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Entravision Communications Corporation (EVC)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 6, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Entravision Communications Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Walter Ulloa, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Thank you, Laura. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Entravision's third quarter 2013 earnings conference call. Joining me today is Chris Young, our Executive Vice President and 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. This call is the property of Entravision Communications Corporation. Any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the express written consent of Entravision Communications Corporation is strictly prohibited. Also, this call will include certain 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 a Form 8-K. During the third quarter, we generated strong core advertising growth at our television and radio stations, reflecting the health of our brands in the nation's most densely populated Latino markets. We also made further progress in extending our online presence, building our research capabilities and providing cross-platform opportunities to our advertising clients. Advertiser interest in reaching the Latino population continues to expand. We are making good progress in leveraging our sales force and developing opportunities that integrate our online, mobile and social media assets into our broadcast media offerings. Consolidated third quarter revenue was $57.8 million, down 1% compared to the third quarter of last year, which included $4.9 million of political revenue. Year-over-year, the decline in political revenues was partially offset by strong local advertising performance at our local -- at our core television and radio properties. Now moving on…

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Thank you, Walter, and good afternoon, everyone. As Walter has discussed, net revenue for the quarter was $57.8 million, down 1%. Operating expenses increased 3% to $34 million, and consolidated adjusted EBITDA decreased 8% to $19.9 million. Our senior note refinancing was completed on August 2, 2013. Our new interest rate is LIBOR plus 2.5% with a 1% LIBOR floor. As a result of our senior note refinancing, we recorded a loss on debt extinguishment of $29.4 million related to the premium associated with the redemption of our notes, the unamortized bond discount and finance costs. Television net revenue was down 3% to $39.7 million for the quarter compared to $40.9 million in the same quarter of last year. Radio net revenue was up 3% to $18 million for the quarter compared to $17.6 million in the same quarter of last year. The decrease in our TV segment was primarily attributable to a decrease in political advertising revenue, which was not material in 2013, partially offset by increases in local advertising revenue and retransmission consent revenue. The increase in our radio segment was primarily attributable to an increase in local advertising revenue, partially offset by a decrease in political advertising revenue, which was not material in 2013. Excluding retransmission consent revenue and political advertising revenue, core TV advertising revenue was up 8% for the quarter versus TV industry core spot revenue of minus 5%. This is the eighth consecutive quarter where our core TV revenue has significantly outperformed that of the TV industry. Core radio advertising revenue for the quarter was up 6%. Retransmission consent revenue for the quarter was $5.3 million compared to $4.9 million in the same quarter of last year. Operating expenses for the quarter were $34.0 million, up 3%. Excluding non-cash compensation expense of $0.3 million,…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question is from Michael Kupinski of Noble Financial.

Michael A. Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

First, did I understand right that the core national advertising was down in the quarter? I think you said it may have been down like 1%. Was there any particular category or advertiser that would have accounted for the -- for it being down in the quarter?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Core national for -- are you talking about for TV or radio, Michael?

Michael A. Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

For television. For TV.

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

For television? Core was a minus 1%. Auto was our driving category, but I think retail was strong, health care was strong, just looking across the quarters here.

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

We had 7 of the top 10 categories that were up. Automotive, of course, services, retail, telecom was up slightly. Let's see, what'd I leave out here. Oh, health care, of course. That was up 28%, I think.

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Yes, fast food and restaurants, that's always been -- for the past couple of quarters, fast food and restaurants has been somewhat problematic, and that's the real reason why you had some softness on the national side.

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

And grocery continues to [indiscernible] but -- I'm sorry. Go ahead, Michael.

Michael A. Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

No, I was just wondering if that was -- are you seeing any improvement there as you go into the next quarter or is it -- what might be happening there?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Well, I mean, the big -- I'll call it a challenge for us in the third, fourth quarter, especially the fourth quarter, is political, the non-returning of almost $5 million in Q3 and about $9 million in Q4. But that said, our core categories and our core television growth and radio growth in the third quarter was strong, as you can tell by our numbers. And our -- that core growth continued into October of the fourth quarter.

