PodcastOne, Inc. (PODC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for standing by. The conference will begin shortly. you Thank you. Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Podcast One's fiscal fourth quarter and full year-ended March 31, 2026 Financial Results and Business Update conference call. today's call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be opened for questions. Presenting on today's call is Kit Gray, President and Founder of Podcast One, and Craig Christensen, Interim Chief Financial Officer. I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking and based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions of that involve various risks and uncertainties these statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the future performance of the company including expected future financial results and expected future growth in the business Actual results may differ materially from those discussed on this call for a variety of reasons. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for information about factors which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those described in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2026, and subsequent SEC filings. You'll find reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures discussed today in the company's earnings release, which is posted on its Investor Relations website. The company encourages you to periodically visit its investor relations website for important content. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, contains time-sensitive information and reflects management's view as of the date of this call, June 24, 2026, and except as required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information. information after today's call. I'd like to highlight to all participants that this call is being recorded. The company will make it available to investors and media via webcast, and a replay will be available on its website in the Investor Relations section shortly following the conclusion of the call. Additionally, it is the property of the company, and any redistribution, transmission, or rebroadcast of this call or the webcast in any form without the company's expressed written consent is strictly prohibited. I would now like to turn the call over to Podcast One's president, Kit Gray.

Welcome to our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026 earnings call. As a reminder, our fiscal year begins on April 1st. This quarter marked a strong finish to fiscal 2026 and reflected the continued execution of our strategy to grow Podcast One through premium content, strategic talent partnerships, diversified monetization, and technology-driven operations. Throughout the year, we strengthened our position as one of the leading podcast publishers in the industry while expanding our network with established creator brands, developing original content, and driving meaningful growth across our advertising platform. Podcast One continues to distinguish itself as the leading pure play podcasting platform in the public markets through a vertically integrated model that combines talent development, content creation, distribution, analytics, monetization, and operational efficiencies, all supported by our AI. AI-powered infrastructure. Our AI toolkit continues to enhance performance across every aspect of the business. Flight Path drives predictive profitability, booster skills, advertising management, and proposal recommendations. Adobe Audition ensures best-in-class audio quality. engine supports discoverability through SEO and incense. Vigelant AI powers advertising attribution. And Opus Pro converts long form video into short form content that fuels audience growth across platforms. Our team constantly uses AI based search components to discover new talent, match trends, topics to specific content created on our programs and more. These tools directly support how we grow shows, monetize audiences and operate more efficiently at scale. Throughout the quarter, we continued expanding and strengthening our content portfolio through a combination of new talent partnerships, creator renewals, in original content development. We added several established creator led podcasts to the podcast one network, including wellness cafe, no filter with Zach Peter and the Michelle Collins show. These additions expand our reach across lifestyle entertainment and culture categories while providing advertisers with access access to highly engaged audiences. We also continued investing in original content with the development and launch of It's Okay, We're All going to Die with Nurse Julie, demonstrating our ability to identify emerging talent and create new intellectual property within the Podcast One ecosystem. our network, Podcast One creators continue to attract high-profile guests and cultural influencers spanning entertainment, business, health, and public affairs. Notable appearances during the quarter include Mel Robbins on Off the Vine, Jerry Seinfeld on The Adam Parole Show, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Latin Parole Show, Meredith Marks on Let Me Save You 25 Years, and Morgan Stewart on Instagaze. These appearances demonstrate the reach, relevance, and influence of Podcast One programming across multiple audio segments. Our momentum throughout the year was further reflected in Power Podcast One's growing industry standing. During the quarter, PodTrack ranked Podcast One as the seventh largest podcast publisher in the United States, highlighting continued audience growth and the increasing scale of our platform. Our monetization platform continued to deliver strong results as advertisers increasingly embraced podcasting as a measurable and scalable media channel. Programmatic advertising revenue more than doubled compared to the same January through March period of the prior year, reflecting growing advertiser demand for premium podcast inventory and the continued success of our technology-enabled advertising solution. This growth demonstrates the effectiveness of our investment in dynamic ad insertion, inventory expansion, audience targeting, and automated buying capabilities. As advertisers continued shifting budgets towards digital, audio, and podcasting, Podcast One remains well-positioned to capture increasing demand through both direct sales and programmatic channels. Together, with our growing content portfolio, audience expansion, and creator partnerships, these monetization gains further validate our business. our strategy of building a diversified and scalable media platform. Craig, back to you for our financial results.

