Townsquare Media Inc (TSQ) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. Welcome to Townsquare Media's Fourth Quarter 2022 Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. And your participation implies consent to such recording. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions)

早上好。歡迎來到 Townsquare Media 的 2022 年第四季度電話會議。提醒一下，今天的通話正在錄音中。您的參與意味著同意此類記錄。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。正式介紹後將進行簡短的問答環節。 （操作員說明）

With that, I would like to introduce to you the first speaker for today's call, Claire Yenicay, Executive Vice President.

至此，我想向大家介紹今天電話會議的第一位發言人，執行副總裁克萊爾葉尼凱。

Thank you, operator, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Townsquare's fourth quarter and year-end financial update. With me on the call today are Bill Wilson, our CEO; and Stuart Rosenstein, our CFO and Executive Vice President.

謝謝接線員，大家早上好。感謝您今天加入我們，了解 Townsquare 的第四季度和年終財務更新。今天和我一起打電話的是我們的首席執行官比爾·威爾遜 (Bill Wilson)；和我們的首席財務官兼執行副總裁 Stuart Rosenstein。

Please note that during this call, we may make statements that provide information other than historical information, including statements relating to the company's future expectations, plans and prospects. These statements are considered forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These statements reflect the company's beliefs based on current conditions that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those that are detailed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and 10-K/A filed with the SEC.

請注意，在本次電話會議期間，我們可能會發表提供歷史信息以外信息的聲明，包括與公司未來預期、計劃和前景相關的聲明。根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款，這些陳述被視為前瞻性陳述，並受到可能導致實際結果與這些陳述存在重大差異的風險和不確定性的影響。這些陳述反映了公司基於當前狀況的信念，這些狀況受到某些風險和不確定性的影響，包括公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 和 10-K/A 表格年度報告中詳述的那些。

We may also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted operating income, which we may refer to as profit in our remarks. Such non-GAAP financial measures should be used in conjunction with all the information contained in the quarterly, year-end and current reports available on our website.

我們還可能討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標，包括調整後的 EBITDA、調整後的淨收入和調整後的營業收入，我們在評論中可能將其稱為利潤。此類非 GAAP 財務指標應與我們網站上提供的季度、年末和當前報告中包含的所有信息結合使用。

I would also encourage all participants to go to our corporate website and download our investor presentation, as Bill will reference some of those slides during our discussion this morning.

我還鼓勵所有參與者訪問我們的公司網站並下載我們的投資者介紹，因為比爾將在今天上午的討論中參考其中的一些幻燈片。

In addition, our annual shareholder letter is now available on our website.

此外，我們的年度股東信現在可以在我們的網站上找到。

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Bill Wilson.

在這個時候，我想把電話轉給 Bill Wilson。

Thank you, Claire, and thank you all for joining us this morning.

謝謝你，克萊爾，感謝大家今天早上加入我們。

As I look back on 2022, I am very pleased with our results that our Digital First Local Media strategy delivered despite a progressively challenging economic landscape. We reached new highs and set new records in 2022. However, it wasn't due to a favorable economy or an economic rebound. Starting with the war in the Ukraine, then the dramatic rise in gas prices and inflation, together with the persistent impact of COVID-19, the year grew increasingly turbulent and we entered an environment of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Our success has been the result of the Townsquare team focusing on what we do best, creating high-quality, local original content for our audiences and delivering creative and cost-effective marketing solutions for our local clients with strong return on investment. And it paid off. In 2022, we set new records, reaching all-time high financial metrics and setting new digital audience records as well.

回顧 2022 年，我對我們的數字第一本地媒體戰略在經濟形勢日益嚴峻的情況下取得的成果感到非常滿意。我們在 2022 年創下了新高並創下了新紀錄。但這並不是因為有利的經濟或經濟反彈。從烏克蘭戰爭開始，然後是天然氣價格和通貨膨脹的急劇上漲，再加上 COVID-19 的持續影響，這一年變得越來越動盪，我們進入了一個持續存在宏觀經濟不確定性的環境。我們的成功歸功於 Townsquare 團隊專注於我們最擅長的領域，為我們的觀眾創造高質量的本地原創內容，並為我們的本地客戶提供富有創意且具有成本效益的營銷解決方案，並獲得豐厚的投資回報。它得到了回報。 2022 年，我們創造了新的記錄，達到了歷史最高的財務指標，同時也創造了新的數字觀眾記錄。

In 2022, our net revenue increased plus 11% year-over-year. reaching an all-time high of $463 million. Impressively and importantly, adjusted EBITDA also reached an all-time high of $113.7 million, growing plus 8% year-over-year. Unlike most other media companies in a political year, political ad spend did not drive a majority of our growth. Excluding political revenue, net revenue and adjusted EBITDA increased over the prior year by a solid plus 10% and plus 5%, respectively, and that was largely driven by the strength of our digital offerings.

2022 年，我們的淨收入同比增長 11%。達到 4.63 億美元的歷史新高。令人印象深刻且重要的是，調整後的 EBITDA 也達到了 1.137 億美元的歷史新高，同比增長 8%。與政治年度的大多數其他媒體公司不同，政治廣告支出並未推動我們的大部分增長。不包括政治收入，淨收入和調整後的 EBITDA 比上一年分別增長了 10% 和 5%，這在很大程度上是由我們數字產品的實力推動的。

2022 was a significant inflection point for our company. It marked the first year where radio no longer compromised the majority of our revenue and profit, further separating Townsquare from our local media peers and placing a spotlight on our world-class team and our unique and differentiated strategy, assets, platforms and solutions. As highlighted on Slide 11, with 50% digital revenue, we are 2.5x the industry average. We clearly are no longer a broadcast radio company. Therefore, we do not believe we should continue to be valued as a broadcast radio company as we are today. And we believe that because of our differentiated and unique position as a Digital First Local Media company focused exclusively on markets outside the top 50 cities, we are in a position to weather economic downturns when they occur, better than most, and our record-setting 2022 results demonstrate that.

2022 年是我們公司的一個重要轉折點。它標誌著廣播不再影響我們大部分收入和利潤的第一年，進一步將 Townsquare 與我們當地的媒體同行區分開來，並將焦點放在我們世界一流的團隊以及我們獨特和差異化的戰略、資產、平台和解決方案上。正如幻燈片 11 中強調的那樣，我們擁有 50% 的數字收入，是行業平均水平的 2.5 倍。我們顯然不再是一家廣播電台公司。因此，我們認為我們不應該像今天這樣繼續被視為一家廣播電台公司。我們相信，由於我們作為一家專注於前 50 大城市以外市場的 Digital First Local Media 公司的差異化和獨特地位，我們能夠在經濟衰退發生時比大多數人更好地度過難關，而且我們創下的記錄2022 年的結果證明了這一點。

Approximately 50% of our company's total net revenue and 50% of our total adjusted operating income now come from our digital solutions. Historically, for Townsquare and for the advertising industry at large, digital advertising outperforms other forms of advertising during an economic downturn. For example, following the shutdown of businesses across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Townsquare's digital advertising revenue rebounded quickly, returning to growth by the fourth quarter of 2020. Digital advertising across the United States increased plus 14.3% year-over-year in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, while other forms of traditional advertising, including outdoor, cinema, print, radio and television, declined.

我們公司淨收入總額的大約 50% 和調整後營業收入總額的 50% 現在來自我們的數字解決方案。從歷史上看，對於 Townsquare 和整個廣告行業而言，數字廣告在經濟低迷時期的表現優於其他形式的廣告。例如，在 2020 年因 COVID-19 大流行導致全國各地的企業關閉後，Townsquare 的數字廣告收入迅速反彈，到 2020 年第四季度恢復增長。全美數字廣告同比增長 14.3%-根據標準普爾全球市場情報，2020 年同比增長，而其他形式的傳統廣告，包括戶外、電影、印刷、廣播和電視，則有所下降。

As outlined on Slide 6 of our investor presentation, our digital revenue comes from 2 distinct segments: Townsquare Ignite, our digital advertising solutions, and Townsquare Interactive, our subscription digital marketing solutions. Townsquare Interactive, our subscription digital marketing solutions offering, which is outlined on Slide 13, has been a meaningful growth driver and a key component of our full suite of marketing solutions. In 2022, Townsquare Interactive contributed nearly 20% of our company's total net revenue and adjusted operating income, which is especially relevant in a downturn scenario as it represents a nonadvertising-based recurring revenue stream. In 2022, Townsquare Interactive net revenue increased plus 11% to $90 million and profit increased plus 7% to $26 million. Yet, I do want to make you aware that in 2023, we expect to see more mild performance in this business as we navigate the challenges that are smaller. And as a reminder, as noted on Slide 14, we target clients with less than $5 million in annual revenue that our local customers are currently facing, including high inflation, labor shortages, higher wages, higher interest rates, et cetera.

