iHeartMedia, Inc. (IHRT) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the iHeartMedia third quarter 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press *1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press *1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Andrey Hart, senior vice president of investor relations. Andrey, please go ahead.

Andrey Hart: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us for our third quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me for today's discussion are Bob Pittman, our Chairman and CEO; Richard J. Bressler, our President and COO; and Michael McGuinness, our CFO. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, management will take your questions. In addition to our press release, we have an earnings presentation available on our website that you can use to follow along with our remarks. Please note that this call may include forward looking statements regarding our financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management's current expectations, and actual results could differ from what is stated as a result of certain factors identified on today's call and in the company's SEC filings. Including our recent 8-K filing. Additionally, during this call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures, Reconciliations between GAAP and non GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release earnings presentation and our SEC filings. Which are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. And now I will turn the call over to Bob.

Robert W. Pittman: Thanks, Andrey, and good afternoon, everyone. In the third quarter, our consolidated revenue was $1.03 billion. Up 3.3% compared to the prior year quarter and below our guidance range of up mid single digits, driven by softness in our Multiplatform Group segment. Excluding the impact of political, our consolidated revenue was up 0.9%. We generated adjusted EBITDA of 170 million in the third quarter, below our previously provided guidance range of $180 million to $220 million Our digital audio group led by podcasting and our audio and media services group both continued to deliver strong results and profitability. However, our multiplatform group, which importantly continues to have real strength with the consumer base, ongoing industry and macroeconomic revenue headwinds that impacted financial results more than anticipated. But we believe many of these multiplatform group revenue challenges are addressable. And that the strategic monetization initiatives we have put in place position us to return the Multiplatform Group back to earnings growth. The shortfall in Multiplatform Group performance was driven primarily by 4 factors. First, lower than anticipated political advertising revenue for radio. Second, a number of advertisers, especially larger advertisers, delayed their advertising spend until after the election. Third, audio advertising buying is moving faster to programmatic than we had anticipated. In addition to the targeting, measurability, and attribution that have historically separated broadcast radio from digital media, This is ahead of our complete rollout of our own radio programmatic and attribution offerings. Fourth, a much more challenging macroeconomic environment than we had hoped for and 1 which we expect will continue through the remainder of the year. I will discuss each of these factors in greater detail, I will also outline how we plan to manage our business starting in 2027, when we expect to present podcasting as a separate reporting segment. Turning to our individual operating segments. The Digital Audio Group generated third quarter revenue of $389 million up 13.8% versus prior year and within the range of our previous provided guidance of up low teens. The Digital Audio Group generated third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $127 million down 2.3% versus prior year as it was burdened by high higher noncash marketing expenses. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 32.8%. Within the digital audio group, our podcasting revenue strong momentum continues, with $174 million for the quarter, up 24.6% compared to prior year of $140 million above our guidance of up approximately 20%. We continue to be the number 1 podcast publisher in American audience as reported by both Podtrac and Triton. The 2 largest measurement services that measure actual downloads and users. Podcasting continues to be the strongest growth component for the company, and the overall podcast industry growth remains strong as well. Our expansion in the video podcasting represents an entirely new market for our podcasting product creating additional revenue opportunities. Beyond our video podcast content is now distributed across major platforms including Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney Plus, and Hulu, as well as our own iHeartRadio app. Strongly positioning us to participate in this new and important revenue stream. As video and audio podcast consumption continues to grow, we believe we are well positioned to take advantage of both. In the third quarter, digital ex-podcast revenue grew 6.3% compared to prior year within our previously provided guidance of up mid single digits, and it continues to be an important growth vector for the company. Turning now to the multiplatform group, which includes our broadcast radio networks and events businesses. Third quarter revenue was $562 million down 4.9% versus prior year and below our guidance range of approximately flat. Excluding the impact of political advertising, multiplatform group revenue was down 6.6%. The Multiplatform Group's adjusted EBITDA was $68 million compared to $119 million in the prior year. Noncash marketing expense related to co marketing partnerships supporting our Audiograph platform which we will discuss in more detail, drove the majority of the negative impact on our multiplatform group's adjusted EBITDA in this quarter. Now let me expand on 4 drivers that negatively impacted the multiplatform group's performance in Q3. First, we generated less political revenue than we expected. Accounting for about a third of the underperformance in Q3 revenue. As we mentioned on our last earnings call, we expected that this was going to be a robust political advertising year for broadcast radio in addition to media overall. And we anticipated even doing better than the 2024 presidential year. But we actually came in below the 2022 non-presidential election year on multiplatform group revenue because of 2 major factors. In response to strong political advertising demand, local TV broadcasters created more inventory and therefore held on to a lot of the political advertising dollars that historically would spill over to broadcast radio