All right, thank you Kit. As a reminder, our fiscal year began on April 1st, 2025 and ended on March 31st, 2026. Revenue in our fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 was 15.7 million. Operating loss in the fourth quarter was 460,000 compared to an operating loss of 1.8 million in the same year ago quarter. This improvement was driven primarily by higher advertising revenue and operational efficiencies across production and distribution. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $460,000 or negative two cents per basic and diluted share, compared to net loss of $1.8 million or negative nine cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was 1.9 million compared to 888,000 in the same year ago quarter, driven by revenue growth and contribution margin improvement. We ended the quarter with 3.5 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt on the balance sheet. Switching now to the full year, 2026 results, revenue increased 18% to compared to $61.7 million compared to $52.1 million in fiscal year 2025. Operating loss for the fiscal year of 2026 was $2.6 million compared to an operating loss of $6.4 million in fiscal year 2025. This improvement was primarily driven by revenue growth, margin improvement, and disciplined cost management. Net loss in fiscal year 2026 was $2.6 million or negative 10 cents per basic and diluted share compared to a net loss of $6.5 million or negative 26 cents per basic and diluted share in fiscal year 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal year of 2026 was positive $6.3 million.

compared to adjusted EBITDA of negative 0.5 million in fiscal year 2025. With that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Kit. Thanks, Greg. Fiscal 2026 was a transformational year for Podcast One. We expanded our network with established creator brands, renewed many of our most successful long-term partnerships, partnerships, developed original content, strengthened our monetization platform, and increased our industry standing among the largest podcast publishers in the country. As we look ahead, we remain encouraged by the broader trends shaping the podcast industry. Recent industry research shows total podcast listening time has increased approximately 386% since 2016 and now exceeds 800 million listening hours per week. The continued growth of audience engagement Video podcasting and advertiser adoption reinforces our beliefs that podcasting remains one of the most compelling and fastest growing segments of digital media. We are also encouraged by continued investment, strategic partnerships, and innovation occurring across the podcast industry. layman's leadership, we continue evaluating opportunities that can strengthen our platform, expand our creator offerings, and enhance long-term shareholder value. While we remain disciplined in our approach, we believe the continued evolution of the industry creates meaningful opportunities for growth throughout partnerships and technology, content development, and other strategic initiatives. As we enter fiscal 2027, we remain focused on expanding our content portfolio, enhancing monetization opportunities for creators and advertisers, growing our audience reach, and continuing to build durable value across the podcast. Gas One ecosystem. I want to thank our team, our creators, our advertising partners, and our shareholders for their continued support and trust. With that, we'll now open the line for questions. Operator?.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your hand when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Sean McGowan with Roth Capital Partners. Sean, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Hey, Kit, how you doing? And hello again, Craig. My first question is, you know, regarding this PodTrak number, you know, Kit, you and I have talked about this quite a bit over the last couple of years, but some of those those numbers seem to kind of move around a little bit in terms of audience size and how it's classified. So how should we think about that move to number seven in terms of growth of podcasts versus either consolidation or other stuff going on in companies that are higher, ranked more high than that?.

How much of this is real growth? Hey, Sean, good to hear from you. Thanks for the question, I appreciate it. Yes, so PodTrack, you know, it's an interesting measure of success for how you're doing comparative to other people. Just like, you know, all rankers when it comes to... what's going on in the world in terms of timing, right? I would say these sports networks may be coming off of football and, um, you know, it's a cyclical thing, right? Summertime is not as heavy for sports, although this year at the World Cup and stuff like that, it's an interesting time, but it's typically cyclical based on, you know, what's going on. I mean, if we have shows we're covering that are live right now, typically get some some good numbers so you know hard to tell where it's really coming from um i look at it as um exciting for us as a group in terms of our in the podcasting world. And I think that, you know, as we continue to grow up the ranker and grow, That's a good thing. You know, that's a good thing for talent to see when we're going out there and acquiring them that we have significant scale. We are a big player in that space. So that's a good thing to say, and it's a good thing to say to advertisers. But at the end of the day, that's not where we're paid, and that's not where we make our money. Our money is on, are the shows growing? Are we getting our CPMs higher? Are we getting our fill rates higher? That's where we're all graded on the real crust of the business. It really doesn't come down to poverty. track it really comes down to how are the shows performing are we getting more ad dollars on and that's how we look at it.

So that's helpful. So I guess related to my next question is, so if it isn't just PodTrak, what are some of the other metrics that you use internally to measure how you guys are doing relative to the overall industry?.

Yes. Well, when it comes to the industry, you know, PodTrack's a good reference. It doesn't have all the podcasts or podcast networks out there. It's still finding its way through the video side of things and social media side of things. And they've got some things coming up this year that will try to incorporate some of that stuff. You know, I can't really, I look at our competition, obviously, and what they're offering shows that maybe we're not and so forth like that and what's working out there. But really, my job and the team's job is to look at the shows that we have, the shows that we're trying to acquire and. It's the old black tackle in running and doing the right things that we do every time with the show. What are the sellout rates? Can we get the CPMs up? growing? Are we marketing it the right way? Are the shows marketing it the right way? Are we getting them on other podcasts to grow? That's really important. So every two weeks, We as a team look through all our shows and how they're doing. what they're doing in the marketing side of things is new things pop up, whether it's pod roll or new video, social media techniques that are working. We are looking at how every show on our network can use those tools to go forward.

