Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Cumulus Earnings: "Downward Trajectory Reversed"

Cumulus Media Inc. Monday announced operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2017.

For the three months ended March 31, 2017, the Company reported net revenue of $264.0 million, down 1.7% from the three months ended March 31, 2016, net loss of $7.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $38.7 million, down 7.6% from the three months ended March 31, 2016.

Mary Berner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cumulus Media Inc. said, "Our first quarter represents a clear inflection point in our turnaround, as the downward trajectory of recent years has been reversed.  With clear evidence that our strategy is working, we remain committed to the rigorous execution of the initiatives that are critical to keeping the Company on a sustained growth path."

Net Revenue

The Company operates in two reportable segments, the Radio Station Group and Westwood One. The Radio Station Group  revenue is derived primarily from the sale of broadcasting time to local, regional and national advertisers. Westwood One  revenue is generated primarily through network advertising.

Corporate and Other includes overall executive, administrative and support functions for each of the Company’s reportable segments, including programming, finance, legal, human resources, information technology and administrative functions.

The following tables present our net revenue by segment (dollars in thousands).


On Monday's webcast with analysts, Brenner was upbeat on the company's turnaround strategy. "Our Q1 results demonstrate, we have arrived at a financial inflection point in our turnaround. Our operating metrics have benefited from the momentum of our turnaround initiatives for some time. But as expected, we're now starting to see the positive impact that those efforts have had on our financial results."

Revenue:

"Total revenue for the company in the quarter was $264 million, down 1.7% compared to Q1 of 2016, impacted by a decline of about $2.4 million in political revenue year-over-year as well as revenue reductions totaling approximately $1.5 million at Westwood One."

Ratings:

"We maintained our ratings share outperformances versus the market in PPM markets through March. This marks 6 straight quarters of considerable PPM ratings share growth. For the four book markets, we followed on from a year-over-year growth in the fall ratings book with year-over-year growth once again in the winter book which was just finalized last week."

Culture:

"We view turnover as an important operational metric for us judging the health of -- cultural health of our organization. Through April, we've attained a new low for total turnover, 22%, down from the high 40s in mid-2015."

Reorganization:

"We reorganized our station group leadership into two regions, PPM and diary. This change considerably simplifies our management oversight and effort by grouping markets that have similar dynamics under a single leader and we've -- we're already seeing benefits from this realignment."

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