PodcastOne Q1 FY2027 Earnings Call - Record Revenue Driven by Video Integration and Premium Brand Advertiser Shift

Conference Call Operator: Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to PodcastOne’s Fiscal First Quarter 2027 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. During today’s call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions. Presenting on today’s call is Kit Gray, President and Founder of PodcastOne, 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 that involve various risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the future performance of the company, included 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 those forward-looking statements, including those described in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31st, 2026, and subsequent SEC filings. You will 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 the investor relations website for more important content. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, contains time-sensitive information and reflects management’s views as of the date of this call, August 12th, 2026. As required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information after today’s call.

I would 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 PodcastOne’s President, Kit Gray.

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Thank you and welcome to our fiscal first quarter 2027 earnings call. We entered fiscal 2027 with strong momentum, building on the progress we made throughout the past year. During the first quarter, we continued expanding our content portfolio, strengthening strategic partnerships, and growing our audience through premium programming, original content development, and creator-led franchises. PodcastOne 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-powered infrastructure. Our AI toolkit continues to enhance performance across every aspect of the business. Flightpath drives predictive profitability. Booster scales advertising management and proposal recommendations. Adobe Audition ensures best-in-class audio quality. PodEngine supports discoverability through SEO and insights.

Magellan AI powers advertising attribution, and Opus Pro converts long-form video into short-form content that fuels audience growth across platforms. Our team continues leveraging AI-based search capabilities to discover new talent, identify emerging trends, and connect timely topics with the content across our network. These tools directly support how we grow shows, monetize audiences, and operate more efficiently at scale. Throughout the quarter, we continued executing on our strategy of expanding our network through premium creator partnerships, strategic acquisitions, original content development, and long-term creator relationships. One of our most significant milestones this quarter was advancing to the number six position in Podtrac’s ranking of U.S. podcast publishers, surpassing Disney and further reinforcing PodcastOne’s position as one of the largest podcast networks in the country. This achievement reflects the continued growth of our audience, the strength of our programming, and the dedication of our creators and team.

We also continued strengthening our content portfolio through the acquisition of "The Magnificent Others," hosted by Billy Corgan, lead singer of Grammy Award-winning rock band, The Smashing Pumpkins, adding another highly respected voice to our network while expanding our reach across music, entertainment, and culture. We also acquired "Life Happens with Barb and Michelle," while officially launching our original series, "It’s Okay, We’re All Gonna Die with Nurse Julie," reflecting our continued investment in both established creator brands and original intellectual property. Further strengthening our creator roster, we renewed our partnership with Lindsie Chrisley’s "The Southern Tea," which recently surpassed 2.5 million downloads across more than 248 episodes. We also partnered with PAVE Studios on A&E’s "The First 48," expanding our relationship with premium media brands and creating additional opportunities to reach new audiences. Across our network, PodcastOne creators continued attracting influential voices from across entertainment and popular culture.

Notable guests during the quarter include actor Josh Duhamel on "The Adam Carolla Show," "Dancing with the Stars" pro Ezra Sosa on "Off The Vine," and Mandy Moore on "Yesterdays." Our influence also extends beyond podcasting, as "House of Stassi" premiered on Hulu with Stassi Schroeder’s podcast, "STASSI with Tay," serving as one of the central storylines throughout the series. Stassi’s continued presence across major platforms, including Netflix, highlights the growing ability of podcast talent and brands to extend into broader entertainment franchises and reach audiences across multiple platforms. As our network continues to grow, so do the opportunities to create value for creators, advertisers, and listeners alike. Our investment in technology, audience development, and advertising infrastructure continue to strengthen our ability to connect brands with highly engaged audiences while helping creators expand their reach across audio, video, and social platforms.

As podcast advertising continues to mature and brands increasingly seek trusted creator relationships and measurable results, we believe PodcastOne remains well-positioned to capitalize on these long-term industry trends through our diversified content portfolio, expanding creator network, and technology-enabled platform. Now I’d like to turn the call over to Craig to review our financial results.