when TV reached sell out. In fact, according to Ad Impact, approximately 50% of all political spending this cycle was on broadcast television, which is much larger than its typical 15% share overall advertising spend. And the other factor was that even in audio advertising, a greater percentage of political advertising spend moved to programmatic platforms in this cycle than we had anticipated. While this is in line with the broader transition to programmatic, it happened to of political inventory faster than we thought it would. it is important to note that overall in this political cycle, radio share of political advertising is actually lower than radio share of the overall advertising marketplace. Exactly the opposite experience of local broadcast TV. While disappointing, both developments reinforce our belief that expanding our broadcast radio programmatic capabilities through our Audiograph platform is the right strategic plan. Second, some brands specifically larger brands, delayed deploying their budgets until after the election for 2 reasons: additional clutter combined with the higher commercial loads, and the negative environment of wall to wall political advertising, not an environment that most general market advertisers are comfortable with. The local TV broadcasters were able to make up for this delayed brand advertising with political advertising. Unfortunately, we did not make up that deficit. Third, we are seeing core radio buying transitioning faster to programmatic impacting our multiplatform group ahead of our ability to fully participate in the programmatic TAM with the rollout of our Audiograph platform. In fact, according to Ad Exchange, for a leading technology industry publication, the percentage of advertising agencies that buy audio programmatically has grown from 41% in 2022 to 82% this year. I will get into more specifics on the current status of our Audiograph rollout in a few minutes. In addition to programmatic, targeting measurability, and attribution have historically separated broadcast radio from digital media and are increasingly important elements for all advertisers. Not just those using programmatic. We are solving for this with our Audiograph platform. Fourth, as mentioned in our Q2 earnings call, we are not immune to macroeconomic issues, and in particular, consumer facing businesses where fuel volatility and broader inflation are pressuring advertisers' budgets. These macroeconomic issues also contributed to consumer uncertainty. Which according to the World Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, recently spiked to an all time high, dramatically higher than the 9/11, financial crisis, and even the COVID 19 periods. The combination of all time high consumer uncertainty and macroeconomic pressures certainly had an impact on the multiplatform group's negative financial performance this quarter And despite the strong momentum of our digital and podcast groups this quarter, may even have moderated some of their performance as well. We expect this to continue through the remainder of the year compounded by additional uncertainty resulting from the midterm elections. The audio and media services group, which includes our Katz TV, Katz Radio, and RCS businesses, had another strong quarter. Revenue was $82 million up 22.6% year over year, driven primarily by television political as well as the growth of digital audio and video revenues. Excluding the impact of political revenue, the audio and media services group's revenue, was still up 2.9%. Adjusted EBITDA $37 million up 65.9% compared to the prior year. And we have continued to grow adjusted EBITDA over time with a focus on an increasingly meaningful digital business and operating efficiencies. Given the accelerating adoption of audio programmatic and the resulting impact on the multiplatform group, Audiograph is more critical than ever to our long term success. You heard us discuss our Audiograph platform on past calls, Simply put, with Audiograph, we are meeting the average advertising community the way they want to buy advertising. Given the limited reach of the ad supported digital audio players, we believe broadcast radio is the only solution for buyers to get the audience reach they need for audio campaigns. Advertisers will also be able to access the full suite of our audio products, from broadcast radio to streaming to podcasting in 1 offering. As a result, we believe that Audiograph has the potential to meaningfully improve the performance of our broadcast radio business. Additionally, all the data work associated with Audiograph helps us in providing improved measurement, targeting, and attribution for our non programmatic advertising as well, closing that gap between broadcast radio and digital media. As we look at the financial opportunity for our programmatic revenue, our expectation is that we will hit our guidance of $200 million of programmatic revenue for the year and that in 2027, total programmatic revenue will be approximately $400 million approximately $100 million of that total being incremental broadcast programmatic revenue. Furthermore, we are excited about the potential of AgenTic buying. Including new capabilities developed by our Triton digital ad tech platform that enabling AI agents to transact directly across the audio advertising ecosystem. Triton recently completed its first agent to agent media buy, automating the process from campaign request and negotiation through booking and demonstrating the potential to make audio substantially easier and more efficient for advertisers to buy. As I mentioned in my opening, I also want to discuss an important change in how we plan to manage and report our business beginning next year. In 2027, we plan to separate our podcasting business from the Digital Audio Group and report them as separate stand alone segments. This additional granularity is expected to make it easier for the investor community to fully value all 4 of our segments and our entire company. 3 of our expected 4 future segments are strong growth businesses, and we think audiograph and our attribution tools will be an important component to getting our multiplatform group back to growth. Additionally, we are already working on plans for incremental cost efficiencies in 2027,, which include leveraging the strategic deployment of AI and other technology solutions to enhance efficiencies through the organization as we have done in the past. As we continue to execute on our strategic goals and opportunities, Richard and I are committed to allocating and optimizing the company's assets to create value for our stakeholders, including improvement of our capital structure and positioning the company for future growth. And with that, I will turn it over to Richard.