正如我們投資者介紹的幻燈片 6 所述，我們的數字收入來自兩個不同的部分：Townsquare Ignite，我們的數字廣告解決方案，以及 Townsquare Interactive，我們的訂閱數字營銷解決方案。 Townsquare Interactive 是我們的訂閱數字營銷解決方案產品，在幻燈片 13 中有所概述，它一直是有意義的增長動力，也是我們全套營銷解決方案的關鍵組成部分。 2022 年，Townsquare Interactive 貢獻了我們公司總淨收入和調整後營業收入的近 20%，這在經濟低迷的情況下尤為重要，因為它代表了非廣告類經常性收入流。 2022 年，Townsquare Interactive 淨收入增長 11% 至 9000 萬美元，利潤增長 7% 至 2600 萬美元。然而，我確實想讓你知道，到 2023 年，我們預計在應對較小的挑戰時，該業務的表現會更加溫和。提醒一下，如幻燈片 14 中所述，我們的目標客戶是我們當地客戶目前面臨的年收入低於 500 萬美元的客戶，包括高通脹、勞動力短缺、更高的工資、更高的利率等。

Additionally, we are very pleased to share that this month, we officially opened the second Townsquare Interactive office in Phoenix. We will be expanding our ranks in the Phoenix office. And as I shared previously, we do not expect the Phoenix location to generate a meaningful lift in subscriber and revenue growth until 2024. Over time, we expect the Phoenix location to scale to the size of our Charlotte location, which today houses well over 600 employees. For reference, it took approximately 1 decade to reach that scale in our original Charlotte location. With 30,650 subscribers at the end of 2022, an addressable market of nearly 9 million target customers as outlined on Slide 14, superior product offering and huge market opportunity, I am very confident that Townsquare Interactive is geared for long-term profitable growth and success.

此外，我們很高興地宣布，本月我們在鳳凰城正式開設了第二家 Townsquare Interactive 辦公室。我們將擴大我們在鳳凰城辦公室的隊伍。正如我之前分享的那樣，我們預計鳳凰城站點在 2024 年之前不會對用戶和收入增長產生有意義的提升。隨著時間的推移，我們預計鳳凰城站點將擴展到我們夏洛特站點的規模，如今該站點擁有 600 多個僱員。作為參考，我們最初在夏洛特的位置用了大約 1 年時間才達到這個規模。截至 2022 年底，擁有 30,650 名訂戶，幻燈片 14 中概述的近 900 萬目標客戶的潛在市場，卓越的產品供應和巨大的市場機會，我非常有信心 Townsquare Interactive 能夠實現長期盈利增長和成功。

Our Digital Advertising Solutions segment outlined on Slide 12 grew substantially in 2022, driven by favorable industry dynamics and by our ability to provide a differentiated full suite of in-house digital advertising solutions to our local and regional clients. We provide precision customer targeting solutions to our clients, giving them the ability to reach a high percentage of their online audience across desktop, mobile, connected TV, e-mail, paid search and social media platforms, utilizing display, video and native executions. As a publisher with more than 400 local news and entertainment websites, 390 mobile apps and 10 leading national music and entertainment websites, we also had the unique ability to collect and analyze first-party data leading to detailed and unique insights about consumer behaviors, audience interest and purchase intent. These insights drive real results for our clients and give us a strategic advantage over our local competition.

在有利的行業動態以及我們為本地和區域客戶提供差異化的全套內部數字廣告解決方案的能力的推動下，幻燈片 12 中概述的我們的數字廣告解決方案部分在 2022 年實現了大幅增長。我們為我們的客戶提供精確的客戶定位解決方案，使他們能夠利用顯示、視頻和本地執行，通過桌面、移動、聯網電視、電子郵件、付費搜索和社交媒體平台接觸到大部分在線受眾。作為擁有 400 多個本地新聞和娛樂網站、390 個移動應用程序和 10 個領先的全國性音樂和娛樂網站的出版商，我們還擁有獨特的能力來收集和分析第一方數據，從而對消費者行為、觀眾、興趣和購買意向。這些見解為我們的客戶帶來了真正的結果，並使我們在當地競爭中具有戰略優勢。

In 2022, we set new audience records with more than 70 million monthly unique visitors on average to our portfolio of owned and operated websites, a plus 17% year-over-year increase to our 2021 audience levels. We believe our digital audience growth will continue, further amplifying the attractiveness of our offerings as we fill the expanding void of local information available in our communities due to the dwindling availability of local news sources in small and midsized markets, both online and on air. As a publisher with our own first-party data, our position also defends us from industry turmoil that has emerged from the discussion of eliminating third-party cookies as we do not exclusively rely on third-party data like many of our competitors.

到 2022 年，我們的自有和運營網站組合平均每月有超過 7000 萬獨立訪問者，創造了新的受眾記錄，2021 年的受眾水平同比增長 17%。我們相信我們的數字受眾將繼續增長，進一步擴大我們產品的吸引力，因為我們填補了我們社區中可用的本地信息不斷擴大的空白，這是由於中小型市場在線和廣播的本地新聞來源越來越少。作為擁有我們自己的第一方數據的出版商，我們的立場還可以保護我們免受因消除第三方 cookie 的討論而引發的行業動盪，因為我們並不像許多競爭對手那樣完全依賴第三方數據。

In 2022, Townsquare's digital advertising net revenue was again the fastest-growing segment of our company and increased plus 20% year-over-year to $140 million, and digital advertising profit increased plus 16% year-over-year to $43 million. S&P Global Market Intelligence latest forecast project that digital advertising in the United States will increase at a plus 8.5% CAGR through 2027 as it grows from 65% of all advertising spend in 2022 to nearly 75% of all advertising spend in 2027. We are confident that these favorable industry trends, together with our in-house full suite of marketing solutions, investment in our original content strategy and our first-party data advantage will continue to drive strong digital advertising growth during that same period. To reinforce that point, even with the current challenging macroeconomic conditions, in Q1, our digital advertising is performing very well and pacing up low double digits.

2022 年，Townsquare 的數字廣告淨收入再次成為我們公司增長最快的部分，同比增長 20% 至 1.4 億美元，數字廣告利潤同比增長 16% 至 4300 萬美元。 S&P Global Market Intelligence 最新預測項目顯示，到 2027 年，美國數字廣告的複合年增長率將從 2022 年的 65% 增長到 2027 年的近 75%。我們有信心這些有利的行業趨勢，加上我們內部的全套營銷解決方案、對我們原創內容戰略的投資以及我們的第一方數據優勢，將繼續推動同期數字廣告的強勁增長。為了強調這一點，即使在當前具有挑戰性的宏觀經濟條件下，在第一季度，我們的數字廣告表現非常好，並以低兩位數的速度增長。

I am proud to report that in total, our digital revenue grew a very strong plus 16% year-over-year to $231 million, and importantly, generated $69 million of profit, representing a 30% profit margin, a margin much higher than most local media competitors. We are also reaffirming our expectation that our digital revenue will grow to a minimum of $275 million by 2024. We believe Townsquare's ability to drive profitable, sustainable digital growth is a key differentiator for our company. Digital is and will continue to be our growth engine, and we will continue to aggressively invest in our digital business to fuel further profitable growth.

我很自豪地報告，總的來說，我們的數字收入增長非常強勁，同比增長 16%，達到 2.31 億美元，重要的是，產生了 6900 萬美元的利潤，利潤率為 30%，遠高於大多數公司本地媒體競爭對手。我們還重申我們的預期，即到 2024 年我們的數字收入將增長到至少 2.75 億美元。我們相信 Townsquare 推動盈利、可持續數字增長的能力是我們公司的一個關鍵差異化因素。數字化現在是並將繼續成為我們的增長引擎，我們將繼續積極投資我們的數字業務，以推動進一步的盈利增長。

At 50% of our revenue and profit in 2022, we expect that digital will be the majority of our revenue and profit by year-end 2023. And importantly, our digital profit characteristics are essentially equal to those of our broadcast platform. Digital was the primary reason we were able to recover so quickly from the COVID-19 recession and not only return to 2019 levels, but also quickly surpass those levels as well. And we expect our digital revenue will help to mitigate significant national broadcast negative advertising trends that we faced in 2022 and that have worsened in Q1 and helped to insulate our financial results.

我們預計到 2022 年，數字業務將占我們收入和利潤的 50%，到 2023 年底，數字業務將占我們收入和利潤的大部分。而且重要的是，我們的數字利潤特徵與我們的廣播平台基本相同。數字化是我們能夠如此迅速地從 COVID-19 衰退中復甦的主要原因，不僅回到了 2019 年的水平，而且還迅速超過了這些水平。我們預計我們的數字收入將有助於減輕我們在 2022 年面臨的重大全國廣播負面廣告趨勢，並且該趨勢在第一季度惡化並有助於隔離我們的財務業績。

Our flywheel has gained compounding momentum because of the powerful combination of digital plus radio plus live events and it continues to blaze forward. And yet, we are very aware that our audience does not differentiate between digital and traditional media or website and social. Rather, consumers live in one world and engage with our brands holistically, with no distinction between the over-the-air brand and the website brand, the listening brand, the app brand or engaging with the brand on social platforms. One only needs to look at how consumers and audiences went about their daily lives just 5 years ago as compared to today. Overall, consumers spend less time today consuming traditional media, including television, cable, newspaper, radio, et cetera, and more time consuming digital media, including streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, OTT, Spotify, YouTube or social media like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and other digital platforms from Amazon to Uber Eats. The abundance of consumer choice available today drives home the importance of reinforcing every touch point we have with our audience, creating more touch points as new platforms emerge and having a full suite of marketing solutions to leverage them.

