Audioboom Group (LSE:BOOM) — Interim Results

0:02 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the AUDIOBOOM GROUP PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the q and a tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so on the Investor Meet company platform. And before we begin, as usual, we would

0:32 just like to submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from AUDIOBOOM. Stuart, good afternoon, sir. Thanks, Jake. Good afternoon, everyone. Really great to to be with you here again. The last three months has has flown by. So it's good to be back and good to be presenting AUDIOBOOM on its first half of the year results to you today. You know, I'm really pleased with with today's results. I think that it shows that, you know, what we're seeing today is is is a sign of resilience to the ad market recession that's that that that came in 2022 and and 2023. The our recovery from that, how the platform is stronger than than ever before, how we are primed for faster growth across the rest of this year.

1:20 So a really good set of results, I think. Really pleased with everything that that this small team at AUDIOBOOM has delivered and great to be able to get into those with you today. This will be the order of things. Me and Brad will will say a quick hello in a moment. Most of you know us, but for those that that don't, we'll introduce ourselves a little bit. And we will take a look at at those results, h one results in a little bit more depth, go into some more detail on many of the operational points there, and Brad will do a deep dive onto the finances. We'll come back and we'll kind of, you know, look ahead of what the what the future looks like for AUDIOBOOM and then a question and answer session at the end. So as Jake said, get those questions in now. Now is a good time to do that. We'll review those across this time and answer as as many as as we can at the end. But, yeah, just to kick things off, as I said, many of you know me already. Many of you talked to me offline.

2:17 Stuart Lars, chief executive officer of AUDIOBOOM. I've been leading this business for the past four and a half years.

2:24 I'm based in in New York, which is is where most of AUDIOBOOM's operations take place. 95% of our revenue is is out of the The US. So I'm I'm based here with the AUDIOBOOM team, and I'm still continuing to be very excited, I think, about the future for AUDIOBOOM and the future for podcasting and and AUDIOBOOM's position in podcasting over the next few years.

2:51 Hi, everyone. I'm Brad Clark, CFO here at AUDIOBOOM. I've been here since March 2018, so just over six and a bit years. Based in London, chartered accountant, focused on media organizations in my in my career to date, Breakby, some news UK, Grant Thornton, and and AUDIOBOOM. I'll be back a little bit later on to go through a few of the financial bits of information. Back to you, Stuart. I'll speak to everyone later on. Thanks, Brad. So just at the top, we like to just give you an overview, I think, of the podcast market and and our business model. Again, something that that many of you know about, but there's there's continual changes. So just reviewing every three months is is a good thing. And for anyone new to podcasting or new to AUDIOBOOM, this is just a a great little overview for you. So I I think, as I said this last time and and not too much has changed here, but I think the the the key part for anyone thinking about investing in in AUDIOBOOM is really understanding what the big opportunity here is. The podcast industry is growing fast, and the revenue from podcasting globally is set to quadruple by 2030.

4:04 So $4,000,000,000, podcast industry globally was worth last year. It was set to get to $16,000,000,000 in in 2030. So I think tremendous opportunity in the space. And AUDIOBOOM is one of only a few publicly traded podcast companies, is a fantastic way to be exposed to this fast growing medium. And it's really being driven the growth of the medium really is being driven by audience. People love podcasting. I'm sure you all listen to podcasts. I'm sure you've all begun to listen to podcasts over the last four, five, seven, ten years. And it's that love of podcasting that is driving this this value opportunity. So in the last four years, the number of podcast listeners these are US numbers, but it's somewhat reflected around the world, and The US has been kind of the the leader here in podcasting.

4:59 So it's coming a little faster in The US. But podcast listeners have grown by 47% in the past four years. And then I think just as importantly, the amount of time each one of those listeners spends listening to podcasting has grown by 50% over the past four years. So more people listening. All of those people are now listening for for much longer before, and what that means is that total podcast consumption is is growing significantly. So from around half a billion hours of consumption on a monthly basis in 2019 to over 1,200,000,000 of of podcast consumption in in 2023. So a 120 increase in podcast consumption, and that will lead to growth in the medium over the coming six years, and we'll see this industry grow very quickly and get to $16,000,000,000 by 2030.