Richard J. Bressler: Thank you, Bob, and good afternoon. Our Q3 2026 consolidated revenue was up 3.3% compared to the prior year quarter, and below our guidance of up mid single digits. As Bob discussed in detail, were driven by 4 factors that negatively impacted our multiplatform group's performance. Our consolidated direct operating expenses increased 4.8% in the quarter. This increase was primarily driven by higher variable content cost including higher third party digital costs related to the increase in digital revenues. Our consolidated SG&A expenses increased 7.6% for the quarter. This increase was primarily driven by expenses related to our noncash co marketing partnerships. We generated third quarter GAAP operating income of $73 million compared to a GAAP operating loss of $116 million in the prior year quarter. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $170 million in the third quarter, below our previously provided guidance range of $180 million to $220 million. As we have previously discussed, some of the investment in our proprietary audience database that is the foundation of our broadcast programmatic and audiograph offerings, takes the form of non cash co marketing partnerships to drive engagement with the iHeartRadio digital service. We continue to view these marketing activities as important to the success of our audiograph and broadcasting programmatic initiatives. And as a reminder, this is all in support of our efforts to make our broadcast inventory as easy for our advertising partners to transact with our digital inventory. As Audiograph has come fully to market in Q4, we will be substantially reducing these co marketing partnerships. As we have discussed before, the revenue and expense associated with each partnership have zero impact on adjusted EBITDA over time. And as a reminder, the majority of this revenue and expense impacts the multiplatform group segment. Turning now to the performance of our operating segments. In the third quarter, the digital audio group's revenue was $389 million, up 13.8% versus prior year, and within the range of our previously provided guidance of up low teens. Digital Audio Group's adjusted EBITDA of $127 million, down 2.3% versus prior year driven by higher noncash marketing expenses. Our Q3 adjusted EBITDA margins were 32.8% compared to 38.1% in the prior year. Within the digital audio group, our podcasting revenue was $174 million, which grew 24.6% year over year above our guidance of up approximately 20%. Our third quarter digital audio group x podcasting revenue grew 6.3% year over year to $215 million. Turning now to the multiplatform group. Revenue was $562 million, down 4.9% compared to prior year below our guidance range of approximately flat. Adjusted EBITDA was $68 million, down from $119 million in the prior year quarter, and non cash marketing expenses related to co marketing partnerships supporting our Audiograph platform drove the majority of the negative impact on our multiplatform group's adjusted EBITDA in this quarter. Turning to the audio and media services group. Which includes Katz TV, which as you know has much higher revenue in political years. Revenue was $82 million, up 22.6% year over year, driven primarily by television political and the growth of digital audio and video revenues. Excluding the impact of political revenue, the audio and media services group revenue was up 2.9%. Adjusted EBITDA was $37 million, up 65.9% compared to the prior year. In the third quarter, our company's free cash flow was a negative $10 million compared to a negative $33 million in the prior year quarter. Primarily driven by revenue softness, including political, offset by stronger working capital performance. At quarter end, our net debt was approximately $4.7 billion. Total liquidity was $416 million, our cash balance was $140 million which included $125 million borrowed under the ABL facility. As noted on our prior call, on August 10th, we amended and extended our ABL facility. We maintained both the $450 million size of this facility and the pricing of