由於數字加廣播加現場活動的強大結合，我們的飛輪獲得了複合動力，並且它繼續向前發展。然而，我們非常清楚，我們的受眾不會區分數字媒體和傳統媒體，也不會區分網站和社交媒體。相反，消費者生活在同一個世界中，從整體上與我們的品牌互動，不區分無線品牌和網站品牌、收聽品牌、應用程序品牌或在社交平台上與品牌互動。只需看看 5 年前消費者和觀眾的日常生活與今天相比如何。總體而言，如今消費者花在傳統媒體上的時間更少，包括電視、有線電視、報紙、廣播等，而花更多時間在數字媒體上，包括流媒體服務，如 Netflix、Disney+、OTT、Spotify、YouTube 或社交媒體，如 Facebook、TikTok 、Instagram 以及從 Amazon 到 Uber Eats 的其他數字平台。當今消費者的豐富選擇讓我們認識到加強我們與受眾的每一個接觸點的重要性，隨著新平台的出現創造更多的接觸點，並擁有一整套營銷解決方案來利用它們。

Before I turn it over to Stu to go over our results in more detail, I would also like to announce that given the performance of our business and our strong free cash flow generation, our Board of Directors has approved a dividend of $0.1875 per share payable on May 1, which equates to $0.75 per share on an annual basis, which today would be a yield of approximately 10%. In our view, the consistent strong free cash flow characteristics of our business, which we believe has not been reflected in our stock price to date can clearly support this dividend. As Stu will detail later, we will be providing what we believe is conservative guidance for this year based on current macro conditions. But even with a conservative outlook, we will still generate strong cash flow that can support this dividend as well as our ability to continue to invest in our digital growth engine as well as potentially repurchase debt in the open market. We are confident with our current capitalization and the strength of our balance sheet with $43 million of cash on hand at year-end, a fixed interest rate of 6.875% and no maturities until 2026 and net leverage of 4.29x at year-end 2022, and we are pleased that we can generate attractive current cash returns for our equity shareholders. And now over to you, Stu.

在我將其轉交給 Stu 詳細介紹我們的業績之前，我還想宣布，鑑於我們的業務表現和強勁的自由現金流產生，我們的董事會已批准支付每股 0.1875 美元的股息5 月 1 日，這相當於每年每股 0.75 美元，今天的收益率約為 10%。我們認為，我們業務一貫強勁的自由現金流特徵（我們認為迄今為止尚未反映在我們的股價中）可以明顯支持這一股息。正如 Stu 稍後將詳述的那樣，我們將根據當前的宏觀條件為今年提供我們認為是保守的指導。但即使前景保守，我們仍將產生強勁的現金流來支持這種股息，以及我們繼續投資數字增長引擎的能力，以及可能在公開市場上回購債務。我們對我們目前的資本總額和資產負債表的實力充滿信心，年底手頭現金為 4300 萬美元，固定利率為 6.875%，2026 年之前沒有到期，2022 年底的淨槓桿率為 4.29 倍，我們很高興能夠為我們的股東創造有吸引力的當前現金回報。現在輪到你了，斯圖。

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. It's great to speak to you today.

謝謝你，比爾，大家早上好。很高興今天能和你說話。

Before turning to our Q4 operating results, let me begin by making a note on our FCC licenses and noncash impairments. As I covered on previous calls, given the way these noncash impairments are determined, we expect the value of our FCC licenses to continue to be written down over time. In 2022, as a result of rising interest rates, the assumptions that we used to evaluate our FCC licenses for impairment were negatively impacted. As a result, we took a noncash impairment charge to our FCC licenses of $10.6 million in the fourth quarter and $26.1 million for the full year. This write-down of decade-old purchase price calculations has no bearing on our cash position, operating revenue, operating expenses, our profitability or our future prospects. They are nothing more than noncash accounting charges affecting only the purchase price allocations made when we bought our radio station assets roughly a decade or more ago. Our noncash impairment charges caused our 2022 net income to decrease by $4.4 million year-over-year to $14.4 million.

在談到我們第四季度的經營業績之前，讓我首先記下我們的 FCC 許可證和非現金減值。正如我在之前的電話會議中所提到的，鑑於確定這些非現金減值的方式，我們預計我們的 FCC 許可證的價值將隨著時間的推移繼續減記。 2022 年，由於利率上升，我們用於評估 FCC 許可證減值的假設受到負面影響。因此，我們在第四季度對我們的 FCC 許可證計提了 1060 萬美元的非現金減值費用，全年計提了 2610 萬美元。這種對十年前購買價格計算的減記對我們的現金狀況、營業收入、營業費用、我們的盈利能力或我們的未來前景沒有影響。它們只不過是非現金會計費用，僅影響大約十年或更長時間前我們購買廣播電台資產時所做的購買價格分配。我們的非現金減值費用導致我們 2022 年的淨收入同比減少 440 萬美元至 1440 萬美元。

More importantly, let me now turn to our Q4 and full year operating results, and then we will discuss our outlook for 2023. We're pleased to report that we finished the year with strong growth, driving us to all-time record high revenue and all-time record high adjusted EBITDA levels in 2022. Fourth quarter net revenue increased 8.8% over the prior year period to an all-time Q4 high of $120.3 million, which was within our fourth quarter guidance of USD116 million to USD122 million. In 2022, we reached an all-time high net revenue of $463.1 million, representing 10.8% year-over-year growth.

更重要的是，現在讓我談談我們的第四季度和全年經營業績，然後我們將討論我們對 2023 年的展望。我們很高興地報告說，我們以強勁的增長結束了這一年，推動我們創下歷史新高的收入以及 2022 年調整後的 EBITDA 水平創歷史新高。第四季度淨收入比上年同期增長 8.8%，達到 1.203 億美元的歷史最高水平，這在我們第四季度 1.16 億美元至 1.22 億美元的指導範圍內。 2022 年，我們的淨收入達到 4.631 億美元的歷史新高，同比增長 10.8%。

As we discussed on our last earnings call, our fourth quarter strength wasn't due to political as our markets didn't align well with political races in 2022. Excluding political revenue, fourth quarter net revenue increased 6.8% year-over-year, and full year net revenue increased 9.9% year-over-year. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA increased 11% year-over-year to a Q4 record high of $28.4 million, achieving our guidance range of USD27.7 million to USD30.7 million. For the year, adjusted EBITDA increased 8.2% year-over-year to an all-time high of $113.7 million.

正如我們在上次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，我們第四季度的強勁表現並不是因為政治，因為我們的市場與 2022 年的政治競選不太吻合。不包括政治收入，第四季度淨收入同比增長 6.8%，全年淨收入同比增長 9.9%。第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 同比增長 11%，達到 2840 萬美元的歷史新高，達到我們 2770 萬美元至 3070 萬美元的指導範圍。今年，調整後的 EBITDA 同比增長 8.2% 至 1.137 億美元的歷史新高。

Townsquare Interactive, our subscription digital marketing solutions segment, steadily grew net revenue, profit and net subscribers in 2022. In the fourth quarter, net revenue increased 4.4% as compared to the prior year, supported by the addition of approximately 800 net subscribers, and profit increased 6.4% year-over-year. In 2022, Townsquare Interactive's net revenue increased 10.5% year-over-year to $90.4 million and profit increased 7% year-over-year to $26.1 million at a 29% profit margin.

我們的訂閱數字營銷解決方案部門 Townsquare Interactive 在 2022 年實現了淨收入、利潤和淨用戶的穩步增長。第四季度，在新增約 800 名淨用戶的支持下，淨收入同比增長 4.4%，以及利潤同比增長6.4%。 2022 年，Townsquare Interactive 的淨收入同比增長 10.5% 至 9040 萬美元，利潤同比增長 7% 至 2610 萬美元，利潤率為 29%。

Townsquare Ignite, our digital advertising segment, was the largest driver of growth in the fourth quarter and full year periods with net revenue increasing 16.9% year-over-year in the fourth quarter and 20.2% year-over-year for the full year. Digital advertising profit increased 28.9% in Q4 and 15.7% for the full year. We expect our digital advertising segment will continue to be the biggest driver of our revenue and profit growth in 2023 and beyond.

我們的數字廣告部門 Townsquare Ignite 是第四季度和全年增長的最大推動力，第四季度淨收入同比增長 16.9%，全年同比增長 20.2%。第四季度數字廣告利潤增長 28.9%，全年增長 15.7%。我們預計我們的數字廣告業務將繼續成為我們 2023 年及以後收入和利潤增長的最大驅動力。

Broadcast advertising net revenue increased approximately 4% year-over-year in the fourth quarter and the full year periods and increased 0.4% and 2.2%, respectively, excluding political revenue. Broadcast profit margins were approximately 31% in 2022. We anticipate our broadcast advertising segment will face the most significant headwinds in 2023 as digital historically performs better during a downturn than traditional broadcast advertising. National broadcast revenue declines continue to accelerate, and we have not seen a meaningful recovery to our auto spending in our small markets, both of which will weigh heavily on 2023 broadcasting results.