5:53 So that's the opportunity, and AUDIOBOOM plays a very key part in that podcasting industry. We are a platform business, and we do something that is very important for for the space. We create value by combining and connecting content and the content creators with audience and with advertisers. So those are three very key parts that drive value in in in any media, but in particular, in in podcasting because this is an independent creator medium. So, you know, podcasting is not driven necessarily by major broadcast companies. It's driven by independent creators. They need a platform like AUDIOBOOM to connect their work and their content with audience through our distribution methods and our marketing methods that gets their content out to all of the listening apps. So Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, wherever listeners are consuming podcasts, it's AUDIOBOOM that powers that distribution. So we get that that content out to the audience, and then we connect that content with advertisers.

6:54 So we have sales teams in house and external sales partners, and we have a marketplace that we are building out called Showcase. Those routes are connecting demand advertising demand with that content, allowing the monetization to happen. We do that very efficiently at scale through the AUDIOBOOM platform. And as I said, it's very scalable, so it doesn't need a lot more investment to grow this thing to two, three times the size that that that it is today. So that's the part that AUDIOBOOM plays, very key part in in in podcasting, and we've done that very successfully over the the past five or six years. We have grown this business in terms of revenue from just $6,000,000 in in 2017, and we are focused on on getting that number up to around $79,000,000 in 2024.

7:43 So 44% average growth over the last six years. And I think you can see what the opportunity is here. Right? We're in a good place today, but with the industry growing at 22% a year between now and and 2030, there's a huge opportunity to take this business forward and to to be a a key part of of of podcasting in in 2030. And this is a $260,000,000 revenue opportunity that that that we're sitting on here, I think. So great potential ahead of us. Great opportunity ahead of us. Our platform works. It's scalable. It's delivered in the past. It will continue to deliver in the future. And and podcasting, as I think you'll agree, is just a fantastic medium that it's good to be part of, and audio boom plays a great role in the industry.

8:34 So that's the the the the industry and the model. And a quick look at that, you can ask me any more questions on on our model and what's happening in the podcast space at the end. Get those questions in now. I think the second part, we will go through our trading update that we released today and and look at that in a little bit more detail. So I think the key numbers, first few bullets on on that trading are based around revenue, profits, and cash. And the key numbers here are $34,100,000 of revenue in the first half of twenty twenty four. And like I said, I'm really pleased with that number. You know, a a few parts here to break down. I think firstly is that q two here was our third successive period of year on year revenue growth. So I think what that is a sign off for me is this resilience and this rebound from a very deep advertising market recession that began in early to mid twenty twenty two and and lasted throughout 2023.

9:38 It really reduced demand in in the advertising space. It was obviously all linked to global economics and the cost of living crisis. That made advertisers step back from from all media, not just podcasting, but podcasting was was impacted. And to come back from that and show growth in three successive periods, I think, is a really good sign that that ad market recession is is behind us at this point that we can focus on on further growth going forward. 7% growth in the first half of this year versus last year in line with our competitors. So the interactive advertising bureau puts out a podcast revenue study on an annual basis, and we are in line with with with the the wider industry.

10:25 Now I think one key part here is that we do expect our growth to go beyond the 7%. So we do expect to see our growth rate accelerate in q and beyond. So not only are we kind of in this place, you know, in in line with our competitors, but we are expecting to go beyond that in in the current in the coming period. So, yeah, I'm pleased with the $34,100,000 of revenue. We'll talk a little bit about some kind of limiting factors on that and some challenges coming up. But as a as a starting place for 2024, I think we're in a good spot there. On the the EBITDA front, $300,000 of adjusted EBITDA profit.

