Entercom Q2 Net Revenues Drop 54% to $175.8 Million

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, August 7, 2020

Entercom

Entercom reported second quarter net revenues dropped 54% to $175.8 million from $380.7 million in 2019, mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spot revenue declined 65%, while digital revenue rose 19%. Operating loss was $45.3 million, which included a non-cash impairment charge of $4.2 million, compared to operating income of $64.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA swung to loss of $20 million from an income of $87.6 million. The company posted a net loss of $53.8 million (40 cents per diluted share) as compared to a net income of $25.9 million (19 cents) in the year-ago period.

President/CEO David J. Field stated, "While Entercom generated significant revenue and EBITDA growth prior to the pandemic, second quarter results reflect the impact of the national economic challenges that quickly emerged as many advertisers closed businesses and significantly reduced their ad spend. Given our national leadership position in sports, second quarter top-line results were also significantly impacted by the cancellation of virtually all scheduled sporting events during the quarter. Excluding the impact of cancelled sports play-by-play, second quarter revenues declined 47%. However, after bottoming out in April, we have achieved significant sequential improvement every month through the Summer with third quarter business on books already 30% greater than where the second quarter finished."

He added, "The pandemic challenges accelerated our on-going transformation initiatives with a heightened focus on enhancing our business model, accelerating our growth opportunities, more fully integrating our powerful product offerings, and improving our service to both listeners and customers. In this regard, we implemented a range of company-wide initiatives, which lowered second quarter total cash operating expense by approximately $97 million, which exceeded our budget. In addition, we secured our strong liquidity position through an amendment to our credit facility and ended the second quarter with $208 million of cash, up from $189 million at the end of March."