廣播廣告淨收入第四季度和全年同比增長約 4%，不包括政治收入，分別增長 0.4% 和 2.2%。 2022 年的廣播利潤率約為 31%。我們預計我們的廣播廣告業務將在 2023 年面臨最大的阻力，因為數字在經濟低迷時期的表現歷來優於傳統廣播廣告。全國廣播收入下降繼續加速，我們在小市場的汽車支出也沒有明顯復甦，這兩者都將嚴重影響 2023 年的廣播業績。

Our other category, which is comprised of live events activity, generated $1.6 million of revenue in the fourth quarter and had a small profit of $62,000. In the full year period, other revenue increased $4.7 million or 124% to $8.4 million due to hosting more events in 2022 than we did last year. Correspondingly, other profit increased $706,000 or 693% to $808,000 at a 10% profit margin.

我們的另一個類別由現場活動組成，在第四季度產生了 160 萬美元的收入，並有 62,000 美元的小額利潤。在全年期間，由於我們在 2022 年舉辦的活動比去年多，其他收入增加了 470 萬美元或 124% 至 840 萬美元。相應地，其他利潤增加 706,000 美元或 693% 至 808,000 美元，利潤率為 10%。

We generated $18.1 million of positive cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter of 2022 and $50.2 million for the year and ended the year with $43.4 million of cash. We generated $11 million of less cash from operations in 2022 than we did in the prior year, primarily due to the timing of our interest payments. In 2021, we only paid $29 million of interest payments due to the timing of our refinancing as compared to $39 million in 2022. Prior to interest payments, we generated positive cash flow from operations of $89 million, in line with the prior year period. We ended the year with the lowest net leverage in our company's history, reducing net leverage from 4.75x at year-end 2021 to 4.29x at the end of this year.

我們在 2022 年第四季度從運營中產生了 1810 萬美元的正現金流，全年產生了 5020 萬美元，並在年底以 4340 萬美元的現金結束。我們在 2022 年從運營中產生的現金比上一年減少了 1100 萬美元，這主要是由於我們支付利息的時間安排。 2021 年，由於再融資的時間安排，我們僅支付了 2900 萬美元的利息，而 2022 年為 3900 萬美元。在支付利息之前，我們從運營中產生了 8900 萬美元的正現金流，與上年同期持平。我們以公司歷史上最低的淨槓桿率結束了這一年，將淨槓桿率從 2021 年底的 4.75 倍降至今年年底的 4.29 倍。

In 2022, we used our cash to repurchase approximately $19 million of our bonds at or below par and $18 million on the accretive acquisition of Cherry Creek. As always, our #1 priority is to invest in our local business through organic internal investments that support our revenue and profit growth, particularly our digital growth engine. We plan to continue to invest in our digital product technology, sales, content and support teams, specifically Townsquare Interactive, including at the second Phoenix location and Townsquare Ignite businesses, in order to maintain our competitive advantage to markets outside the top 50 cities.

2022 年，我們用現金以面值或低於面值的價格回購了大約 1900 萬美元的債券，並用 1800 萬美元回購了對 Cherry Creek 的增值收購。一如既往，我們的第一要務是通過支持我們收入和利潤增長的有機內部投資來投資我們的本地業務，尤其是我們的數字增長引擎。我們計劃繼續投資於我們的數字產品技術、銷售、內容和支持團隊，特別是 Townsquare Interactive，包括第二個 Phoenix 地點和 Townsquare Ignite 業務，以保持我們在前 50 大城市以外市場的競爭優勢。

As Bill mentioned earlier, our Board has approved a dividend payable on May 1 to shareholders of record as of March 27. The dividend has been set at $0.1875 per share, which would equate to $0.75 per share on an annualized basis. Based on our current shares outstanding and our current stock price, that would imply an annual payment of approximately $13 million and a dividend yield of approximately 10%. We believe our strong cash flow characteristics will allow us to continue to invest in our business, support our new dividend and allow us flexibility to repurchase bonds in the open market opportunistically even during a downturn. We'd like to remind you that any benefit or provision for income taxes included on the face of the income statement is for GAAP financial statement purposes only. We maintained significant tax attributes, including more than $100 million of federal NOL carryforwards and other substantial tax yields related to the tax amortization of our intangible assets. We continue to believe that we will not be a material cash taxpayer until the year approximately 2026.

正如比爾之前提到的，我們的董事會已批准在 5 月 1 日向截至 3 月 27 日在冊股東支付股息。股息設定為每股 0.1875 美元，按年化計算相當於每股 0.75 美元。根據我們目前已發行的股票和我們目前的股價，這意味著每年支付約 1300 萬美元，股息收益率約為 10%。我們相信，我們強大的現金流特徵將使我們能夠繼續投資於我們的業務，支持我們的新股息，並使我們即使在經濟低迷時期也能靈活地在公開市場上機會主義地回購債券。我們想提醒您，損益表正麵包含的任何收益或所得稅準備金僅用於 GAAP 財務報表。我們保留了重要的稅收屬性，包括超過 1 億美元的聯邦 NOL 結轉和其他與我們無形資產的稅收攤銷相關的大量稅收收益。我們仍然相信，直到 2026 年左右，我們才會成為重要的現金納稅人。

Turning to our first quarter and 2023 full year outlook. We expect first quarter net revenue to be between USD100 million and USD102 million. We anticipate that first quarter digital revenue growth will largely be offset by steep national broadcast revenue declines, leading to a flat to a plus 2% year-over-year total net revenue growth. We expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA to be between USD17.5 million and USD18.5 million. For the full year, we currently expect that our revenue will be between USD450 million and USD470 million. This represents a year-over-year growth rate of plus 1.5% or plus 2.7%, excluding political at the high end of the range and a negative 2.8% or 1.7%, excluding political at the low end of the range. We expect that our 2023 adjusted EBITDA will be between USD100 million and USD110 million. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Bill.

轉向我們的第一季度和 2023 年全年展望。我們預計第一季度淨收入將在 1 億美元至 1.02 億美元之間。我們預計第一季度數字收入的增長將在很大程度上被全國廣播收入的急劇下降所抵消，從而導致總淨收入同比增長持平至 2% 以上。我們預計第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 將在 1750 萬美元至 1850 萬美元之間。對於全年，我們目前預計我們的收入將在 4.5 億美元至 4.7 億美元之間。這表示同比增長率為正 1.5% 或正 2.7%，不包括範圍高端的政治和負 2.8% 或 1.7%，不包括範圍低端的政治。我們預計 2023 年調整後的 EBITDA 將在 1 億美元至 1.1 億美元之間。有了這個，我現在將把電話轉回比爾。

Thank you, Stu, and thank you to everyone who joined us this morning. We greatly appreciate it.

謝謝你，Stu，也感謝今天早上加入我們的每一個人。我們非常感激。

Since our 2010 inception, we have worked diligently to transform our company from a traditional broadcast radio company into a Digital First Local Media company, with 50% of our revenue and 50% of our profits now coming from digital sources, we certainly have come a long way, but our work is not done, in a rapidly changing landscape for consumers and local businesses and as advertisers become even more selective during periods of economic hardship, it has never been more important for us to accelerate our transformation and to create Townsquare's future. The ability to continue what we are great at, attack and fix what we are not great at and to continually iterate to innovate by creating products and solutions at our audience and clients value. That is what Townsquare is all about, continually evolving and transforming.

自 2010 年成立以來，我們一直努力將我們的公司從一家傳統的廣播電台公司轉變為一家數字第一本地媒體公司，我們 50% 的收入和 50% 的利潤現在來自數字來源，我們當然已經來了很長的路要走，但我們的工作還沒有完成，在消費者和當地企業瞬息萬變的環境中，隨著廣告商在經濟困難時期變得更加挑剔，加速轉型和創造 Townsquare 的未來對我們來說從未如此重要.能夠繼續我們擅長的事情，攻擊和修復我們不擅長的事情，並通過為我們的受眾和客戶創造產品和解決方案來不斷迭代創新。這就是 Townsquare 的全部意義所在，不斷發展和轉變。

In closing, I want to highlight a few key takeaways. One, 2022 revenue and EBITDA were both well above 2019 levels with and without political. Two, both net revenue and adjusted EBITDA represented the highest revenue and the highest adjusted EBITDA that Townsquare has ever achieved with these assets. Three, approximately 50% of our company's total net revenue and 50% of our total adjusted operating income now come from our digital solutions. Four, we've reached the lowest net leverage ever in our history at 4.29x, Five, we generated over $50 million of operating cash flow in 2022. And six, given our confidence in the long-term growth and success of Townsquare, we are initiating a dividend that will generate current cash returns for our shareholders.