Craig Christensen, Interim Chief Financial Officer, PodcastOne: Thank you, Kit. As a reminder, our fiscal year 2027 began on April 1st. Revenue in our first quarter of fiscal 2027 was a record $16.1 million. Operating loss in the first quarter was $1.6 million, compared to an operating loss of $1.1 million in the same year-ago quarter. This $500,000 increase was driven primarily by stock-based compensation within G&A. Net loss for the first quarter was $1.6 million, or negative $0.05 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1.1 million, or negative $0.04 per share in the same year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was positive $1.6 million, compared to $580,000 in the same year-ago quarter, driven by revenue growth and contribution margin improvement. We ended the quarter with $7 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt on the balance sheet. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to you, Kit.

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Thanks, Craig. We are pleased with the momentum we’ve carried into fiscal 2027 and remain very optimistic about the opportunities ahead for PodcastOne and the broader podcast industry. Podcasting continues to evolve rapidly, and we believe the opportunity extends well beyond traditional audio. Video is becoming an increasingly important part of podcast discovery and consumption, while major media and technology companies continue investing in creator-led content and premium intellectual property. As that ecosystem expands, we see significant opportunities to extend the reach and value of the content we developed across additional platforms and formats. We are also seeing continued strategic activity across the broader media landscape, with major companies making significant investments in creator-led businesses, content, and intellectual property. These transactions reinforce the value being placed on premium content, engaged audiences, and the data and relationships that come with them.

Under Steve Lehman’s leadership, we continue to evaluate opportunities that can strengthen our platform, expand our creator offerings, and create long-term shareholder value. At PodcastOne, we believe the next phase of growth is about more than simply adding podcasts to our network. It’s about identifying great creators and ideas, developing them into successful franchises, and finding opportunities to distribute that content across audio, video, television, and other platforms. We are particularly excited about our ability to develop original intellectual property that can travel beyond the podcast feed. Projects like "Varnamtown" demonstrate the potential for PodcastOne content to become broader entertainment franchises, and we believe there is significant opportunity ahead as we continue developing and investing in original programming. At the same time, AI continues to help us improve operational efficiencies, enhance audience discovery, identify emerging listener interests, and better understand the topics and formats that resonate with audiences.

Combined with our growing content library and audience data, these capabilities give us an increasingly powerful foundation for developing and monetizing content. The podcast industry itself continues to demonstrate significant long-term potential, with consumption reaching record levels and audiences increasingly engaging with podcasts across audio, video, and social platforms. We believe PodcastOne is uniquely positioned at the intersection of creators, content, audiences, data, and distribution. As we look ahead, our focus is on continuing to build that platform, finding the next great creators and ideas, expanding the ways our content can reach audiences, and creating more value from the intellectual property we develop. I want to thank our team, our creators, our advertising partners, and our shareholders for their continued support. With that, we’ll now open the line for questions. Operator?

Conference Call Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset 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 Barry Sine with Litchfield Hills Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: Afternoon. I wanted to touch on the topic of video on podcasts, adding a video instead of just audio. I know that’s a pretty significant trend. Kit, maybe you could tell us where you stand on that, how much of your content is now also produced in video format. If you could tick off some of the major talents that are available in video, and what has been the reception of that through some of your distribution partners?

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Hey, Barry. Good afternoon, good morning. Thank you, everyone, for the questions today and the time. I appreciate it. Yeah, video is a huge part of what we’re doing, not only at PodcastOne, but in the medium. It’s widely accepted. It’s huge for discovery, leading with YouTube. Their YouTube AdSense revenue generation model has helped us out quite a bit for some of our shows, specifically Adam Carolla has a big audience in his YouTube channel. The Some More News guys do as well. Stassi and others in our network have really significant video views, even beyond just YouTube now. I mean, Stassi, whose television show just relaunched on Hulu just this last month, where she references her podcasts quite often is also featured on Netflix now, too.

All these video distribution channels are getting more and more into the podcasting world, which allows us to expand our discovery, but also charge more for advertising CPMs, just based on having their commercials in video. Many of our shows, if you watch them now, the commercials are host-done, but with video and with product, which allows us to charge great CPMs and advertisers see amazing results. Video is a huge part of what we do, and specifically in the discovery side of it. These short clips, whether it’s on YouTube or Instagram or TikTok, it’s great for us to clip 2, 3-minute segments of the podcast to promote the shows, make them sponsorable. All of that adds to what we do.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: That is very helpful. My follow-up is more on advertising revenue. You recently jumped up to the number 6 ranking in the Podtrac rankings. Congratulations on that. What does that mean

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Thank you.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: for Sue McNamara and her sales team, and also for programmatic? How has advertiser willingness to use podcasts for their advertising changed over the last year? Is the perception changing and improving?

