Gray Media Inc (GTN.A) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Gray Media Q1 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) And without further ado, I will now turn the program over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Hilton Howell Jr.

女士們、先生們，下午好，歡迎參加 Gray Media 第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）不用多說，我現在將節目交給我們的董事長兼首席執行官小希爾頓·豪厄爾先生。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. As operator mentioned, this is Hilton Howell, Chairman and CEO of Gray Media. And I want to thank all of you for joining our first quarter 2025 earnings call.

謝謝您，接線生。大家下午好。正如接線員所說，這是格雷媒體 (Gray Media) 董事長兼首席執行官希爾頓·豪厄爾 (Hilton Howell)。我要感謝大家參加我們的 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。

With me here in Atlanta, as usual, are all of our executive officers: Pat LaPlatney, our President and Co-CEO; Sandy Breland, our Chief Operating Officer; Kevin Latek, our Chief Legal and Development Officer; and last but not least, Jeffrey Gignac, our Chief Financial Officer. And also as usual, we will begin with a disclaimer that Kevin will provide.

像往常一樣，和我一起來到亞特蘭大的還有我們所有的執行官：我們的總裁兼聯席首席執行官帕特·拉普拉特尼 (Pat LaPlatney)；我們的首席營運官桑迪·布雷蘭 (Sandy Breland)；我們的首席法律和發展官凱文·拉泰克 (Kevin Latek)；最後但同樣重要的是，我們的首席財務杰弗裡·吉尼亞克 (Jeffrey Gignac)。像往常一樣，我們將以 Kevin 提供的免責聲明開始。

Thank you, Hilton, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, we filed with the SEC on Form 8-K, our earnings release and an updated investor slides. Later today, we will file with the SEC our quarterly report on Form 10-Q. These materials will all be available on our website, which is www.graymedia.com.

謝謝希爾頓，大家下午好。今天，我們向美國證券交易委員會提交了 8-K 表格、收益報告和更新的投資者幻燈片。今天晚些時候，我們將向美國證券交易委員會提交 10-Q 表季度報告。這些資料都將在我們的網站 www.graymedia.com 上提供。

Included on the call may be a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, in particular, adjusted EBITDA, leverage ratio denominator and certain leverage ratios. These metrics are not meant to replace GAAP measurements but are provided as supplements to assist the public in its analysis and valuation of our company. Further discussions and reconciliations of the company's non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures can be found on our website. All statements and comments made by management during this conference call other than statements of historical fact should be deemed forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

電話會議可能包括對非公認會計準則財務指標的討論，特別是調整後的 EBITDA、槓桿率分母和某些槓桿。這些指標並非旨在取代 GAAP 衡量標準，而是作為補充提供，以協助公眾分析和評估我們的公司。您可以在我們的網站上找到有關公司非 GAAP 財務指標與可比較 GAAP 財務指標的進一步討論和對帳。管理階層在本次電話會議中所做的所有陳述和評論（除歷史事實陳述外）應視為前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受到許多風險和不確定性的影響。

Actual results in the future could differ from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors that are contained in our most recent filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

由於我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中涉及各種重要因素，未來的實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述中描述的結果不同。我們不承擔更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論其是否出現新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。

Now I'll turn the call back to Hilton.

現在我將把電話轉回希爾頓。

Thank you, Kevin. Today, we are very happy to announce that our results for the first quarter of 2025 finished much better than our guidance on both revenues and expenses. Total revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was $782 million, a decrease of 5% from the first quarter of 2024 and 1% above the high end of our guidance for the quarter. Total operating expenses before depreciation, amortization and gain on disposal of assets in the first quarter of 2025 were 1% below the low end of our previously announced guidance.

謝謝你，凱文。今天，我們非常高興地宣布，2025 年第一季的業績無論是收入還是支出都遠遠優於我們的預期。2025 年第一季的總營收為 7.82 億美元，較 2024 年第一季下降 5%，比我們本季預期的高點高出 1%。2025 年第一季折舊、攤提和資產處置收益前的總營運費用比我們先前公佈的指引低端低 1%。

Net loss was $9 million in the first quarter of 2025 compared to net income of $88 million in the first quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was $160 million in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 19% in the first quarter of 2024.

2025 年第一季淨虧損為 900 萬美元，而 2024 年第一季淨收入為 8,800 萬美元。2025年第一季調整後EBITDA為1.6億美元，較2024年第一季下降19%。

Recall that last year's first quarter included the $110 million gain on the sale of our interest in BMI, the very strong Super Bowl results across our large CBS station portfolio and an extra billing day during leap year. Political advertising was obviously lower than the first quarter of 2024, yet first quarter 2025 political finished well above our expectations for an off-cycle year.

回想一下，去年第一季度，我們出售了 BMI 的權益，獲得了 1.1 億美元的收益，我們的大型 CBS 電台組合在超級碗比賽中取得了非常強勁的成績，並且在閏年增加了一個計費日。政治廣告明顯低於 2024 年第一季度，但 2025 年第一季的政治廣告表現遠高於我們對非週期年份的預期。

In addition to these operating results, we continue to make progress in strengthening our balance sheet in the first quarter. During the first quarter, we continued to improve our commitment to deliver by reducing our outstanding indebtedness by an additional $17 million. We finished the first quarter with a lower leverage ratio as defined in our senior credit agreement from where we began the year. And we will continue to use our free cash to reduce our leverage respectively.

除了這些經營業績外，我們在第一季繼續在加強資產負債表方面取得進展。在第一季度，我們繼續履行承諾，將未償債務減少了 1,700 萬美元。根據年初高級信貸協議中的定義，第一季結束時我們的槓桿率較低。我們將繼續利用我們的自由現金來降低我們的槓桿率。

On March 31st, 2025, we announced the extension and increase in size of our accounts receivable securitization facility, along with an increase in the size of our revolver. This enhanced liquidity allows us to continue executing on our deleveraging plan. I am particularly proud of the support that we have received from so many of our commercial banking partners and their confidence in our future.

2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們宣布延長並增加應收帳款證券化工具的規模，同時增加循環信貸的規模。流動性的增強使我們能夠繼續執行去槓桿計劃。我特別為我們獲得的眾多商業銀行合作夥伴的支持以及他們對我們未來的信心感到自豪。

As noted in our press release this morning, our Board of Directors declared the usual $0.08 per share quarterly dividend. By now, everyone is aware of the new regulatory tone coming from Washington. Like always, the Board will consider capital allocations each quarter in light of opportunities to deploy capital for growth. Operationally, we continue to enhance our local content offerings in the first quarter of 2025. We continue to enter into new sports rights agreements to bring more local sports back to our local stations.

正如我們今天上午的新聞稿中所述，我們的董事會宣布每股 0.08 美元的季度股息。現在，每個人都已經意識到華盛頓的新監管基調。與往常一樣，董事會將根據部署資本實現成長的機會，每季考慮資本分配。在營運方面，我們將在 2025 年第一季繼續增強本地內容的提供。我們將繼續簽訂新的體育版權協議，以便將更多的本地體育賽事帶回我們的本地電視台。

In just two years since announcing our innovative deal with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, we now have our own local and regional sports deals covering nearly 80% of all of our markets. These broadcasts are, of course, in addition to this professional sports provided by our network partners. The combination of our premier local news franchises with local sports make our local stations even more relevant and more valuable than ever.