最後，我想強調幾個要點。第一，無論有沒有政治因素，2022 年的收入和 EBITDA 都遠高於 2019 年的水平。第二，淨收入和調整後的 EBITDA 均代表了 Townsquare 使用這些資產實現的最高收入和調整後的 EBITDA。第三，我們公司淨收入總額的大約 50% 和調整後營業收入總額的 50% 現在來自我們的數字解決方案。第四，我們達到了歷史上最低的淨槓桿率 4.29 倍，第五，我們在 2022 年產生了超過 5000 萬美元的運營現金流。第六，鑑於我們對 Townsquare 的長期增長和成功充滿信心，我們正在發起股息，這將為我們的股東帶來當前的現金回報。

Our agenda and focus of 2023 remains consistent with the goals we set for our company several years ago. In 2023, we want to continue to be best-in-class in entertaining and informing our audiences and communities across all platforms, while super serving our clients with world-class marketing and advertising solutions to grow their businesses. Although we are currently navigating a challenging macroeconomic landscape, we believe that our business model and strategy position us to weather this economic environment better than most. We will continue to grow and support our local teams during these periods of macroeconomic challenges so that we can continue to be a resource to our local clients and audiences and be well positioned to capture accelerated growth when economic tailwinds return. As we always do, we are going to create our own opportunities. We are not waiting for them to show up or present themselves. We create opportunities and overcome challenges. It's the Townsquare Way. The Townsquare team's effort, passion and commitment to a transformation is directly driving our growth and innovation. I couldn't be more thankful.

我們 2023 年的議程和重點與我們幾年前為公司設定的目標保持一致。到 2023 年，我們希望繼續在所有平台上為我們的觀眾和社區提供娛樂和信息方面的一流服務，同時通過世界一流的營銷和廣告解決方案為我們的客戶提供超級服務，以發展他們的業務。儘管我們目前正在應對充滿挑戰的宏觀經濟形勢，但我們相信，我們的商業模式和戰略使我們能夠比大多數人更好地應對這種經濟環境。在這些宏觀經濟挑戰時期，我們將繼續發展和支持我們的本地團隊，以便我們能夠繼續成為本地客戶和受眾的資源，並在經濟逆風回歸時處於加速增長的有利位置。一如既往，我們將創造自己的機會。我們不是在等待他們出現或展示自己。我們創造機遇，克服挑戰。這是Townsquare Way。 Townsquare 團隊對轉型的努力、熱情和承諾直接推動了我們的成長和創新。我感激不盡。

Operator, at this time, please open the lines for any and all questions.

接線員，此時請打開所有問題的線路。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Michael Kupinski with NOBLE Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 NOBLE Capital Markets 的 Michael Kupinski。

Congratulations on your digital transition, by the way. A couple of questions. Can you break down your thoughts on digital pacings in the first quarter between Ignite in your subscription business?

順便說一下，祝賀你的數字化轉型。幾個問題。您能否在訂閱業務的 Ignite 之間分解您對第一季度數字節奏的看法？

Michael, good to hear from you. Appreciate the questions as always. So in terms of the guide, obviously, that Stu provided for revenue, which was, in essence, flat to plus 2%. The breakdown for that in terms of digital will be, we expect our Townsquare Interactive revenue to be flat in Q1. As you saw in Q4, that was about plus 4%. And just with, as I described in the pre remarks that already provided that we target customers with less than $5 million in revenue, and we've been transparent about that for quite some time in our investor deck. And clearly, those smaller customers are battling higher inflation, higher wages. So we're definitely seeing a little more mild performance than normal in terms of Interactive. We anticipate that for Q1 and probably the first half of the year. Ignite, as I noted, continues to just be extremely powerful for our company. The differentiation of being an owned and operated publisher at scale with first-party data and then our programmatic stack that we've outlined historically on these calls is truly differentiated and continues to be the fastest-growing part of our company and will be for the foreseeable future. So in Q1, Ignite is up double digits. It's in that 12% to 14% range. I think we'll end up 12% to 13% right now. And in Q4, as Stu noted, we were up 17%. So Ignite continues to do quite well. And although you didn't ask about broadcast, while we're just talking about guidance, we noted that national broadcast is almost down 30%, 3-0 in Q1. So it's material. It's down almost, it's actually over $3 million just in the quarter versus prior year quarter. While local broadcast is flat. And so total broadcast overall will be down mid-single digits. TSI flat, Ignite up low double digits.

邁克爾，很高興收到你的來信。一如既往地欣賞問題。因此，就指南而言，很明顯，Stu 提供的收入基本上持平至增加 2%。在數字方面的細分將是，我們預計我們的 Townsquare Interactive 收入在第一季度持平。正如您在第四季度看到的那樣，大約增長了 4%。正如我在前面的評論中所描述的那樣，我們的目標客戶是收入低於 500 萬美元的客戶，而且我們在投資者平台上已經對此透明了很長一段時間。顯然，那些較小的客戶正在與更高的通貨膨脹、更高的工資作鬥爭。因此，就交互而言，我們肯定會看到比正常情況更溫和的表現。我們預計第一季度，可能是今年上半年。正如我所指出的，Ignite 對我們公司來說仍然非常強大。作為擁有第一方數據的大規模擁有和運營的出版商的差異化，以及我們過去在這些電話會議上概述的程序化堆棧的差異化是真正的差異化，並將繼續成為我們公司增長最快的部分，並將用於可以預見的將來。所以在第一季度，Ignite 增長了兩位數。它在 12% 到 14% 的範圍內。我認為我們現在最終會達到 12% 到 13%。正如 Stu 指出的那樣，在第四季度，我們增長了 17%。所以 Ignite 繼續做得很好。雖然你沒有問廣播，但我們只是在談論指導，我們注意到全國廣播在第一季度幾乎下降了 30%，3-0。所以是物質的。它幾乎下降了，實際上僅在本季度與去年同期相比就超過了 300 萬美元。而本地廣播則持平。因此，總廣播量將下降到中個位數。 TSI持平，點燃低兩位數。

And Bill, a number of radio peers has kind of stepped up digital investments targeting similar customers than your Interactive business. And are you seeing more competition in that space? Or is it just simply the market environment?

比爾，許多無線電同行已經加強了針對與您的互動業務類似的客戶的數字投資。你在那個領域看到更多的競爭嗎？還是只是單純的市場環境？

It's the market environment. And quite honestly, I think there's some things we can do better as well. So we're continuing to challenge ourselves to perform better. I think there are some things we're doing in that business based on what we've experienced over the last 6 months that I think will also help us in the long run. So in our view, there's always been competition there. And we've also shared quite transparently that the majority of customers that we get through Townsquare Interactive, they all have a web presence already. So they're already working with somebody or they're doing self-serve or they're using Facebook. So our return on investment, as we've outlined on these calls, is significantly valued by these customers. I think it's just the macroeconomic environment and everything I just described in terms of the increased expense base. And then as we brought people back to the office over the past year, Charlotte is our largest location. So we had some return to work and some people who didn't want to return to work. So we had some I'd say, change over there, and we're working through some of those issues as we go through 2023. So I expect that, as I said, the revenue to be flat for the first half of the year. But from a competitive set, nothing has really changed there at all, but our offering is a great return on investment and highly differentiated having everything in-house. And as you know, many other people in either radio or local media moving into the space, very few, if not any, are actually doing it with all of the technology in-house. And as we've shared before, that is a clear differentiator. And that's also why we could operate Townsquare Interactive. Historically, I think we ended the year around 28%, 29% margin. We're really excited about the Phoenix location. We're about 30 people in building. I think we have another 6 to 8 joining us between now and the end of the month. So we've talked about bringing our margins down in TSI Townsquare Interactive into the mid-20s this year because all of the investment in Phoenix in terms of the personnel, the incremental rent, we won't see the return of increased revenue and increased subscribers until 2024. But obviously, our confidence is extremely high and that's why we're opening the second location. And as we've outlined in the investor deck and Michael, you are very well aware, the total addressable market here is $32 billion, and we feel like we're just getting started.

就是市場環境。老實說，我認為有些事情我們也可以做得更好。因此，我們將繼續挑戰自己以取得更好的成績。我認為，根據過去 6 個月的經驗，我們在該業務中正在做一些事情，從長遠來看，我認為這些事情也會對我們有所幫助。所以在我們看來，那裡一直存在競爭。我們還非常透明地分享了我們通過 Townsquare Interactive 獲得的大多數客戶，他們都已經擁有了網絡。所以他們已經在與某人合作，或者他們正在做自助服務，或者他們正在使用 Facebook。因此，正如我們在這些電話中概述的那樣，我們的投資回報受到了這些客戶的高度重視。我認為這只是宏觀經濟環境以及我剛才在增加的費用基數方面描述的一切。然後，當我們在過去一年裡將人們帶回辦公室時，夏洛特是我們最大的辦公地點。所以我們有一些人重返工作崗位，也有一些人不想重返工作崗位。所以我們有一些我想說的，在那裡改變，我們正在解決其中的一些問題，直到 2023 年。所以我預計，正如我所說，今年上半年的收入將持平.但從競爭環境來看，一切都沒有真正改變，但我們的產品是一個巨大的投資回報，並且內部所有東西都具有高度差異化。如您所知，廣播或本地媒體中的許多其他人進入該領域，實際上很少（如果不是的話）使用內部的所有技術來做這件事。正如我們之前分享的那樣，這是一個明顯的區別。這也是我們可以運營 Townsquare Interactive 的原因。從歷史上看，我認為我們年底的利潤率約為 28%、29%。我們對鳳凰城的位置感到非常興奮。我們大約有 30 人在建設。我認為從現在到月底，我們還有 6 到 8 人加入我們。所以我們已經談到今年將 TSI Townsquare Interactive 的利潤率降低到 20 多歲，因為在 Phoenix 的所有投資都在人員、增量租金方面，我們不會看到收入增加和增加的回報訂戶到 2024 年。但顯然，我們的信心非常高，這就是我們開設第二家分店的原因。正如我們在投資者甲板上概述的那樣，邁克爾，你非常清楚，這裡的潛在市場總額為 320 億美元，我們覺得我們才剛剛開始。

Yes. And on your broadcast side, national, what is it, 12%, 14% of your total revenues on broadcasting?