11:10 Again, third successive quarter of being back in adjusted EBITDA positivity. So, again, another great sign here, I think, that those ad market challenges that reduced revenue, reduced took away our profitability, that's behind us now, and and we're continuing to to grow that EBITDA number. We expect that to accelerate in in q three and q four again as as revenue revenue grows alongside that. So we have a very fixed cost base in the business. Brad will talk more about that coming up, but that will just allow a gearing effect of higher revenue in the second half of this year to to flow through to to accelerated EBITDA growth as well. And then finally, the cash number. Obviously, you know, we've operated this business for a number of years now on relatively low cash reserves, but that cash number remains stable. 3,500,000 in the bank at the half year, up slightly from from the end of March, the last time we reported that.

12:25 And we have a further $1,900,000 available to us in an overdraft facility, which we are yet to to to to touch. So we have the, you know, cash cash needs for sorry, cash reserves for any, you know, current needs that we have and key numbers, I think. Again, any questions on those ones, let me know. Ready for the q and a at the end. As anyone that's followed AUDIOBOOM for a number of years now will know, we we release three KPIs with each of our quarterly updates, and those KPIs will often tell the the story of the business and and and performance of the business. So I'll talk through each one of those in a little more detail over the next three slides. The first KPI is what we call eCPM, and this is the amount of value, the the monetary value that we extract from every 1,000 downloads on our platform.

13:21 It's really a sign of how strong our monetization engine is, how well we are optimizing our advertising inventory. And as you'll see here on the chart on the left hand side, we have, you know, grown that ECPM number since early twenty twenty very significantly. You see the drop off there that I've highlighted. That's the ad market recession. You see the ad market recession kick in and really take effect in early twenty twenty three, And you see the drop down in in that that value, and, you know, that value is affected when we can sell less advertising and the pricing for those ads is is reduced. So that ad market recession led to that. And then you can see the bounce back over the the the last three quarters. We've actually kind of gone on to improve that eCPM number. So you can almost see from there that we are past that ad market recession and very much looking forward to the future.

14:14 And that number, the $60 number, $60 and and 9¢ number from the the last quarter is a record ECPM number for us. It's up 38% versus the same period last year. So the amount of value that we now extract from every 1,000 downloads is is stronger than ever before. So how did we get there? How did we do that?

14:36 Well, I think our showcase product is is the kind of the key driver of this eCPM growth. Showcase is our secondary ad product. It's an ad tech based marketplace that we have built over the the past four years, and it's really been instrumental in allowing us to optimize our inventory and improve that ECPM number. You look at the the the the data points here, and I think it really tells that story. So Showcase has delivered itself 37 revenue growth since h one of last year. It now makes up or contributes more than 27% of our entire group revenue, up from 21% last year and really up from zero just a few years ago. So we've seen tremendous growth of of of that showcase ad product.

15:28 And within showcase, we've improved our pricing significantly since since last year as well. 40% price increase in showcase since last year as well. So those three things combined equal that record ECPM number. And going forward, as our network starts to grow, it now means that every thousand new downloads in our network is more valuable to us than than ever before. So I'm really pleased with that eCPM number. It's just a sign that we continue to be more of a premium product than our competitors, and we start to really focus, I think, on quality within showcase because of those pricing increases moving forward. Our second c p KPI is our brand count number, how many customers we have, how many brands advertise across our network in AUDIOBOOM.

16:20 And, again, on the left hand side here, you'll see that brand count number of the the past four years. You'll see that growing very quickly from early twenty twenty one. That growth has been, again, driven by showcase. Showcase is a very easy and efficient way for brands and advertisers to come in and to test AUDIOBOOM and to advertise with an AUDIOBOOM. So you've seen strong growth there over the past few years. And then what you've seen over the last year is something of a plateauing of that brand count number. Right? It's it's been in and around the 8,000 mark over the past four or five quarters. And that, again, comes from our focus, I think, on quality and and and not just quantity. So we launched almost a year ago now our new brand awareness team.