自從宣布與菲尼克斯太陽隊和水星隊達成創新協議以來的短短兩年內，我們現在已經擁有自己的本地和區域體育協議，覆蓋了我們所有市場的近 80%。當然，這些廣播是除了我們的網路合作夥伴提供的專業體育賽事之外的。我們的首要本地新聞特許經營權與本地體育賽事的結合，使我們的本地電台比以往任何時候都更具相關性和價值。

Our stations and our people continue to receive national recognition for their outstanding journalistic efforts. We recently announced a host of awards across our group: WANF in Atlanta and WVUE in New Orleans. Both received nominations for the 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards in Outstanding Regional News Stories: Investigative Category.

我們的電台和工作人員因其出色的新聞工作而繼續獲得全國的認可。我們最近宣布了我們集團獲得的一系列獎項：亞特蘭大的 WANF 和新奧爾良的 WVUE。兩人均獲得第 46 屆年度新聞與紀錄片艾美獎傑出地區新聞報道：調查類提名。

WIBW in Topeka, Kansas won the prestigious Service to America Award for small market television for their campaign, "Hear me. See me." highlighting mental health issues. WANF in Atlanta, WAVE in Louisville and InvestigateTV, Gray's national investigative unit, all received National Headliner Awards.

堪薩斯州托皮卡的 WIBW 憑藉其宣傳活動“聽我說”贏得了享有盛譽的小型市場電視服務美國獎。看我。 」強調心理健康問題。亞特蘭大的 WANF、路易斯維爾的 WAVE 以及格雷的國家調查部門 InvestigateTV 都獲得了國家頭條新聞獎。

And lastly, our very own Sandy Breland sitting to the right of me right here, was named the 2025 John F. Hogan Distinguished Award winner by the Radio Television Digital News Association for her unwavering dedication to journalism and freedom of the press.

最後，坐在我右邊的桑迪·布雷蘭 (Sandy Breland) 因其對新聞事業和新聞自由的堅定奉獻，被廣播電視數位新聞協會評為 2025 年約翰·F·霍根傑出獎得主。

The momentum at Assembly Studios also continued in the first quarter of 2025. The new CBS soap opera called Beyond the Gates, which debuted in February, has seen strong ratings and created a buzz not only on site at Assembly, but across our large portfolio of CBS network stations. We are thrilled, absolutely thrilled to be hosting many other high-profile movie and streaming productions at Assembly Studios and are constantly working to bring more productions to our sound stages.

Assembly Studios 的勢頭在 2025 年第一季也得以延續。CBS 的新肥皂劇《大門之外》於二月份首播，收視率極高，不僅在 Assembly 現場引起轟動，而且在我們龐大的 CBS 網絡電台中也引起了轟動。我們非常高興能夠在 Assembly Studios 舉辦許多其他備受矚目的電影和串流媒體製作，並且我們一直致力於將更多的作品帶到我們的攝影棚。

As from the Assembly Studio gates, we are working with other companies who are actively investing their time and their money to bring to life other parts of our Assembly Atlanta development. We expect to have more announcements about these exciting plans later in 2025.

從 Assembly Studio 成立之初，我們就在與其他公司合作，他們積極投入時間和金錢，以實現 Assembly Atlanta 開發專案的其他部分。我們預計將在 2025 年稍後發布更多有關這些令人興奮的計劃的公告。

As we have said repeatedly, we have seen tremendous interest from potential development partners who could contribute their financial resource and development expertise to accelerate value creation at Assembly Atlanta. We've had a very busy start to 2025, and we are excited about the expanding avenues to enhance the value of all of our businesses.

正如我們一再說過的，我們看到了潛在開發合作夥伴的極大興趣，他們可以貢獻他們的財政資源和開發專業知識來加速亞特蘭大大會的價值創造。2025 年伊始，我們一直非常忙碌，我們很高興能夠拓展各種途徑來提升所有業務的價值。

At this time, I'd like to ask Pat to address our operations.

現在，我想請帕特談談我們的營運情況。

Thank you, Hilton. On our fourth quarter call, we spoke about the cautious tone among our advertisers, especially within the automotive category. The daily developments regarding trade and tariffs have continued to foster uncertainty among advertisers and hindered our ability to forecast as we've done in recent years. Yet despite this backdrop, we're pleased with our first quarter results.

謝謝你，希爾頓。在第四季度的電話會議上，我們談到了廣告商的謹慎態度，尤其是汽車類別的廣告商。貿易和關稅的每日發展持續加劇了廣告商的不確定性，並阻礙了我們近年來的預測能力。儘管有這樣的背景，我們仍然對第一季的業績感到滿意。

As expected, our core advertising revenue for the first quarter of '25 finished down 8% versus the first quarter of '24 and right in the middle of our guidance range. Remember, about half of our decline in core or $9 million is attributable to the Super Bowl airing on our 33 FOX channels in 2025 compared to our 54 CBS affiliates in 2024. On the positive side, our FOX channels were up 50% versus the prior FOX Super Bowl with $9 million of core ad revenue in 2025.

正如預期的那樣，2025 年第一季我們的核心廣告收入與 2024 年第一季相比下降了 8%，正好處於我們的指導範圍的中間。請記住，我們核心收入下降約一半或 900 萬美元，這是因為超級盃將於 2025 年在我們的 33 個 FOX 頻道播出，而 2024 年則將在 54 個 CBS 附屬頻道播出。積極的一面是，我們的 FOX 頻道與之前的 FOX 超級碗相比增長了 50%，2025 年的核心廣告收入為 900 萬美元。

From a category perspective, automotive came in as expected, down high single digits. For the second quarter, auto is still tracking down high single digits as we continue to see the uncertain macroeconomic conditions impacting advertiser confidence. We see continued high interest rates also weighing automotive demand.

從類別角度來看，汽車銷售量如預期下降，降幅達個位數。對於第二季度，汽車廣告收入仍處於高個位數成長狀態，因為我們繼續看到不確定的宏觀經濟條件影響廣告商的信心。我們看到持續的高利率也會對汽車需求造成壓力。

Other categories linked to consumer discretionary spending like restaurants and department stores were soft, while more essential categories like education and financial services performed better. From client conversations, we also believe that some categories saw a "beat the tariff effect" including automotive.

與消費者可自由支配支出相關的其他類別（如餐廳和百貨公司）表現疲軟，而教育和金融服務等更重要的類別表現較好。從客戶談話中，我們也認為包括汽車在內的一些類別看到了「戰勝關稅效應」。

There were a few bright spots. Legal was up a couple of points and has grown to a low double-digit category for us. We have a dedicated team focused on the travel and tourism vertical but while a smaller category grew nicely on a year-over-year basis and continues to trend higher, digital was again up double digits, which is encouraging. Finally, our new local direct business grew slightly in the first quarter of 2025. Given the economic uncertainty, we're very pleased that our multimedia sales teams are continuing to grow our new advertiser base.