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah. I will answer the last part first. Yes. You are seeing brands, when I say brands, it is not just the Using-the-Code type brands. You are seeing the Progressives, the State Farms, the O’Reillys, the Lowe’s. Those type of companies are jumping into the podcasting space. Macy’s as well. These brands are actually realizing the benefit of podcasting, one, because they get the attribution for using it as a digital medium, but they are also using it on the creative side, where they are really developing integrations into the communities of the talent. Macy’s we are trying on clothes on air. We are talking about deals and discounts and what people can go and buy. It is just really integrated, not only in the audio, the video, but also the social. When you look at that is the exciting thing for brands, because they are just not buying spots and dots.

That business is definitely booming, especially with us, but it has gone beyond that. The brands are really trying to buy into the communities, which is awesome. For a company like us, where we have really strong relationships with the talent and the production of the shows, we can gain trust for these brands to make sure they are getting what they pay for and they are protected in their messaging. That is a big part of really growing the brand business in the podcasting space is actually having trust, and we are able to provide that. As far as the programmatic side and being number 6, it just came out for July, too, we have remained number 6, which is great news for us.

It is a good thing to open doors for our sales teams in the sense that there are some big names behind us, whether it is Disney or Barstool Sports or CNN, some of those networks. Sometimes it is easier for them to get in the door of advertisers or brands, and we can actually say we are bigger than them, which is a nice sales point. When it comes to programmatic and the Amazon, our March 19 deal, that is where that really comes into play, right? As we get more and more consumption on our network, there are more impressions to monetize, whether that is done by our direct sales team with our highest CPMs or the Amazon deal and having them buy-in through our network or programmatically where we continue to evolve and grow through our partners that we have in that world too.

It has been honestly, really just a great year for growth, on all levels, whether it is revenue, audience, and just brands buying into the space. It has been great.

Conference Call Operator: Just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. Your next question comes from the line of Barry Sine with Litchfield Hills Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: Hey, that’s not a mistake. I limited myself and then jumped back in the queue, but I guess I am the next one. I had one more question, Kit. On the LiveOne call, Rob mentioned the Netflix, and I haven’t seen a separate press release. I’m very enthusiastic about that, and I want to get a little more data from you because it seems to me as if your core demographic is very closely aligned with the Netflix core demographic. If you could remind us what your demographics look like, age, gender, et cetera, and then when did PodcastOne podcasts start appearing on Netflix? Rob was asked what the revenue model is. He said you’re not disclosing that, but whatever that model is, when will investors start to see the benefit of that relationship show up on the PodcastOne income statement?

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah. Netflix got into podcasting, I don’t know, maybe six months ago, maybe a little bit longer, if I had to guess. Stassi is our lead pony in that world. She’s a great personality. She comes from the "Vanderpump" world, if you guys don’t know. Barry, I know you are well-versed in "Vanderpump," so you’ve got this down. But she is a superstar and just an amazing talent. Her show on Hulu has gotten picked up. This is the second season. It’s fantastic. She’s really fun. Her podcast going on Netflix just made a lot of sense. We worked with her agent to get that show up there, and really the benefit is discovery. And we are running commercials in there, right?

When I go to Macy’s, I say, "All right, well, Stassi’s not only going to have it in her video/audio world, but she’s also going to have that in the Netflix distribution as well." So you’re going to see premium rates because of that, and growth of the shows, right? It’s great. It’s just another big company. You’ve got the YouTubes, you’ve got the Amazons, the Spotifys, the SiriusXMs just jumping in full throttle in podcasts. And now you see Netflix, you got Disney is doing some stuff too now. I think these distribution channels are going to be just additive to podcasts and just growing as a medium and a distribution channel for advertisers. So you’ll start to see that. You’re seeing it in her show in terms of revenue and getting premium rates.

We’ll continue that relationship and continue to charge forward with some other shows getting on there and some of the other platforms I just mentioned.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: Just to follow up on that, if you could remind us what your demographics look like. I have a sense of what Netflix

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Oh, sorry.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: looks like.

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah.

