Good day, and welcome to the Spanish Broadcasting fourth quarter 2023 and first quarter 2024 conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brad Edwards with Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Cole, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, please recognize that certain statements on this conference call are not historical fact. They may be deemed, therefore, to be forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In particular, statements about future results expected to be obtained from the company's current strategic initiatives are forward-looking statements. Many important factors may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any such forward-looking statement. Spanish Broadcasting System undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements. Please also note that we will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures.
The company believes that operating income before depreciation and amortization, gain on the disposal of assets and other operating income or expense, excluding non-cash stock-based compensation or Adjusted OIBDA, is useful in evaluating its performance because it reflects a measure of performance for the company's stations before considering costs and expenses related to capital structure and dispositions. This information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for operating income, net income, or loss, cash flows from operating activities, or any other measure used in determining the company's operating performance or liquidity that is calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
A reconciliation of the company's U.S. GAAP information to adjusted OIBDA is provided in the tables attached to the company's 2023 fourth quarter and 2024 first quarter earnings releases, which are both available on the investor relations section of the company's website at www.spanishbroadcasting.com. With that, I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Raúl Alarcón.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining me for the SBS fourth quarter 2023 and first quarter 2024 earnings call. Before turning to a review of our results as well as our outlook, I want to share how gratified I am to resume my role as President of SBS. As many of you know, I served in this capacity for many years, and it's an honor to serve once again. I greatly appreciate the support of our board of directors and their trust in my leading SBS through our current operational reset and into our next stage of meaningful and profitable growth. I'm also pleased that the board unanimously agreed that Frank Circelli take over the duties and responsibilities of Chief Financial Officer.
Frank has been an incredibly valuable part of our corporate team since he joined SBS in 1992 and has an extensive understanding of what matters most in successfully navigating today's challenging and competitive environment moving forward. I could not think of a better partner to have alongside me as we work to drive accelerated growth, realign our operations, and deliver increasing returns for our stakeholders. With that, I'd like to turn to our first quarter performance and our outlook for the rest of 2024, while touching on some of our long-term plans and initiatives. Before I get to that, let me recap 2023. Our successes, as well as the plan we implemented late in the year to refocus each and every one of our business units for peak performance and sustained operating leverage.
We successfully reached a number of operating thresholds in 2023, including the profitability of our startup, Orlando and Tampa duopoly. Our success in securing a competitively superior signal in the highly attractive Houston market, all the while maintaining solid rating performances in all of our key markets. Our engagement with the nationwide Hispanic audience and their continued love of our brands, our talent, and our unique proprietary content is constantly confirmed by the ratings we generate among the many diverse demographic audiences we target. In fact, it's precisely our continued ability to connect our advertising brand partners with the massive audiences that comprise the new American mainstream. That's the key to this company's future. It's as simple as that. However, pardon me. As we all know, simple is not necessarily easy, and 2023 was not without its challenges.
While our audio and digital assets remain firmly positioned in their respective markets, our internal operations and the efficiency, which has characterized our business model for over four decades, needed to be refreshed, retooled, and refocused, which in fact, is a process that needs to be constantly re-implemented month in and month out, before any business can be said to be operationally optimized. That's why late last year, we began the process of taking a hard look at every one of our businesses and enacting targeted initiatives to streamline operations and better manage our cost profile.
We began to see the early results of those efforts in the fourth quarter of 2023, when we managed to rein in overall station and corporate expenses to end flat in the fourth quarter, as opposed to having costs grow as they did during the first three quarters of 2023. This disciplined approach to costs continued into Q1, where we delivered a significant improvement in station operating income and Adjusted OIBDA, with operating expenses falling 10%, but we still have much more work to do. We're going to relentlessly pursue operational efficiencies to further streamline our operations and drive accelerated growth. Indeed, our realignment plan remains in its early implementation, and we can see additional pathways to improve performance moving forward.
In the first quarter, our consolidated adjusted OIBDA grew approximately 100% compared to the prior year, proof positive that our initial steps to reignite growth, streamline our operations, and drive profitability in 2024 and beyond are working. As we look to the second quarter, we expect another triple-digit year-over-year growth rate in adjusted OIBDA. Our outlook is strong beyond the second quarter, and we are confident that 2024 will be a turning point for SBS and our multi-platform operations. Now, let me outline a few of the, many reasons for my confidence in the future of this company, in the future of SBS. First, our audio station brands remain at the top of the rankings across the most critical Hispanic DMAs in the country.
