Tegna Inc (TGNA) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2024 TEGNA Inc earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Kirk von Seelen, TEGNA's Treasurer. Please go ahead.

您好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 2024 年第四季 TEGNA Inc 收益電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。現在，我想將會議交給今天的第一位發言者，TEGNA 財務主管 Kirk von Seelen。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call and webcast. My name is Kirk von Seelen, and I am TEGNA's Treasurer. Today, our CEO, Mike Steib, and our CFO, Julie Heskett, will review TEGNA's financial performance and results and provide TEGNA's full year and first quarter outlook. After that, we'll open the call for questions.

謝謝。早安，歡迎參加我們的 2024 年第四季和全年電話會議和網路廣播。我叫 Kirk von Seelen，是 TEGNA 的財務主管。今天，我們的執行長 Mike Steib 和財務長 Julie Heskett 將回顧 TEGNA 的財務表現和結果，並提供 TEGNA 全年和第一季的展望。之後，我們將開始提問。

Hopefully, you've had the opportunity to review this morning's press release. If you have not yet seen a copy of the release, it's available at TEGNA.com. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that this conference call and webcast includes forward-looking statements, and our actual results may differ. Factors that may cause them to differ are outlined in our SEC filings. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided reconciliations of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the press release.

希望您有機會閱讀今天早上的新聞稿。如果您尚未看到該發行版的副本，可以在 TEGNA.com 上找到。在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，本次電話會議和網路廣播包含前瞻性陳述，我們的實際結果可能有所不同。我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中概述了可能導致它們出現差異的因素。本報告也包括某些非公認會計準則財務指標。我們在新聞稿中提供了這些指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的對帳。

With that, let me turn the call over to Mike.

說完這些，讓我把電話轉給麥克。

Thanks, Kirk. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. In my first six months here at TEGNA, the team and I have been working closely with our stations and our business leaders to assess our operations, strategic focus, and untapped opportunities. There are a lot of exciting things happening at the company. We have strong local news teams, trusted brands and deep ties to our communities and our local advertisers.

謝謝，柯克。大家早安，感謝大家的收看。在 TEGNA 工作的頭六個月裡，我和團隊一直與我們的電台和業務領導密切合作，以評估我們的營運、策略重點和尚未開發的機會。公司裡發生了很多令人興奮的事情。我們擁有強大的本地新聞團隊、值得信賴的品牌以及與社區和本地廣告商的深厚聯繫。

We're building a better future for TEGNA. And as I mentioned last quarter, the team and I have identified five key areas of opportunity that have urgent focus across the company. Number one, building a world-class team, culture and company operating system that unlocks high-impact execution. Number two, leveraging TEGNA's strengths across our stations, improving performance through better resource sharing.

我們正在為 TEGNA 創造更美好的未來。正如我上個季度提到的，我和團隊已經確定了整個公司亟待關注的五個關鍵機會領域。第一，建立世界一流的團隊、文化和公司營運體系，實現高影響力的執行。第二，利用 TEGNA 在我們各個站點的優勢，透過更好的資源共享來提高效能。

Number three, fully deploying technology, automation and AI to run a more efficient and effective operation. Number four, growing digital revenue by deepening engagement with our digital audience. And number five, scrutinizing every dollar we spend ensuring time and resources are maximally focused on audience and revenue growth.

第三，全面部署技術、自動化和人工智慧，實現更有效率的營運。第四，透過深化與數位受眾的互動來增加數位收入。第五，仔細審查我們花費的每一美元，確保時間和資源最大限度地集中在觀眾和收入成長。

Today, I'd like to share some early progress we've made in each of these areas. Number one, building a high-performance team and culture. We're rolling out unified values and expectations across our stations to drive a culture of rigorous performance management and ensure A+ talent. We are elevating our best people into key roles where they can have the biggest impact.

今天，我想分享我們在各個領域取得的一些早期進展。第一，建立高績效團隊與文化。我們正在各個站點推行統一的價值觀和期望，以推動嚴格的績效管理文化並確保 A+ 人才。我們正在將最優秀的人才提升到能夠發揮最大影響力的關鍵職位。

Headlining this effort. Tom Cox, our Chief Growth Officer, is expanding his role to lead our network affiliation and distribution partnerships. Tom is a strategic leader who will help strengthen the media ecosystem and ensure a bright future for local news and the communities we serve.

引領這項努力。我們的首席成長長湯姆·考克斯 (Tom Cox) 正在擴大他的職責，領導我們的網路聯盟和分銷合作夥伴關係。湯姆是一位策略領導者，他將幫助加強媒體生態系統，確保當地新聞和我們服務的社區擁有美好的未來。

We're also continuing to attract top-tier talent. I want to welcome Dhanusha Sivajee as our new Chief Experience Officer, owning marketing and consumer digital products. Dhanusha is a world-class brand builder, who has led industry dominant products. Notably, I worked closely with Dhanusha at The Knot, where she and the team turned the company around, achieving 95% brand awareness and product NPS over 70. She is a winner, and we are thrilled to have her on board.

我們還在持續吸引頂尖人才。我歡迎 Dhanusha Sivajee 擔任我們的新任首席體驗官，負責行銷和消費者數位產品。Dhanusha 是一位世界級的品牌打造者，引領了產業主導產品。值得一提的是，我曾與 The Knot 的 Dhanusha 密切合作，她和她的團隊成功扭轉了公司的局面，實現了 95% 的品牌知名度和超過 70 的產品 NPS。她是一位勝利者，我們很高興她能加入我們。

And just last week, we announced the addition of news veteran Adrienne Roark as our new Chief Content Officer. Adrienne brings sharp editorial and operational expertise, a history of rapid innovation across TV and digital and the kind of high intensity, high-velocity leadership that fits perfectly with our team. We're very excited for her to join the team next month.