是的。在您的廣播方面，全國廣播總收入的 12%、14% 是多少？

Specifically to broadcast, it's about 6%. So it is a small part, but it is down 30%. I mean, 30% is a dramatic drop. As I said, it's over $3 million. Sports betting is a big piece of that. You may recall, if you reflect back on Q1 of 2022, actually, national in Q1 of 2022 was up 19%. So it actually decelerated through the year to a low single-digit decline in Q2 and then mid-teens declines in Q3 and Q4. and it just really fell off dramatically in Q1 of this year. A lot of that is sports betting. Sports betting in 2022 was quite strong. As you may recall, a lot of states were legalized, including New York. So we saw a big influx of sports betting dollars in Q1 that led over into Q2. But in Q1, currently in 2023, sports betting is down almost $2 million year-over-year. So of the $3 million plus in national declines, sports betting is obviously making up almost 2/3 of that. So we think that settles out over the year. And I think that's why when you look at our full year guide, our revenue on the full year side is really ex political, down a couple of points or up a few points. And we think national will as we get into the comps in the back of the half of the year be less of a headwind, and local continues to perform much better and as I shared in Q1, is flat.

具體到廣播，大約是6%。所以是一小部分，但是下降了30%。我的意思是，30% 是一個戲劇性的下降。正如我所說，它超過了 300 萬美元。體育博彩是其中的重要組成部分。你可能還記得，如果你回想一下 2022 年第一季度，實際上，2022 年第一季度全國上漲了 19%。因此，它實際上在第二季度減速至較低的個位數下降，然後在第三季度和第四季度下降了十幾歲左右。它在今年第一季度真的急劇下降。其中很多是體育博彩。 2022 年的體育博彩相當強勁。你可能還記得，很多州都合法化了，包括紐約。因此，我們看到第一季度體育博彩資金大量湧入第二季度。但在第一季度，也就是 2023 年，體育博彩同比下降近 200 萬美元。因此，在 300 萬美元以上的全國性虧損中，體育博彩顯然佔了其中的近 2/3。所以我們認為這會在一年內解決。我認為這就是為什麼當你查看我們的全年指南時，我們全年的收入實際上是政治因素，下降了幾個百分點或上升了幾個百分點。而且我們認為，當我們在今年下半年進入比賽時，國家將不會那麼逆風，而且當地的表現會繼續好得多，正如我在第一季度所分享的那樣，持平。

Yes, traditionally, your radio stations seemed to be pretty stable relative to your larger market radio peers. And it seems like in general, they tend to perform better in past economic headwinds. So I was just wondering if you're outside of the sports betting, are you still seeing the similar kind of performance relative to economic scenarios that we've had in the past?

是的，傳統上，相對於更大市場的廣播電台同行，你們的廣播電台似乎相當穩定。總的來說，他們似乎在過去的經濟逆風中表現更好。所以我只是想知道，如果你不在體育博彩領域，你是否仍然看到與我們過去所經歷的經濟情景相關的類似表現？

Yes, very much so. And to your point, that's why we are very disciplined from day 1 at Townsquare in 2010. Our strategy to be the #1 local media provider in markets outside the top 50. We've obviously had tremendous opportunities to move into the top 50, but we believe it is a completely different business outside the top 50 markets, not only for radio, where the companionship and as I've described on prior calls, there has been such a lack and a deceleration of news and information. It's quite said in terms of the media landscape in these markets as it relates to newspapers coming back. We've seen TV stations exit these markets. So we quite honestly feel like we're serving a mission for these communities to provide news and information. As we've shared in the past, that's why on average, in our size markets, we reach 50, 5-0, half of the adult population through one of our AM and FMs. When you factor in our digital audience, which is significant, we reach 7 in 10 adults in the 74 markets that we operate in. So it is such a different business. It is such a different landscape for consumer choice as well as from a competitive set in the smaller markets. And that's why we have said let's focus on digital as our growth engine, right? So today, we're 50% digital revenue and profits. And as we move forward, that will continue to grow because as you've seen, our digital growth is going to be double digits for quite some time. And the competitive set there and the ability to bring these very sophisticated digital marketing solutions with Townsquare Interactive and digital advertising solutions with Ignite is quite differentiated. And most importantly, for the clients, our mission is to help them grow. And our products do that. And the fact that we can use radio, which is #1 reach media, but yet only 6% of all ad spend, but then factor in digital advertising and digital marketing solutions, which today is 65%, 65% of every dollar spent today goes to digital. And as I shared on my remarks, that's moving to 75%. So in essence, $0.75 on every dollar by 2027. So clearly, to be strong in digital is incredibly powerful and differentiated. And to your original point, in smaller markets, we're bringing a level of sophistication and technology and platforms that we believe is second to none.

是的，非常如此。就你的觀點而言，這就是為什麼我們從 2010 年 Townsquare 的第一天起就非常自律。我們的戰略是成為前 50 名以外市場中排名第一的本地媒體提供商。顯然，我們有巨大的機會進入前 50 名，但我們認為，在前 50 大市場之外，這是一個完全不同的業務，不僅是廣播，那裡的陪伴，正如我在之前的電話中所描述的那樣，新聞和信息的缺乏和減速。就這些市場的媒體格局而言，這與報紙的回歸有關。我們已經看到電視台退出了這些市場。因此，老實說，我們覺得我們正在為這些社區提供新聞和信息。正如我們過去分享的那樣，這就是為什麼在我們的規模市場中，我們通過我們的 AM 和 FM 之一平均達到 50、5-0 一半的成年人口。當你考慮到我們的數字受眾時，我們在 74 個運營市場中的 10 個成年人中有 7 個是重要的。所以這是一個非常不同的業務。對於消費者的選擇以及較小市場的競爭環境來說，這是一個如此不同的景觀。這就是為什麼我們說讓我們專注於數字作為我們的增長引擎，對嗎？所以今天，我們有 50% 的數字收入和利潤。隨著我們的前進，這將繼續增長，因為正如您所看到的，我們的數字增長將在相當長的一段時間內保持兩位數。那裡的競爭環境以及將這些非常複雜的數字營銷解決方案與 Townsquare Interactive 和數字廣告解決方案與 Ignite 結合起來的能力非常不同。最重要的是，對於客戶而言，我們的使命是幫助他們成長。我們的產品就是這樣做的。事實上，我們可以使用廣播，它是#1 reach media，但只佔所有廣告支出的 6%，但隨後考慮數字廣告和數字營銷解決方案，今天是 65%，佔今天每美元支出的 65%轉到數字。正如我在評論中分享的那樣，這一比例正在上升至 75%。因此，從本質上講，到 2027 年，每一美元將達到 0.75 美元。很明顯，在數字領域擁有強大的實力是非常強大和與眾不同的。對於你原來的觀點，在較小的市場中，我們帶來了我們認為首屈一指的複雜程度、技術和平台。

And if I may squeeze in just one more. On your Interactive business, are there any particular categories that are being affected at this point? And in the past, I believe that you've actually offered discounts, I know, through the COVID situation that we had. Are you currently giving discounts? Or are you maintaining your pricing there in your interactive business?

如果我可以再擠一個。在您的互動業務中，目前是否有任何特定類別受到影響？在過去，我相信你實際上已經提供了折扣，我知道，通過我們所擁有的 COVID 情況。你們現在打折嗎？還是您在互動業務中保持定價？

Yes. No, great questions, Michael. Thank you. I appreciate all the commentary. So as it relates to categories, no, but what I would share is, what we're seeing is smaller businesses. So the businesses with a smaller revenue base, businesses with more challenging economics, maybe their wages are increasing based on the area or if they're restaurants and their cost of eggs and food is increasing, things like that nature, we're definitely seeing. And yes, we are working with our customers as we did during COVID because, again, Townsquare's mission is to help these businesses grow. So if they're in business and we can help them by giving them some discounts, we are definitely doing that. That worked quite well during 2020, and we went back to full pricing for those clients that we did offer discounts in 2021, and you saw that revenue growth come back quite nicely in 2021. So that is what I expect here as well. We're going to work with our clients and serve them and help them along this challenging time. when these conditions lift for them, I don't know when that will be, if that's in the back half of this year or over 2024, we will then return them to full pricing, but we definitely think that's the right thing to do, and we're proud to do it. But it clearly will impact our short-term results, but I hope and expect our investors and shareholders to look at what we did in 2020 and then look to 2021, where we posted our best record and profits coming off of that only to be beaten this past year in 2022. So definitely, with the headwinds in these smaller businesses in TSI, you'll see muted performance and on the fact that we are working with them and providing discounts, that will add to that well. But we're quite confident as we look forward in the future, and those clients get back to normal as inflation comes down, whenever that does, we'll be in a great position again.