When combined with the power and reach of our Aire Radio network and our digital assets, no one has a stronger, more deeply rooted connection with the national Hispanic constituency than does SBS. Second, our ability to deliver captive audiences to our brand partners and help them connect with many of the most sought-after demographics in the country has now been proven and reproven time and again, year in and year out. Third, our live events division is set to have a robust lineup of shows this year. In addition, last week, we announced the return of our Summer Spotlight Series, which highlights multiple upcoming Latino artists in an intimate, immersive live Q&A experience.
Fourth, and here's where it gets really, interesting, our digital initiatives, including DigIdea, where the early returns have been promising, as well as our new Data initiative, which is proving to be even more immediate and impactful as it deals directly with our audience, will be the focal point of our efforts to extend our sphere of influence beyond over-the-air terrestrial radio going forward. While I'm not going to be detailing the specifics of these initiatives for obvious reasons, I will say that we are in the midst of aligning our content across a broad spectrum of platforms in order to more fully capture, retain, and follow our content devotees, so that we can effectively become their lifestyle companions wherever they go, whatever they do, and however they go about doing it.
Across our digital platforms, our online, mobile, and social media engagement levels are at historic highs, and the initial results verifying these pathways to further growth are more than promising. They're real. And not only that, but we've discovered a boomerang effect, whereby our original over-the-air performance also benefits. Lastly, we have the great good fortune of operating in the Latino ecosystem, which is not only growing its absolute numbers by leaps and bounds, but is also establishing itself as the global trendsetter in all aspects of culture, lifestyle, and in what I call its wholeness quotient. Hispanics are the new American mainstream, growing in number and highly sought out by brands, marketers, politicians, looking for a way into these consumers.
As I look to the future, I am confident in SBS establishing a new trajectory for growth and better utilizing the power of our assets and brands by translating these strengths into more profitable growth for our company. Serving Hispanic audiences has been my life's passion. That's not going to change. And working alongside the talent, talented SBS team, I can attest to the realization that our future has never been brighter. Our overall market position is strong. Our realignment plan is 100% aimed at elevating our operations, and I remain confident that we're moving along the right path, as you can see from the early returns in our performance as we realign and restructure our operations for what's coming.
We have the brands, we have the talent, we have the passion, and we have over four decades of experience serving the passionate, engaged Hispanic audience across this great nation and beyond. Thank you once again for your time and attention today. And now let me address a few of the questions that we've been fielding from our stakeholders.
Thanks, Raul. So we received several questions from our stakeholders. First category was the entertainment division. So stakeholders want to know about the cadence of events over the rest of the year, as well as some more details on the division's performance in the first quarter.
Okay. Okay, Brad. Well, look, we want to be more prudent, given some of the softness in ticket sales and in concert events post-pandemic. I think there was a flood of events and tickets went out of control, and there was a lot of churn through that time, and I think there's been a softening after that, that we have felt industry-wide. So, you know, we're trying to be prudent. With that said, you know, we have a solid lineup for the rest of the year, a lineup that will continue to perform well for us and drive engagement with our listeners, as they always do. We've got a captive audience there, and it just works well. You know, concerts work well for us. You know, we give away tickets, we do contests, and the people are there.
We sell sponsors to our, you know, ad partners, and, you know, it's a good business for us. We just wanna be a little bit more prudent for the rest of the year. I think it's always gonna be a successful business for SBS. You know, we can scale up or down the size of the events and, you know, that's within our control. We don't wanna lose that engagement, but we want to be sure that we're not on edge in terms of profitability. And, you know, we always have the option of, you know, doing some shows co-promoted with some other people, which eliminates the risk for us and really just has all the rewards and none of the risks, and we've done that very successfully in the past.
So we're gonna be looking at that very carefully, but we're certainly going to be participating in live events. I, I don't see that disappearing from our, you know, from our lineup of community outreach that we do. I, I really consider it to be very much an outreach to our listeners.
Right. Thank you. And then, we also got some questions about trying to get a little bit of a further breakdown of local revenue as well as national revenue in Q1, and maybe could you provide a little bit more color there?
Yes, sure. So, I'll say that in Q1, we had higher local and network sales that were somewhat offset by some weakness that we experienced in the national category. I think that the last time that we looked at this, national now is starting to click in a little bit stronger, but that was a question in terms of Q1. Higher local and network sales, offset by slight softness in the national category.
