Urban One today reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. Net revenue was approximately $91.4 million, a decrease of 3.6 percent from Q1 in 2020. Broadcast and digital operating income was approximately $36.4 million in the quarter, a decrease of 3.3 percent from the same period a year ago. The company reported operating income of approximately $23.8 million for Q1 2021, compared to an operating loss of approximately $27.3 million in Q1 a year ago. Net income in the first quarter was $7,000 compared to a net loss of approximately $23.2 million last year.
Alfred C. Liggins, III, Urban One CEO/President, stated, “Normalizing for approximately $1.4 million of Richmond gaming chase costs, which were one-time in nature, our Adjusted EBITDA was down approximately 6.3% year over year, which was encouraging in the context of pre-COVID radio comparatives for January and February and a lack of political revenues. It is worth noting that compared to Q1 2019, which was a pre-pandemic and off-cycle political quarter, our Adjusted EBITDA was up by approximately 4.1% (and by 9.1% after normalizing for the Richmond gaming project). Our core radio advertising was down approximately 13.7% for the quarter, with January -28.4%, February -19.9% and March +8.8%. Currently for second quarter, core radio is pacing up over 70%, with April finishing at +89%. Our digital business had another strong quarter, with revenues up 64.6% and Adjusted EBITDA up by approximately $3.2 million. Cable TV revenues were down 2.6%, but Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $24.8 million was 14.5% higher than Q1 2019 (approximately $21.7 million), which is a more realistic comparison than the COVID-impacted Q1 2020, during which content production and marketing were effectively shut-off. Under the circumstances, we delivered a solid first quarter, and I anticipate further sequential improvements in Q2.”
