iHeartMedia, the AM and FM giant powered by 870 radio stations and growing digital ambitions, saw its podcast revenue rise to $139.6 million in the fourth quarter, up about 6 percent year-over-year. The company cited increased demand from advertisers, even as it saw rising operating expenses due to content costs and podcast profit sharing costs.
The company reported total revenue of $1.118 billion, up 4.8 percent from the same frame last year. And CFO Rich Bressler said that iHeart had about $4.52 billion of net debt outstanding, which he described as “the lowest net debt position in the history of our company.”
On the company’s earnings call, video podcasts — a format that Spotify is pivoting toward and that YouTube claims 1 billion users watch on its platform — became a talking point. iHeart CEO Bob Pittman was asked by Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich about growth in that segment as some consumers shift attention.
“There’s a lot of talk about video podcasting. Clearly YouTube would love everything to be video podcasting,” the iHeart CEO replied. “When you look at the research, it looks like about 10 percent of podcast users would prefer video. Others are willing to look at video. But most people, the overwhelming majority, actually want it to be audio. They are using podcasting because it’s a great experience for them because they don’t want to use their eyes — they’re cooking, they’re driving, they’re running, they’re doing other activities where they can listen but they can’t watch.”
“It is very conversational, very personal, it is not TV-style production. As a matter of fact, unlike TV which is very story and production-driven, podcasting is very host-driven,” Pittman added, “Casual is what people prefer.”
iHeart, which owns around 600 FM stations, including mainstays like Power 105.1 in New York and ALT 98.7 in Los Angeles, has become a major global podcast publishing network, led by titles including On Purpose with Jay Shetty and Stuff You Should Know from Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant.
The company saw 685 million downloads/views for its shows in January, ahead of hosting platforms like Acast (406 million) and Libsyn (182 million) as well as media like Sonoro (93 million), Daily Wire (58 million) and Paramount Global (50 million) that round out the top 5, per industry research firm Podtrac.
Some of its big syndicated radio shows include offerings from Ryan Seacrest, Steve Harvey, Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd as well as political names like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck and titles like the Charlamagne Tha God-led The Breakfast Club.
“If we can make more money adding video to it we will. Some of our podcasts do have video, we are open to it — it’s not terribly expensive, it’s just ‘what do you want to focus on’?” Pittman said. “If the consumer really wants it, we’ll figure out how to deliver it.”
iHeart gave guidance saying that it expected first quarter revenue to decline in low single digits and full year 2025 to be “approximately flat in a non-political year” without midterms or presidential campaign advertising to boost its stations or podcast revenue.
In November iHeart disclosed a cost-cutting plan to lay off 5 percent of its 10,000-employee workforce as part of an effort to modernize a company built around radio to orient towards online growth. In its quarterly filing disclosed on Thursday, the firm said its cost reduction program will generate $200 million of annual cost savings in 2025.
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