Cutting costs and restructuring debt continue to be common themes for iHeartMedia. The media company trimmed expenses last year, but not fast enough to keep it from losing more than a billion dollars in 2024.
The good news is its year-end earnings report shows 2024 revenue totaling $3.9 billion, up 3% from 2023. However, the company recorded a net loss of $1 billion in 2024, which was primarily due to $923 million of non-cash impairment charges. iHeartMedia similarly suffered a net loss of $1.1 billion in 2023.
iHeart says it completed a modernization cost reduction program in 2024 that is expected to generate up $200 million of annual cost savings in 2025.
In 2024, the iHeartMedia Multiplatform Group, which includes its radio stations, saw revenue decline by 3% as compared to 2023 levels. When excluding political advertising, it becomes a 5% dip YoY. The broadcaster’s Digital Audio Group reported revenue up 9% for 2024.
Meanwhile, Q4 overall revenue for 2024 was $1.1 billion, up 4.8% year-over-year. The company says that is the second-best quarter since the pandemic. Much of the upside can be attributed to political advertising, the media company said, but even that didn’t generate as much revenue as projected.
The quarterly results for the different segments of iHeart’s business saw varying degrees of success to finish up 2024. The Multiplatform Group reported revenue of $684 million, about even with the same quarter in 2023, but down 5% when excluding political advertising.
The company said in its report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the revenue totals from Q4 were “below the guidance we provided due primarily to lower political advertising revenue than we had originally expected both before and after the election.”
Additionally, iHeart said it also saw a slowdown in non-political advertising revenue just before the presidential election.
The Digital Audio group saw revenue growth of nearly 7% in Q4 to YoY with $339 million in revenue. That was driven by an increase in demand for digital advertising, and podcast revenue, which increased $7.9 million, or 6% during the period, to $139.6 million. The division accounted for 30% of total iHeart revenue in Q4.
Meanwhile, the Audio & Media Services group, which includes Katz Media Group and RCS, reported revenue grew by 44% to $97 million in Q4, up from $68 million in 2023. The company cited an increased demand for digital advertising prior to the presidential election as the reason for the boost.
iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman spent time on the Thursday earnings call talking up the radio business. The executive said he continues to believe broadcast radio is a growth engine for the company and not a declining business.
“Broadcast radio has more listeners today than it did 20 years ago. In an environment in which broadcast and cable TV have dwindled and print audiences have disappeared, broadcast radio audiences have remained strong,” Pittman said.
He says as the company is looking for opportunities for increasing radio revenue.
“As evidence of our progress, I’m excited to announce that, in March of this year, our broadcast radio inventory will be available via the Yahoo DSP and Google’s DV360 for digital buyers to purchase alongside other programmatic assets like CTV (Connected TV). This is a critical early step in aligning our broadcast assets with digital buying behavior, which will allow iHeart’s broadcast radio assets to participate in the growing digital and programmatic,” he said.
Pittman made no reference on the investor call to the letter he received from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr earlier this week that asked whether or not iHeartMedia is properly compensating artists for their performances. Carr expressed concern that some broadcasters might be compelling musicians to perform at station events or festivals for free in exchange for more favorable airplay.
[Related: “FCC Chairman Questions iHeart About Artist Compensation at Music Festivals“]
The media company on Thursday also highlighted a debt exchange transaction it completed in the fourth quarter of 2024 that exchanged approximately $4.8 billion of existing debt and extended maturities by three years.
iHeartMedia still lists $4.5 billion of net debt, but the media company says that is the lowest net debt position in the history of the company.
Looking ahead to the rest of the first quarter of this year, iHeartMedia CFO Rich Bressler said the company is seeing a more challenging advertising climate and is less optimistic now than at the start of the New Year as “many companies are now focusing on how potential tariffs, inflation and higher interest rates may impact their businesses, introducing an element of uncertainty.”
As a reflection of the early optimism, he said the year began with January revenues up 5.5%, but that February pacing is down approximately 7%. Bressler said the media company expects consolidated Q1 2025 revenue to be down to low single digits compared to the prior year.
iHeartMedia is projecting full-year 2025 capital expenditures to be approximately $90 million.