是的。不，很好的問題，邁克爾。謝謝。我感謝所有的評論。因此，就類別而言，不，但我要分享的是，我們看到的是規模較小的企業。因此，收入基礎較小的企業，經濟更具挑戰性的企業，也許他們的工資會根據地區而增加，或者如果他們是餐館並且雞蛋和食品的成本在增加，諸如此類的性質，我們肯定會看到.是的，我們正在與我們的客戶合作，就像我們在 COVID 期間所做的那樣，因為 Townsquare 的使命再次是幫助這些企業發展。因此，如果他們在做生意，我們可以通過給他們一些折扣來幫助他們，我們肯定會這樣做。這在 2020 年運作良好，我們在 2021 年為那些確實提供折扣的客戶恢復了全價，您看到收入增長在 2021 年恢復得很好。這也是我在這裡的期望。我們將與我們的客戶合作，為他們服務，幫助他們度過這個充滿挑戰的時期。當這些條件對他們解除時，我不知道那是什麼時候，如果是在今年下半年或 2024 年以上，我們將讓他們恢復全價，但我們絕對認為這是正確的做法，我們為此感到自豪。但這顯然會影響我們的短期業績，但我希望並期望我們的投資者和股東看看我們在 2020 年所做的事情，然後展望 2021 年，我們在 2021 年創下了最好的記錄，但利潤卻被打破了去年 2022 年。所以肯定地，隨著 TSI 中這些小型企業的逆風，你會看到表現不佳，而且我們正在與他們合作並提供折扣，這將增加這一點。但我們對未來充滿信心，隨著通脹下降，這些客戶會恢復正常，無論何時，我們都會再次處於有利地位。

Our next question is from Jim Goss with Barrington Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Barrington Research 的 Jim Goss。

Given all that you've laid out now and in recent past about your digital priorities, I was wondering if you might discuss the action you are apparently joining involving ownership caps within your radio station group. What are the objectives? Is it greater penetration in existing markets that you would like to adjust? And does the sort of instability at the head of the FCC with another nominee dropping out, have any impact on your ability to get something like that through?

考慮到您現在和最近關於您的數字優先事項的所有安排，我想知道您是否可以討論您顯然正在加入的行動，涉及您廣播電台組內的所有權上限。目標是什麼？您想調整現有市場的更大滲透率嗎？ FCC 負責人的不穩定以及另一位提名人的退出是否對您獲得類似通過的能力有任何影響？

Yes. No, great questions. Jim, and great to hear from you this morning. And for those who don't know, I just disclosed it in case anybody is not where I'm also the Executive Chair of the National Association of Broadcasters on the radio side. So I'm quite involved in the NAB and some of the policies that they lobby on, including lifting the ownership caps. Our view personally for Townsquare, speaking not on the NAB's behalf but on our company's behalf is the ownership rules are antiquated, they're decades old and you can have a Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, so forth and so on, have billions of offerings, yet we're restricted to a certain number of signals. I just feel it's rules based on another time in the past and not relevant now. So particularly when you factor in what as I described too with Michael's question, I don't know how many people are in these smaller markets. On average, our population is 300,000 people. it is really concerning to see print newspapers 10 years ago, go from printing 7 days a week to many of our markets, there's no longer a punch of paper. There's an online version with a paywall and the majority of that content is national and not local. The local content is crime, weather and maybe a little sports. So we really feel that I think the ownership caps will allow us to super serve the communities even better. And some point in there is, yes, we would look for more ownership and penetration in our existing markets first. And then secondarily, we would also look at other markets outside the top 50, if the caps will, nothing would be highly advantageous. We've demonstrated and we're seeing this now with Cherry Creek that we can go in and we can really create diversified media business by transforming a local radio company into a digital-first company. So if ownership caps are lifted in the future, we would be pursuing that quite aggressively, and we think it would be the right thing to do.

是的。不，很好的問題。吉姆，很高興今天早上收到你的來信。對於那些不知道的人，我只是透露了它，以防萬一有人不在我還是全國廣播協會無線電方面的執行主席的地方。所以我積極參與了 NAB 和他們遊說的一些政策，包括取消所有權上限。我們個人對 Townsquare 的看法，不是代表 NAB，而是代表我們公司，所有權規則已經過時，它們已經有幾十年的歷史了，你可以擁有 Spotify、Pandora、YouTube 等等，擁有數十億種產品，但我們僅限於一定數量的信號。我只是覺得這是基於過去另一個時間的規則，現在不相關。因此，特別是當你考慮到我在邁克爾的問題中所描述的內容時，我不知道這些較小的市場中有多少人。平均而言，我們的人口是 300,000 人。看到 10 年前的印刷報紙真的很令人擔憂，從每週印刷 7 天到我們的許多市場，不再有一張紙。有一個帶付費專區的在線版本，其中大部分內容是全國性的，而不是本地的。本地內容是犯罪、天氣，也許還有一點運動。所以我們真的覺得我認為所有權上限將使我們能夠更好地為社區服務。有一點是，是的，我們會首先在現有市場中尋求更多的所有權和滲透率。然後其次，我們還會看看前 50 名以外的其他市場，如果有上限的話，沒有什麼是非常有利的。我們已經通過 Cherry Creek 證明並看到了這一點，我們可以進入，我們可以通過將本地廣播公司轉變為數字優先公司來真正創建多元化的媒體業務。因此，如果未來取消所有權上限，我們會非常積極地追求，我們認為這是正確的做法。

To your last point is with Gigi withdrawing her nomination for the FCC, I do think it's going to be a challenging time to get much done there. But I hope in time, and I think we've proven we're quite patient in general that the ownership caps will be lifted because I think it's the right thing to do for consumers and these communities.

最後一點是 Gigi 撤回了她對 FCC 的提名，我確實認為要在那裡完成很多工作將是一個充滿挑戰的時期。但我希望及時，而且我認為我們已經證明我們總體上對取消所有權上限很有耐心，因為我認為這對消費者和這些社區來說是正確的事情。

Okay. And with regard to TSI, you mentioned that there might be some issues with the return to work aspect in Charlotte. Is that also contributing to the slowdown in the revenue gain in addition to in that area? And is there some destabilization that happens when you have a changeover in personnel if you're pushing that rather than let them work at home?

好的。關於 TSI，您提到夏洛特在重返工作崗位方面可能存在一些問題。除了那個領域之外，這是否也導致收入增長放緩？如果你推動人事變動而不是讓他們在家工作，那麼當你進行人事變動時，是否會發生一些不穩定的情況？

Correct. Yes. So again, in the spirit of transparency, we always like to share that maybe overshare to some. But yes, through 2022, we had a return to work policy in Charlotte, it's our largest office with over [600] employees. And it's also a population based, in average, it's say, mid-20s workforce. There's obviously exceptions to that, but the large majority of the mean is in the mid-20s. And they were obviously working remote through COVID for quite some period of time, which is similar to other businesses across the U.S. And we made the decision that we'd be returning back to work. And there were some exceptions to that for people who had tenure and high performers. But if you weren't tenured and high performer, we (inaudible) has required you to come back to work. It could have been hybrid, meaning you may not have been 5 days in the office, could be 3, 2, 4, 1 so forth, but there was a subset of those people who opted out and looked for an opportunity with another company to be able to work from home. And so I did have some, you asked about destabilization. I would just say it wasn't destabilizing, but it created some challenges for us and handing over. We've been, again, transparent in that our Townsquare Interactive model has been that a client has a customer service or customer success representative, and that's a one-to-one relationship, meaning if you go into Townsquare Interactive, partially you got the same person every time. So when that person left and more did during this time of disruption of return to work, it created more challenges for us. I feel quite confident as we sit here on March 9, we've addressed those challenges. But as with the subscription business, pretty much what happened more in the last 6 months dictates our current results versus what's happening today or over the next 6 months. So yes, return to work was definitely a challenge for us. We addressed those challenges, and we're in a great place. And we're up, just so just to be clear, too, in case of my comment made people think we lost a lot of people. We're net positive in terms of employees at Townsquare Interactive. And our Phoenix location, again, just opening this month in March, we're coming up, I think, of roughly 30 people. And I think I said earlier, we have 8 new hires joining us by the end of the month. So again, robust aggressive investment in our digital operation based on the market opportunity and our performance to date.

