Clear Channel Outdoor Posts $27M Profit in 4Q

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings posted a profit of $27.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, a turnaround for the San Antonio advertising company that last year endured heavy losses after spinning off from iHeart Media.

The San Antonio Express reports Clear Channel, which owns and operates digital billboards and other advertising media around the world, recorded $745.2 million in revenue for the quarter, a slight decline from the same period a year earlier.

Last May, radio giant iHeart Media filed for bankruptcy and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings broke off, becoming its own independently traded company.

Clear Channel saw gains domestically in 2019, with revenue in the Americas increasing by $83.7 million, a seven percent uptick compared with 2018. Clear Channel added 92 new digital billboards last year, bringing the company’s total number in the Americas to more than 1,400.

The company added nearly 800 new digital billboards internationally last year, but revenue fell $121.6 million compared with 2018. Clear Channel said nearly $71 million of that decrease was due to movements in foreign exchange rates.

But the slowing economy in China has hit Clear Channel’s Chinese subsidiary company, Clear Media, which saw revenue fall by 20 percent in 2019.

Clear Channel touted its investments in technology as a driver of future growth. The company’s RADAR product uses analytics and aggregated location data from mobile phones to better track an advertisement's audience metrics.

Clear Channel also issued equity and refinanced debt last year, which the company says improved its cash flow and balance sheet.