有一些亮點。法律方面上升了幾個百分點，對我們來說已經成長為一個較低的兩位數類別。我們有一個專門的團隊專注於旅遊和旅遊業垂直領域，但儘管較小的類別同比增長良好並繼續呈上升趨勢，但數位化再次實現了兩位數的增長，這是令人鼓舞的。最後，我們的新本地直銷業務在 2025 年第一季略有成長。鑑於經濟的不確定性，我們很高興看到我們的多媒體銷售團隊正在繼續擴大我們的新廣告客戶群。

A very bright spot in the first quarter of '25 was political ad revenue. Our guide for the first quarter of '25 was $2 million to $4 million, while our actual results came in at $13 million. Most of this revenue was generated in the competitive Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, where our stations cover most of the state. We saw meaningful spending in the panhandle of Florida and the race for Matt Gaetz's former congressional seat. We also benefited from a few special elections in the first quarter. And finally, we are seeing its political ad buys now for primaries that are a year away, in one case, for a general election that's 18 months away.

2025 年第一季的一個亮點是政治廣告收入。我們對 25 年第一季的預期是 200 萬至 400 萬美元，而實際結果為 1300 萬美元。大部分收入來自威斯康辛州競爭激烈的最高法院競選，我們的電台涵蓋了該州的大部分地區。我們看到佛羅裡達州狹長地帶的支出顯著增加，而馬特蓋茲 (Matt Gaetz) 的前國會席位的競選也十分激烈。第一季的幾次特別選舉也為我們帶來了好處。最後，我們看到其現在購買的政治廣告是針對一年後的初選，有一次，甚至買了 18 個月後的大選廣告。

Hilton touched on our sports efforts, with 80% of our footprint now carrying local sports. That equates to 90 of our television stations. We're very excited to watch that part of our business grow. Providing guidance for the second quarter of '25 or for the year in the current environment is particularly challenging. Based on current conditions, we're guiding second quarter core ad revenue to be down mid-single digits.

希爾頓談到了我們在體育方面的努力，目前我們 80% 的廣告業務都涉及當地體育賽事。這相當於我們的90個電視台。我們非常高興地看到我們業務的這一部分不斷發展。在當前環境下，為 25 年第二季或全年提供指導尤其具有挑戰性。根據目前的情況，我們預計第二季核心廣告收入將下降中位數個位數。

The NCAA Final Four and Championship Game on CBS provided about a $5 million benefit in early April. Across categories in the second quarter, we're seeing a mixed bag with some categories like automotive and restaurants pacing lower and some pockets of strength still in legal consumer goods and entertainment.

四月初，哥倫比亞廣播公司 (CBS) 播出的 NCAA 四強賽和冠軍賽帶來了約 500 萬美元的收益。在第二季的各個類別中，我們看到了好壞參半的情況，其中汽車和餐廳等一些類別的成長速度有所下降，而合法消費品和娛樂領域仍然有一些強勁表現。

Jeff will now address the key financial developments.

傑夫現在將討論關鍵的財務發展。

Thank you, Pat. As Hilton mentioned earlier, reducing leverage remains our top capital allocation priority, and we made more progress in the first quarter. We finished the quarter at 2.92 times secured leverage and 5.48 times total leverage, each as defined in our senior credit agreement. We're optimistic that the more relaxed regulatory environment that has been discussed extensively the last few months could present opportunities to accelerate our deleveraging efforts through M&A later this year. Going forward, we and the Board will continue to evaluate our capital allocation priorities in light of our financial position, capital needs and other appropriate factors each quarter.

謝謝你，帕特。正如希爾頓之前提到的，降低槓桿率仍然是我們資本配置的首要任務，我們在第一季取得了更多進展。本季結束時，我們的擔保槓桿率為 2.92 倍，總槓桿率為 5.48 倍，均符合我們的優先信貸協議中的定義。我們樂觀地認為，過去幾個月廣泛討論的更加寬鬆的監管環境可能為我們在今年稍後透過併購加速去槓桿努力提供機會。展望未來，我們和董事會將繼續根據我們的財務狀況、資本需求和其他適當因素，每季評估我們的資本配置優先事項。

On March 31, we increased our AR securitization facility funding availability by $100 million to a total of $400 million and extended the maturity to March 31, 2028. Pricing on the AR facility increased slightly by 15 basis points to SOFR plus 125. And at the same time, we increased our revolver availability by $20 million to a total of $700 million. Together, these facilities provide access to over $1 billion of availability, which we can use to address any challenges or opportunities that present themselves. Historically, first quarter is the lowest cash generation quarter of the year.

3 月 31 日，我們將應收帳款證券化工具融資餘額增加了 1 億美元，達到 4 億美元，並將期限延長至 2028 年 3 月 31 日。AR 工具的定價小幅上漲了 15 個基點，達到 SOFR 加 125。同時，我們將可用循環信貸額度增加了 2,000 萬美元，達到 7 億美元。這些設施總共提供了超過 10 億美元的可用資金，我們可以利用這些資金來應對出現的任何挑戰或機會。從歷史上看，第一季是一年中現金產生量最低的季度。

Nonetheless, we were able to reduce the principal amount of our outstanding indebtedness by $17 million through a combination of par repayments and open market activities. At quarter end, we had $240 million remaining on our debt repurchase authorization, and we will continue to be nimble and thoughtful as to when, where and how we deploy our liquidity to utilize this authorization.

儘管如此，我們還是能夠透過平價償還和公開市場活動將未償債務的本金減少 1,700 萬美元。截至本季末，我們的債務回購授權餘額為 2.4 億美元，我們將繼續靈活、周到地決定何時、何地以及如何部署我們的流動資金來利用這項授權。

As previously reported, starting in April of this year, we believe we are now exceeding the $60 million annualized run rate of cost savings from last fall's cost containment initiatives. We expect to see the benefits of those actions as we move through 2025. And recall that there is very little, if any, of that benefit reflected in our current leverage ratio calculations as outlined in our senior credit agreement.

正如之前報導的那樣，從今年 4 月開始，我們相信我們現在已經超過了去年秋季成本控制舉措所實現的 6000 萬美元的年化成本節約率。我們期望在 2025 年看到這些行動帶來的好處。請記住，我們的高級信貸協議中概述的當前槓桿率計算反映出的這種好處非常少，甚至沒有。

In fact, our first quarter 2025 total operating expenses actually decreased versus first quarter of 2024 despite some normal inflationary type growth working in the opposite direction. And our Q2 guide is that expenses will remain below inflationary levels.

事實上，儘管存在一些正常的通膨型成長，但我們 2025 年第一季的總營運費用實際上與 2024 年第一季相比有所下降。我們第二季的指導是支出將維持在通膨水平以下。

It's the first time since the COVID slowdown that we posted lower first quarter broadcasting operating expenses than we had in the prior comparative year period. First quarter of 2025 was also the fifth consecutive quarter in which our network affiliation fees did not exceed the levels of such fees in the comparative prior year quarter.

這是自新冠疫情放緩以來，我們第一季的廣播營運費用首次低於去年同期。2025 年第一季也是我們的網路會員費連續第五個季度沒有超過去年同期的水平。

This concludes my remarks, and I'll now turn the call back over to Hilton.

我的發言到此結束，現在我將把電話轉回希爾頓。

Thank you, Jeff. In closing our formal remarks, Gray is continuing to take necessary actions to make the investments needed to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities in our ever-changing industry. Our strong station portfolio provides incredible value to our advertising clients. We continue to enhance our balance sheet and financial flexibility, and our team is making creative and smart investments to expand and engage with our audiences.