17:11 That team is an in house team, and they are their assignment really is to go and establish relationships and create partnerships with big blue chip customers who are robust, who have high budgets, who are not affected by global economics in the same way that many traditional podcast advertisers are. And that team has brought in these blue chip brands. They now advertise with us through showcase, and they've come into the network into this brand count number. At the same time, our pricing has therefore gone up because we work with these these bigger brands, and it's meant that we've churned weaker brands, smaller brands that cannot necessarily afford to buy advertising within our network, and they have churned out the the the bottom of this brand count number. So the brand count numbers remain very steady, but the brands within that customer set are stronger, more robust, bigger spenders than than we previously had. So that has led to that 40% increase in showcase pricing that I've showed you before because we're bringing those blue chip brands in, and they execute their ad campaigns through showcase.

18:20 And it just means that we have a more robust customer base, a premium product to gain that focus on quality over quantity is is gonna come through, I think, in everything that that I show you today. Our final KPI is our downloads met metrics. So this is the amount of consumption that that happens through the AUDIOBOOM creator network creator network, how many downloads all of our shows generate, how much consumption there is on a monthly basis. And we again, on the left hand side here, you'll see that the chart that highlights the the last four years, strong growth, consistent growth over those last four years until q four of of last year, and I've highlighted it again there on the left hand side.

19:10 And that dip on our download number is due to a change that Apple made to their podcast app, their podcast listening app. Now around 40% of total consumption comes or did come from that Apple podcast listening app. In October of of last year, Apple released a new operating system called iOS 17, and within that release was a change to how their podcast app downloaded content. And it meant that content was no longer automatically downloaded for users if they were not listening or interacting with a certain podcast channel for for an amount of time. And that has materially changed the way that downloading happens across the industry.

19:55 It's had a downward impact on download numbers across the industry, around a 32% decrease in in total downloads, and that's from a POD news analysis that that happened earlier this year. AUDIOBOOM's download number has decreased by around 23%. So we haven't you know, the net effect has has has been for us, has has not been as severe as our competitors. And you'll see that here on, you know, on our on this ranker. This is the Triton digital ranker. Over this last period, AUDIOBOOM has actually moved up that ranker despite our total number of downloads going down. We've moved up that ranker. We haven't been as impacted as many of our competitors. We've added new shows to our network, brought in new shows into that network to give us, you know, more downloads and and and more consumption, and that's meant that we have moved up that ranker and then closed the gap as well on fourth place wondering who are above us. So while on one hand, you're seeing that download number come down, you can see that within the industry, we are actually improving our position.

21:05 And from a previous slide, you will know now that each one of those downloads is worth more than it ever has done. So, again, it's that focus not just on the quantity of downloads, but the quality of each one of those downloads. Now I did note, I think, in the in the report that we estimate that our revenue could have been around $9,000,000 higher for for for '20 for the first half of twenty twenty four had that change from Apple not not come about. And we are think we really highlight that to to to show what we have built and how we are operating is better than ever before, but there was an external very frustrating external factor in play here that just limited us. I'd have loved to have been reporting you today revenue in, you know, above 40,000,000, but we had that limiting effect because of of of that change that was that was out of our control. And we get to that 9,000,000 number very simply because revenue is a combination

22:06 of the amount that you have of inventory that you have to sell, the demand for that inventory, and the price of that inventory. And if all you know, if the demand and and the pricing is is exactly where it is today because of that reduction on the downloads and the available inventory that we have to sell, that gets us to that $9,000,000 number. So the monetization engine works really well. We were just limited on what we had available to sell during this first half of of of the year. But I want you guys to all really focus on this idea of, you know, quality over quantity again. We've continued to move up the ranker despite coming down in pure download numbers, but each one of those downloads now worth more to us than ever before.

22:53 And I'll pass you over to Brad for a few slides now. Brad's gonna go deeper on some of our finances. Thanks, Brad. Thank you, Stuart. Hi again, everyone. From the top, I just apologize for my annoying cough today. If I go silent for a period, I'm just getting that under control. But let's try and get through this without too much drama. But in terms of revenue, it's great to see the company report its third successive quarter of year on year revenue growth following that as market downturn that we saw in the second half of twenty twenty two and through last year. That growth of 7% is in line, as you would say, says with the IAB revenue study forecast for the industry. Showcase clearly stand out performance in the first half of this year, 37% increase, which which is testament to the hard work the team put in through this year. I think from a from an EBITDA perspective as well, the higher gross margin that we recognize on on showcase revenue, You you can expect that to be a key area of focus for us over the coming months and years.

