Townsquare Media Q1 Net Revenue Declines 0.3% to $93.4M

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, June 15, 2020

Townsquare Media

Townsquare Media reported first quarter net revenue declined 0.3% to $93.4 million from $93.7 million in 2019. Advertising net revenue grew 0.3% to $74.5 million, while interactive net revenue was up 16.3% to $16.5 million and live events fell 54.1% to $2.4 million. Excluding political revenue, net revenue decreased 1.4% to $92.1 million. Pro forma net revenue increased 0.5% to $93.4 million over $93 million. Adjusted EBITDA declines 19.2% to $15.5 million from $19.2 million.

As of March 31, 2020, the company had a total of $135.9 million of cash on hand and $610.5 million of outstanding indebtedness, representing 6.2x and 4.8x gross and net leverage, respectively, based on Adjusted EBITDA for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2020 of $98.7 million.

"While our first quarter started strong with high single digit net revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth in January and February, beginning in March we experienced a significant negative business impact to our Advertising and Live Events segments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, offsetting the momentum we established in 2019 and early 2020," commented CEO Bill Wilson. "In addition, Q1 2020 marked the first time our digital revenue exceeded 40% of our total net revenue, up from 35% in 2019, powered by Townsquare Interactive and Townsquare Ignite."

He added, "As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a significant decline in our Advertising revenue in March, but we were still able to generate positive first quarter year over year Advertising net revenue growth. Our Advertising net revenue declined further in April, but has shown sequential improvement in both May and June to date. We also cancelled or postponed our live events scheduled in March, April, May and June, which negatively impacted our net revenue."

"In addition, we have reduced our planned capital expenditures, and our board of directors has elected to cease paying our quarterly dividend moving forward. All of these actions have strongly bolstered our liquidity position," said Wilson.