Townsquare Media continues to reap dividends from its industry-leading Digital First Local Media strategy.
Digital comprised 53% of first-quarter total net revenue and adjusted operating income, the company announced Thursday, noting that it also saw improvement in Broadcast Advertising versus the fourth quarter of 2023, and that its Digital Advertising and Subscription Digital Marketing Solutions segments returned to growth.
“Our first-quarter performance improved over the fourth quarter across each of our segments,” Townsquare CEO Bill Wilson said in prepared remarks. “Importantly, our Digital Advertising segment returned to revenue growth in the first quarter (+1.3% year-over-year), and our Townsquare Interactive segment achieved net subscriber growth and month-over-month revenue growth in March, a meaningful turning point for the business.”
In total, Digital represented 53% of Townsquare’s Q1 2024 net revenue and Adjusted Operating Income. That figure is substantially higher than that of its industry counterparts.
Revenue for Q1 fell 3.4% to $99.6 million vs. $103.1 million in Q4 2023. Of the company’s main reportable segments, Subscription Digital Marketing Solutions (which includes Townsquare Interactive, the company’s subscription digital marketing solutions business) saw net revenue fall 15.3% to $18.3 million vs. Q4 2023; Digital Advertising (marketed as Townsquare Ignite, which includes digital advertising on the company’s owned and operated digital properties, its first-party data digital management platform and its digital programmatic ad platform) saw net revenue rise 1.3% or about $400,000 vs. the same period in 2023; and Broadcast Advertising (including local, regional and national advertising products and solutions delivered via traditional radio broadcasts) net revenue fell 1%. Townsquare’s “Other” segment, which includes live events, fell 7.8% to $1.8 million. That represented a decline of about $200,000 from the year-ago period.
The company posted a profit of $1.6 million after recording a net loss of $1.9 million a year ago.
Wilson said the company also strengthened its position with a couple of key moves in the quarter.
“The strong cash generation characteristics of our assets provided us the ability to execute two attractive equity transactions in April using cash on hand: the accretive share repurchase of 1.5 million shares from MSG at an 11% discount to the pre-announcement share price, and an option buyout at an attractive price point, thereby avoiding shareholder dilution. In addition, during the quarter we repurchased $4 million of our common stock, and paid a high-yielding dividend while also investing in our business. We ended the quarter with a strong cash balance of $57 million, and following the April equity transactions, maintained a cash balance of $28 million at the end of April, retaining financial flexibility moving forward.”
Townsquare in March was named an “Opportunity Pick” by Boyar Research. The noted Wall Street research firm derived an intrinsic value of Townsquare of $25.30 per share — roughly double the stock’s closing price on Wednesday.
Wilson recently discussed Townsquare’s strategy on “The World According to Boyar” podcast. It can be heard HERE.
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