謝謝你，傑夫。在結束我們的正式演講時，格雷將繼續採取必要的行動，進行必要的投資，以應對挑戰並抓住不斷變化的行業中的機會。我們強大的網站組合為我們的廣告客戶提供了難以置信的價值。我們繼續增強資產負債表和財務靈活性，我們的團隊正在進行創意和明智的投資，以擴大和吸引我們的受眾。

Perhaps most importantly, we are energized by the possibility that the government may at last allow local broadcasters to compete on a more level playing field with all of our competitors. We thank everyone for joining the call today.

或許最重要的是，政府最終可能允許地方廣播公司與所有競爭對手在更公平的環境中競爭，這讓我們感到振奮。我們感謝大家今天參加電話會議。

And so operator, at this time, we ask that you open the line for questions for any of us.

接線員，此時，我們請求您開通熱線以便我們任何人提問。

Absolutely. (Operator Instructions)

絕對地。（操作員指示）

And seeing several already in queue. First up, we have Dan Kurnos.

並且看到已經有幾個人在排隊了。首先，我們有丹‧庫爾諾斯 (Dan Kurnos)。

Great, afternoon. Great. Maybe we'll start, Hilton, Jeff, obviously, everybody is talking about dereg right now. I think we heard the word flexibility about 15 times in the prepared remarks. How creative could you guys get if you saw something attractive? What are the most attractive options to you in market if that were to change, getting bigger? Would you have to sell anything? Maybe just I'll open it there and then I'll ask a follow-up.

午安.偉大的。也許我們會開始，希爾頓，傑夫，顯然，現在每個人都在談論解除管制。我認為我們在準備好的發言中聽到了大約15次「靈活性」這個詞。如果你們看到一些有吸引力的東西，你們會有多有創意？如果市場改變、規模擴大，對您來說最有吸引力的選擇是什麼？你要賣掉什麼東西嗎？也許我只是在那裡打開它，然後我會詢問後續情況。

I think actually, everyone was talking about the new pope. I don't think you're talking about earnings.

我認為實際上每個人都在談論新教皇。我認為您不是在談論收入。

You mean the new pope the Donald Trump, Kevin?

凱文，你指的是新教宗唐納德·川普嗎？

It wasn't me, so you're lucky. We're looking at lots of things, Dan, as is everybody else. And we're looking for our smoke signals from Washington on what may be allowed, and we're getting some good white smoke signals that the environment will be much better, allow us to probably enter into swaps to create new duopolies or improve our strategic position.

不是我幹的，所以你很幸運。丹，我們正在關注很多事情，其他人也是如此。我們正在等待華盛頓發出的關於可能允許什麼的煙霧信號，我們得到了一些好的白色煙霧信號，表明環境將會好得多，允許我們進行互換以創建新的雙頭壟斷或改善我們的戰略地位。

But we'll have to wait and see. Those as are, as you've talked about, those are pretty complicated. We'll need government -- we'll need waivers or new rules to facilitate some transactions, but we're actively pursuing everything, and I think our peers are all doing the same thing.

但我們還需拭目以待。正如您所說，這些非常複雜。我們需要政府——我們需要豁免或新規則來促進某些交易，但我們正在積極追求一切，我認為我們的同行都在做同樣的事情。

Can I ask you, Kevin, I mean, I think Perry kind of addressed this earlier with the Simington Op-Ed piece, but you guys distinctly are in sort of the public lens as it were as you go into your reverse negotiations, your affiliate negotiations in the back half of this year with your fixed fee partners. I mean I don't think anyone takes that number necessarily seriously, but it is a clear shot at the networks. Does it have any impact bearing on the outcome or your view as you address your affiliate negotiations?

我可以問你嗎，凱文，我的意思是，我認為佩里早些時候在西明頓專欄文章中提到了這一點，但你們顯然是公眾關注的焦點，因為你們在今年下半年與固定費用合作夥伴進行了反向談判、聯盟談判。我的意思是，我認為沒有人會認真對待這個數字，但它顯然是針對網路的。當您處理關聯公司談判時，它是否會對結果或您的觀點產生影響？

We're not going to comment on Simington's piece. I'll leave that for other folks to do. What we would say is that we are encouraged by comments from the Chairman, from Commissioner Simington and from others about the importance of local news and local broadcasters. It's a refreshing change of tone, and we think it bodes well for the future.

我們不會對西明頓的文章發表評論。我將把這個工作留給其他人去做。我們想說的是，主席、西明頓委員和其他人關於地方新聞和地方廣播的重要性的評論令我們感到鼓舞。這是一個令人耳目一新的基調變化，我們認為這預示著未來會更好。

Okay. I mean those are my questions. I'll just say one last thing, Jeff. Well done on the expense side. It looks like it's pacing much better than anticipated. So kudos on that front. Thanks guys.

好的。我的意思是這些就是我的問題。我只想說最後一件事，傑夫。在費用方面做得很好。看起來它的節奏比預期的要好得多。因此，在這方面值得稱讚。謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

All right, Next up, we have Aaron Watts.

好的，接下來有請 Aaron Watts。

Hi [all] thanks for having me up. Two questions. First, just a follow-up on industry consolidation. On the end market opportunities that you may explore, can you remind us what type of margin lift you get from creating a new duopoly or improving your presence in any given market?

大家好，感謝你們邀請我來。兩個問題。首先，只是對產業整合的後續關注。關於您可能探索的終端市場機會，您能否提醒我們，透過創造新的雙頭壟斷或提高您在任何特定市場的影響力，您可以獲得什麼樣的利潤提升？

Yes. Aaron, I think we've talked about this it seems like 100 times in the last year. In our experience of creating lots of duopolies over the last 12 years, there is no number you can put on it. I appreciate other folks have been able to do that.

是的。亞倫，我想我們去年已經談論過這個問題 100 次了。根據我們過去 12 年創建大量雙頭壟斷的經驗，我們無法給出確切的數字。我很感激其他人能夠做到這一點。

We have bought from small family publishers. We've bought from private equity. We've bought FOX affiliate, and we've bought Big three affiliates. We've bought large markets and bought in small markets. And the margin improvement varies equally based on what we are buying in what kind of market, the strength of our station and the strength of the other station.

我們從小型家庭出版商購買。我們從私募股權公司買了股票。我們收購了 FOX 的附屬機構，也收購了三大電視網的附屬機構。我們收購了大型市場，也收購了小型市場。利潤率的提高同樣取決於我們在什麼樣的市場購買什麼、我們電台的實力和其他電台的實力。

So we're not -- in our experience of having a number of duopolies across our company, I think we're somewhere -- I think we have a few dozen of them. I would say that the margin improvement varies from a little to quite a lot. But we're not -- we don't see -- we don't see a precise range of a certain number of basis points because the variability is all over the place.

因此，根據我們公司內部存在多起雙頭壟斷的經驗，我認為我們處於某種程度上——我認為我們有幾十個這樣的雙頭壟斷。我想說的是，利潤率的提高幅度從很小到很大不等。但是我們沒有——我們沒有看到——我們沒有看到某個基點數量的精確範圍，因為變化性無處不在。

And we are not shopping in just one type of duopoly. We would like to see duopolies in many markets. And some of our best opportunities will be at both ends of the spectrum. So we're looking to grow the company, delever through these transactions, improve the company's profile for the long term, but we're not going to be focused on just trying to achieve a certain basis point uplift or we'll walk away.