Michael A. Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Okay. And what -- in terms of World Cup, are -- do you have any visibility on that yet?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Well, the visibility we have is the following: We are much farther along in our pacings for World Cup than we were at this same time in 2009. We've got a significant amount of investment by advertisers in World Cup already circled, I'll call it. Univision is sold out in every category. In fact, they increased the allocation of inventory for automotive because there was so much demand. We continue to see strength in automotive, both in radio and television. So we think that for sure, that automotive demand for our television properties that will air the World Cup will be very strong. And I've got to say also that the team has done just a fantastic job of organizing our World Cup materials, and I think that is certainly what has contributed to our success so far and in identifying World Cup commitments for 2014.

Michael A. Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

And then finally, can you talk a little bit about your interest in maybe looking at acquisitions at this point, and what are the transaction multiples in television, particularly any thoughts on being a little bit more aggressive on acquisitions?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

I'll just say that acquisitions is something that we look at. And by that, I'm including traditional broadcasting assets as well as new media digital assets. In fact, I would say that our focus is probably more on new media digital assets that are targeting the Latino consumer than traditional broadcast assets. But we have, from time to time, we get opportunities to look at broadcast assets. We will look at them. We, unlike English-language broadcasters, don't see the kind of inventory that the big TV companies are seeing, including Sinclair, Nexstar. They're going out and buying companies, and although in some instances, we see some assets in these companies that might be important to our growth in markets like El Paso, South Texas, high-density Latino markets. Usually, our ability to capture those assets is almost impossible because you've got these consolidators, like I mentioned, buying companies. So it makes it difficult for us. But in terms of Spanish-language media assets, there's not really a lot for us to look at. And we've seen a few things here and there and some ideas people come up with. But certainly, our focus is to invest in areas of strong growth to capture the migration of advertising dollars into digital dollars or traditional advertising dollars into digital.

Michael A. Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc., Research Division

Analyst

And in terms of -- with the spectrum auctions coming up, are -- any thoughts on how you plan to participate in those?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

I'll just say that we've done some work in that area, but right now, certainly no public plans in terms of how we plan to participate. We're just looking at it. It's still a ways away. We don't see anything happening till 2015 and then we'll see what -- how the final rules and how the FCC plans to actually conduct both the reverse and the forward option.

Operator

Operator

And the next question will come from Tracy Young of Evercore.

Tracy B. Young - Evercore Partners Inc., Research Division

Analyst

I had two questions. You gave October pacing of plus -- or I guess, it was past, but October core TV growth of 17%. I know you don't give guidance, but was the driver in that the health care, is that kind of your point that maybe some of that will have subsided for the rest of the quarter? And also can you put into context for us the Tier 3 auto spend? Obviously, it was huge for you in terms of growth on the auto side -- on the TV side. What was it in Q2, and do you think -- how sustainable do you think that is?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Well, let me just address the question about the health care category. At the beginning of the year, we told our investors and the market that we thought that the health care category or -- health care category would produce incremental revenue as a result of the Affordable Care Act of $2.5 million to $3 million. Then kind of midway through the year, we decided well, maybe it will be a little better than that. But now that we've -- the health care enrollment has actually started, and we see all the difficulties of surrounding the launch of the Affordable Care Act, we now believe that the total number for the year in terms of incremental health care money due to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act will be closer to $2 million. And then -- and that's because we certainly have seen a slowdown in the fourth quarter with all of the controversy surrounding the rollout and advertisers are, I think, if anything, taking a pause to see how the restructuring of the technology surrounding the launch of the Affordable Care Act, how it improves here at the end of the month. I will say though, that whatever is not spent in Q4, we expect to see that money certainly return in Q1. We're expecting now at this point, I'll call it a robust first quarter around health care.

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

I'd also add that, that plus 17% on the TV side is also, in part, a result of just the displacement of a lot of core advertisers last year during the political season. Remember, Tracy, we did close to $5 million in political in that month alone last year. So I don't think that's uncommon. I think you're seeing it with other broadcasters as well who've had a lot of political activity last year. So don't use that 17% as the benchmark for the quarter.

