“Our third quarter results were at the high end of the revenue guidance we provided” was how Clear Channel Outdoor CEO Scott Wells led of the company’s earnings call.  Here are the results of the Clear Channel Outdoor 3Q22 earnings release, 3Q 22 investor deck and conference call.

• Clear Channel Outdoor consolidated revenue grew 1% to $603 million in the third quarter of 2022 due to adverse foreign exchange movements.  Revenue was up 7.8% excluding FX movements.
• Consolidated Adjusted EBIDTA declined 5% to $129 million in the third quarter of 2022 due to declining cashflow in Europe.
• Clear Channel Outdoor Americas was the bright spot with revenue up 8.6% and cashflow up 4.1% during the third quarter of 2022.  Americas airport revenues were up 45%

• Capital expenditures totaled $43 million for the third quarter of 2022.  In addition the company spent $28 million on acquisitions in the Americas.
• Management made no new disclosures on a possible European sale.  European adjusted cashflow declined 52% to $15 million for the third quarter of 2022 even as the Europe accounted for $17 million or 40% of Clear Channel Outdoor’s total capexp for the third quarter.
• Total debt was $5.6 million at September 30, 2022 at a weighted average cost of 6.5%.  Consolidated debt/consolidated trailing 12 month adjusted EBIDTA was a high 9.6 times.

Clear Channel Outdoor CEO Scott Wells says advertising demand is holding up.

Looking at the fourth quarter our business remains healthy…Since September we are not seeing a material change in advertiser behavior.  In the US advertising demand remains healthy and we remain on track to exceed our record revenue in Q4 2021.  Airports and digital continue to drive that improvement.

But programmatic is weak

There’s a few things that have happened in out of home programmatic.  First and most obvious…it’s the super easy channel to turn on and turn off…On the flip side you…the programmatic space in out of home greatly expanded this year…Q4 of last year was a monster quarter…Q4 of last year programmatic was absolutely positively on fire…

Billboard Insider’s take:  Clear Channel joins Lamar in citing weakness in third quarter programmatic revenue.  Pay attention.  Programmatic adjusts fast to economic conditions.  It can be expected to drop as we enter a recession.   Clear Channel’s underperforming low-margin European operation accounted for 40% of Clear Channel Outdoor’s third quarter capexp budget.  That’s money that can be put to better use in the US.

The market was not pleased.  Clear Channel Outdoor declined 10.7% on a day when the market was up 0.6%, OUTFRONT was up 0.3% and Lamar was down 0.8%

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