Okay, thank you. Couple of questions of a different nature. Again, we've talked a lot about using stock as a way way of compensating the talent and keeping them kind of more aligned with shareholders. So what should we expect for non-employee stock-based comps? Should we expect the fourth quarter to be an indication of what we would see each quarter or will it fluctuate going forward?.

Yes, the ones that we're able to do those type of deals with are seeing great value and something that's unique that no one else can offer really. So the partners that have jumped on early on that have received the reward. the stock has gone the last, you know, three or four months. That's been a great payout to those guys. So we see them all, the ones that are currently doing that continuing, but I believe you're going to see a lot more jumping into the fray, right? Cause we now have the case studies have been working and, people making more money and having some great upside on it and enjoying the process. So I think we're going to see more of that over the next 12 to 24 months.

And just to jump in there for a second, Sean, this is a game changer, right? In that what you always want is your talent to get behind your company, right? We want everyone rowing in the same direction. You'll see my brother was on Adam Carolla this morning. Yes, I'm going on Carolla, I think in two weeks on Fox with him, right? We're going to start to get our talent behind the company as well as behind the stock. And when that happens, you get these big social media stars with big audiences. It's a great help to everybody here. It's a great help to building the network and building the audience and continue to grow. So we're really proud of this and it gives us a huge leg up for negotiating with talent to be able to offer them a company and a pretty liquid currency now that they can now jump into. And eventually if the stock has a big run like it deserves, eventually they'll make money, they'll make additional money but they'll also create enormous liquidity for the company. So we're really excited about this and it's something that Kit and I have been working on for the better part of five years. But now the talent is getting so excited about where the is going. And as we head towards, as we break 50 million revenues, now we break 60 million, and we start to talk about getting to 100 million, there's going to be more and more talent that want to join and want to join our platform. And when you see guys like Dr. Phil join the platform, it's a great indication of how the equity can really be a game changer in locking down talent.

Okay, that makes sense. Just to clarify, for non-employee stock based comp for podcast one, are all of those shares Podcast One shares or are there any LVO shares as well? We've used both of them.

Right now, it's all Podcast One, but we've used both along the way, Sean. Right now, all of these are in Podcast One. Okay.

Okay, thank you. Thanks, Mark. Sure. Thanks, Tom. Good to talk to you.

A reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Your next question comes from the line of Leo Carpio with Joseph Gunner. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, gentlemen. Actually, good morning for you, actually. Kind of a quick question. First on the fiscal 2027 guidance, did you break it down in terms of what is going to be organic growth driven versus acquisitions in terms of new talent that you're going to bring onto the platform.

about a few follow-up questions. Sure. You know, that's a little fluid in terms of where exactly that's going to come down to, but, you know, we've kind of, like I mentioned in the call, three or four really exciting M&A opportunities that we don't know which ones are going to fall, but we know some of them will. And We also have some really big shows and some other tech things that are in the works. Now, I can't tell you like if it's going to be 10% this or 15% this or 70% this, but what I will tell you is that we're seeing good growth. Even as we're charging through the end of year, Q1 this year, we're seeing some, you know, some good things on the sales, just organic growth, just based on the medium and, you know, you can read it in the trades. I don't even have to make it. These aren't secrets. The podcasting world is, is, is doing great. The ad spends are continuing to grow. The program programmatic numbers are continuing to expand. The world is embracing not only the video side of things, and the audio side of things with social media, how to how to buy into communities better. So it's really going to be a blend of all those three things to get us to where we need to be. there's always different things that come along the way too. We talked a little bit about some of the AI content licensing opportunities that are really exciting as well. So we don't really know exactly how it's going to go to the T, but we're pretty excited pretty confident by a blend of all those things, we're going to get to the number we need to get to.

Okay. And then turning to the, just to, just to add to that, just to add to that. Let me add that for one second. In that guidance is not acquisitions, it's acquisitions of talent because we continue to acquire talent every month. We probably add one to two new pieces of talent every month. We probably added 20 last year, but that does not include an acquisition of a company that includes acquisition of talent. And so we're really, excited about the pipeline and maybe Kit, you just want to talk a little bit about the pipeline right now and how robust it is.

Yes, you know, on the M&A side of things, we're not only talking to small podcast companies but bigger podcast companies in the media space, which are all really exciting. We're looking at two in terms of them being a part of Podcast One in interesting ways. And then really the talent side of things is strong, if not stronger than it always has been. And again, it comes down to how are we going to make the right decisions for the company, that we can continue to grow on both the top line revenue and then in terms of just making money. So we've got a lot of things that we're really excited about. I'm traveling a lot, my team's traveling a lot. We're meeting with some really big people that have big aspirations and we think.