Radio Is A Drag On SBS Earnings

The Spanish Broadcasting System reports it suffered a major hit on a year-to-year basis for fourth quarter 2020, with radio losses more than offsetting television increases, but the picture was a little more encouraging on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

Year-to-year quarterly consolidated revenues fell 13% to $40.2 million, with radio off 17% to $33.9 million and television up 18% to $6.25 million; however, the number was up 34% compared to third quarter 2020 as advertising expenditures began rebounding from its pandemic lows. Adjusted OIBDA fell 27% for radio to $15.45 million, and with television's gain of 32% to $2.8 million resulted in a consolidated OIBDA decrease of 19% to $16.3 million.

Raul Alarcon

Chairman/CEO Raul Alarcon stated, "Our fourth quarter results demonstrate the ongoing recovery across our markets, despite the pandemic-induced weaknesses inflicted upon the industry earlier in 2020, as exemplified by our sequential revenue and operating momentum and our continued industry-leading margins of 45%+ at our core media businesses.

"Ratings held strong throughout 2020 and, in fact, reached a new plateau during the Fall as our New York City flagship WSKQ-FM captured the coveted #1 Nielsen ranking, irrespective of language, genre, format or location, among 18-34 and 18-49 year-old listeners. Strong ratings were also maintained at our Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Puerto Rico stations -- a metric validation of our strategic mandate to super-serve the nation’s largest minority audience.

"After recently completing our recapitalization earlier this year, we are now focusing our full efforts on building upon our core strengths in radio and television, while resuming the aggressive scaling of our digital platform, LAMUSICA, and renewing the staging, promoting and marketing of our perennially popular series of concerts and events as the year unfolds. The underlying power of our assets cannot be understated given the unique bond we have forged with the fast-growing Latino population and the brand partners desirous of reaching this lucrative consumer base, whether that be on our leading radio stations, our MEGATV platform, our 290+ affiliate AIRE RADIO NETWORK, our mobile streaming LAMUSICA app and at performance venues throughout the country.