正確的。是的。因此，再次強調，本著透明的精神，我們總是喜歡與某些人分享可能過度分享的內容。但是，是的，到 2022 年，我們在夏洛特製定了重返工作崗位的政策，這是我們最大的辦公室，擁有超過 [600] 名員工。而且它也是基於人口的，平均來說，就是 20 多歲的勞動力。顯然也有例外，但大部分平均值都在 20 多歲左右。他們顯然在很長一段時間內通過 COVID 遠程工作，這與美國各地的其他企業類似。我們決定重返工作崗位。對於那些擁有終身職位和表現出色的人來說，也有一些例外。但是，如果您沒有獲得終身職位且表現不佳，我們（聽不清）要求您重返工作崗位。它可能是混合型的，這意味著您可能沒有在辦公室工作 5 天，可能是 3、2、4、1 等等，但是其中有一部分人選擇退出並尋找與另一家公司的機會能夠在家工作。所以我確實有一些，你問的是不穩定。我只想說這並沒有破壞穩定，但它給我們和移交帶來了一些挑戰。再次，我們一直保持透明，因為我們的 Townsquare Interactive 模型一直是客戶有客戶服務或客戶成功代表，這是一對一的關係，這意味著如果你進入 Townsquare Interactive，部分你得到了每次都是同一個人。因此，當那個人離開，而在這段重返工作的中斷時期，更多人離開了，這給我們帶來了更多挑戰。當我們 3 月 9 日坐在這裡時，我感到非常有信心，我們已經解決了這些挑戰。但與訂閱業務一樣，過去 6 個月發生的事情幾乎決定了我們當前的結果與今天或未來 6 個月發生的事情的對比。所以，是的，重返工作崗位對我們來說絕對是一個挑戰。我們應對了這些挑戰，我們處在一個很好的位置。我們已經起來了，只是為了清楚一點，以防我的評論讓人們認為我們失去了很多人。我們對 Townsquare Interactive 的員工持積極態度。而我們在鳳凰城的分店，同樣是在 3 月的這個月才開業，我想我們大約有 30 人。我想我之前說過，到月底我們將有 8 名新員工加入我們。因此，根據市場機會和我們迄今為止的表現，再次對我們的數字業務進行強有力的積極投資。

Okay. And maybe one last question. You were quite aggressive with the dividend increase of 10% plus yield being implied. Could you talk about the rationale behind going that [car]?

好的。也許還有最後一個問題。你非常激進，暗示股息增加 10% 加上收益率。你能談談開那輛[汽車]背後的理由嗎？

Yes. My pleasure. The dividend clearly speaks to the fact that we have significant, significant strong cash flow and have had that year in and year out. And even during the challenging time of 2020, we had positive operating cash flow. So yes, you are correct. At today's stock price, it is an aggressive yield, approximately 10%, if not slightly higher. As you know, Jim, a year ago, our stock was $13. 15 months ago, we were in the $14, we were above $1$ at 1 point. So at a $15 stock price, that would be a 5% yield. Our expectation is that our stock price will get back to the level it was at just a year ago, and it will grow from there. But that obviously is not the case today. So we've been focused up until this point on utilizing our free cash flow for our digital investment, and we will continue to do that, but also delevering. We bought bonds in the open market. So we delevered to the lowest leverage point in the company's history at 4.29x, as you know, at the end of 2022. And yet our stock price has not reflected delevering. It has not reflected the record-setting revenue, record-setting profits in '21 and then again in 2022. So our view is we want to highlight the strong cash flow characteristics, and that's why we wanted to provide a reward to our shareholders because even with this performance from a profit and revenue standpoint, given this performance of transforming a local radio company to a Digital First Local Media company, our shareholders have not been rewarded and seen the appropriate, we believe, stock valuation. So that is why we went with the $0.75 a year. My expectation is that although it's a 10%-plus yield today, that will come down because we will continue to execute. We will continue to drive our digital growth. And over time, we will be appropriately rewarded from a stock price valuation.

是的。我的榮幸。股息清楚地說明了這樣一個事實，即我們擁有可觀的、可觀的強勁現金流，並且年復一年地都有。即使在充滿挑戰的 2020 年，我們也有正的經營現金流。所以是的，你是對的。以今天的股價計算，這是一個激進的收益率，如果不是略高的話，大約為 10%。正如你所知，吉姆，一年前，我們的股票是 13 美元。 15 個月前，我們在 14 美元，我們在 1 點時高於 1 美元。因此，以 15 美元的股價計算，這將是 5% 的收益率。我們的期望是我們的股價將回到一年前的水平，並且會從那裡增長。但今天顯然不是這樣。因此，到目前為止，我們一直專注於利用我們的自由現金流進行數字投資，我們將繼續這樣做，但也會去槓桿化。我們在公開市場上購買了債券。因此，如您所知，我們在 2022 年底將槓桿率降至公司歷史上的最低點 4.29 倍。但我們的股價並未反映去槓桿化。它沒有反映 21 年和 2022 年創紀錄的收入、創紀錄的利潤。所以我們的觀點是，我們想強調強勁的現金流特徵，這就是我們想為股東提供獎勵的原因，因為即使從利潤和收入的角度來看，考慮到將一家本地廣播公司轉變為數字第一本地媒體公司的這種表現，我們的股東也沒有得到回報，也沒有看到適當的股票估值。所以這就是我們選擇每年 0.75 美元的原因。我的預期是，儘管今天的收益率超過 10%，但會下降，因為我們將繼續執行。我們將繼續推動我們的數字化增長。隨著時間的推移，我們將從股價估值中得到適當的回報。

I would also point out that we bought back 12.6 million shares from Oaktree 2 years ago today, it was March 9, 2021. And at that time, our stock price was roughly, I believe, and Claire can correct me or Stu. I believe it was just under $8, $7.90, I believe it was. And yet, after retiring 12.6 million shares, here we are below that point. So we've obviously evaluated delevering, which we've done quite well. We've evaluated stock buybacks, which we have an authorization of a $50 million buyback that's still active, yet neither one of those things have actually positively influenced our stock price.

我還要指出，我們在 2 年前的今天，即 2021 年 3 月 9 日，從橡樹資本回購了 1260 萬股股票。當時，我們的股價大概是，我相信，克萊爾可以糾正我或斯圖。我相信它不到 8 美元，7.90 美元，我相信它是。然而，在退市 1260 萬股後，我們低於該點。所以我們顯然已經評估了去槓桿化，我們做得很好。我們已經評估了股票回購，我們已經獲得了 5000 萬美元的回購授權，該回購仍在進行中，但這些事情實際上都沒有對我們的股價產生積極影響。

So given our stock, our shareholders have not yet been rewarded, we felt the most appropriate thing to do right now is a dividend. We have strong cash flow, and it allows us, as Stu said, it's only roughly about $13 million a year. And it allows us to continue to do everything we want to do from a digital investment standpoint. It allows us now to reward our current shareholders and hopefully future shareholders when they evaluate what a strong cash flow, high-yielding dividend and digital company is doing. And it also allows us, as Stu said, to opportunistically continue to delever and buy bonds in the open market. So we're quite pleased the Board approved this, and we look forward to our current shareholders receiving this dividend on May 1, and we look forward to hopefully other people who are not shareholders today, having them look at this yield as well as our strong cash flow generation and then factor that into a growing, robust digital company that's highly differentiated in markets outside the top 50. So we're quite excited about the dividend and pleased to share that with our shareholders.

所以鑑於我們的股票，我們的股東還沒有得到回報，我們覺得現在最合適的事情是分紅。我們擁有強勁的現金流，正如 Stu 所說，它允許我們每年大約只有 1300 萬美元。它使我們能夠從數字投資的角度繼續做我們想做的一切。現在，它使我們能夠在評估強大的現金流、高收益股息和數字公司正在做的事情時獎勵我們現在的股東，並希望未來的股東能夠得到回報。正如斯圖所說，它還允許我們在公開市場上機會主義地繼續去槓桿化和購買債券。所以我們很高興董事會批准了這一點，我們期待我們現有的股東在 5 月 1 日收到這筆股息，我們希望今天不是股東的其他人，讓他們看看這個收益率以及我們的強勁的現金流產生，然後將其納入一家不斷發展、穩健的數字公司，這家公司在前 50 名以外的市場中具有高度差異化。因此，我們對股息感到非常興奮，並很高興與我們的股東分享。

All right. Thanks for the complete answers.

好的。感謝您提供完整的答案。

Thank you, Jim. As always, appreciate you asking the questions.

謝謝你，吉姆。一如既往，感謝您提出問題。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Bill for closing comments.

我們的問答環節已經結束。我想將會議轉回 Bill 以徵求結束意見。

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everybody, for joining in today. We're quite pleased and proud to share the results of 2022. We feel that we are in a tremendously strong position to weather the current macroeconomic environment. And I just want to say thank you to the Townsquare team. I feel like the commitment, passion for not only driving the company forward in this transformation to a Digital First Local Media company, but their commitment to their communities and to our clients is second to none, and we are very, very proud of that. So I hope everybody has a great day. Look forward to connecting with you. It should be a couple of months from now to share our Q1 results and our Q2 pacing. So have a great day.

謝謝接線員，也謝謝大家今天的加入。我們非常高興和自豪地分享 2022 年的成果。我們認為我們處於非常有利的地位來應對當前的宏觀經濟環境。我只想對 Townsquare 團隊表示感謝。我覺得他們的承諾和熱情不僅推動公司在向數字第一本地媒體公司的轉型中向前發展，而且他們對社區和我們客戶的承諾是首屈一指的，我們為此感到非常非常自豪。所以我希望每個人都有美好的一天。期待與您聯繫。從現在開始應該要過幾個月才能分享我們的第一季度結果和第二季度的節奏。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開您的線路，感謝您的參與。