique monthly audience of 32,749,000.

The company’s strategic positioning across the podcast value chain has been key to this success:

This leadership extends across all Podtrac categories, with iHeartMedia boasting the most shows in Podtrac rankings (104), the most shows in Podtrac’s Top 10 by category (32), and the most shows with over 1 million listens (39):

Modernization Program

A central focus of the presentation was iHeartMedia’s $200 million gross savings modernization program, which aims to deliver $150 million in net savings during 2025. The initiative spans all business segments, with the majority of savings (65%) coming from the Multiplatform Group.

The following breakdown illustrates how these savings will be achieved:

The program heavily emphasizes headcount reductions, which account for 65% of the planned net savings. By function, programming and content represent the largest area for cost reduction at 55% of total savings, followed by sales, marketing, support, product, and technology at 30%.

Financial Challenges

Despite operational improvements, iHeartMedia continues to face significant financial challenges. The company’s debt structure remains substantial, with total debt of $5.05 billion as of March 31, 2025, and a weighted average cost of debt of 9.3%. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $167.7 million, resulting in net debt of $4.61 billion.

Cash used for operating activities was $(61) million in Q1, contributing to negative free cash flow of $(81) million. This represents a concerning trend that the company will need to address to improve its financial health.

The company’s advertising revenue showed mixed results across categories, with gains in professional services, tech & telco, beauty & fitness, and education, offset by declines in political, gambling, auto, and restaurants:

Forward-Looking Statements

Looking ahead to Q2 2025, iHeartMedia provided guidance for consolidated revenue to decline in the low-single digits, with Adjusted EBITDA expected to be approximately $140 million to $160 million. This suggests continued challenges in the near term, particularly for the traditional radio business.

Management highlighted four key earnings takeaways: positive financial results in an uncertain environment, continued leadership in podcasting, a commitment to re-ignite growth in the broadcast radio business, and progress on the modernization program with $150 million in net savings expected in 2025.

The company’s market position remains strong, with 40% of Miller Kaplan Measured Markets Radio Revenue and growth in revenue market share of 3.4 percentage points through March 2025:

For investors, the key question remains whether iHeartMedia can successfully execute its modernization program while maintaining growth in digital audio to offset traditional radio declines, all while addressing its substantial debt burden and improving cash flow generation.

Full presentation:

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