the facility at the same interest rates. We extended the maturity date from May 17, 2027 to January 30, 2029. Furthermore, we have a small $72 million tranche of notes due May 2027. We expect to repay by their maturity. Have $277 million due in 2028, and with the more meaningful maturities coming in 2029. I want to reiterate that we remain focused on optimizing our capital structure. Now let me turn to our guidance for the fourth quarter and the full year. The factors that Bob discussed earlier, which had a negative impact on our Q3 multiplatform group performance, are reflected in our guidance today. Let me give you some context. This is 1 of the most uncertain periods in the advertising environment that we have managed through. Including COVID. Which is what makes it difficult for us to narrow the range of our expected results. In Q4, we expect to generate adjusted EBITDA between $135 million and $185 million. Embedded in this guidance is approximately $100 million net negative impact of noncash marketing. We expect our consolidated revenue to be up mid single digits compared to prior year. We expect to generate approximately $130 million of free cash flow in the quarter. We are still closing October, but we expect October revenue to be up mid teens at approximately flat ex political year over year. Turning to the individual segments for the fourth quarter. Expect the digital audio group's revenue to be up mid teens year over year, podcasting revenue expected to be up approximately 20% and digital ex-podcasting to be up high single digits. Expect the multiplatform group's revenue to be approximately down low single digits compared to prior year. We expect the audio and media services group revenue to be up approximately 30% year over year. Turning to the full year, we are adjusting our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance to $550 million to $600 million and our free cash flow guidance to $50 million. Embedded in our adjusted EBITDA guidance are the following. We expect to generate approximately $200 million of overall programmatic revenue in 2026 up approximately 50% from $135 million in 2025. And as a reminder, we expect our broadcast programmatic revenue trajectory to be similar to the growth we experienced in podcasting revenue. And our adjusted EBITDA guidance also include the benefit of our cost savings programs. Let me provide some additional inputs embedded in our free cash flow guidance. Interest expense will be $440 million. Minimal cash taxes this year for the next few years as long as the current tax laws are in effect. This is a great outcome and will help us avoid approximately $150 to $200 million of cash taxes over the next 3 years. Capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $90 million. Cash restructuring expenses will be approximately $50 million. I would also like to remind you that beginning in 2027, we plan to report podcasting as a standalone segment. This change is expected to provide investors with increased insight into an important growth engine for the business. Podcasting comprises 17% of total Q3 revenue and reflects how we plan to manage the business moving forward. Additionally, we expect programmatic revenue to represent a significant financial driver for us next year. Total programmatic revenue expected to be approximately $400 million in 2027, and we expect this to include approximately a $100 million of incremental broadcast radio programmatic revenue. Before we turn to Q&A, want to reiterate that we are laser-focused on getting additional cost efficiencies out of the business and optimizing our capital structure to ensure we have the flexibility to continue to invest in our business. Now I will turn it over to the operator to take your questions.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press *1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, 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 and a roster. Your first question comes from the line of Steven Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open, Steven. Please go ahead.