就在上週，我們宣布任命新聞資深人士 Adrienne Roark 為我們的新首席內容長。Adrienne 擁有敏銳的編輯和營運專業知識、在電視和數位領域快速創新的歷史以及與我們團隊完美契合的高強度、高速度的領導能力。我們非常高興她下個月能加入團隊。

Number two, we're improving execution through resource sharing. One example of the opportunities we see here, we recently consolidated marketing operations across our stations into a centralized team. This structure enables us to leverage cutting-edge marketing technologies and best practices to execute more active campaigns for our stations and for our advertisers. This move is contributing to the $90 million to $100 million savings target that Julie will outline further in her comments.

第二，我們透過資源共享來提高執行力。我們在這裡看到的機會的一個例子是，我們最近將各個電台的營銷業務整合到一個集中的團隊中。這種結構使我們能夠利用尖端的營銷技術和最佳實踐為我們的電台和廣告商開展更積極的活動。此舉將有助於實現 9,000 萬至 1 億美元的節省目標，朱莉將在她的評論中進一步闡述。

Number three, we're deploying technology to run better stations. We spent this quarter designing from the studs up the TV station of the future using modern cloud-based technology, AI automation, virtual sets, and more. We will be piloting this in two markets in the coming quarters. And our expectation is that it will increase capabilities and operational savings across our station portfolio.

第三，我們正在運用科技來更好地運作車站。我們花了整個季度的時間，從各個方面設計未來的電視台，使用現代基於雲端的技術、人工智慧自動化、虛擬場景等。我們將在未來幾季在兩個市場試行此項政策。我們的期望是它將提高我們整個站點組合的能力並節省營運成本。

Number four, winning in digital. We see a sizable revenue opportunity in engaging a large audience we already reached through digital channels. To that end, we have shipped or in the process of shipping three pilots designed to test new engagement driving features for our local users. More important than the launches themselves, we're bringing an entrepreneurial tech startup mindset and user driven development of new features and products to the company. It's a necessary first step in winning in digital while staying lean.

第四，數位化取勝。我們看到，透過數位管道吸引大量受眾可以帶來巨大的收入機會。為此，我們已經發貨或正在發貨三個試點項目，旨在為我們的本地用戶測試新的參與駕駛功能。比產品發布本身更重要的是，我們為公司帶來了創業型科技創業思維以及用戶驅動的新功能和新產品的開發。這是在保持精簡的同時贏得數位勝利的必要的第一步。

Finally, number five, scrutinizing every dollar we spend. We are zero basing costs and questioning every expense. Just one example, our current office space in Tysons Corner is larger and nicer than we need to get the job done. So we're exiting the building at the earliest opportunity, and we'll be moving to a more cost-effective space. In addition, Julie and I are personally reviewing every vendor contract across the company, reducing the number of consultants, ensuring every dollar we spend is aligned with our strategic priorities.

最後，第五點，仔細審查我們花的每一美元。我們以零為基礎成本，並質疑每一筆開支。舉一個例子，我們目前在泰森斯角的辦公空間比我們完成工作所需的更大、更漂亮。因此，我們將儘早搬出建築，並搬到更具成本效益的空間。此外，朱莉和我親自審查公司內的每一份供應商合同，減少顧問的數量，確保我們花費的每一美元都符合我們的戰略重點。

Our mission is to build a sustainable future for local news, and we're taking the necessary steps to ensure that TEGNA thrives in this rapidly evolving industry. Now I want to spend just a moment on the regulatory environment and the opportunities it potentially creates for TEGNA. The regulatory landscape under new FCC leadership is evolving and talk of M&A has increased since the presidential election and inauguration. Time will tell if deregulation occurs to the extent most are forecasting, but here's what we know.

我們的使命是為本地新聞打造可持續發展的未來，我們正在採取必要措施確保 TEGNA 在這個快速發展的行業中蓬勃發展。現在我想花一點時間談談監管環境以及它可能為 TEGNA 創造的機會。在新一屆聯邦通訊委員會領導下，監管格局正在發生變化，自總統大選和就職以來，有關併購的討論日益增多。時間將告訴我們放鬆管制是否會像大多數人預測的那樣發生，但以下是我們所知道的。

We know local broadcast is critical to our communities, that the current regulatory rules are antiquated, our consumers have infinite options and advertisers can reach audiences online, on air, on streaming, on cable, on social media, in print, billboards and so on.

我們知道地方廣播對我們的社區至關重要，當前的監管規則已經過時，我們的消費者擁有無限的選擇，廣告商可以透過網路、廣播、串流媒體、有線電視、社交媒體、印刷品、廣告看板等方式接觸觀眾。

We are up against enormous unregulated tech companies like Meta and Google, leaving an uneven playing field for broadcasters. And to compete, we need the ability to get bigger and stronger. I think we at TEGNA are best positioned for any outcome, with a strong balance sheet affording us optionality towards the best opportunities for value creation. If the right opportunity presents itself, we will be part of the discussion. Our job is to be efficient allocators of capital, and we will continue to make disciplined capital deployment decisions that prioritize long-term value creation.

我們面臨著 Meta 和 Google 等大型不受監管的科技公司的競爭，這給廣播公司帶來了不公平的競爭環境。為了競爭，我們需要變得更強大。我認為 TEGNA 已做好應對任何結果的最佳準備，強大的資產負債表讓我們能夠選擇最佳的價值創造機會。如果有合適的機會，我們將參與討論。我們的工作是有效率地配置資本，我們將繼續做出嚴謹的資本配置決策，優先考慮長期價值創造。

Finally, I want to take a moment, and I want to congratulate KXTV in Sacramento for receiving the prestigious 2025 Alfred duPont Columbia University Award, honoring excellence in journalism for their investigation into questionable practices in the Sacramento School system. Congratulations to Investigative Reporter, Andie Judson; Producer, Sabrina Sanchez; Mike Bunnell, Executive Producer; Gonzalo Magaña; and along with photojournalists, Tyler Horst, Vanessa Bozzuto, Rachel Boyoung Kim and Xavier Uriarte.

