Audacy has reported its third quarter financial results for 2021, with net revenue up 23 percent to $329.4 million, compared to $268.5 million a year ago. Digital revenue grew by 30 percent in Q3 2021 to $61.4 million and spot revenue was up 21 percent to $220.6 million. Total operating expenses for the quarter were $300.2 million, up 12 percent compared to the third quarter of 2020. Operating income for Q3 was $29.2 million vs. an operating loss of $0.3 million in Q3 of 2020.
Audacy President/CEO David J. Field stated, “I am pleased to report that Audacy continues to rebound from the pandemic, as third quarter revenues grew 23% over the prior year and 8% sequentially over the second quarter, while EBITDA grew 58% year over year. While many ad categories remain highly impacted as a result of the pandemic, it is great to see an increasing number of categories back above 2019 spending levels.
During October, we announced the acquisition of WideOrbit‘s digital audio streaming and ad tech business, which we have relaunched as AmperWave, enabling us to accelerate our digital product roadmap and enhance our growth potential. We returned to live events with our Stars and Strings show in New York and We Can Survive at the Hollywood Bowl, both sellouts featuring Zak Brown, Darius Rucker, Chris Young, Coldplay, Shawn Mendes, Maroon 5, Doja Cat, the Black Eyed Peas, and more. And our podcast studios had a strong quarter of creative, premium original content development including the first release from our 2400Sports studio, our first C13 Features ‘movie for your ears’ in partnership with Endeavor, and the Succession companion podcast hosted by Kara Swisher in partnership with HBO Max.
We continue to rapidly evolve and fundamentally elevate the organization through a series of strategic acquisitions, organic growth initiatives, structural improvements, talent additions and premium content development and are well positioned to accelerate our growth and capitalize on the exciting opportunities in the dynamically growing audio marketplace.”