Right. So that leads us into another category that investors had questions about, which is any insights that we can give into the 2Q pacings?
Yeah, 2Q pacings look good. Local sales are up mid-single digits, slightly offset by network and some national sales during the Q2, during the quarter. Again, our efforts regarding revenues across the board is intense, and of course, we can't control the macroeconomic environment, but I would have to say that the fact that our pacings are up, Q2 pacings are up slightly, local up mid-single digits, I think is a good harbinger of things to come.
Great. So moving on, we also got questions about, obviously, the Orlando and Tampa station duopoly, and maybe can you provide a more broader update on the ratings and financial performance of those two Florida stations?
Yeah. Yeah, certainly I can. First of all, the audience should understand that this was a very critical, as I saw it, acquisition for us because it really rounded out, our penetration in the Florida market. And there's a lot of things that we're doing with respect to combined selling, including, of course, Miami, which is our leading market in the state. But having a footprint in Orlando and Tampa is very positive to the efforts individually and collectively for the three markets. And we've done very well there. We've done very, very well in Orlando. We had a little bit of a nuisance with Nielsen, and we went round and round with them on what we felt were some inaccuracies, let's say, in Tampa.
It took us a while to get them to focus on that. But, you know, our duopoly, I call it a duopoly, Tampa and Orlando, has continued to perform ahead of all expectations. In fact, they delivered positive adjusted OIBDA for the full year 2023. A little bit more insight on this: just in the first quarter of 2024, we almost matched the positive financial impact we achieved in all of 2023. So I, you know, I think that's, I think that's, again, a good indication. We've apparently taken care of the situation, and Nielsen has apparently taken care of the situation in Tampa, where we now have the strong ratings that we always felt we had.
Now it's being registered by Nielsen consistently in a lot of the, demos and day parts that, we just weren't performing in Nielsen as we knew we were performing in reality. But that seems to have been taken care of. And again, we have, these stations are still, as far as I'm concerned, even though they're profitable, are still startup. So, we're very happy. And, and obviously, that gives us a Tampa, Orlando and Miami gives us real good footing in terms of political business this year. You know, having that trifecta or as others have called it, the golden triangle in terms of Hispanic audiences, in the state. So we are, we're very happy about that.
Thanks. And on the, thanks, Raul. And then on the, you've mentioned the topic of political. As you can imagine, we got that question. So we, we got a number of questions about our expectations for political ad spending, in 2024.
Yeah.
So-
Yeah.
You know, anything more you can expand, like your opinion on, not just, you know, expectations for presidential election, but also the downstream elections as well?
Yeah, well, you know, I'd like to say that I have a crystal ball and all the answers regarding political advertising this year, but of course I don't. We've seen some political activity already, not as much as we would've liked, but still it's early. And of course, there's the big question about, you know, where's it all going? And I don't know if anybody has the answer to that. Of course, there is going to be, well, we all believe there's gonna be an election, and we all believe that they're gonna be at the presidential level, two candidates that are gonna be vying for that. So I don't think that's much of a problem, but I don't. You know, I dare not venture to say that it's gonna be a robust political cycle this year.
It's too early to tell. People are saying the whole spectrum of answers, you know, it's going to be very strong, you know, it's gonna be a little bit late. No, it's gonna be regular, you know. And so, you know, I don't wanna venture out on that, except to say that we're prepared, number one, and number two, we're out there looking for the business, the political business. And number three, of course, aside from the presidential races, we have the congressional races and a bunch of other things that we are gonna be falling down in terms of political advertising necessity. So we, you know, we're all over that, but as I say, we've seen some political business.
I can't say that that's pointing to a big political season or a small political season, or an early political season or a late political season. So, but we do have our positioning in the Hispanic market in a number of important, you know, markets throughout the country. So we're well positioned for that. And of course, what we always have to say is, you know, whether it's the Republicans or the Democrats, everyone wants that Hispanic vote, which, you know, traditionally had been, let's say, leaning more Democrat. But as of recently, you've seen some pretty startling information regarding that nuance, you know, and the, let's say the faith that Hispanics traditionally were seen as a Democrat voting bloc.