最後，我想花點時間祝賀薩克拉門託的 KXTV 獲得享有盛譽的 2025 年阿爾弗雷德杜邦哥倫比亞大學獎，以表彰其對薩克拉門託學校系統可疑行為的調查中在新聞報道方面的卓越表現。恭喜調查記者安迪賈德森 (Andie Judson)；製片人，薩布麗娜桑切斯 (Sabrina Sanchez)；執行製片人 Mike Bunnell；貢薩洛馬加尼亞；以及攝影記者 Tyler Horst、Vanessa Bozzuto、Rachel Boyoung Kim 和 Xavier Uriarte。

What we do here matters, makes our communities better, holds people in power accountable, it changes laws, and it saves lives. In closing, the key focus areas I outlined in some of the early efforts are a complete transformation of how we operate as a company. There's an opportunity in us executing better and more efficiently, elevating our news products and capturing our content's full value across all our platforms.

我們在這裡所做的事情意義重大，它使我們的社區變得更好，使當權者承擔責任，改變法律，並拯救生命。最後，我在一些早期努力中概述的重點領域是我們作為一家公司的運作方式的徹底轉變。我們有機會更好、更有效地執行，提升我們的新聞產品並在所有平台上捕捉我們內容的全部價值。

We are leaning on our strong stations and brands in the content and distribution ecosystem and are laser-focused on growing digital revenue and activating technology to reduce costs across TEGNA. This is going to be a big year. I appreciate the hard work of the team, and I'm pleased that we have such strong assets that delivered solid 2024 results.

我們依靠內容和分銷生態系統中強大的電台和品牌，並專注於增加數位收入和激活技術以降低 TEGNA 的成本。這將是重要的一年。我感謝團隊的辛勤工作，我很高興我們擁有如此強大的資產，能夠在 2024 年取得穩健的表現。

I'll now hand it over to Julie to provide a more detailed look at our financial results.

現在我將把報告交給朱莉，讓她更詳細地介紹我們的財務結果。

Thanks, Mike. We are pleased to report that our fourth quarter and full year results aligned with our guidance, reflecting TEGNA's solid foundation and market leadership with a strong portfolio of stations. Mike's leadership continues to bring fresh perspective and urgency to our execution, energizing our team with a clear focus on accelerating performance.

謝謝，麥克。我們很高興地報告，我們的第四季度和全年業績與我們的預期一致，反映了 TEGNA 堅實的基礎和強大的站點組合所帶來的市場領導地位。麥克的領導力不斷為我們的執行帶來新的視角和緊迫感，激勵我們的團隊明確專注於提高績效。

I'll begin today by covering TEGNA's financial results and capital allocation execution for both the fourth quarter and full year 2024, then provide an update on our business operational initiatives before closing with a review of our guidance. My comments today will primarily focus on TEGNA's performance on a consolidated non-GAAP basis to provide you with visibility into the financial drivers of our business trends and operational results. You can find all of our reported data and prior period comparatives in our press release.

今天，我將首先介紹 TEGNA 2024 年第四季和全年的財務表現和資本配置執行情況，然後介紹我們的業務營運計劃的最新情況，最後回顧我們的指導方針。我今天的評論將主要集中在 TEGNA 的合併非 GAAP 表現上，以便讓您了解我們業務趨勢和營運績效的財務驅動因素。您可以在我們的新聞稿中找到我們報告的所有數據和前期比較數據。

Total company revenue for fourth quarter increased 20% year-over-year to $871 million, in line with our outlook of 19% to 21% growth. This performance was primarily driven by political advertising revenue and what proved to be another strong election cycle across the third and fourth quarters. For the full year, total company revenue grew 7% to $3.1 billion, resulting in $931 million of adjusted EBITDA, reflecting the strength of our high-quality broadcast assets in key markets and successful execution.

第四季公司總營收年增 20% 至 8.71 億美元，符合我們預測的 19% 至 21% 的成長。這項業績主要得益於政治廣告收入以及第三季和第四季又一個強勁的選舉週期。全年公司總收入成長 7% 至 31 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 達到 9.31 億美元，反映了我們在主要市場的優質廣播資產的實力和成功的執行。

The fourth quarter capped off a strong year for political advertising as we generated $373 million for full year 2024. As mentioned last quarter, this year's performance nearly matched our 2020 results, excluding the Georgia Senate runoff despite having fewer competitive Senate and House races. This underscores the durability of political advertising on broadcast and the strategic value of our footprint in key battleground states.

第四季為政治廣告的強勁成長畫上了圓滿的句號，2024 年全年我們的廣告收入為 3.73 億美元。正如上個季度所提到的，儘管參議院和眾議院的競爭較少，但今年的表現幾乎與 2020 年的結果持平（不包括喬治亞州參議院決選）。這凸顯了廣播政治廣告的持久性以及我們在關鍵戰場州的足跡的戰略價值。

Advertising and marketing services revenue, or AMS, faced expected pressure in the fourth quarter due to political displacement and continued softness from national accounts, finishing 11% below last year. Due to our focused efforts, we are encouraged by our digital advertising performance with digital revenue growing year-over-year. Performance from TEGNA's owned and operated suite of digital products more than offset a slight decline in Premion revenue, which continues to see softness from national advertising.

