There's a chance that viewing iHeartMedia's first quarter earnings for 2020, due out this afternoon , will be like driving past an auto accident: a twisted, ugly mess from which you can't look away.
Things were looking up for iHeartRadio after last year's bankruptcy reorganization gave it financial breathing room and an improved balance sheet. Originally, iHeartMedia's 2020 guidance was mid-single-digit revenue growth and high-single-digit EBITDA growth and a margin improvement from 27.2% in 2019 to 28%-29% in 2020. The company also expected free cash flow of $300 million-$330 million.
The pandemic has drawn a bright line between legacy media and newer technologies. Perhaps the pandemic-led recession will speed adoption of subscription services, as Spotify CEOpredicted last week during Spotify's first-quarter earnings call. On-demand listening is the natural progression from linear broadcasting, Ek said repeatedly. So far in 2020, on-demand clearly is the better business model of the two.
the company warned Q1 results"are not reflective of current market conditions" because advertising revenue"has declined significantly" and will continue trending down through May and June.All sorts of ad-supported businesses spent April securing lines of credit, selling notes and taking on new investors. In other words, companies need enough capital to get through a pandemic-caused economic slowdown of unknown size and duration.
I'm not even going to waste my breath here... Asking questions only to ignored.... Everybody knows the truth.... Haters gonna hate.. Players gonna play!!!
maybe they wouldn't have had to reorganize if they actually played music people wanted to hear... just a thought ...
Very interesting! But if radio still makes or breaks music, why are the highest pure album sales in the US this year from a band that radio refuses to play? 🤔