Urban One (UONE) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Date

Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET

Call participants

• Chief Executive Officer — Alfred C. Liggins
• Chief Financial Officer — Peter Thompson
• General Counsel — Chris Simpson
• Chief Administrative Officer — Ken Wishart
• CFO, Cable Television Unit (TV One & Clio) — Jody Druer

Takeaways

• Consolidated net revenue -- $97.8 million, down 16.5% year over year, reflecting broad declines in most segments.
• Radio broadcasting net revenue -- $35.1 million, a 26.5% decline year over year; local ad sales fell 19% while national ad sales were down 40.1%.
• Reach Media net revenue -- $13.8 million, up 43.9%, attributed primarily to the timing of the Fantastic Voyage Cruise event revenue.
• Digital segment net revenue -- $14.7 million, down 19.6%, driven by lower Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) money, reduced political, and general client spending.
• Cable television segment revenue -- $34.9 million, down 16.8% year over year; advertising revenue in the segment declined 21.8%.
• TV One cable subscribers -- 30.2 million at quarter-end, compared to 34.1 million at fiscal third quarter close, due to churn and virtual MVPD reclassification.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $15.6 million, representing a 41.8% decline year over year.
• Net loss -- $54.4 million, or $12.24 per share, compared to $35.7 million, or $7.81 per share, in the prior year.
• Impairment charges -- $55.3 million in noncash impairments: $53.1 million at Cable Television, $1.7 million at Digital, $0.5 million at Reach Media.
• Debt restructuring -- $185 million of 2028 notes repurchased at 60¢ on the dollar, with maturities extended and new debt ($60.6 million first-lien at 10.5% due 2030, $291 million second-lien at 7.625% due 2031) issued; $11.8 million of 2028 notes remain outstanding.
• Operating expenses -- $90.2 million (excluding amortization, stock compensation, impairment, goodwill, and intangible assets), down from $91.1 million in the prior year; adjusted for one-time items, expenses declined approximately 17% due to reduced variable and headcount costs.
• Net debt -- $347.9 million as of December 31, 2025, with unrestricted cash of $25.5 million and a reported net leverage ratio of 6.14x based on $56.7 million last twelve months (LTM) adjusted EBITDA.
• Reverse stock split -- One-for-ten split executed in January 2026, regaining Nasdaq listing compliance.

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

Risks

• Radio ad sales underperformed relative to markets, with local down 19% (versus market's 12.6% decline) and national down 40.1% (versus market's 29.2% decline).
• Significant revenue drops across Radio Broadcasting, Digital, and Cable Television segments, as well as a consolidated adjusted EBITDA decline of 41.8%.
• Alfred C. Liggins stated, "Q1 started off a bit slower than what we had hoped. Current radio pacings are down about 5%," signaling weakness in the start of the next fiscal year.
• Large noncash impairment charges totaling $55.3 million, with $53.1 million attributable to Cable Television.

Summary

Urban One (NASDAQ:UONE) reported lower consolidated revenue and profitability, attributed to segment declines, especially in Radio Broadcasting and Cable Television. The company completed a substantial debt restructuring—buying back $185 million of its 2028 notes at a discount and extending maturities—while driving operating expense reductions through headcount and variable cost controls. Management withheld any update on 2026 full-year guidance, citing a slower-than-anticipated start to the new fiscal year and delayed political advertising impacts. The recent one-for-ten reverse stock split restored compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements and followed a period marked by a significant increase in noncash impairment charges and an elevated net loss.

• Consolidated broadcast and digital operating income for the quarter reached $23.8 million, marking a 38.3% decrease year over year.
• Cable television affiliate revenue was down 9%, reflecting subscriber churn partly offset by higher rates and the addition of Now TV.
• Healthcare and financial ad categories grew 3.5% and 15.7%, respectively, but all other radio ad categories declined.
• The company emphasized continued focus on deleveraging, stating, "any transactions that we would look to do would be transactions that are also delevering."

Industry glossary

• MVPD: Multichannel Video Programming Distributor—companies or services that provide multiple television channels, such as cable or satellite operators and streaming "skinny bundles."
• DEI money: Revenue derived from advertisers' Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-focused spending, including targeted budgets for minority audiences.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Alfred C. Liggins, Chief Executive Officer of Urban One, Inc., who is joined by Peter Thompson, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Liggins, please go ahead.