由於政治動盪和國家經濟持續疲軟，廣告和行銷服務收入（AMS）在第四季面臨預期的壓力，年減 11%。由於我們專注的努力，我們的數位廣告業績令人鼓舞，數位收入逐年增長。TEGNA 擁有和經營的數位產品套件的表現足以抵消 Premion 收入的輕微下滑，而 Premion 收入則繼續因全國廣告而疲軟。

As Mike highlighted, we are capitalizing on our digital product portfolio consisting of web solutions, mobile and streaming apps as well as local CTV advertising, all of which are slated to be key growth drivers of our digital advertising revenue for the foreseeable future. We are laser-focused on areas we can drive results, and our digital businesses are a prime example. The momentum we saw in the fourth quarter across our digital suite of products demonstrates the early success of that strategy.

正如麥克所強調的，我們正在利用我們的數位產品組合，包括網路解決方案、行動和串流應用程式以及本地 CTV 廣告，所有這些都將成為我們可預見的未來數位廣告收入的主要成長動力。我們專注於能夠帶來成果的領域，我們的數位業務就是一個很好的例子。我們在第四季度看到的數位產品套件的發展勢頭證明了該策略的早期成功。

Turning to subscription revenue. We successfully completed renewals for approximately 20% of our traditional MVPD subscribers at the end of 2024. Fourth quarter subscription revenue was $357 million, up 5% year-over-year. This increase was driven by three factors: MVPD contract renewals during the quarter; contractual rate increases and a favorable comparison to a disruption of service with a distributor in the prior year, partially offset by subscriber declines.

轉向訂閱收入。截至 2024 年底，我們成功為約 20% 的傳統 MVPD 用戶完成了續約。第四季訂閱營收為 3.57 億美元，年增 5%。這一成長由三個因素推動：本季 MVPD 合約續約；合約費率增加，與上一年分銷商的服務中斷相比，這是一個有利的因素，但部分被用戶減少所抵消。

For the full year, subscription revenue totaled $1.5 billion. Looking ahead, we have approximately 45% of our traditional subscribers up for renewal in 2025, providing us with additional opportunities to capture appropriate value for our content.

全年訂閱收入總計15億美元。展望未來，我們約有 45% 的傳統訂閱用戶將於 2025 年續訂，這為我們提供了更多機會來獲取內容的適當價值。

Moving to our core operational cost-cutting initiatives, we continue to drive significant improvements to our cost structure and are on track to hit our goal. As Mike referenced earlier, examples of resource sharing like centralized marketing, deploying technology to run our stations better and scrutinizing every dollar we spend by zero basing cost of our core operations allows us to streamline processes while maintaining our high standards of execution. We believe this provides a clearer picture of our efficiency efforts while we continue to make strategic investments in areas that strengthen our market position.

轉向我們的核心營運成本削減舉措，我們繼續推動成本結構的重大改善，並有望實現我們的目標。正如麥克之前提到的，資源共享的例子包括集中行銷、部署技術以更好地運營我們的電台以及透過核心運營的零基準成本審查我們花費的每一美元，這使我們能夠簡化流程，同時保持高執行標準。我們相信，這可以更清楚地展現我們的效率努力，同時我們將繼續在加強市場地位的領域進行策略性投資。

We achieved approximately $50 million in annualized savings by the end of the year of 2024. This represents roughly 50% of our goal to generate $90 million to $100 million in core nonprogramming annualized savings as we exit 2025. Fourth quarter expenses finished 2% higher than last year, driven by programming expenses, which include local sports rights. All other expenses finished 3% below last year, continuing the sequential improvement of our structural cost reduction efforts.

到 2024 年底，我們實現了每年約 5,000 萬美元的節省。這大約占我們到 2025 年底實現 9,000 萬至 1 億美元核心非程式設計年度化節省目標的 50%。第四季的支出比去年同期成長了 2%，這主要得益於包括當地體育賽事轉播權在內的節目製作費用。所有其他支出都比去年同期下降了 3%，這延續了我們結構性成本削減措施的連續改善。

Turning to capital allocation. A year ago, we committed to returning 40% to 60% of adjusted free cash flow to shareholders over the '24, '25 two-year period. We are on track to deliver this commitment. In 2024, we returned capital with our target range returning $356 million to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $693 million at year-end, and our net leverage finished at 2.7 times, comfortably below our 3 times annual guidance.

轉向資本配置。一年前，我們承諾在 2024 年和 2025 年兩年期間向股東返還 40% 至 60% 的調整後自由現金流。我們正在按計劃履行這項承諾。2024 年，我們透過股利和股票回購等方式向股東返還了 3.56 億美元的資本，目標是實現這一目標。截至年底，現金和現金等價物總額為 6.93 億美元，淨槓桿率為 2.7 倍，遠低於我們 3 倍的年度指引值。

Our commitment remains steadfast in strategically allocating capital with efficiency and discipline, always prioritizing long-term value creation. With an industry-leading balance sheet and consistent free cash flow, we are best positioned as we look forward. We maintain significant financial flexibility with a robust cash position and modest leverage to navigate the evolving market landscape with confidence.

我們的承諾始終堅定不移，高效、嚴謹地策略性地分配資本，始終優先考慮長期價值創造。憑藉著業界領先的資產負債表和穩定的自由現金流，我們處於最佳的未來地位。我們擁有強大的現金狀況和適度的槓桿，保持了極大的財務靈活性，從而能夠自信地應對不斷變化的市場格局。

Now let's turn to our financial guidance elements. As we noted in our press release this morning, we are reaffirming our combined '24, '25 adjusted free cash flow guidance of $900 million to $1.1 billion. Please refer to our press release to see other full year 2025 guidance elements such as corporate expenses, depreciation, amortization, interest, capital expenditures and effective tax rate.

現在讓我們來談談財務指導要素。正如我們在今天早上的新聞稿中指出的那樣，我們重申 24 和 25 年合併調整後的自由現金流指引為 9 億至 11 億美元。請參閱我們的新聞稿，以了解其他 2025 年全年指引要素，例如公司費用、折舊、攤提、利息、資本支出和有效稅率。

Regarding first quarter of 2025, we expect total company revenue to be down in the 4% to 7% range year-over-year primarily reflecting lower political revenue consistent with cyclical odd to even year comparison. And we expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be flat to up slightly compared to Q1 of 2024, driven by higher programming expenses, offset by the core operational cost reductions previously discussed.