Analyst: Hey. Great. Thanks for the questions. I have 2 on podcasting for Bob and Richard. I was curious if you could talk a little bit more about the underlying strengths you are seeing in the podcasting business. It sounds like continued strong growth in the fourth quarter, which is slow if you could unpack maybe a bit more what is driving that between new content, engagement, monetization, or maybe some trends you are seeing at the buying level? And then I am just curious as you look ahead to next year, if you think that level of growth is sustainable as the pipeline new content or monetization levers change at all as you look ahead into 2027 and beyond?

Robert W. Pittman: Well, let me start. I think podcasting is continues to be very strong for us. and also for the industry. And I think it is. We have got a lot of new people coming into podcasting. I will say in most conversations we began with advertisers, podcasting sort of is what they want to talk about the most or leads the way. And that expresses itself in us selling more inventory. I think we are getting better CPMs. And expanding our roster of podcasts as well. So sort of hitting on all cylinders there.

Richard J. Bressler: Yeah. And the only thing I would ask, Steven, to what Bob said, just picking up in terms of the monetization. Is also. You know, and we have talked about this in previous calls. The amount of our revenue that is originated now locally as opposed to just nationally, which is over 50% of the revenue originated locally. And so that just continues to be growth. And a strong part of the business. Thanks for that. And then just, on the breaking out of the podcasting segment, we are just curious if there is anything else you maybe can provide us in terms of financial trends. it is helpful to get the breakout for revenue in the quarter. But if we are thinking about the margin profile of the business, on a go forward basis or if there is any, say, revenue recognition or cost recognition changes that we should be thinking about into next year, any worth highlighting? Thank you. No. And again, thank you for the question. No. Nothing. You know, if you go back when we and just looking back a number of years when we created the DAG segment, why we created it is because the digital part of our business including podcasting, including streaming, web excuse me, website, reselling of some third party CCTV, was becoming an overall bigger part of the business. And now, just with the passage of time, and you have all asked us this rightfully so, is we need to know more about the podcasting And not just financially, as I pointed out in my remarks, has become a bigger part of the business. So it is just you know, the right time to break that out and provide insight and nothing else to add at this point in time in terms of your questions with any more detail, but obviously there will be more to come on that.

Operator: Great. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Aaron Watts with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, Erin. Please go ahead.

Analyst: Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me on. I have got a few questions, if I may. I guess, first, Richard, a clarifier on your full year guidance EBITDA guidance of $550 million to $600 million How should we think about that adjusted for the negative $100 million of trade and barter that you took in the fourth quarter?

Richard J. Bressler: Well, I will let you all do the calculation. We said, obviously, that includes or is impacted by $100 million of trade and barter that is coming in the fourth quarter. And we also, I think, gave you some indication in terms of or guidance from a revenue standpoint. For each of the segments for Q4. Out there. And I think we have previously stated on a number of times, that this point for trade and barter which is primarily, again, the investment in our noncash marketing expenses. Is primarily related to the multiplatform group. You know, at the same point in time, just to reiterate, 1 of the reasons as we look into 2027, as you have all asked us, is to talk about when are we gonna start to see some tangible more tangible, results, coming in terms of broadcast programmatic and incremental tangible results. So just to reiterate what we said, is we are. we said we expect 2027 total programmatic revenue to double from 200 to $400 million. And within the $400 million is a. We have estimated $100 million of incremental broadcast programmatic.

Robert W. Pittman: Let me add 1 thing, just a reminder. Our broadcast inventory comes with a higher EBITDA margin. So for us, pushing that revenue stream has a more impact on the bottom line than the revenue may suggest.

Analyst: Okay. Got it. And, Richard, sorry to not to belabor this. But that is okay. Was this a change in methodology with the way you are talking about kind of the full year guide? Like, were you were you not excluding the trade and barter before, and now you are? I guess, should we be adding back 100 million Yeah.

