iHeartMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 8, 2023 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Mike McGuinness - Head of Investor Relations

Bob Pittman - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Rich Bressler - President, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo

Jim Goss - Barrington Research

Operator

Good morning. My name is Rob and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the iHeartMedia Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Mike McGuinness, Head of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.

Mike McGuinness

Good morning, everyone and thank you for taking the time to join us for our second quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining me for today's discussion are Bob Pittman, our Chairman and CEO and Rich Bressler, our President, COO and CFO. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, management will take your questions. In addition to a press release, we have an earnings presentation available on our website that you can use to follow along with our remarks.

Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements regarding our financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management's current expectations and actual results could differ from what is stated as a result of certain factors identified on today's call and in the company's SEC filings. Additionally, during the call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, earnings presentation and our SEC filings which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

And now, I'll turn the call over to Bob.

Bob Pittman

Thanks, Mike and good morning, everyone. We're pleased to report that our second quarter 2023 results were in line with our previously provided adjusted EBITDA and revenue guidance ranges. The signs of improvement in the advertising marketplace that we called on in our first quarter call have continued and we're seeing indications of improving macroeconomic trends which we expect to have a positive impact on us in the second half of the year. And similar to what you probably heard from others, we expect most of that positive impact in Q4.

While we're carefully monitoring these improving macroeconomic conditions, we're also continuing our expense management work. These actions and the work we've done over the past couple of years to make our organization more efficient, have allowed us to be resilient during this recent period of advertising softness. These actions have also freed up additional capital that enabled us to continue reducing our highest cost debt at advantageous prices, while also continuing to reinvest in our high growth areas like podcasting. The continued positive performance of our Digital Audio Group led by our podcast business and the significantly improved relative performance of our Multiplatform Group during the soft advertising period compared to the last downturn in 2020 are encouraging metrics for us. Additionally, while the advertising environment remains challenging in the short term, we note that there are some opportunities that iHeart is uniquely positioned to take advantage of.