Hello. Thank you for standing by. My name is Sarah, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the iHeartMedia Q1 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike McGuinness, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join us for our first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me for today's discussion are Bob Pittman, our Chairman and CEO; and Rich Bressler, our President, COO and 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. 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 in the Investor Relations section of our website. And now I'll turn the call over to Bob.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. We're pleased to report that our first quarter 2024 results were in line with our previously provided adjusted EBITDA and revenue guidance ranges. As expected, we saw February and March improved over the January pace of business, although the marketplace continues to be dynamic with a changing outlook on interest rates, inflation trends and global and domestic uncertainty, we remain confident that this is a recovery year, highlighted by the strong momentum in our podcast business and the sequential improvement of our multi-platform group's year-over-year adjusted EBITDA performance. We also see material upside from political advertising in the back half of the year and the benefit of our ongoing focus on cost efficiencies as well. Now let me take you through some of the key financial results of the quarter. In the first quarter, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $105 million in the middle of the guidance range we provided of $100 million to $110 million. Our consolidated revenues for the quarter were down 1.5% compared to the prior year quarter, within the guidance range of flat to down 2%. Our Q1 free cash flow was negative $81 million, a significant improvement compared to the negative $133 million in the prior year. As a reminder, Q1 is our seasonal low point for free cash flow in the year, and we will generate positive free cash flow in each of the remaining quarters in 2024 with each quarter increasing sequentially. We anticipate our full year free cash flow to be significantly higher than last year. Turning now to our individual operating segments. The Digital Audio Group generated first quarter revenues of $239 million, up 7% versus prior year and represented 30% of the company's total revenue. For the quarter, the Digital Audio Group generated adjusted…

Thank you, Bob. As I take you through our results, you'll notice that, as Bob mentioned, our first quarter 2024 results were in line with our previously provided revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges. Our Q1 2024 consolidated revenues were down 1.5% year-over-year, in line with the guidance we provided a flat to down 2%. Our consolidated direct operating expenses decreased 0.9% for the quarter. This decrease was primarily driven by lower variable content costs, lower event costs related to the timing of the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards, which were on April 1 this year and March 27 last year, partially offset by higher third-party digital costs related to the increase in digital revenues. Our consolidated SG&A expenses decreased 4.4% for the quarter. This decrease was driven by lower marketing expense due to the timing of the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards and lower variable bonus expense, partially offset by an increase in certain costs incurred in connection with the execution of our cost savings initiatives. We generated a first quarter GAAP operating loss of $34.7 million compared to a GAAP operating loss of $48.9 million in the prior year quarter. Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA was $105 million, up 12% compared to $93 million in the prior year quarter and within the guidance range we provided of $100 million to $110 million. Turning now to the performance of our operating segments. And as a reminder, there are slides in the earnings presentation on our segment performances. In the first quarter, the Digital Audio Group's revenues were $239 million, up 7% year-over-year, and they comprise 30% of our first quarter consolidated revenues. The Digital Audio Group's adjusted EBITDA was $68 million, up 25.9% year-over-year and our Q1 margins were 28.5%, a year-over-year increase of 428 basis points. This was the highest…

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] There are no questions at this time. I will turn the call to the speakers for closing remarks.

Well, Bob and I and the entire management team, again, I would like to thank you all for taking a few minutes this morning to listen to the iHeart story. And we are available anytime for any follow-up questions. Again, thank you all.

This concludes today's conference call. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.