Beasley Broadcast Q1 Net Revs up 3.7% to $57.8 Million

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Beasley Broadcast Group

Beasley Broadcast Group reported first quarter net revenue increased 3.7% to $57.8 million from $55.7 million in 2022. Operating income rose to $400,000 from an operating loss of $2.7 million. Station operating income (SOI) grew 21% to $7.1 million from $5.9 million. The company posted a net loss of $3.5 million (12 cents per diluted share) as compared to a net loss of $3.7 million (13 cents) in the year-ago period.

CEO Caroline Beasley said, "Beasley's strong first quarter financial operating results highlight our continued local audio leadership and the ongoing success of our digital transformation and revenue diversification initiatives which are driving top-line and SOI growth. Despite ongoing challenges related to the economy and softness in the national spot market, Beasley generated healthy growth across its digital, local audio, and network revenue sources, as reflected by the 3.7% increase in first quarter net revenues to $57.8 million. Top-line growth was the primary factor contributing to an impressive 21% year-over-year increase in SOI to $7.1 million.

"Our digital strategy delivered first quarter digital revenue growth of 27.8% year-over-year, and accounted for 17.3% of total first quarter revenue. Similar to recent quarters, strong digital revenue performance was driven by Beasley's organic content creation initiatives and the roll-out of our tailored web services. Beasley continues to see accelerating demand from consumers for our innovative digital content, with our unique digital users more than doubling over the prior year quarter, resulting in a more than 90% year-over-year increase in sellable digital impressions. We believe we remain on path for this revenue source to reach 20% of total revenue by 2023 year-end.

"Total outstanding debt as of March 31, 2023 was $290.0 million, and first quarter interest expense slightly declined to $6.6 million. Beasley had $35.9 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand at quarter end. We intend to keep our cash on the balance sheet in order to maintain our strong liquidity position, while we monitor the economic environment.

"In summary, the experience of our team and strong competitive positions in our markets combined with the meaningful actions we have taken to reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies was again evident in the strength of our first quarter results. Looking ahead, while we are hopeful that the operating environment will improve in the second quarter, we are closely monitoring the economy."