Stingray Says TuneIn Buyout Exceeding Expectations.

Stingray’s CEO is no longer describing TuneIn as simply an acquisition. He is calling it “a perfect marriage.” And on the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call Wednesday, Eric Boyko was clearly in the honeymoon portion of the transaction after the $175 million buyout of the streaming platform closed in December. He said the deal is already exceeding internal expectations — both on revenue synergies and on the strategic positioning it gives Stingray in advertising and in discussions they are having with carmakers.

“The integration of TuneIn has progressed even better than planned,” Boyko said. “TuneIn’s performing has exceeded our expectations, creating powerful new synergies that are already reflected in our strong financial performance.”

Stingray reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of approximately $92 million, up 15.4% year over year, with adjusted earnings of about $33 million. Revenue growth was driven largely by enhanced advertising revenue from TuneIn as U.S. revenue rose 42.5% year over year to roughly $45 million, reflecting what CFO Marie-Hélène Fournier described as “enhanced advertising revenues” from the recent TuneIn acquisition.

Stingray has said it expected $10 million in cost synergies from adding TuneIn, plus an additional $5 million–$10 million in cost savings, largely through lower music-rights costs and more efficient ad-serving. Boyko says they are quickly realizing a lot more savings are likely, saying at the current pace they will have $16 million in efficiencies in the first year.

The deal may have closed only two months ago, but Boyko told investors TuneIn is already embedded across Stingray’s portfolio. He said they have seen synergies across nine of its products.

Boyko also said revenue guidance has also been too conservative. “There is no limit to the positive sell side that we can have,” he told analysts. Boyko noted how quickly the cross-selling momentum began. “The deal wasn’t even closed — and three days later, we already had eight different vectors that TuneIn is already helping us sell,” he said. “With the acquisition of TuneIn we now have a world class advertising engine to turn reach into revenue. We have the technology, the ad stack, and the right demand side partnership to sell both audio and video ads across our entire network.”

The biggest tailwind is in programmatic selling. A year ago, Stingray didn’t have any programmatic revenue. But the company expects to book $500,000 in programmatic sales this quarter across all of its platforms. “That can easily double in six months,” Boyko predicted.

Another big upside for U.S. broadcasters, podcasters, and other creators, is the combined strength of TuneIn and Stingray will accelerate in-car streaming’s reach. Boyko said the merger has resulted in a united front in the dashboard battle. Before the acquisition, automakers were negotiating separately with the two companies, but now they are speaking with one.

“They were each talking to both of us, one against each other,” he said. “But now that we have merged together, the car manufacturers are very excited. They feel that they're that we're well-positioned.”

Earlier this month, Nissan formed a collaboration with TuneIn that will bring tens of thousands of radio stations and its catalog of millions of podcasts to select models in the U.S. The deal also covers select Infiniti models. And in December, Stingray launched a co-branded music, podcast and radio solution for automakers worldwide. The service will debut as BYD Audio by Stingray in a unique partnership with the Chinese automaker BYD.