而且我們買的並不是單一類型的雙頭壟斷。我們希望看到許多市場出現雙頭壟斷。我們最好的機會就存在於這兩個極端。因此，我們希望發展公司，透過這些交易去槓桿，長期改善公司形象，但我們不會只專注於實現某個基點的提升，否則我們就會放棄。

Aaron. This is Hilton. Let me add one thing to that. No matter what we would do with regard to end market consolidation, it does a couple of things. It's inherently universally positive in terms of saving money, but it also gives us, because we are so focused on the delivery of local news, local content, local sports, you've got to give the audiences something to view.

亞倫。這是希爾頓。讓我補充一點。無論我們在終端市場整合方面做什麼，它都會產生一些影響。從省錢的角度來看，這本質上具有普遍的積極意義，但它也為我們帶來了好處，因為我們非常專注於提供本地新聞、本地內容和本地體育節目，所以你必須為觀眾提供一些可看的內容。

The consolidation allows us to compete with the really huge tech giants that are actually taking about 80% of the local ad market. And so consolidation is an all-in-all positive for the entirety of the broadcast business. And we're very excited. I think Kevin is hesitant because every deal is different, and every market is different. And that's one of the things we love about this business.

此次整合使我們能夠與佔據本地廣​​告市場約 80% 份額的科技巨頭競爭。因此，整合對於整個廣播業務來說總體來說是一件好事。我們非常興奮。我認為凱文猶豫不決是因為每筆交易都不同，每個市場也不同。這是我們熱愛這項業務的原因之一。

But from our standpoint, it allows us to do our core business, which is reporting local news, providing now in the last two years, local sports and community involvement and connection.

但從我們的角度來看，它使我們能夠開展核心業務，即報導當地新聞，並在過去兩年中提供當地體育和社區參與和聯繫。

Yes. That makes sense, thanks for that, Hilton. And if I could ask just one more on the advertising side. As you sit today, are you seeing actual cancellations? Or is it more just a hesitancy to book or delaying ad buys?

是的。這很有道理，謝謝你，希爾頓。我可以再問一個關於廣告方面的問題嗎？您今天坐下來，看到實際取消的情況了嗎？還是只是猶豫是否要預訂或延後購買廣告？

And aside from lapping political crowd out that you had last year in the second half of this year, any reason for optimism in key core verticals that they can start to gain momentum as you roll into the back half of this year?

除了今年下半年像去年一樣遭遇政治排擠之外，還有什麼理由對關鍵核心垂直產業感到樂觀，認為它們可以在進入今年下半年時開始獲得發展動力？

Yes. So Aaron, it's Pat. On the first question, it's the latter. So we're not seeing cancellations. We are seeing some hesitancy. But it's not in any way overwhelming.

是的。那麼 Aaron，就是 Pat。對於第一個問題，答案是後者。因此我們沒有看到取消的情況。我們看到了一些猶豫。但它無論如何都不會讓人感到壓倒性強大。

And in regard to the second half of the year, look, the services categories, as we talked about, so legal health, home improvement, those categories are now upwards of a third of our business, and they are sort of less impacted by the tariffs. So I think that's some reason for optimism.

至於下半年，正如我們所討論的服務類別，例如法律健康、家居裝修，這些類別現在占我們業務的三分之一以上，而且它們受關稅的影響較小。所以我認為這是值得樂觀的理由。

But the reality is there's just so much uncertainty out there, it's really hard to forecast. I would say if there is a single category that has upside, I think it's political. We saw it in the first quarter, we're going to see some of it in the second quarter. As we noted in our remarks, we're seeing some money for races that are a year, 18 months out right now.

但現實情況是，存在太多的不確定性，很難預測。我想說，如果有一個類別具有優勢，我認為那就是政治。我們在第一季就看到了這一點，在第二季我們也會看到一些這樣的情況。正如我們在評論中指出的那樣，我們看到一些資金用於一年半到一年半後的比賽。

And we -- breaking news here, we just saw some more this morning in the state of Georgia, which we frankly didn't anticipate. So I'm not sitting here to tell you -- I'm not ready to tell you that we're going to do as well in second quarter political as we did it first, but we're pleasantly surprised with what's going on right now in political.

我們——這裡有突發新聞，我們今天早上在喬治亞州看到了更多這樣的情況，坦白說，這是我們沒有預料到的。所以我不是坐在這裡告訴你們——我還沒準備好告訴你們我們在第二季度的政治表現會和第一季一樣好，但我們對目前政治情勢的發展感到驚訝。

Aaron, Pat referenced this in his remarks, but despite the uncertainty in headwinds, we did grow our new local direct business in first quarter. And that's really a credit to our strong sales teams and our training team that you've heard us talk so often about.

亞倫，帕特在他的演講中提到了這一點，但儘管面臨不確定性，我們在第一季確實發展了新的本地直銷業務。這確實要歸功於我們強大的銷售團隊和培訓團隊，正如您經常聽到我們談論的那樣。

Well, and Aaron, this is Hilton. Let me add one more thing to this, too. Today is kind of a propitious day in a lot of ways. But the President announced a trade deal with United Kingdom. And I think that is the beginning of the reestablishment of -- hopefully, of stability with regard to all your guys' markets and our ad market.

好吧，亞倫，這是希爾頓。對此我還要補充一點。從很多方面來說，今天都是一個吉日。但總統宣布與英國達成貿易協議。我認為這是重建的開始——希望是你們所有人的市場和我們的廣告市場的穩定。

Because so many of our clients are pulling back because they really don't know what the cost of goods sold of their products are right now. And that makes anyone a little nervous to take an ad out and price what they're going to do for a new Chevy, all right? So I think today is a great day. And I think by the time we're at this hall in a quarter from now, we're going to have a lot more clarity.

因為我們的許多客戶都在退縮，因為他們真的不知道他們產品的當前銷售成本是多少。這讓任何人在刊登廣告並為新款雪佛蘭汽車定價時都會感到有點緊張，對吧？所以我認為今天是偉大的一天。我認為，一個季度後當我們再次回到這個大廳時，我們會對這個問題有更清晰的認識。

Yeah, makes sense. Okay, thanks so much.

是的，有道理。好的，非常感謝。

Sure.

當然。

All right. Excuse me. Next up, we have Patrick Sholl. (Operator Instructions) And with that, Patrick Scholl, your line is now open.

好的。打擾一下。接下來有請 Patrick Sholl。（操作員指示）這樣，帕特里克·肖爾，您的線路現已開通。

Hi, thank you. Just circling back on political. Are there -- can you maybe talk about some of the puts and takes between the 2026 cycle and the 2022 midterm that we should think about? Or if you have any like overarching thoughts on the cycle?

你好，謝謝。再次回到政治話題。您能否談談我們應該考慮的 2026 年周期和 2022 年中期選舉之間的一些利弊？或者您對這個週期有什麼整體想法嗎？

Let me just say this. All we know is what we know, right? So what we saw at the last midterm, we didn't get anywhere near the kind of ad buys that we're seeing this time around. Whether or not that's going to continue, we don't know. I mean it's -- political is the world's worst category to predict.

我只想說這一點。我們所知道的就是我們所知道的，對嗎？因此，我們在上次中期選舉中看到的廣告購買量遠不及這次。我們不知道這種情況是否會持續下去。我的意思是──政治是世界上最難預測的類別。

But when we were here four years ago, at the last midterm, we didn't have these big orders. And they're coming in daily. Depends on the market, but across our portfolio, we're getting political ad buys left and right, and big ones.