Richard J. Bressler: No. No. We were. No. We were yeah, we were. that is a good clarifying-- quite a bit. We were expecting the trade and barter before. that is not. I am gonna go back to the remarks that we made in terms of the environment. The reason for this guidance and the range to be in guidance in terms of really goes back to the point in terms of the political numbers that we talked about not being what we expected them to be. And I think the reminder that political is our highest margin business. And so when you fall short on political, it significantly impacts your EBITDA number of more than other categories do. And as we said, the overall uncertainty in the environment has just done nothing, I think we would all agree on this. With the midterm elections. We would we just highlighted the noncash marketing just as a way to you know, again, deeper. In terms of giving people a deeper understanding. And I think also if you even look on page 6 of the investor deck, of the things you have all been asking for is some more details, and we have now provided more details on page 6 of the investor deck that you can look at.

Robert W. Pittman: I think 1 of the things too, I think, the political advertising is the big surprise for us was how much money was spent in TV. Yeah. That about 50% of the entire political expenditures were broadcast television. We did not anticipate that, I think, had a big impact on us. And what is interesting about it is that if you do the quick analysis of it, TV advertising turns out not to be a strong indicator for whether a candidate won. And in fact, as TV spend as a percentage of media spend rose, percentage chance of winning the campaign actually fell. So for us, we were out of position on that. We got less than our normal share of revenue through the political process. And, again, TV was the major beneficiary of that.

Analyst: Okay. Thank you for all that. And last question around trade and barter, I promise. For now. How should we be thinking about this going forward? I know you had previously spoken about those partnerships kind of, ratcheting back as we go into 2027. Is that still the right way for us to be thinking about it? Will the quarter to quarter kind of timing impacts lessen from where they have been over the past year?

Michael McGuinness: Yeah. Aaron, this is Mike. The, you know, now that we have launched AudioGraph, you we are no longer pursuing these partnerships. They have obviously accomplished what was intended, as Richard mentioned before, with the 100 million of incremental revenue we talked about with next year. So what you will see is the expenses. You will see, you know, as part of the guide, as part of the slide that Richard mentioned, the expense will roll off. A big portion of that into Q4, and it is a small portion, the 27, and then we will be done with that, you know, over the next quarter or 2.

Analyst: Okay. Got it. And then last question for me, and thank you again for all the time. But just thinking about Audiograph, now that it is kind of up and running and gaining traction, and, obviously, you are optimistic about next year. What are some of the early kind of, feedbacks that you are getting from either the ad partner side or DSPs? In the initial launch and the evidence that your collecting so far that gives you confidence in that 100 million of incremental broadcast radio programmatic in 2027,?

Robert W. Pittman: Well, I think first and foremost, as we have done some campaigns now, they have achieved their goals, performed better than the old way of doing radio advertising. And are achieving their goals and becoming competitive with digital for them and they are being. And they are able to access them the same way they did. They able to access their digital media. So that is accomplished. I think now our goal is just to get the advertisers that are programmatic that have not considered us because they basically spend programmatically to come aboard so that we can get the incrementality of that revenue.

Richard J. Bressler: Yeah. And just 1 thing. Just wanna very yeah. We have. And I have mentioned this a number of times before, you have heard it. You know, obviously, we have been in market running real campaigns. On it. We are, you know, generating revenue now It is immaterial. And for next year, again, the reason why is that in terms of us feeling comfortable is based on the numerous campaigns that we have been running with advertisers as Bob highlighted, the success of those campaigns coming out of the digital budgets that are there And so we are very, very, very pleased with that.

Robert W. Pittman: Yeah. Let me add 1 more thing. Is why is why would anyone care to put radio into the digital budgets? Because you cannot get much reach in digital audio without radio. Unlike video, unlike TV, radio is still by far the big reach in audio. You know, 90 plus percent reach on broadcast radio. Is contrasted with the ad supported digital players where no 1 is greater than about 20% reach. So it becomes essential if you are really gonna do a successful audio campaign put radio in there. The problem has been that you have not been able to access radio off of your DSPs and the way in which you are accustomed to buying your media.