Alfred C. Liggins: Thank you very much, operator. Also joining us today are Chris Simpson, our General Counsel; Ken Wishart, our Chief Administrative Officer; and Jody Druer, who is CFO of our cable television unit, TV One and Clio. Thank you all very much for joining us for the fourth quarter results 2025 year-end conference call. As the press release has stated, we actually finished the year just inside our guidance at $56,700,000 of EBITDA. We had previously also given guidance for 2026 of $70,000,000 of EBITDA. We are just getting through first quarter bottom parts. We are going to wait until we get to the end of first quarter, into the conference call, to update any information on that.

So we are holding that for the moment. Q1 started off a bit slower than what we had hoped. Current radio pacings are down about 5%, but we are still positive about a number of our operational changes that we have made and also political that is going to be coming in this year. We are also starting to see some significant improvements in our ratings at our cable television unit. A number of these factors are playing into our decision to hold on any sort of 2026 guidance update.

We are very pleased that by the end of last year, we were able to do a significant capital market transaction where we repurchased a significant amount of our 2028 notes at a discount. We extended out our maturities in an exchange into 2031 and upsized our ABL credit facility. We put the company in a much more stabilized position in terms of its capital structure to allow us to continue to focus on delevering the business and to try to take advantage of any offensive opportunities, particularly as it relates to deregulation in the radio business.

We feel very good about that, and we continue to maintain our focus on delevering, including that any transactions that we would look to do would be transactions that are also delevering. With that, I am going to turn it over to Peter, who is going to give you details on the numbers, and then we will open it up to Q&A.

Peter Thompson: Thank you, Alfred. Consolidated net revenue for the three months ended 12/31/2025 was approximately $97,800,000, down 16.5% year-over-year. Net revenue for the radio broadcasting segment was $35,100,000, which was a decrease of 26.5% year-over-year. Excluding political, net revenue was down 10.1% year-over-year. According to Miller Kaplan, our local ad sales were down 19% against our markets that were down 12.6%, and our national ad sales were down 40.1% against the market that was down 29.2%. Our largest ad category for the quarter was services, which was up 0.1%, primarily due to legal services. Healthcare was up 3.5%, and financial was up 15.7%. All of the other major categories were down.

Net revenue for the Reach Media segment was $13,800,000 in the fourth quarter, up 43.9% from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA was approximately $900,000 for the quarter. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in event revenue due to the timing of the Fantastic Voyage Cruise, which was in fourth quarter 2025 compared to 2024, so there is a timing difference there, and the increased revenue and expense was offset by a decrease in political revenue and a decrease in network advertising revenue. Net revenues for the Digital segment were down 19.6% in the quarter at $14,700,000.

The decline was driven by a decrease in direct revenue streams as a result of decreased DEI money, lower political, and lower client spending in general. Direct digital sales were down by $2,700,000 for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $1,800,000 compared to $2,700,000 last year. We recognized approximately $34,900,000 of revenue from our cable television segment during the quarter, a decrease of 16.8%. Television advertising revenue was down 21.8%. Our prime delivery declined approximately 20% from the third quarter for persons 25–54. Cable TV affiliate revenue was down 9%, which was driven by subscriber churn, partially offset by an increase in subscriber rates and the launch of Now TV.

Cable subscribers for TV One, as measured by Nielsen, finished the fourth quarter at 30,200,000 compared to 34,100,000 at the end of Q3. The decline is a result of the combination of churn and also a conversion of virtual MVPDs that has been sold as connected television and therefore pulled out of the Nielsen numbers. Clio TV had 33,000,000 Nielsen subscribers at the end of the period. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation, impairment, and goodwill and intangible assets, were approximately $90,200,000 for the three months, compared to approximately $91,100,000 for the comparable period in 2024.

Our operating expenses in the period included $7,700,000 of debt refinancing costs, as well as $6,700,000 of expenses related to the Fantastic Voyage Cruise. Excluding those two items, operating expenses were actually down by approximately 17%. That was driven mainly by revenue-related variable expenses such as commissions, sales rep fees, traffic acquisition costs in Digital, as well as headcount and related third-party professional fees. Radio operating expenses were down 17.8%, or $5,700,000, driven primarily by a decrease in commissions and headcount-related expenses. Reach operating expenses were up 86.1% due to the timing of the Fantastic Voyage. Excluding the event expenses, expenses at Reach were down 12.1%, which was driven by talent and headcount-related expense reductions.