但四年前我們來這裡的時候，也就是上次中期選舉的時候，我們並沒有接到這麼大的訂單。他們每天都來。這取決於市場，但在我們的投資組合中，我們到處都在購買政治廣告，而且是大額廣告。

Okay, thank you. Then maybe just on the affiliate reverse comp negotiations coming up this year. Just how should we think about those? Like when we feel like some of the subscriber trends for the MVPDs starting to at least moderate with some of that in part being influenced by the access to the network streaming services, perhaps influencing from that. So how should we think about that affecting some of these reverse comp negotiations?

好的，謝謝。那麼也許只是關於今年即將進行的附屬反向補償談判。我們究竟該如何看待這些呢？就像我們感覺到 MVPD 的一些訂閱用戶趨勢開始至少有所緩和，其中一部分趨勢受到網路串流服務存取的影響，也許是受其影響。那麼我們該如何看待這會對一些反向補償談判產生影響呢？

Pat, it's one of the talking points in the conversation. We discussed the value we bring, they discuss the value that they bring. We discuss our concerns with exclusivity and investments in their DTC products. And they discuss their concerns with us. And it's all just part of the -- it's just -- it's part of the conversation.

帕特，這是談話的要點之一。我們討論我們帶來的價值，他們討論他們帶來的價值。我們討論了對其 DTC 產品的獨家經營權和投資的擔憂。他們與我們討論了他們的擔憂。這只是談話的一部分。

So those conversations are ongoing and making progress. But there's a lot of things to discuss. That's -- you've hit on one of the topics that is discussed.

因此這些對話正在進行中並正在取得進展。但還有很多事情需要討論。那是——你已經觸及正在討論的話題之一。

We're very hopeful that we will renew with all of our network affiliate partners. It's just we got a lot of them up this year. And so there's a lot of open questions. But we are very hopeful that we will get it renewed and that hopefully, it can be a win-win for both the networks and for the affiliate partners.

我們非常希望能夠與所有網路聯盟合作夥伴續約協議。只是我們今年已經有很多這樣的事了。因此還有很多未解決的問題。但我們非常希望能夠實現續約，並希望這對網路和附屬合作夥伴來說是一個雙贏的局面。

Thank you All right. Next up, we have Craig Huber.

謝謝 好的。接下來有請 Craig Huber。

Thank you. I want to ask about Assembly, Atlanta Assembly. Just can you just give us a little more flavor here on how things are going to sign up new tenants, et cetera? I mean, I think you spent what, upwards, maybe $600 million on this. When do you think you're going to start to get a proper return on this? Just talking through how you're think thinking? And I know it's a tough environment, but just talk me through when you think you might get sort of...

謝謝。我想問有關亞特蘭大議會的問題。您能否向我們詳細介紹如何簽約新租戶等等？我的意思是，我認為你在這上面花了大約 6 億美元。您認為什麼時候才能開始獲得適當的回報？只是談談你的想法嗎？我知道這是一個艱難的環境，但是當你認為你可能會遇到某種情況時，請告訴我...

I think it's rolling through as we speak, actually. We probably have somewhere near eight, maybe nine productions that are actively shooting at Assembly. It's roughly between 21 -- we're guessing this, 2,100 and 2,600 folks on the lot. It's really exciting, as I mentioned last quarter. Two of the shows that are shot at Assembly are airing on our CBS portfolio and our NBC portfolios.

事實上，我認為我們說話的時候它正在滾動。我們大概有八部或九部作品正在 Assembly 積極拍攝。我們猜測，該停車場的人數約為 2,100 到 2,600 人。正如我上個季度提到的那樣，這確實令人興奮。在 Assembly 拍攝的兩個節目正在我們的 CBS 和 NBC 頻道播出。

Those would be -- I mentioned in my opening comments, beyond the gates on CBS, a new daytime soap opera, which we're extremely proud of.

這些將是——我在開場白中提到過，哥倫比亞廣播公司 (CBS) 的《超越大門》 (Beyond the Gates) 是一部新的日間肥皂劇，我們對此感到非常自豪。

And then also pretty very excited about is Grosse Pointe Garden Society that airs on our NBC affiliates across the country. And that's in addition to a tremendous number of productions that are being shot that will be going to streaming or to theaters and all the rest.

同樣令人興奮的是，Grosse Pointe Garden Society 在我們遍布全國的 NBC 分店播出。除此之外，還有大量正在拍攝的作品將在串流媒體或戲院上映。

It was very clear in terms of what we were going to do that we had to get the film production business up and maturing. And while the studios have been open for a year, honestly, the truth of it is, Craig, it was last August when all the strikes kind of came to a sort of final fruition before we even got anything in to get going because we have a long-term lease with our partner, NBCUniversal, the strikes just slowed down everything in Hollywood nationwide.

我們要做的很清楚，那就是我們必須讓電影製作業務發展並成熟。雖然工作室已經開業一年了，但說實話，克雷格，事實是，去年八月，所有的罷工在我們開始做任何事情之前就已經達到了最終的成果，因為我們與我們的合作夥伴 NBCUniversal 簽訂了長期租約，罷工只是拖慢了全國好萊塢的一切發展。

And so we haven't really been operating for a year. And so also in my opening comments, we haven't added 80 acres that is going to be opening up for us. One of the places that we know will be out there that we will be monetizing at the very beginning of 2026, hopefully, with the World Cup, is our band show and the park that's out there because we'll be hosting watching parties for the World Cup for the Atlanta audiences here in the city. Of course, Atlanta is one of the semifinal host cities. And then there's a tremendous number of other opportunities that we have to fully invest and produce the income on that $600 million.

所以我們實際上還沒有營運一年。因此，在我的開場白中，我們還沒有增加將要為我們開放的 80 英畝土地。我們知道，我們將在 2026 年初透過世界盃實現盈利的場所之一就是我們的樂隊表演和那裡的公園，因為我們將為亞特蘭大的觀眾舉辦世界盃觀賽派對。當然，亞特蘭大是半決賽主辦城市之一。我們還有大量其他機會可以讓我們充分投資這 6 億美元並從中獲得收益。

Because you've got to remember, that number includes the purchase of all the land, not just the studio portion. If we had prorated it out and said, all right, this is the 50 acres, and this is the revenue we're getting out of the amount of the studios, that's one return. There's a lot of returns that are going to be arriving as we finish out what we're doing in what I call Phase 2.

因為你必須記住，這個數字包括購買所有土地，而不僅僅是工作室部分。如果我們按比例分配，說，好吧，這是 50 英畝，這是我們從工作室中獲得的收入，這就是一筆回報。當我們完成我所說的第二階段的工作時，將會有很多回報。

But we're going to be very slow about that. We don't feel any rush. And sometimes, we think these decisions that some real estate folks do is a little bit precipitous. And so we're going to be cautious and make sure we're doing the right thing. I think you're going to be impressed with what you hear through the course of this year.

但我們會非常緩慢地推進此事。我們並不覺得著急。有時，我們認為有些房地產人士所做的決定有點草率。因此，我們會謹慎行事，確保我們所做的事情是正確的。我想你會對今年所聽到的內容印象深刻。

Yes. And Craig, it's Jeff. If I could just address it from a financial point of view. So in terms of getting the rest of the studios leased up, there are -- the number of inquiries are plentiful. We don't want to announce anything specific until we have a signed lease.

