SBS Eyes Growth Beyond Radio With CTV, Video Push.

Spanish Broadcasting System sees its future with a foot in audio and another in video. CEO Raul Alarcon told investors this week that he sees the company moving beyond just making SBS content available on radio and its La Musica mobile platform. Alarcon said they are also close to announcing a connected TV distribution partnership, which he sees working alongside the viral short-form video clips they are increasingly posting on YouTube and social media.

“All of these elements are designed to reinforce the La Musica evolution into a premier audio-visual entertainment destination,” Alarcon said. “We believe this transformation of SBS into an audio-visual exhibitor of the most compelling Hispanic content holds the key to the future of the company as a global content creator and distributor.”

The La Music app has also begun to feature additional audio content from beyond SBS stations, including Grupo Multimedios, which operates about 40 radio stations in Mexico. “It’s an arrangement that will surely endure to the benefit of both parties, as well as the audiences eager to consume content that would otherwise be unattainable,” Alarcon said during SBS’ quarterly earnings call.

The digital and video business may be the future, but in the meantime, SBS continues to focus on its broadcast radio properties as well. Alarcon said their newly-launched regional Mexican “La Ley 92.1” KROI Houston has had better-than-expected ratings in its early months of operation. Nielsen says it had a 3.5 share (6+) in the April ratings, making it the second-highest rated Spanish-language station, behind only TelevisaUnivision Spanish AC “Amor 106.5” KOVE, which had a 4.2 share.

Houston market veteran Raúl Brindi, who has more than three decades of experience on TelevisaUnivision’s crosstown regional Mexican “Que Buena 102.9” KLTN, is now in morning drive on KROI. Alarcon said the show had added more than 225,000 unique listeners as of April, with what he describes as a “staggering” average time spent listening for a morning show, at 75 minutes.

Despite the investments in its La Musica app and new video elements, Alarcon said SBS remains focused on growing its earnings, as well as further scaling back its expenses. He said they cut $16.3 million in expenses last year.

“This was achieved by undertaking a scrupulous top-to-bottom review of company personnel, and a corresponding line-by-line examination of all operational expenses, which continues to this day—as necessitated by the market gyrations and advertiser uncertainty in recent months,” he told investors. Those cuts allowed SBS to grow its earnings from $23.7 million in 2023 to $40.4 million in 2024, which he said came without losing audience.

The company on Monday released fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results. They showed full-year 2024 net revenue was basically flat, rising marginally to $155.1 million vs. $154.6 million in 2023. But the company was able to swing to a profit, posting net income of $1.7 million after a net loss of $40.7 million in 2023.

The live event business continues to be a ticket to success, Alarcon told investors. SBS reports that special event revenue totaled $9.9 million last year, up from $8.1 million in 2023. That meant that 6% of SBS revenue last year came from events, up a percentage point from a year earlier.