Tracy B. Young - Evercore Partners Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Okay, great. And then also could you talk about the Tier 3, please?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Well, you mentioned automotive, and our automotive in Q3 for television was plus 19%. I believe radio was plus 8%. And what was the question?

Tracy B. Young - Evercore Partners Inc., Research Division

Analyst

You mentioned -- you went through, which was very helpful, the Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. And so if you could just give us -- that's a huge number for the Tier 3 growth. If you could give us some context, just last quarter or what you -- how sustainable you think that type of growth is?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Oh, right. Well, Q3 is always traditionally our strongest tier -- I'm sorry, Q3. Tier 3 is always our strongest tier when it comes to automotive. It's the local dealership, and it's where we have the most input, the most ability to sell through our media products and both for TV and radio, how we do in automotive usually depends on how well we do with Tier 3. And so I believe in radio, automotive was up plus 8%, but most of that growth was coming from Tier 3. In fact, 1 and 2 were down. And then in television, we saw growth across all 3 categories, with Tier 1 up 25%; Tier 2, which is a dealer association, up 8%; and then Tier 3 up 42%. And of course, the good news is that national sales for automotive across the country were up 11%. And so we believe that the growth we strung together here over the last however many quarters, at least 12 quarters in automotive, should continue certainly through the rest of the year and then into 2014. Now will it continue at the levels we just -- I just let -- we just announced or gave you for Q3? It's still too early to tell.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from John Kornreich of J.K. Media.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Yes, Chris, let me just clarify. You said that October alone, the TV was up 18%?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Core October...

John Kornreich

Analyst

Core, yes. Core, which means no...

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Was up 17%.

John Kornreich

Analyst

What? 17 what?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Core -- go ahead.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Okay. No retrans, no political?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Correct, that's right.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Okay, and radio was 8%?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

No, plus 3%.

John Kornreich

Analyst

That's October?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Yes. That's excluding political.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Right. How do you view the 17%? Are you disappointed with it, I mean it is an easy comparison, obviously, for that month since so much inventory was shoved aside a year ago. Do you feel that business really is that strong or getting stronger or is this just an aberration of year-over-year numbers?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Well, John, this is Walter. As you know, you started out by pointing out the fact that there was a lot of displacement last October by advertisers as a result of the huge political advertising that went through our TV and radio properties. But specifically talking about television, I mean, overall, our categories in television are relatively strong with 7 out of 10 being up in the third quarter. But certainly, I think, a result of the huge increase in TV for October has to be as a result of some of the displacement we saw in last year's October.

John Kornreich

Analyst

As an early look, are you confident that December will be up? Forget about how much, are you confident the core will be up?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

I think that's called guidance, John.

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

John, I think the takeaway is if you look at the rest of the industry who's in the middle of reporting now, I haven't heard anybody talk about a pace that says high on a core basis, even with all the displacement as a good explanation. So we feel good about the number. Just as we look at, for comparison purposes, everyone else in the space, it seems like a continuation of the same story we've been seeing now for the past 8 quarters.

John Kornreich

Analyst

I agree, because I think up 18% is more than the -- I'm here, I'm seeing 7% to 15%.

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

17%.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Yes, but I'm seeing in other companies, 7% to 15% for October, and they had relatively more political a year ago. So they had...

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Yes, their political will be inside [indiscernible]

John Kornreich

Analyst

They should be even easier comparisons, but you're still pacing ahead of them.

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Correct.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Retrans, remind me, I forgot. Is this the last year of the agreement or is it next year?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

One more year, next year.

John Kornreich

Analyst

Next year is the last year. That's it.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our next question is from James Dix of Wedbush Securities.