24:00 I think we started to see that in the first six months of this year as well, given that 37% growth on showcase versus the 7% growth that we've seen in Sonic Integrated Marketing, our podcast advertising agency subsidiary. Now given where we were this time last year, any growth across the, you know, the areas of revenue that we have in light of the challenges we face. Any any revenue growth is, you know, it should be welcomed, but given the differences in gross margin generated, 30% from showcase versus 15% from Sonic, it's clear what an acceleration of growth from Showcase can do to the bottom line performance of the business. Once again, as I've repeatedly said, over the last couple of years, OpEx base continues to be very well controlled with Q2 being 2,800,000.

24:53 There's minimal movement on that line over the last couple of years despite inflationary pressures. There doesn't need to be any major OpEx investment in this company in the coming years. We always run a very, very tight ship. And when our dollars do material return, we'll see that, you know, really positively impact the the bottom line. The cost structure that we have continues to be very simplistic. 60% of our cost base goes on staff salaries and commissions. Overall, in the first half of the year, staff costs increased by 11% to 3,400,000 due to 100,000 of higher commission costs for sales staff, also we recognize that higher amount of revenue, And also, staff salaries increased by 200,000 due to cost of living salary increases from January 1 and also the additional heads that we've hired in the year.

25:46 We ended June on 42 staff, That compares to 39 a year ago. So we announced earlier on this year two new sales hires, Sean and Molly joining the team, to drive that revenue number higher. There's no major headcount changes planned for the rest of this or next year. That increase in staff costs and commission costs largely offset with a reduction, as we said in the Q1 report, reduction in our technology costs, which reduced by 12% year on year, mainly due to that impact of iOS 17 of the bandwidth and ad impression costs which we incur to serve advertising. They have reduced by around a 130 in the first half of this year versus last. So when you see those Bandwidth numbers decreasing, obviously, that has put a limit on the revenue that we can recognize.

26:38 But from a cost perspective, obviously, it has a positive impact within OpEx. I'd rather have the revenue, but there is a positive impact within OpEx. Just monitoring a few of the questions that have come in. I can address a couple of those now. There's one from Andrew there in terms of transition to greater EBITDA. When does that come? I think we can see that from this slide stable OpEx base that we've got. Once we start to see that revenue number increase, we'd expect that to flow through to EBITDA. The other aspect is once our current tranche of MG contracts unwind as well, not the onerous ones, which I will refer to shortly, but the ones that we're utilizing our gross margin to satisfy the contract. Once those unwind over the next eighteen months or so, you'll start to see gross margin improve, and importantly is why you'll see that EBITDA number increase.

27:33 You you only have to go back a couple of years, 2021, 2022, reporting 60,000,000 and $75,000,000 of revenue, and the EBITDA was over over 3,000,000 each of those years. So you can clearly see what we're trying to work towards here. Another update as well is on I had a question on this and also brought to address it is on the onerous contracts as well. So last year, provided for future estimated losses of two partner contracts that were signed prior to the out of market downturn. The update today is that the provision we made last year to offset the future losses of those two contracts has meant that there's no impact to the losses incurred in the first half of this year on the income statement for the first half. So the net loss incurred of 2,600,000 for those two contracts has been offset by the provision we created last year, hence no impact on the income statement. And you'll be able see that on the bottom line as well, which is much improved.

