Christopher Ruddy
Analyst · Maxim Group
Thank you, Chris, and welcome, everyone, to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. Fiscal year 2025 was a defining year for Newsmax and marked our first year as a public company. While many legacy television companies faced challenges in a nonelection year when audience levels, engagement and advertising demand typically normalize across the industry, Newsmax delivered strong growth and performed at the high end of our guidance range. This performance reflects the strength of our brand, the loyalty of our audience and the momentum of our multi-platform strategy. During the year, we expanded our distribution and reinforced our position as the fourth highest-rated cable news network while finishing #6 among all cable channels in total day ratings across the hundreds measured by Nielsen. We also exited the year with a strong debt-free balance sheet, providing a solid foundation to invest behind accelerated growth in 2026. For the full year, revenue increased 10.7% to $189.3 million, and broadcast revenue, which is key for us, grew 17.3%, driven by growth across advertising, affiliate fees, subscriptions and licensing. Affiliate fees specifically were up a solid 14.9%. This performance highlights the strength of our diversified revenue model and the sustained demand for independent values-driven journalism across all our platforms. We continue to see Newsmax as a high-growth company. At a time when many media businesses are contracting, our growth stands out, and we expect that momentum to continue into 2026. This performance is driven by our differentiated multi-platform model. We're not just a cable channel. We're not just a streaming FAST channel. We're not just a streaming plus service. We're not just a web digital company. We're all of these things and much more. We figured out how to integrate the digital media with the legacy TV media and how to move our brand across several platforms and do so synergistically, creating a scalable ecosystem poised for growth. This approach allows us to meet audiences wherever they are and leveraging our expanded distribution to further monetize engagement across multiple channels. While this model differs from traditional media businesses and may not always be fully reflected in how companies in our sector are evaluated, we believe continued execution and consistent growth will increasingly demonstrate the strength and durability of our unique multi-platform model. To put these results in context, it is helpful to revisit the priorities that guided us throughout 2025 and the progress we made against them. First, we expanded our cable and TV distribution footprint significantly. This year, we deepened domestic MVPD carriage agreements and relationships while accelerating international growth with Newsmax available in more than 100 countries by end of year. We expect this international licensing growth to continue throughout the year. In the fourth quarter of last year alone, we announced a slate of new international agreements, including launches in France, Israel and Cyprus as well as a brand license agreement to launch Newsmax Ukraine in the first half of 2026, which is currently underway. We also launched on Hulu TV and renewed our multiyear agreement with YouTube TV. Maintaining Newsmax in its base package and expanding Newsmax+ distribution through YouTube prime time channels beginning in 2026. Second, we scaled our audience and engagement across our various platforms. Newsmax, our cable channel, reached more than 58 million total viewers in 2025 according to Nielsen data. And we reach 50 million Americans regularly across all our platforms. We clearly are a top U.S. media property. We remain the fourth highest-rated cable news channel in the country, driven by consistent programming and a loyal diverse audience. That strong ratings performance fuels advertising demand and reinforces our distribution relationships. As our reach and ratings continue to grow, affiliate contracts are renewing at higher rates, another key driver of long-term growth. As our cable channel keeps getting stronger, we have seen encouraging growth on our streaming side with Newsmax2, our dedicated FAST channel. This channel is carried free on our app, on TV and on OTT streaming platforms such as Xumo, Pluto, Samsung Plus and almost all major platforms. Newsmax2 is also carried over the air as a Diginet channel in 64 markets across the U.S. We expanded into 18 additional markets in 2025 and are now present in 14 of the top 20 U.S. markets. We continue to invest in our programming, adding top-tier news talent, expanding broadcast hours and deploying other key resources with the goal of becoming the #1 news streaming channel. Legacy broadcasters lack both the capital and strategic focus to invest meaningfully in streaming news, positioning us in a very good position to capture this growing audience. Then there is our plus service, Newsmax+, our paid on-demand offering, which ended the year with more than 260,000 paid subscribers. This plus service not only benefits from our Newsmax and our Newsmax2 shows and talent, but also the addition of over 200 hours of new on-demand programming. This programming includes documentaries, films and family-friendly content, and we believe there is real space in the market for news and family-friendly entertainment app. Lastly, there is also our broader digital ecosystem with our social media following now surpassing 24 million, growing more than 17% year-over-year. Our third priority in 2025 was positioning Newsmax for long-term success as a public company. While the IPO process required significant time and resources, we completed it successfully while continuing strong operational growth. During the year, we also resolved a key legal settlement that removed a substantial overhang and absorbed much of the upfront costs associated with our transition to public ownership. These milestones give us improved visibility into our underlying cost structure. Combined with a strong cash position, they provide a solid foundation to invest and grow in 2026 and beyond. Looking ahead, we see meaningful opportunities in today's evolving media landscape. There remains significant white space for independent reliable journalism that resonates with audiences who have lost trust in Legacy Media. Our engagement metrics demonstrate that Newsmax has become a trusted alternative, gaining share and building a highly loyal audience. That loyalty reinforces our ratings, strengthens our distribution relationships and supports monetization across affiliate, advertising and subscription revenue streams. Newsmax has a proven track record of expanding its audience and growing revenue across both strong and more challenging market environments. While doing so with a more efficient cost structure than many of our peers. While traditional cable remains a vital part of our business and an important driver of audience growth across our ecosystem, we recognize that the future of news consumption is evolving rapidly. Viewers are increasingly turning to streaming and on-demand platforms, and Newsmax is uniquely positioned to lead in that environment. As mentioned, we were born as a digital media company, and that digital backbone continues to be one of our greatest competitive advantages. It was really key to us becoming a major cable property when others entered and failed. As the media landscape continues to shift, we will remain nimble and find and meet audiences where they are, delivering trusted values-driven journalism on all platforms for all people. Although we are encouraged by the growth of our free streaming platforms and digital presence, Newsmax+ remains a strategic focus as we work to unlock its full potential. We are not satisfied with our current subscription trajectory. However, we felt it need better content from our channels and more on-demand video content, and we have been moving those pieces into position. While we view the current pace of subscriber additions as a short-term headwind rather than a structural issue, we are taking deliberate steps to improve engagement, strengthen retention and translate expanded premium content into accelerated subscription growth. Investments in exclusive programming, product and tech enhancements are helping with expanded distribution and are central to this effort. Despite near-term subscription softness, we expect 2026 to mark a year of accelerated revenue growth for Newsmax. Notably, this acceleration is driven by underlying business fundamentals rather than political cycles. As we move beyond the transition year and gain improved cost visibility, we also anticipate stronger operating leverage and better alignment between revenue growth and our investment strategy. Our long-term vision is to establish Newsmax as one of the most trusted and influential news brands in America and around the world. We are building a multi-platform media company that started in digital, grew successfully into cable, the only company to do so and now engages massive audiences across streaming, mobile apps, social media, publishing and international markets. We entered 2026 from a position of strength with financial flexibility, improved cost transparency and a disciplined growth strategy. We are confident in the foundation we have built and in our ability to execute in the years ahead because, frankly, we have incredible support from our readers, our viewers, our advertisers and you, our shareholders. We are thankful to you and to them. I now turn it over to Darryle to walk through the financial performance.