iHeartMedia Calls Political Radio Advertising "Soft"

Richard Bressler

Political-advertising revenue in big U.S. markets is coming in below expectations this year amid a lack of competitive races in the midterm elections, Richard Bressler, the CFO of radio giant iHeartMedia, said Tuesday as the company reported mixed quarterly results.

Speaking on the company's quarterly earnings conference call, he also said that in some smaller markets, such as in Kentucky, Colorado and Iowa, spending was strong. "The lack of competitive races in the bigger markets is the most significant factor in the political softness for us," Bressler said.

Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker drew conclusions for bigger entertainment companies. "Not surprisingly, political is coming in softer than expected due to the absence of hotly contested races in the largest markets," she said in a report according to THR.

Other Highlights from Tuesday's Conference Call:

• iHeartRadio: The iHeartRadio App also continues to grow across registered users and total listening hours or TLH. As of September 30th, according to Bressler there are now 56 million iHeartRadio registered users, growing 43% year-over-year.
• San Antonio: "We’re in the process of selling two of our buildings in San Antonio and we expect sale proceeds of approximately $30 million from those two building sales."
• Radio Revenue:  "Revenues were up year-over-year despite another soft quarter by industry level. According to Miller Kaplan, the overall radio industry was down during July, August and September driven by weakness in level. "We significantly outperformed the market and grow our overall radio business year-over-year, driven by growth in national as well as our network business which includes traffic and weather. The growth is partially offset by weakness in our local core radio revenues, although we did outperform the market in local as well in July, August and September. "Among the quarter’s top categories were auto, financial services and home building. We think that part of the reason of it is over delivery. We see this as a success we are having in bringing new revenue to this sector from advertisers who have now historically spend with us or in radio."

It's interesting to note that CEO Bob Pittman did not participate in the 3Q earnings conference call. No explanation was given.