Bob Pittman, the Chairman/CEO of Clear Channel, said that the company made strides during the second quarter of 2013 in a difficult business environment. The company was able to post a small increase in revenue, but according to Pittman, it is poised to do more in the future.
Clear Channel posts modest topline growth
Bob Pittman, the Chairman/CEO of Clear Channel, said that the company made strides during the second quarter of 2013 in a difficult business environment. The company was able to post a small increase in revenue, but according to Pittman, it is poised to do more in the future.
The company added $12.6M to its bottom line revenue total compared to Q2 2012, with the growth attributed to good national advertising results and strong business in a number of different advertiser categories. Sluggishness in the company’s traffic business provided a headwind.
Strong advertising categories included telecommunications, retail and financial services. Meanwhile, the company’s digital income also picked up.
“During the quarter, we made important progress across our businesses – delivering overall topline growth in a challenging market while strengthening our digital and national advertising capabilities for the future,” said Pittman. “We are continuing to create innovative, multi-platform solutions for leading national marketers and brands.”
Pittman noted very positive results for the iHeart initiative. “Emphasizing our focus on connecting consumers to their favorite stations, artists, and content wherever they are, iHeartRadio registered users were up 162% from last year’s second quarter and reached the milestone of 30 million registered users in less than two years.”
Pittman is also bullish on the radio industry as a whole. He stated, ”Industry research shows that broadcast industry radio listening is also growing – up 9% over the last decade – and remains the #1 source of music discovery and the #1 listening choice in the car by a wide margin.
The company’s goal is to reach its audience in as many ways as it can. Pittman said, “At a time when consumers are spending more time out of their homes than ever – and expect to be connected wherever they are – both our Media+Entertainment and our Outdoor businesses continue to benefit from our leadership in that out-of-home sweet spot we’re seeing globally. Outdoor generated strong results this quarter by leveraging its growing base of digital displays, both domestically and internationally. We also continued to improve our balance sheet with two opportunistic and transformative debt transactions, and we enhanced our liquidity through both operational improvements and the sale of non-core assets.”