Analyst: Thanks again, guys. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. Thanks, Adam. Your next question comes from the line of Sebastiano Petti with JPMorgan. Your line is open, Sebastiano. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for taking the question. Guys, I was trying to double click on these trade and barter expenses. I think last call, you talked about it declining in the back half of the year. And here, we have it $100 million impact in the fourth quarter. And so what is the visibility or confidence that we should be thinking about this actually declining as we go into 2027? When will it not be the track? And, like, what yeah. What are the pieces that, you know. Yeah. Go ahead, Mike.

Michael McGuinness: Yeah for sure. You will you will see Sebastiano on the slide, slide 6. I mean. So, you know, we are we are no longer entering into these partnerships. So that is why you see the expense, you know, $180 million of expense kinda rolling out into. versus $80 million of revenue. This is all trade and barter. So you have a $100 million headwind year over year, then there will be about $40 million that rolls off in 2027. So this should be completely, resolved, by Q1, at the latest Q2. And, because we have accomplished what we need to accomplish. With the launch of Audiograph. Okay.

Richard J. Bressler: And the 1 thing I would just add, I wanna go back to you know, this and this and the previous question. It was, you know, something that was. We had it baked into our forecast. Part of the reason, you know, in terms of making just highlighting it now is because of the uncertainty on the revenue side embedded in our forecast going back to, again, political the advertising uncertainty, all the points we have been covering that it became just, you know, obviously, in terms of the impact on the Q4 and full year numbers. it is bigger just in. From when you look at percentage of the total but it was always baked into the guidance.

Operator: Let me add 1 more thing in a specific answer to your question.

Robert W. Pittman: We said we are cutting. Whether we are rolling it off at the end of the year, that means we are rolling off doing the deals. But we are. What you are seeing now is the impact of them. Okay. that is that is helpful. And as we think about maybe from a dollar perspective, I mean, is the programmatic revenue is this incremental revenue that you bring in? Is this just. You know? Yeah. Is there an increased share of wallet from your partners, or is this just more allocation towards programmatic? Just trying to think about the growth curve from 200 to 400 next year and how maybe impacts the total $100 million of broadcast programmatic will be mostly incremental. And that is, to us, obviously, has been the driving force about why to get into it. And I will again point out that the broadcast programmatic will come with a much higher margin than the non broadcast programmatic for us. Okay. And lastly, just in video podcasting, yeah, I think you said it continues to trend well. New TAM for you guys. Any help thinking about incremental opportunities there with your existing partners? And maybe additional licensing fees or maybe expansion into other platforms or just, you know, maybe update on, you know, the conversations you are having, you know, current and maybe prospective partners. Thank you, guys. Yeah. There are 2 ways to do it. 1 is that we now can sell video advertising where it plays. As you know, in podcasting, we play across all of available basically, all available platforms. Video is not quite that universal, but we are pushing it out to other platforms. And then you are correct. And in some cases, we have actually licensed it to others, Disney plus and Hulu, Netflix, and that continues to go well. I will remind you that when Netflix licensed a group of podcasters, 1 podcast accounted for 40% of all the video views. That was The Breakfast Club, Charlemagne and The Breakfast Club. Which is 1 of our podcasts, and it is done so well that they actually turned it into a live daily show, the only live daily show on Netflix. So we have had real success there. We think we are just beginning to see the birth of this. And, we have high expectations for it. Thank you, both.

Richard J. Bressler: Thanks. Great. Thank you, Sebastiano. Let me just I will just pause for a second, make sure there is no other additional questions, operator. Well, if not, first of all, thank you, everybody, on behalf of the entire. Bob, myself, the entire iHeart management team for listening. We are available for questions anytime and thank you again.

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