關於 2025 年第一季度，我們預計公司總營收將年減 4% 至 7%，這主要反映了與週期性奇數年和偶數年比較一致的政治收入下降。我們預計非 GAAP 營運費用將與 2024 年第一季相比持平或略有上升，這主要是由於編程費用增加，但被之前討論過的核心營運成本削減所抵消。

In closing, our fourth quarter and full year results demonstrate the strength of TEGNA's market position and our solid foundation that we are strengthening through the work Mike outlined in his remarks. We maintain a healthy balance sheet that provides financial flexibility, and we believe our financial strength provides us a distinct competitive advantage as industry dynamics continue to unfold. We remain focused on disciplined execution, capturing organizational and operational synergies and strategically allocating capital to drive long-term shareholder value.

最後，我們的第四季和全年業績證明了 TEGNA 的市場地位和堅實的基礎，我們正在透過 Mike 在演講中概述的工作來加強這一基礎。我們保持著健康的資產負債表，這為我們提供了財務靈活性，我們相信，隨著行業動態的不斷發展，我們的財務實力將為我們帶來獨特的競爭優勢。我們仍然專注於嚴格的執行，抓住組織和營運的協同效應，並策略性地分配資本以推動長期股東價值。

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

接線員，請打開熱線來回答問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Steven Cahall, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的史蒂文·卡霍爾 (Steven Cahall)。

Thank you. Maybe first, Mike, TEGNA was a seller not too long ago. There's a lot happening as you talked about with potential deregulation and the M&A opportunities that, that presents. Also, your retrans has continued to move up since then. So how should we think about TEGNA in terms of more likely being a buyer or more likely being a seller over the next few years on deregulation?

謝謝。也許首先，麥克，TEGNA 不久前還是一名賣家。正如您所說，潛在的放鬆管制以及由此帶來的併購機會正在發生很多變化。此外，自那時起，您的重新翻譯就一直在持續上升。那麼，在未來幾年放鬆管制的情況下，我們應該如何看待 TEGNA 更有可能成為買家還是更有可能成為賣家？

And then, Julie, I was wondering if you could just touch a little more on the Q1 expense guide, you mentioned programming was one of the reasons that non-GAAP OpEx has guided to flat to up. As I recall historically, you've had a lot more variable reverse compensation. And so it doesn't tend to have as much upward pressure as some of your peers. So I was wondering if you could just speak to some of the dynamics of expenses and whether or not those flatten out as we get through the year. Thank you.

然後，朱莉，我想知道您是否可以再多談談第一季的費用指南，您提到程式設計是非 GAAP 營運支出從持平到上升的原因之一。我記得歷史上，你們有過更多可變的反向補償。因此，它不像其他一些國家那樣面臨那麼大的上行壓力。所以我想知道您是否可以談談一些費用的動態，以及這些費用是否會隨著一年的過去而趨於平穩。謝謝。

Thanks, Steve. We are disciplined capital allocators, it's our job to create value for our shareholders. I can't tell you more about deals until we know deals and prices, right, which is going to create the most value for our shareholders. We know that we have really attractive assets in great markets, great teams and a terrific financial profile, and we know that we've got a -- we have a great balance sheet. It gives us a lot of optionality.

謝謝，史蒂夫。我們是嚴謹的資本配置者，我們的職責是為股東創造價值。在我們了解交易和價格之前，我無法告訴你更多有關交易的信息，對吧，這將為我們的股東創造最大的價值。我們知道，我們在偉大的市場中擁有真正有吸引力的資產、優秀的團隊和極好的財務狀況，而且我們知道我們擁有——我們擁有一份出色的資產負債表。它給我們提供了很多選擇。

What I'm excited about for us and for the industry is that if this much overdue deregulation comes through, the value unlock through synergies for the industry broadly is really substantial. And so as you guys are, I'm looking forward to getting more clarity there, and I think we'll see a lot of exciting things happen.

對於我們和整個產業來說，我感到興奮的是，如果這種遲來的放鬆管制政策得以實施，那麼透過協同效應為整個產業釋放的價值將非常巨大。因此，和你們一樣，我期待著獲得更清晰的認識，我認為我們會看到很多令人興奮的事情發生。

And on the expense side, Steven, what you've seen in the pattern of our expenses is in 2024, the expenses had been very controlled to your point, including programming with the shift of reverse comp. What has happened in fourth quarter, when you saw our actual expenses being up 2%, programming was up 7%, and that is driven by sports rights. So you'll recall that we announced NBA and NHL deals in the third quarter of last year. So those expenses you're going to continue to see in Q4 and Q1 through those seasons.

在支出方面，史蒂文，您從我們的支出模式中看到，到 2024 年，支出將得到很好的控制，包括採用逆向補償轉變的程式設計。第四季發生了什麼，你會看到我們的實際支出增加了 2%，節目製作增加了 7%，這是由體育版權推動的。您會記得我們在去年第三季宣布了 NBA 和 NHL 的交易。因此，您將在第四季度和第一季繼續看到這些費用。

If you exclude the programming expenses, those core operational reductions that we've been focused on is seeing sequential improvement each quarter, where fourth quarter was down minus 3%. So looking at Q1, you would expect similar trends, again, sequential improvement for that nonprogramming, but programming is going to be similar in Q1 than you saw in Q4 because of the investments we're making in programming with sports rights. That will not continue throughout the year. Once we lap into the latter half, second, third and fourth quarter, you will not see those increases in programming.