James G. Dix - Wedbush Securities Inc., Research Division

Analyst

I have 2 questions for you. I guess kind of for the Affordable Care Act spending, I appreciate the color on what you're looking at now. I'm just wondering given the way the rollout has occurred and what you're hearing from advertisers, do you think -- I mean, are you revising at all your expectations for what it could mean to you longer-term, over the next couple of years or do you still think it's probably a multiple -- multiyear process by which you're going to be getting the spending? And I'm just curious as to how you think it's going to be budgeted, like when do you think you're going to know the budgets for this type of spending as you go forward the next couple of years? And then just secondly, for next year, how do you think about the diversification of growth across your ad categories? Auto has obviously been huge this year. I'm just wondering, I know before the recession, oftentimes auto and telecom would drive almost all of your growth. Telecom not as big a category now. And I'm just wondering how much growth do you think you can get from categories outside of auto on a more steady-state basis next year?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Let me just answer the first question, James, about health care and the Affordable Care Act. I mean, we see this as a multiyear opportunity, call it the next 4 years. But certainly, we base that on a couple of things. One is just the mere size and breadth of the Affordable Care Act and the rollout. And then also the fact that Latinos will play a very important role in the success of the Affordable Care Act in California and Texas, 2 of our biggest states. Latinos represent about 50% of all eligible enrollees in the Affordable Care Act. So just by the mere size of the 2 states and the large population, Latinos that live in California and Texas. And then of course you've got Nevada and Colorado, other very important states. Florida, where we have strong media clusters, and they will be important as well in terms of the success of the Affordable Care Act. So we see an important opportunity here for -- not only for us as a media company, but also for the Latino community to access health services that they haven't had. And the second question?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Second question was just category-wise, how do we look at next year? Does it continue to be just a 1 or 2 category growth model, driven primarily by auto? I mean, look, auto was up 19% for TV. I know, James, you've been pushing back at the continuation of that growth rate, but we continue to see it come in quarter in, quarter out. Now it's already -- as far as a percentage of our TV revenue, we're at 27%. We've been talking about that kind of creeping back up to the English-language broadcaster levels that where I think they are is, in general, about 30%. So we're coming in on that number. I think it's safe to say, we had 7 of our top 10 categories produce growth. 4 out of those top 10 produced growth in excess of 20%. So you know what? I think it's safe to say, as far as we're looking at it, you'll probably see a broader-based growth profile of all of our categories as opposed to just auto driving, being the dominant force in our numbers. That's the way we're looking at it for next year.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will be from Aaron Syvertsen of Sidoti. Aaron Syvertsen - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Just a couple of questions. First, you spoke a lot about the interactive growth, solid numbers there in the quarter. Chris, do you have a number the interactive was as a percentage of total ad revenue for the quarter?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Percentage of total ad revenue. We don't give out the interactive break. Interactive is all embedded in both TV and radio as reporting segments, so we don't really give any more detail simply because we can't. Aaron Syvertsen - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay. And then is the mobile revenue, is that kind of rolled into the interactive or is that a different segment?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

It's rolled into the interactive. At some point down the line, we'll start to break this out as a separate reporting segment, but we're not there yet. Aaron Syvertsen - Sidoti & Company, LLC: And could you just remind me on the retrans for next year. Are you still looking for maybe a $4 million to $5 million bump in '14? Could you just remind me on the number there?

Christopher T. Young

Analyst

Yes, well, I can't remind you because we really haven't walked you through '14 numbers yet. So we'll give guidance on retrans on our next quarterly call for fourth quarter, but we don't guide that far out as far as retrans is concerned. Aaron Syvertsen - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay, and then lastly, you've done a special dividend the last couple of years. I know obviously, you can't give too much insight into what the board is planning on deciding, but with more cash on the balance sheet this year than this time last year, kind of what are the possibilities of another special dividend, and then thoughts on a quarterly dividend for next year?

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Our preference is to reinvest in our business. And -- but beyond reinvestment, we could look at shareholder-friendly actions such as dividends and share repurchases in addition to continued debt paydown in the future. But we're not prepared to address that now.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no further questions. That will conclude our Q&A session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Walter F. Ulloa

Analyst

Thank you, Laura. This concludes our third quarter investor call. We look forward to speaking to all of you in 2014, when we will report our fourth quarter and full year 2013 earning results. Thank you for participating.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.