Operating expenses in the Digital segment were down 18.5%, driven by the decrease in traffic acquisition costs, commissions, headcount-related savings, and video production costs. Operating expenses in the Cable Television segment were down 8.3%, driven by lower headcount costs, commission, bad debt, and a reduction in program development write-offs. Operating expenses in Corporate were up by approximately $4,000,000, driven by an increase in the debt refinancing costs that was recorded in Q4 of $7,700,000, offset by lower third-party legal and professional fees, software license fees, and other expense reductions at Corporate. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $15,600,000 for the fourth quarter, which was down 41.8%. Consolidated broadcast and digital operating income was $23,800,000, a decrease of 38.3%.

On 12/18/2025, the company closed a private tender and exchange offer with the holders of the 2028 senior secured notes representing more than 97% of the aggregate principal amount outstanding. The company tendered for $185,000,000 in the 2028 notes at 60¢. We issued $60,600,000 aggregate principal amount of 10.5% first-lien senior secured notes due 2030, and we issued $291,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 7.625% second-lien secured notes due 2031. Following the transaction, $11,800,000 of the 2028 notes remained outstanding.

We had to account for the transaction under the troubled debt restructuring rules, which means that we do not recognize the gain on the tender in P&L and instead we effectively capitalize that on the balance sheet as a premium, and that will have a knock-on effect in future periods of reducing the P&L interest expense, and the difference between the cash interest expense and the P&L interest expense will go to reduce the premium over time. Interest and investment income was approximately $400,000 in the fourth quarter compared to $1,100,000 last year. The decrease was due to lower cash balances in interest-bearing accounts.

Interest expense decreased to approximately $8,700,000 in Q4, down from $7,500,000 last year, due to lower overall debt balances. The company made cash interest payments of approximately $13,400,000 in the quarter. During the first three quarters, the company repurchased $96,700,000 in its 2028 notes at an average price of 53.6% of par, bringing the balance to $487,800,000 as of September 30, and then the debt transaction in the fourth quarter further reduced the outstanding long-term debt balance to $363,400,000 at year-end.

At the same time as the debt transaction happened, we drew down $10,000,000 from our new ABL credit facility, and in 2026 we paid the $10,000,000 draw on the ABL, and we also purchased an additional $4,300,000 in the 2028 notes at 51% of par, bringing the current outstanding total debt balance to $359,100,000. $55,300,000 of noncash impairment charges were recorded, and that was made up of $500,000 at Reach Media, $53,100,000 at Cable Television, and $1,700,000 within the Digital reporting unit. We recorded amortization expense of approximately $400 for the radio broadcast license and TV One trade name for the three months. Benefit from income taxes was approximately $9,200,000 for the fourth quarter.

The company received cash income tax refunds in the amount of approximately $200,000. Capital expenditures were approximately $3,200,000 in the quarter and $10,400,000 for the year. Net loss was approximately $54,400,000, or $12.24 per share, compared to a net loss of $35,700,000, or $7.81 per share, for 2024. During the three months ended 12/31/2025, the company did not repurchase any shares of Class A common stock. We did repurchase 13,773 shares of Class D common stock for approximately $100,000 at an average price of $8.20 per share on a post-split basis. In January 2026, the company did a one-for-ten reverse stock split and thereby regained compliance with the Nasdaq listing requirements.

As of 12/31/2025, the current outstanding debt balance was approximately $373,400,000, and ending unrestricted cash was $25,500,000, resulting in net debt of approximately $347,900,000, which compares to $56,700,000 of LTM reported adjusted EBITDA for a total net leverage ratio of 6.14x. With that, I will hand it back to Alfred to help you.

Alfred C. Liggins: Operator, can we open the lines up for Q&A?

Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, press star then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. Again, for questions, please press star followed by the number 1. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Once again, for questions, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. We have no questions at this time. Mr. Liggins, I will hand the call back to you.

Alfred C. Liggins: Thank you very much. We appreciate your support, and as always, we are available offline to answer any questions that you may think of after the fact. Thank you very much, and we will see you next quarter.

Operator: This will conclude today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.