如果不計入編程費用，我們關注的核心營運削減每個季度都會出現連續改善，其中第四季度下降了 3%。因此，從第一季來看，你會預期到類似的趨勢，非節目製作方面會再次出現連續的改善，但由於我們在體育版權節目製作方面進行的投資，第一季的節目製作情況將與第四季度類似。這種情況不會持續一整年。一旦我們進入後半段、第二、第三和第四季度，你就不會再看到程式設計的成長了。

Thank you. Maybe just a quick follow-up, Julie, do you expect those sports rights to be breakeven or profitable for the year? Or are they a bit of a loss leader early on?

謝謝。也許只是一個快速的後續問題，朱莉，您是否預計這些體育版權今年能夠實現收支平衡或盈利？還是他們一開始就有點虧本銷售？

Yes. The sports rights are profitable. We are very disciplined in looking at all of those opportunities, which we love having the sports rights from an audience engagement perspective, so they add value, but they are profitable for the year.

是的。體育賽事版權利潤豐厚。我們非常謹慎地看待所有這些機會，從觀眾參與的角度來看，我們喜歡擁有體育轉播權，因此它們不僅增加了價值，而且還能為當年帶來利潤。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Craig Huber, Huber Research Partners.

Craig Huber，Huber 研究夥伴。

Great, thank you. I got a few questions. Maybe I'll just do them one at a time to make it easier for you. Can you just talk a little bit further about how first quarter core advertising at your TV stations is pacing, I guess, with and without Premion, I'd love to hear that first, please. Thank you.

太好了，謝謝。我有幾個問題。也許我會一次做一件事，讓你更輕鬆。您能否進一步談談貴電視台第一季核心廣告的進展情況，無論有沒有 Premion，我都想先聽聽這個問題。謝謝。

So Craig, first quarter, our AMS started sluggish and has improved throughout the quarter. We are seeing pacings in first quarter down low single digits. There is one caveat to call out that is substantial to our portfolio is the change in the Super Bowl programming, where last year, it was on CBS, which is a much larger piece of our portfolio versus Fox, which is our smallest portfolio. That is a delta, which I have sized in the past of approximately $10 million. If you adjust for Super Bowl, our advertising and marketing services is up slightly on a year-over-year basis.

所以 Craig，第一季度，我們的 AMS 開始表現低迷，但整個季度都有所改善。我們看到第一季的步調下降了個位數。需要指出的是，對我們的作品集來說，超級盃節目的改變非常重要。去年，超級盃在哥倫比亞廣播公司 (CBS) 播出，而福斯 (Fox) 在我們的投資組合中所佔比例要大得多，而福斯是我們投資組合中最小的份額。這是一個增量，我過去曾估計過大約 1000 萬美元。如果根據超級盃進行調整，我們的廣告和行銷服務年比會略有成長。

Great. Thanks for that. And then can you just talk about the auto category, how that's trending in the first quarter and maybe how it trended in the fourth quarter post the election?

偉大的。謝謝。然後您能否談談汽車類別，其在第一季的趨勢如何，以及選舉後在第四季度的趨勢如何？

Yeah. So automotive continues to be challenged, Craig. It did sequentially improve throughout fourth quarter with the political displacement being more substantial in October, November, but the turn to January was equally as soft. But that, too, has improved. So we've seen a little bit of improvement, but auto is challenged. And it is challenged mostly in Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier 3 has held up a little bit better, but it is down across the board.

是的。因此，汽車產業繼續面臨挑戰，克雷格。第四季確實有所改善，10 月和 11 月的政治變動更為顯著，但 1 月的情況同樣疲軟。但這一點也已經改善了。因此，我們看到了一些進步，但汽車仍然面臨挑戰。它主要在第 1 層和第 2 層受到挑戰。第 3 層的情況稍好一些，但總體而言都在下降。

Okay. I appreciate that. And then can you just specify a little bit further about the 45% of your retrans subs up for renewal in 2025 to help with modeling. How does that sort of -- is there some heavy concentrations at various parts of the year? How would you categorize that, please?

好的。我很感激。然後，您能否進一步詳細說明 2025 年需要續簽的 45% 的再交易訂閱情況，以幫助建模。這是怎麼回事——一年中不同時間是否存在一些較高的濃度？請問您如何對其進行分類？

Yeah. The vast majority of them are up at the end of the year, Craig. There is one that is up during the year, but we do not give into specific expiration dates across our deals.

是的。克雷格，其中絕大多數都是在年底上漲的。其中一個是一年內到期的，但我們不會在所有交易中給出具體的到期日期。

Okay. My last question, I promise, is ongoing debate with investors out there about the FCC. Who has the final say here on TV station ownership rules here. Are you waiting just on the FCC? Or do you think Congress needs to weigh in here potentially changing the 39% ownership cap, what you and your legal folks think on that front?

好的。我保證，我的最後一個問題是與投資者就聯邦通信委員會 (FCC) 進行的持續辯論。誰對這裡的電視台所有權規則擁有最終決定權。您只在等待 FCC 嗎？或者您認為國會需要權衡可能改變 39% 的所有權上限，您和您的法律人員對此有何看法？

I think there's real -- there's clarity that FCC has full authority over in-market deregulation. There's not clarity as to whether or not the FCC has the authority on the national cap. Do remember, though, that there's the UHF discount in there, which sits with the FCC today already. And there is room for a lot of broadcasters under the current rules and the current national cap without congressional action. So, paid market, the FCC can make the moves. For the national cap, there are different opinions.

我認為，FCC 對市場放鬆管制擁有充分的權力，這一點是毋庸置疑的。目前尚不清楚聯邦通訊委員會是否擁有製定全國上限的權力。但請記住，其中有 UHF 折扣，今天已經交給 FCC 了。而且，在現行規則和國家上限下，即使國會不採取行動，許多廣播公司仍有發展空間。因此，在付費市場，FCC 可以採取行動。對於國家上限，眾說紛紜。

Okay, great. Thanks both of you.

