iHeart Sees Broadcast Radio Momentum, While Digital Grows Double-Digits.

Digital has been the driver of growth at iHeartMedia for the past several quarters, and it is again true in the early months of 2025. But management said late Monday they have reason to believe the radio division is rebounding. The indicator they point to is Premiere Networks, which returned to growth during the first quarter as network billings rose 2.1% from a year earlier.

“We believe this is an important indicator of the growing strength broadcast radio has among national advertisers, and evidence of the progress we're making in returning broadcast radio to revenue growth,” said Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman. During a conference call with analysts, he said iHeart also continues to grow its share of radio revenue. The company says in markets measured by Miller Kaplan, four of every ten dollars spent on radio went to iHeart. Pittman credited not only the company’s audience reach, but also the investments they have made in ad tech and data, as well as having the largest sales force in audio.

“We've got more listeners than we did 10 years ago. The audience side of broadcast radio just fine,” Pittman said. “This is a monetization issue that broadcast radio is facing. It's making the transformation from being a business that was sold as spots, and today it's moving to electronic and digital platforms, and I think we're making that transformation.” He also called Nielsen’s methodology changes a “step forward” in that they show advertisers that not only does radio have more listeners, but it also has the potential to give radio more credit when they dig into the numbers to see what signals led to a purchase.

First Quarter Revenue Grows

For the time being, iHeart’s Digital Audio Group remains the fastest-growing. The division’s first quarter revenue climbed 16% compared to a year ago, to $277 million. Digital sales were powered by a 28% increase in podcast revenue, which totaled $161 million during the quarter. The Multiplatform Group—which includes the radio business—posted a 4% decline in Q1 revenue versus last year. It remains the largest source of iHeart revenue, with total revenue of $473 million during the quarter.

Overall, iHeartMedia’s total revenue increased 1% year-to-year to $807 million. The company posted a loss of $281.2 million, but CFO/COO/President Rich Bressler noted first quarter is typically a seasonal low point, and they expect to generate a profit in the remaining quarters of the year. The company expects earnings of $140 million to $160 million during Q2.

“We're seeing generally stable ad spend,” Pittman said, acknowledging that visibility remains difficult for advertisers and media companies alike. But he said the gains posted by Premiere are an indication that larger advertisers are taking the economic hiccups in stride. “The risk has been in the small and medium-sized businesses, which are a little more subject to any sort of bad news,” he said. But iHeart’s earnings report came as the market posted one of its best gains in weeks on Monday. “News like today helps,” Pittman said.

During the first quarter, iHeart made its strongest gains in the professional services, tech and telecom, beauty and fitness, and education categories, while restaurant, automotive, gambling and political were its weakest.

Bressler said that second quarter business is on track to be down 2% compared to a year ago, although iHeart expects the digital business to post low double-digit increases led by podcasting—where Q2 is pacing up more than 20% from last year. The radio business is, however, tracking down in the mid- to high-single digits. Bressler said that iHeart will need “some positive movement” in the economy overall during the second half of the year in order to hit their annual projections.

‘We’re Adapting’

Through the use of technology and AI, iHeart management expects to cut $150 million in expenses as part of an ongoing modernization effort this year. During Q1, Bressler said they cut $27 million from a year ago.

One area of focus is expanding the amount of broadcast inventory that is available in programmatic ad exchanges. Earlier this year, iHeart’s radio inventory began to be available in the Yahoo DSP and Google Display & Video 360 exchanges. Bressler says they’re working to get radio inventory into other programmatic exchanges.

“We recognize where the advertising marketplace is going, and we're adapting to that,” he said.

The Podcast Flywheel

No segment of iHeart’s business expanded faster than podcasting during the first quarter. Pittman thinks the company is beginning to feel the flywheel effect of being the largest podcast publisher, and the ability to translate that into being what may be the most profitable podcasting business in the U.S.

“Podcasting is an adjacent business to radio, so we have a natural advantage,” Pittman said. “Not only have an advantage in terms of creation and having the resources to do it, but we also have this incredible promotional vehicle called broadcast radio.” He said they believe they will be able to accelerate that growth thanks to a 1,000-person salesforce.

Bressler agreed, saying iHeart continues to pull in new dollars. “Our biggest advertisers have only recently really started to discover podcasting,” he told analysts.