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: Then it sounded

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah

Barry Sine, Analyst, Litchfield Hills Research: as if that’s the only podcast you have on Netflix. What about adding other podcasts to Netflix?

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah, we’re in talks on that. They wanted to roll out with kind of a phase. They’ve got a bunch on there. We’ll continue to talk to them about adding more. So we’ll see how that goes over the next 6 months. We picked up one of the shows with Billy Corgan, and if you guys know Billy from his days with The Smashing Pumpkins, take a look at his video on YouTube and how amazing it is. It’s a really cool set, and he’s a very cool, interesting guy that has amazing interviews, and it just fits. So I think you’re going to see more and more of that type of stuff over the next 6 to 12 months. As far as our demographics, when I created the company, I really wanted to be agnostic on that.

I wanted to be able to really fill out any RFP an advertiser would have with a group of shows that hit any demo. So yes, I think probably most of our consumption comes in the female 25 to 44 range. The First 48, the Stassi’s, the Caymans, the LadyGang’s, The Pop Apologists, those guys for sure are a big part of what we’re doing. But you’re seeing growth in the older demographics, and you’ll see the people like Adam Carolla, Jordan Harbinger, Brendan Schaub, really round out the male 25, 54 demo, and in some cases even higher, right? We’re all getting older. Adam is still chugging along and doing great with his podcast and just building that and having new distribution channels as he’s on SiriusXM with Megyn Kelly’s network.

You’re going to see an older demographic there as Adam gets older and his audience gets older. But, we’re still getting a lot of advertisers in and a lot of consumption, and that’s great. We can fill out that demographic when we go to RFPs as well.

Conference Call Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Leo Carpio with Joseph Gunnar. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Leo Carpio, Analyst, Joseph Gunnar: Hey, good afternoon, Kit. A couple quick questions on the quarter. In terms of the M&A opportunities, are there still any platforms available for you to pick up here at this stage? Or more you’re focused on the organic growth, monetizing IP creation, and developing talent at this point?

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah. Hey, Leo, good to hear from you. To answer your question, we’re doing it all, right? The main part of the business is either acquiring existing shows with an audience, growing them, monetizing them, doing more with them. That’s a big part of what we do. We’re launching our own shows with our own IP and growing them and monetizing them is a big part of what we’re doing and talking about the different distribution channels. That’s a big part of our business. When we look at M&A, yes, I was on a call yesterday with Steve, and we’ve got other things that we’re talking about constantly. Those are interesting. There’s more and more companies with great opportunities and great ideas. Whether that’s representing podcasts, expanding the paywall world, or technology. That’s going to be an important thing over the next year.

I think there’s going to be a lot of acquisition deals out there. I know that a lot of different companies are being approached by some of the bigger groups, and a bunch of the smaller companies are talking to other small companies that complement each other quite well. I think you’re going to see acquisitions not only with PodcastOne, but I think you’re going to see acquisitions throughout the industry over the next 6-12 months, for sure.

Leo Carpio, Analyst, Joseph Gunnar: Okay, and a quick housekeeping question. Can you remind us of the seasonality in your revenue in terms of how it progresses through the calendar year, in terms of which quarters are strong versus which are a little softer?

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: Yeah. Obviously, we had a really good quarter last quarter. Best I think ever that we have ever done, which is tremendous. Summertime, usually a little bit slow. Slower because people are on the beach, people are enjoying families, and stuff like that. As school gets back into gear and people get back to work over the next 30 days, you are going to start to see more consumption of podcasts. As calendar year Q4 rolls up, that is always our biggest quarter. So that is typically how it works.

Conference Call Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Kit Gray for closing remarks.

Kit Gray, President and Founder, PodcastOne: All right. Well, thank you everyone for your time today. I really appreciate it. We are extremely happy with where the year ended, where the quarter is, and where the team is headed moving forward. Super excited about some of the projects that we got a chance to talk about a little bit this morning. Please keep an eye on us as we move forward and keep watching us. We are launching some great projects and some great shows. I hope you guys get to enjoy them. But looking forward to you guys and looking forward to another great year at PodcastOne. Thank you very much for all your support, all our shareholders’ support, and of course, the team at PodcastOne and LiveOne. Thank you very much.

Conference Call Operator: This concludes today’s call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.