28:25 So at the end of end of last year, we had a 7,500,000 provision. That's now been reduced to 4,900,000. Those two contracts will end in January and December 2025, each month that goes by. Our exposure is gradually unwinding on those two contracts. So the team's doing a great job in terms of renewing and restructuring any MG related contracts. We'll be utilizing some of our gross margin to start by the contract. As I said earlier, we'd expect our gross margin to start to improve 2025 through to 2026. In terms of our net loss, as well as you'll see from today's update, that reduced from a net loss of 10,600,000 for the first six months of last year to 1,300,000 for the first six months of this year. The loss last year was mainly due to the provision and the net loss of those two onerous contracts I referred to just now.

29:13 What's pleasing this year is that the loss of 1,300,000, around 1,000,000 of that, is due to an accounting entry for the share options that we've issued to staff in this and in recent years. Surely, got a much improved set of results this time around versus this time last year. Lots to positive about. Let's go on to the next slide. So in terms of working capital, an update on this is that cash increased by 400,000 to 3,500,000 at the end of June this year. That cash balance has been, as we can see here on the graph on the right hand side, relatively stable over the last twelve months. The finance team doing an incredible job really to to manage that cash with the headwinds that we faced in the ad market, challenges that we've had with minimum guarantee contracts. You know, we fulfilled all of those contracts and honored all contractual minimum guarantee payments during that time.

30:10 Collections continue to perform very well: £35,000,000 in the first half of this year collected, 2,500,000 up on the first half of last year, 103% of revenue booked we've collected in the first six months of the year, and that's driven down the debt a day from 81 at the end of twenty twenty three to 71 at the end of June. I expect that to start creeping up as we go through the second half of this year, with our target to be maintaining that below 90. In terms of what's coming next, well, our cash balance needs to facilitate a million dollar contractual advance in the third quarter of this year, so you'll see that in the cash numbers when we come to October reporting q three. That will take our advances for this year to 1,600,000. That's lower than the 2,300,000 we we spent on advances last year, and we expect twenty twenty five to be lower again.

31:00 So, again, that's another bit of evidence for you in terms of the contract restructuring we're implementing to reduce cash required for podcast talent contracts. We still have our £1,900,000 overdraft to assist our working capital if required, that's undrawn, but that facility was renewed in May of this year through to May 2025. Hopefully, you can see that we've outlined there. You can clearly see we're heading in the right direction to continue to deliver revenue and EBITDA growth. Just testament to the team and all that, what they're doing to generate that growth. Hopefully, I've addressed a couple of questions as we've gone through. If there's anything else, please send those in. As we go through the session, also be contacted on email as well if there's anything specific about the numbers that you've that you've seen today.

31:46 Good. Got through with that coughing. Honey and lemon does work. So back to you, Stuart. Thank you, Brad. Couple more slides then from us before we can do some more q and a's. I think these next two really just talk about what we're focused on operationally, what we see kind of coming up across the the rest of the year, really. You know, I think the first thing that we are always focused on is is network growth, but more than ever before, knowing that we've had this Apple iOS impact has brought down the size of our network. But we we do continue to to retain and and and bring new podcasters to the AUDIOBOOM creator network. In fact, you know, I was talking about it just the other day. We've done a tremendous job of retaining podcast talent. We did not lose one major when I say major, I think really I'm talking about top 100 shows. Didn't we didn't lose one major podcast over the past twelve months. We've retained all of those relationships. We have signed those podcasters into multiyear deals.

32:53 Podcasters love working with AUDIOBOOM. We continue to retain all of those shows that we work with and sign new ones. So you will have seen just a week ago, we announced a new slate of podcasts joining the AUDIOBOOM network. Those signings will add another 4,000,000 plus monthly downloads to to the network. We have a very good pipeline of business out of our key relationships with the talent agents, the Hollywood talent agents, UTA, WME, and CAA. They bring us opportunity. We work with their clients, and we build business together. So continue to expect to or do expect to see that network growing. And we don't really kind of see any material further impact of of iOS. Now it will continue to limit or or or kind of put that cap on on revenue performance upside. Right? We said 9,000,000 in the first half versus what it would have been without iOS, and and that will will will remain.