是的。克雷格，我是傑夫。如果我可以從財務角度來解決這個問題。因此，就出租剩餘工作室而言，諮詢的數量很多。在簽署租約之前，我們不想宣布任何具體消息。

On an operational basis, it is contributing. Obviously, we'd like it to be higher, but it's contributing at this point. And you can see in our guide both for first quarter and this quarter, that on a net basis, we think that it will be zero additional capital investment. There's some returns coming as we transition some parts of the public use to the government where there's some rebate money that comes in from that. So on a net basis, we think it's capital neutral this year.

從營運角度來看，它正在做出貢獻。顯然，我們希望它更高，但它現在有所貢獻。您可以在我們第一季和本季的指南中看到，從淨值來看，我們認為額外資本投資將是零。當我們將部分公共用途轉交給政府時，我們會獲得一些回報，並從中獲得一些回饋。因此，從淨值來看，我們認為今年的資本是中性的。

And every time we sign a new lease, it's real estate. So it's a high contribution on each additional lease that we get signed.

每次我們簽署新的租約時，都是關於房地產的。因此，我們簽署的每份額外租約都需要支付高額的費用。

I appreciate that. Maybe can you maybe give us a sense of what percentage of the square footage is leased out at this point, if you're willing?

我很感激。如果您願意的話，您能否告訴我們目前出租面積的百分比是多少？

It's about -- I mean, I think we're offering about a 75% to 80% occupancy rate. We have another 20% that we can fully fill up. And I don't know what's going to happen. I mean the President made tweets on Sunday about foreign tariffs. But the requests that we have are our region, and so we're taking them step by step.

大約是——我的意思是，我認為我們提供的入住率大約是 75% 到 80%。我們還有另外 20% 可以完全填補。我不知道接下來會發生什麼事。我的意思是總統週日發布了有關外國關稅的推文。但我們提出的要求是屬於我們地區的，所以我們會逐步處理。

Okay, I appreciate that thank you guys.

好的，我很感激，謝謝大家。

All right, next up, we have Alan Gould.

好的，接下來我們有請艾倫·古爾德。

Thanks for taking my question. First for Kevin, how much of an impact would allowing Gray to directly negotiate with the virtual MVPDs have on your net retrans revenue? And then I have a follow-up after that.

感謝您回答我的問題。首先對於凱文來說，允許格雷直接與虛擬 MVPD 談判會對您的淨轉播收入產生多大影響？然後我也會進行後續跟進。

It would be -- I would say this, the delta between what we charge a traditional MVPD and what we get paid from the networks on the virtuals is significant. I'm not sure if the law changed today that we would have the ability to tomorrow renegotiate those virtual agreements at the higher rate without also paying some more to the networks. So I don't know what this sort of net impact would be. The gross impact would be significant.

我會這樣說，我們向傳統 MVPD 收取的費用與我們從虛擬網路獲得的費用之間的差異是巨大的。我不確定如果今天的法律發生變化，我們明天是否能夠以更高的費率重新協商這些虛擬協議，而無需向網路支付更多費用。所以我不知道這種淨影響會是什麼。整體影響將是巨大的。

Okay. And then a follow-up on the assembly. Just curious, it's been in production for -- it's been operational for about a year. You say you're 75%, 80% booked up. I'm just wondering why the guide for production company's revenue is basically flat year-over-year.

好的。然後對大會進行跟進。只是好奇，它已經投入生產——運作了大約一年。你說你的預訂率已經達到 75% 或 80%。我只是想知道為什麼製作公司的收入指南與去年同期基本持平。

We don't really update it based until we get signed leases. So...

直到我們簽署租約後，我們才會真正更新它。所以...

There's -- so production companies is the studio properties as well as some other production companies, Raycom and Tupelo Media. And so when we compare where we're at until we have signed new business on either one of those, we're projecting -- you can see what the guide is on a year-over-year basis.

有——所以製作公司是工作室資產以及一些其他製作公司，Raycom 和 Tupelo Media。因此，當我們比較我們所處的位置直到我們簽署其中任何一項新業務時，我們正在預測 - 您可以看到該指南是按年計算的。

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Yeah. All right, next up, we have Steven Cahall.

是的。好的，接下來我們有請 Steven Cahall。

Thank you. So you talked about your, I think, biggest kind of deregulation opportunity is looking at swaps and duopolies. I'm just wondering if you're also open to something that's more strategic. I realize it would have to be equity-based, given that with the balance sheet, you're probably not going to be paying cash for anything sizable. But are you open to finding opportunities, especially if it includes a lot of duopolies that are more structured on an equity basis? So that's the first.

謝謝。所以您談到了，我認為，最大的放鬆管制機會是考慮掉期和雙頭壟斷。我只是想知道您是否也願意接受一些更具策略性的事情。我意識到它必須以股權為基礎，因為根據資產負債表，你可能不會為任何大額物品支付現金。但是，您是否願意尋找機會，特別是如果其中包括許多以股權為基礎的雙頭壟斷？這是第一個。

And then second, Jeff, just wondering with the increased capacity you have under the RCF and the accounts receivable, how much between that and free cash flow do you think you can do in debt repurchases this year, especially if you continue to see debt at attractive prices in the market?

其次，傑夫，我只是想知道，隨著 RCF 和應收帳款能力的提高，您認為今年您可以在債務回購中獲得多少自由現金流，特別是如果您繼續看到市場上具有吸引力的價格的債務？

Steven, let me just begin a little bit. When we started our second big round of M&A., we actually did a lot of deals. The first one really was the Hoak transaction that we started with a higher leverage ratio, and we had deleveraging transactions that helped to delever the trends. So I think there's a lot of potential opportunities for us to do strategic transactions with a variety of different sort of structures. So we're looking at all kinds of things.

史蒂文，讓我先說一點點。當我們開始第二輪大規模併購時，我們實際上做了很多交易。第一個確實是 Hoak 交易，我們以較高的槓桿率開始，並且我們進行了去槓桿交易，以幫助降低趨勢的槓桿率。因此我認為我們有很多潛在的機會透過各種不同類型的結構進行策略性交易。所以我們正在研究各種各樣的事情。

I think the first sort of opportunities would likely be if we can find a way to get them to the finish line would be swaps because that's just assets for assets. But those are always hard to get done. But we're moving aggressively on all fronts.

我認為，第一種機會可能是，如果我們能找到一種方法讓他們到達終點線，那就是互換，因為這只是資產與資產之間的互換。但這些總是很難完成。但我們在各方面都在積極行動。

Yes, Steven. And I think there's a little bit of interrelation between the two questions. I mean we can do some of the smaller -- we could do some of the smaller transactions. There's a plentiful number of opportunities out there to look at. And if there's something that's strategically important to us, I wouldn't rule us out as a cash buyer on some of that in addition to, as Hilton said, the guiding principle for us is potentially using M&A to delever. And you can -- that can be a combination of -- for the right transaction, it could be a combination of things.

