Earnings Labs

Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 7, 2018

$3.84

-0.26%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Entravision Communications Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Walter Ulloa, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

Walter Ulloa

Analyst

Thank you, Danielle, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Entravision’s third quarter 2018 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today is Jeff Liberman, our President and COO; and Chris Young, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I must inform you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please refer to our SEC filings for a list of risks and uncertainties that could impact actual results. The call is the property of Entravision Communications Corporation. Any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call in any form without expressed written consent of Entravision Communications Corporation is strictly prohibited. Also, this call will include non-GAAP financial measures. The company has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures in today’s press release. The press release is available on the company’s website and was filed with the SEC on Form 8-K. Our third quarter results were in line with our expectations, with solid growth achieved by our digital segment, partially offset by decreased revenues in our television and radio segments compared to the prior period. Our balance sheet continues to be solid with approximately $234 million in cash and marked up securities on the books and total debt of $297 million. Turning to our consolidated financial performance. Total revenues decreased $74.6 million compared to $334.6 million in the prior year, as we recorded our FCC auction results in the third quarter of last year. Consolidated operating expenses were up 2% and consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $11.3 million. Turning to our television segment. Television revenues from advertising and retransmission consent were down 4% during the third quarter due to lower advertising sales and slightly lower retransmission revenues. National advertising…

Chris Young

Analyst

Thank you, Walter, and good afternoon, everyone. As Walter has discussed, net revenue for the quarter was $74.6 million compared to $334.6 million in the same quarter of last year, which included our FCC broadcast or auction proceeds of $263.9 million. Operating expenses increased 2% to $44.1 million, and consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $11.3 million. For the quarter, revenues from advertising and retransmission consent in our TV segment were down 4% versus last year. The decrease was primarily attributable to decreases in both advertising and retransmission consent revenue. We generated retransmission consent revenue of $8.4 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2018, compared to $8.5 million in the same quarter last year. Radio net revenue for the quarter was down 7% compared to the prior year period. National revenue was down 3%, while local revenue was down 9%. Digital net revenue for the quarter was up 31% over last year. The increase was primarily due to the strong performance at our Headway digital operations. Revenue from spectrum usage rights declined from $263.9 million to $1.2 million in the third quarter of last year. The decline is primarily the results of our SEC broadcast auction results being recorded in the prior year period. Cost of revenue in our digital media segment was up 34% compared to last year. The increase was primarily attributable to strong organic revenue growth at our core Headway media operations. Consolidated operating expenses increased 2% year-over-year. The increase was primarily due to the increase from our digital segment during the quarter, partially offset by an 8% decrease in radio operating expenses. Corporate expenses for the quarter decreased 16%. The decrease was primarily attributable to expenses associated with the FCC auction recorded in the prior year period, which – expenses did not recur in 2018, partially…

Operator

Operator

We’ll now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Michael Kupinski of NOBLE Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Michael Kupinski

Analyst

Hi. I was wondering, can you break out for us, how much political is going to be in the fourth quarter? I know you gave us the total of $12 million – I’m sorry, do you still…

Chris Young

Analyst

So it’s approximately $6.9 million for TV and approximately $1.6 million for radio, gets you to about $8.7 million.

Michael Kupinski

Analyst

Got you. And then also, could you describe a little bit about – Chris, I think in the last call, you were talking about some effects on the border cities, the immigration issues. Have those economies stabilized at all? Or what are you seeing in terms of just the economies in those markets?

Chris Young

Analyst

I’ll say that they have improved somewhat over the year, but they’re still difficult markets, Michael.

Michael Kupinski

Analyst

Got you. And in terms of the expansion plans for Headway, I know, obviously, it sounds like you’re moving into – getting influence in Mexico. What are the other expansion plans for Headway at this point?

Chris Young

Analyst

You’re on mute there. Here you go.

Walter Ulloa

Analyst

Michael, it’s Walter. I was on mute there. Expansion plans for Headway. Well, we – as you know, we acquired Smadex, which is a mobile performance machine learning and artificial intelligence company that specializes in area I just described. And that is going quite well. We’re very pleased with the way – with that integration. We started immediately after we closed on the transaction back in June. We’re also looking at other opportunities. We continue to be interested in content, video, data, research, inside social influencers, emerging talent, branded content, performance, of course, is something that we’re paying a lot of attention to and building everyday a stronger expertise in attribution and other marketing-related platforms. So we continue to look at opportunities in digital, but I think most of our focus is around the two – our two core digital businesses, which is Headway and Pulpo. And so we’re looking at how we can strengthen these two business units by perhaps bolting on a product or a company that brings a product that’s going to enhance the performance of the overall business unit. So that’s kind of a general answer to your question in terms of what we’re looking at.

Michael Kupinski

Analyst

Got you. And final question, can you give us an update on the M&A environment? And is the company now just focused on looking at digital rather than looking at TV acquisitions at this point?

Walter Ulloa

Analyst

No. I mean, I’d say we’re looking at a lot of digital opportunities, but if the right television opportunity came along, we’d look at it. By that, I mean, a television product that is located in one of our high-growth Latino markets, that would bolster the existing cluster. We certainly did that in Palm Springs and that’s going well, with the addition of the NBC affiliate to our existing Univision. And UniMas affiliates, and then of course we have our radio cluster there as well. So that has worked out nicely, but it’s finding opportunities like that, that would enhance our television business that we continue to seek and see if there’s – see what’s out there. And then of course, radio’s [indiscernible] of how we look at any opportunities going forward.

Michael Kupinski

Analyst

Got you. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Walter Ulloa

Analyst

Thank you, Michael.

Chris Young

Analyst

Thank you, Michael.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Ulloa for closing remarks.

Walter Ulloa

Analyst

Thank you, Danielle. Thank you, everyone, for participating in our third quarter 2018 earnings results. We look forward to meeting with all of you in March when we – March of 2019 when we will announce our fourth quarter and full year 2018 earnings results. And so we look forward to speaking to you then. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.