好的，太好了。謝謝你們兩位。

Patrick Sholl, Barrington Research.

巴林頓研究公司的 Patrick Sholl。

Hi. I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more detail on Premion. I'm sorry if I misheard. I think you said like continued national weakness. So I was just wondering what some of the challenges within that one are?

你好。我想知道您是否可以提供一些有關 Premion 的更多詳細資訊。如果我聽錯了，我很抱歉。我想你說的是國家持續衰弱。所以我只是想知道其中有哪些挑戰？

I'll take that one to start with, and then Mike can add if necessary. What Premion is continues to be a very strong local tool for us to go to market with CTV advertising. It is well regarded and on the local side of the equation has continued to grow double digits throughout all of calendar year 2024 and did so again in fourth quarter. The challenges that we've seen on the national side is just a change from some large national holding companies changing their position to different CTV, more programmatic, which is not the competitive advantage that Premion brings to the table.

我先從這個開始，然後 Mike 可以根據需要進行添加。Premion 繼續成為我們利用 CTV 廣告進入市場的非常強大的本地工具。它備受推崇，在當地，其在 2024 年全年都保持著兩位數的增長，並在第四季度再次實現了兩位數的增長。我們在全國範圍內看到的挑戰只是一些大型全國控股公司將其定位轉向不同的 CTV、更程序化的變化，這不是 Premion 帶來的競爭優勢。

So in general, Premion grows for TEGNA. CTV continues to grow for TEGNA. When you exclude political, it is roughly a flattish business for us, and that has been the case that we've seen in the last year, and we anticipate that going forward, that local will continue to grow, but national is more of the challenge therefore a flattish to up slightly going forward.

所以總的來說，Premion 是為 TEGNA 發展的。TEGNA 的 CTV 持續成長。如果排除政治因素，我們的業務大致持平，去年的情況也是如此，我們預計未來地方業務將繼續成長，但全國業務更具挑戰性，因此未來業務將持平或略有上升。

Yeah. And I would just note, when you talk to the local advertisers and you talk to our local sales teams, they love the product. It gives them the ability to reach audiences beyond the cable, satellite and broadcast ecosystem. It gives them advanced targeting capabilities, which really comes into play for almost all of our categories. And it's something that we're leaning into at the stations, both in terms of sort of top-level support for the product but also the incentive structure for the sales teams.

是的。我想指出的是，當你與當地廣告商和我們當地的銷售團隊交談時，他們很喜歡這個產品。這使他們能夠接觸有線、衛星和廣播生態系統以外的受眾。它為他們提供了先進的定位能力，這對我們幾乎所有的類別都起到了作用。這是我們車站所傾向的一點，既包括對產品的高層支持，也包括對銷售團隊的激勵機制。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

[Marlane Pereiro] Bank of America.

[Marlane Pereiro] 美國銀行。

Good morning and thank you for taking question. Curious when you -- how and when you would expect to address the '26 bond? Is that something you'd still consider kind of paying down with cash or cash from operations? Or are you looking to maybe maintain some cash for potential M&A or some other opportunity that might present itself?

早上好，感謝您回答問題。好奇您何時以及如何解決 26 債券問題？您是否仍會考慮用現金或經營活動現金來償還？或者您希望保留一些現金用於潛在的併購或其他可能出現的機會？

Yeah. Marlane, thanks for the question. First, when we announced last year our capital allocation framework, there was an element in there where we have a strong balance sheet and growing cash balances that we would use a portion of that for debt preparedness, knowing that the 2026 were coming up. In the current state that we see today, we're still committed to return a portion of our free cash flow between the range of 40% to 60% to shareholders, and that's not changing.

是的。Marlane，謝謝你的提問。首先，當我們去年宣布我們的資本配置框架時，其中有一個要素，即我們擁有強大的資產負債表和不斷增長的現金餘額，我們將使用其中的一部分來應對債務準備，因為我們知道 2026 年即將到來。在目前的情況下，我們仍然致力於將 40% 到 60% 之間的自由現金流返還給股東，這一點不會改變。

We are optimistic about the strategic growth opportunities of the marketplace in front of us today. And if those opportunities are compelling for shareholders, then we definitely want to be a part of those conversations. And we have the cash to pay off those 2026 bonds at any given time. And we are looking at all of those pieces together collectively to have the best disciplined capital deployment that we have.

我們對當今市場面臨的策略性成長機會持樂觀態度。如果這些機會對股東來說具有吸引力，那麼我們肯定希望參與這些對話。而且我們隨時都有現金償還 2026 年債券。我們正在綜合考慮所有這些因素，以實現最佳的、有紀律的資本配置。

And it's hard to predict interest rates a year from now right now. So as we have more data and we see how the landscape evolves, both on the interest rate front, but also on the strategic front, if you would, will -- we have a lot of options.

現在很難預測一年後的利率。因此，隨著我們獲得更多數據並了解情況如何演變，無論是在利率方面，還是在策略方面，如果你願意的話——我們有很多選擇。

Great. That's all I have, thank you.

偉大的。這就是我所知道的一切，謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Dan Kurnos, The Benchmark Company.

Dan Kurnos，基準公司。

Yeah. Thanks. Good morning. Mike, intrigued by some of the comments around the evolution of the TV station. Obviously, people don't think of TV stations as evolving. But you bring your renewed focus on some of these ideas. I would say core has probably lagged in general. I wonder how much of what you're doing is from an expense perspective?

是的。謝謝。早安.麥克對電視台發展的一些評論很感興趣。顯然，人們並不認為電視台正在不斷發展。但你重新關注了其中的一些想法。我想說核心可能總體上已經落後了。我想知道您所做的工作有多少是從費用角度考慮的？

Or how much is to kind of reinvigorate core and there's a lot of targeted ROI stuff you talked about internally, but it feels like there's an opportunity to kind of reinvigorate the top line there, understanding you cannot control what the national market does.