I think the fact that they're opening up now to other options across the aisle is very interesting, and it just positions the Hispanic market in a very ideal situation, to be able to take advantage of the fact that both parties want and need the Hispanic vote. So in the sense that, you know, we are 100% Hispanic, and that's what we're focused on and in some important markets, you know, I think that bodes well for us. We'll see how the political cycle turns out. You know, we've got our eyes are on it.
Great. Thank you. And then we did get some questions on the Houston market and the recent audio station acquisition there. Questions primarily were about any update we could give on the timing and the acquisition closing, as well as-
Mm-hmm.
you know, plans regarding the planned station, the format change.
Yeah. Well, here again, Houston was a market that I had had my eye on for a long, long time, and we were very fortunate to pick up a station owned and operated by Radio One. It's actually a forced divestiture, mandated divestiture and a flamethrower signal in that market. And of course, that market is the third largest Hispanic market in the nation, which is astounding to say, and it's fourth largest market in the country. So it's an important place that we need to be. And I think we have the right station in terms of its coverage of the market. We have a format ready to go.
As a matter of fact, we listened to it in a secure online site, and so we've been tweaking that thing for a while, and I'm very happy with the sound. I'm very happy. I was in Houston last week, and so I'm very happy about our being able to enter that market. And, you know, we're gonna enter it strong, you know, like we've entered all the markets. The latest two being Orlando and Tampa. We, you know, we made a very big splash when we came to those markets, and we're gonna do it again in Houston. So I'm, you know, I'm very positive on that.
With respect to closing on the acquisition, I would say that while it could happen earlier, and that depends on a couple of things that are taking place, it's certainly gonna be this year. It'll certainly be. At the latest, of course, it'll be fourth quarter. I don't have anything more specific to say about that, except that, you know, we're very excited to get into that market.
Great, and then the last questions that we have are about Mega TV.... And can we provide an update on, you know, that asset? And do we continue to plan to sell that asset, you know, and, or, you know, real estate, kind of other assets, either combined or separate?
Yeah. Well, Brad, as you know and others know, we made a decision to exit the TV business for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is we felt that was the way strategically for our company to proceed. Now, we are very fortunate in the sense that, we're dealing with a total of five television stations in two markets, and two very important and valuable real estate parcels that go along with the operations of the television station. You know, we have our sound stages there. And so when we looked at this, we saw that there was a real possibility of either selling it entirely as a package, which I guess, all things considered, would be my preference.
But what we've had happen, is a whole host of interested parties, come to the table regarding one piece or a different piece, you know. We have what a friend called a matrix of options here, which gives us a lot of flexibility. And, and I was frank, I was very surprised about that. And so there is very good interest. I think that, yes, we're absolutely committed to selling the television, and we will be selling it. And, I just want to align, you know, the best... All I'm looking for is obviously the largest number we can get. So I'm looking at, you know, if we sell it all as one, as one package or if we parcel it out.
And by the way, there are interested parties that are not necessarily broadcasters, due to the fact that we have, you know, two parcels of land, which are extremely valuable. One here on the Palmetto in Miami and the other one in Puerto Rico, in Guaynabo, in Puerto Rico. So, you know, I believe it's gonna all shake out. It might take a little time for us to pick and choose, you know, which is the format that we'd rather go with in terms of the sellers. Excuse me, the buyers. But, I have no doubt that we'll be able to put together an incredible and a profitable sale of the licenses and the real estate, soon. And we've been at...
As a matter of fact, in the last 30 days, we've had a lot of activity. In the last two weeks, we've had a tremendous amount of activity. So, I'm looking forward to that. I think it's gonna end up very well for us, and, of course, we'll keep all of the stakeholders advised. But my thinking hasn't changed on that one bit, and if anything, it's becoming stronger in the sense that, you know, I think we're gonna be able to realize some good monetization proceeds from the sale of those assets. Lastly, I wanna note that the multimillion-dollar settlement on the failed sale of the TV. There was a question regarding whether that was part of the operating income and Adjusted OIBDA.
And so the answer is that it was not. That payment was not included in the operating income and Adjusted OIBDA. So I just wanted to have that clarified. But other than that, my opinion still holds strong regarding the monetization of these television assets and real estate.
This will conclude our presentation. I would like to turn the conference back over to Brad Edwards for any closing remarks.
Thank you, Cole. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today, for our fourth quarter, 2023 and first quarter, 2024 earnings conference call. Have a great summer, and we'll talk to you on our second quarter call in the near future. Have a great day.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time.