是的，史蒂文。我認為這兩個問題之間存在一些相互關聯。我的意思是我們可以做一些較小的——我們可以做一些較小的交易。有大量的機會可供關注。如果某些東西對我們具有戰略重要性，我不會排除我們以現金購買其中一部分的可能性，此外，正如希爾頓所說，我們的指導原則是可能利用併購來去槓桿。而且你可以 — — 這可以是多種因素的組合 — — 對於正確的交易，它可以是多種因素的組合。

So in terms of where we go directly with the extra proceeds, I think it's wherever we can get the most bang for the buck. This morning, it appears that a lot of people beat us to market on being able to go buy back debt. So look, we'll see where things settle out, and we have the liquidity. We are obviously managing the capital structure, I think, in a very judicious way. And we'll continue to do so and be mindful of near-term maturities relative to longer-term opportunities to capture larger discounts.

因此，就我們將額外收益直接用在何處而言，我認為我們應該把錢用在能帶來最大收益的地方。今天早上，似乎有很多人在市場上搶先宣布可以回購債務。所以，我們會看到事情如何解決，我們有流動性。我認為，我們顯然正在以非常明智的方式管理資本結構。我們將繼續這樣做，並留意短期到期債務相對於長期到期債務的機會，以獲取更大的折扣。

Steven, it all goes back to every deal is different, right? Because there's different synergies with each different transaction.

史蒂文，一切都歸結為每筆交易都是不同的，對吧？因為每筆不同的交易都有不同的綜效。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) With the final one in queue so far, David Hamburger. Your line is now open.

（操作員指示）目前排隊的最後一位是大衛漢堡 (David Hamburger)。您的線路現已開通。

Hi, thank you very much. I have two questions. One is a follow-up to the last question. But first, the cost-cutting effort, I believe, Kevin, you had mentioned that you've realized $60 million or at least you have -- see visibility to the $60 million in reduction of costs.

你好，非常感謝。我有兩個問題。一個是上一個問題的後續。但首先，關於削減成本的努力，凱文，我相信你曾經提到你已經實現了 6000 萬美元，或者至少你已經看到了 6000 萬美元的成本削減的可見性。

I'm wondering if you could just elaborate. It looks like costs were down nominally in the first quarter. It looks like second quarter, not down very much. When do we start to see that kind of in the station expense line item? And then is there an opportunity to drive cost down even further than that?

我想知道您是否可以詳細說明一下。看起來第一季的成本名義上有所下降。看起來第二季的降幅不會太大。我們什麼時候開始在站點費用項目中看到這種情況？那麼是否還有機會進一步降低成本呢？

Yes. It's Jeff, David. I'll take it and others can weigh in as well. So yes, so we have taken all of the actions that made up the $60 million that we announced. So when we say we have achieved or even exceeded that $60 million number, that's -- everything we identified has been implemented. So now you will see it flow into the numbers.

是的。我是傑夫，大衛。我會接受它，其他人也可以參與其中。是的，我們已經採取了所有行動，以落實我們宣布的 6000 萬美元計劃。因此，當我們說我們已經實現甚至超過了 6000 萬美元這個數字時，這意味著我們確定的一切都已實施。現在你會看到它流入數字。

I would say some of the cost items are not perfectly linear, and we said at the beginning of this exercise that the goal here was to get expenses ideally to be negative, but also at a minimum, get below inflationary levels. And so our guide for second quarter is below inflationary levels.

我想說的是，有些成本項目並不是完全線性的，我們在這個練習開始時就說過，這裡的目標是讓支出理想情況下為負，但至少也要低於通貨膨脹水準。因此，我們對第二季的指引低於通膨水準。

We're continuing to evaluate it every day. And if there's other things that we see that are out there, there is a sense of -- everybody understands the importance of it as we run the business and especially with the top line trends. So we're not stopping just because we "achieve the number." We will see that flow through prospectively as we move through the year.

我們每天都會繼續對其進行評估。如果我們看到其他事情，就會有一種感覺——每個人都明白它在我們經營業務時的重要性，特別是在頂線趨勢方面。所以我們不會因為「達到目標」就停下來了。隨著時間的流逝，我們將看到這一趨勢的發生。

But not plans at this point, where there will be a second round of announcements of any wide-ranging things. I mean it's -- it will be continuing to optimize the business, frankly, just being good stewards of the business and thinking about how we manage it over time.

但目前還沒有計劃發布第二輪涉及廣泛的消息。我的意思是——坦白說，它將繼續優化業務，只是成為業務的好管家，並思考我們如何隨著時間的推移進行管理。

And then I guess just with corporate expenses, it looked like it was up a little bit year-over-year. Is there anything kind of notable there particularly?

然後我想，僅就公司開支而言，它看起來似乎比去年同期有所增加。那裡有什麼特別值得注意的事情嗎？

I wouldn't say anything that's notable. I mean they can bounce around a little bit. They're not always -- things aren't always perfectly linear. So nothing really notable. It could be a couple of million, can bounce around throughout the year.

我不會說任何值得注意的事情。我的意思是它們可以稍微彈跳一下。它們並不總是——事物並不總是完全線性的。所以沒有什麼值得注意的。它可能達到數百萬，並且全年都會波動。

And then just finally on the AR securitization. It looks like you drew on the $100 million in the quarter, the cash balance for the company is up to $210 million. So it looks like notwithstanding the $17 million of debt you reduced, the vast majority of that is sitting on the balance sheet. Is there anything near term for which you require kind of more elevated cash balance on the balance sheet?

最後談談 AR 證券化。看起來您在本季動用了 1 億美元，公司的現金餘額高達 2.1 億美元。因此看起來，儘管你們減少了 1700 萬美元的債務，但其中絕大部分仍在資產負債表上。近期您是否需要在資產負債表上增加更多現金餘額？

No. Well, look, the AR facility is also a revolving facility. So it's a very nice source of inexpensive liquidity for us. You've seen what we've done in open market and par repayments of debt. We do have some -- we have some smaller maturities later -- regular amortization stuff later this year and a small maturity next year.

不。嗯，你看，AR 設施也是一個旋轉設施。因此，這對我們來說是一個非常好的廉價流動資金來源。您已經看到我們在公開市場和債務平價償還方面所做的努力。我們確實有一些 - 我們有一些稍後到期的較小金額 - 今年晚些時候的定期攤銷以及明年的小額到期金額。

And then we'll see where things are at in terms of where to deploy it next, whether it's more open market repurchases or some of it gets used along the way if we identify interesting tuck-in type acquisitions.

然後，我們將看看下一步該如何部署，無論是更多的公開市場回購，還是如果我們發現有趣的收購類型，其中的一部分會被使用。

But to more directly answer the question, we don't need $200 million of cash sitting on the balance sheet. And it's not -- we're going to -- we can either pay down the AR facility or deploy it elsewhere as we see opportunities.

但更直接回答這個問題，我們不需要在資產負債表上存放 2 億美元現金。而且我們不會——我們要么支付 AR 設施的費用，要么在看到機會時將其部署到其他地方。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

All right. Well, thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon. I know you guys had a lot to listen to, because I know there's been calls sort of on the hour, every hour today. But we really appreciate you spending time with us, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter.

好的。好的，謝謝接線生，也謝謝大家今天下午加入我們。我知道你們有很多事情要聽，因為我知道今天幾乎每小時都會有電話打來。但我們非常感謝您抽出時間與我們交談，我們期待下個季度與您交談。

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your call. You may now disconnect your lines, and thank you again for joining us today.

女士們、先生們，你們的通話到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路了，再次感謝您今天的加入我們。