或者說需要花多少錢來重振核心業務，你們在內部討論了很多有針對性的投資回報率問題，但感覺這是一個重振營收的機會，要知道你無法控制全國市場的表現。

Sure. When we talk about the sort of strategic pillars that the team is focused on right now, the two I'll lean on in this conversation. First, there are significant synergies across the organization that we haven't fully untapped as a company that is the consequence of a roll-up of different station groups. We see TV stations operating differently across the footprint, using different technology, different equipment at the stations. And as you do the Six Sigma end-to-end review on how people are spending their time, we see a lot of time being spent on activities that can be automated, that can be fixed with technology.

當然。當我們談論團隊目前關注的策略支柱時，我將在本次對話中依賴這兩個支柱。首先，由於不同電台組合併，整個組織內部存在著顯著的協同效應，但作為一家公司，我們尚未完全發展這種效應。我們發現，各地電視台的運作方式不同，使用不同的技術、不同的設備。當我們對人們如何度過時間進行六西格瑪端到端審查時，我們發現大量時間被花在了可以自動化、可以透過科技解決的活動上。

The second component of that, Dan is you free up resources in the organization and freeing up resources in the organization does one of two things for us. One, it either allows us to lean into in the case of sales. If I've automated a bunch of back-office tasks that were affecting our account execs, they can just see more clients and seeing more clients means more dollars at the end of the day. Or in the case of a reporter, if I freed up time for a reporter, she or he can spend -- can bang out an 8-hour story in 6 hours and then have 2 more hours to generate social media content, digital content, et cetera. So that would be a driver of revenue performance.

丹，第二個要素是釋放組織中的資源，而釋放組織中的資源可以為我們帶來兩件事之一。一方面，它讓我們在銷售方面有所依靠。如果我把一些影響我們客戶經理的後台任務自動化，他們就可以看到更多的客戶，而看到更多的客戶意味著最終能賺到更多的錢。或者對於記者來說，如果我為記者騰出時間，他或她可以花 6 個小時寫出 8 個小時的故事，然後再花 2 個小時來創作社交媒體內容、數位內容等等。這將成為收入表現的驅動因素。

On the other hand, if we don't see that freeing up those resources drives more revenue, then we've unlocked costs. And I think it will depend sort of department by department. I touched on in my prepared remarks, we saw this opportunity with marketing, where we had a lot of people doing repetitive tasks across the station footprint. And by centralizing that group, I believe we will ultimately get better product out of the marketing team. But immediately, we saw substantial cost savings that contribute to Julie's $100 million -- $90 million to $100 million cost target.

另一方面，如果我們沒有看到釋放這些資源帶來更多收入，那麼我們就解鎖了成本。我認為這取決於各部門的情況。我在準備好的發言中提到，我們在行銷方面看到了這個機會，我們有很多人在整個網站範圍內做著重複性的任務。透過集中該團隊，我相信我們最終將從行銷團隊中獲得更好的產品。但我們立即看到了顯著的成本節省，這有助於實現朱莉的 1 億美元——9000 萬美元到 1 億美元的成本目標。

Got it. That's super helpful. And then just to double click on Premion for a second. I mean, following CTV super closely, we know all of the major players are starting to shift towards a more open programmatic environment for Premion. I understand local is doing super well and it's national. It's kind of the headwind. But now that you're layering in Octillion and other kind of improvements underlying, is there further evolution for Premion to kind of improve the growth trajectory?

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後只需雙擊 Premion 一秒鐘。我的意思是，透過密切關注 CTV，我們知道所有主要參與者都開始為 Premion 轉向更開放的程式化環境。我知道當地的情況非常好，而且是全國性的。這就像是逆風。但現在，您已經將 Octillion 和其他類型的改進融入其中，Premion 是否會進一步發展以改善成長軌跡？

There are a number of potential growth drivers for Premion. The most important one is getting the sales team expert, motivated and aggressively selling it to our customer base. We have deep relationships with these advertisers in our markets. It's a real advantage. And I talk a lot about how disadvantaged our industry is against giant tech companies. This is one place where we have an edge. We have human beings with relationships with the local car dealer and furniture store and so on.

Premion 有許多潛在的成長動力。最重要的是讓銷售團隊變得專業、積極並積極地向我們的客戶群推銷產品。我們與我們市場上的這些廣告商保持著深厚的關係。這是一個真正的優勢。我經常談論我們的行業相對於大型科技公司而言處於多麼不利的地位。這是我們有優勢的一個地方。我們與當地的汽車經銷商、家具店等都有關係。

And so that team has historically been sort of built around television, and we're making sure that we tool up that team and we incentivize them properly so that they bring the full suite of TEGNA products to our local advertisers. So it's better for the advertiser. And for us, it's better for performance.

因此，該團隊歷來是圍繞電視建立的，我們正在確保為該團隊提供裝備並適當激勵他們，以便他們將全套 TEGNA 產品帶給我們當地的廣告商。所以這對廣告商來說更有利。對我們來說，這對性能更有利。

Got it. Thanks, Mike.

知道了。謝謝，麥克。

Thank you. I am showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Mike Steib for closing remarks.

謝謝。我目前沒有其他問題。現在我想請麥克‧史泰布作最後發言。

Well, thanks, everyone, for your questions and for your interest and support of the company. As you guys know, we've got these key strategic areas that we're really excited about, and I think it's going to be a big year for TEGNA and for the industry.

好的，謝謝大家的提問以及對公司的關注與支持。正如你們所知，我們對這些關鍵策略領域感到非常興奮，我認為對於 TEGNA 和整個產業來說，今年將是重要的一年。

All right. Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

好的。感謝大家參加今天的會議。該計劃確實就此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。