Urban One Reports Revenue Gains During 1Q

Urban One, Inc. today reported its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. 

• Net revenue was approximately $91.4 million, a decrease of 3.6% from the same period in 2020. 
• Broadcast and digital operating income1 was approximately $36.4 million, a decrease of 3.3% from the same period in 2020. 
• The Company reported operating income of approximately $23.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to an operating loss of approximately $27.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020. 
• Net income was $7,000 or $0.00 per share (basic) compared to a net loss of approximately $23.2 million or $0.51 per share (basic) for the same period in 2020. 
• Adjusted EBITDA2 was approximately $28.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to approximately $32.3 million for the same period in 2020.

Alfred C Liggins III

Alfred C. Liggins, III, Urban One's CEO and President stated, "Normalizing for approximately $1.4 million of Richmond gaming chase costs, which were one-time in nature, our Adjusted EBITDA was down approximately 6.3% year over year, which was encouraging in the context of pre-COVID radio comparatives for January and February and a lack of political revenues. It is worth noting that compared to Q1 2019, which was a pre-pandemic and off-cycle political quarter, our Adjusted EBITDA was up by approximately 4.1% (and by 9.1% after normalizing for the Richmond gaming project). 

"Our core radio advertising was down approximately 13.7% for the quarter, with January -28.4%, February -19.9% and March +8.8%. Currently for second quarter, core radio is pacing up over 70%, with April finishing at +89%. Our digital business had another strong quarter, with revenues up 64.6% and Adjusted EBITDA up by approximately $3.2 million. Cable TV revenues were down 2.6%, but Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $24.8 million was 14.5% higher than Q1 2019 (approximately $21.7 million), which is a more realistic comparison than the COVID-impacted Q1 2020, during which content production and marketing were effectively shut-off. Under the circumstances, we delivered a solid first quarter, and I anticipate further sequential improvements in Q2."