33:52 But we do expect to to see no further real deepening of the of of the decrease on the the download number because of of iOS. And that does actually lead to to a question that that just came in about whether we we see the Apple change continuing to to hurt downloads. And I think that the for more detail on that, I I think that we were perhaps, I think, as an industry, you know, I I I think taking a little bit surprised by, like, how long the lag has been. We really saw this reach the the the bottom, I think, in in in April, May, so six months after the iOS release. And we see where that happens. Right? It was released, then everyone needs to adopt the iOS, and and then listening habits have to change.

34:39 People have to stop listening to podcasts. And then once they've stopped listening for five episodes, then the automated downloads stop happening. So there was a really long lag time there, and that that's why you're kind of seeing those download numbers go down. But I think, you know, to the question here and to the point I've I've made on the slide, I think we do we we have seen the bottom in q two. We're confident that we we have seen the the the bottom in q two on those download numbers. July downloads, I mean, we're twenty two, twenty three days in. They're trending towards or to be ahead of any individual month from q two in terms of what the download number will be. So I feel like we did reach that that bottom in q two. July is ahead of that, and that's despite the July 4 holiday here. So downloads going back in the right direction, continuing to sign new shows to to take them even even further. As we know, each one of those downloads is is now now more valuable to us than than ever before.

35:41 So network growth, building back that that network is is is a key part of our focus going forward. Showcase, as I've explained, I think today is just doing exceptionally well, and we'll continue to to build showcase. Our pricing strategy in there is working 40% pricing growth just over the the last year with within showcase. So that's down to those newer, bigger, robust blue chip customers coming in there, being driven by our our brand awareness team. As Brad mentioned, we've we've invested in that brand awareness team again earlier this year, and we're really seeing traction there. Now we have ad campaigns, you know, coming through that team from the likes of Progressive Insurance, huge insurance company here in The US, eBay, Airbnb, PepsiCo. There's much bigger, more robust advertisers than the traditional traditional smaller disruptor brands that that that that were in podcasting previously. So great work there from that blue chip brand awareness team.

36:46 I just noted it here, but I'll I'll mention it. We're now working with 10 of the biggest top fifth top 15 agencies in in The US. So those blue chip brands often represented by, you know, top tier advertising agencies that we are and now working very closely with. Our revenue for the year, I think one key point that you'll have seen in the in the the update this morning was that we have on our books today just over $65,000,000 of revenue for the year. That is up $10,000,000 from from from the the q one trading update. So over the last three months, we've added $10,000,000 to to that that that bookings number.

37:30 Where we're at today, that 65,000,000, that is equal to the entirety of last year's revenue. So we we we've reached that today. Anything we add, anything we book from this point forwards just translates to growth. So we're on that path to growth. We know we're growing this year. We expect growth to to to accelerate, and we do expect q four in particular, I think, to to to to be very strong. So so 2024 look looking good as we move into the the second half of of the year. Brad's mentioned this a little bit, but we continue to restructure our creator contracts, making them more favorable to AUDIOBOOM, removing minimum guarantee obligations, which just makes everything less risky, more safer for for for the business. Now we we still have to offer minimum guarantees to the biggest podcasters in the world to get them to come on and work with AUDIOBOOM. It's a competitive landscape, but we do that in a in a in a much kind of risk less risky way and a more kind of equitable way, I think, with those podcast partners. So we're able to work with them to offer them more of our services, more distribution, more marketing that allows us to to just manage and be more conservative around those minimum guarantees that that we are offering, the the biggest of of creators out there.

38:53 And I got a ton of questions on this, so I'll I'll save it for the q and a. But you'll have seen in the the update today, we talked about how the board is actively exploring what a US listing could look like for this business. We've all, I think, recognize that this company is somewhat undervalued, and it's the time is right to explore that more formally. So we mentioned that today. I've got a few questions, and we'll get to those in in a moment. But that's really the focus for for the company. Like I said, this the engine that we have, the platform that we've built is stronger than ever before. We're coming through that advertising, and we're almost through that advertising market recession. The company is ready to fly. Think Brad noted that when he was talking about that gearing effect on on on the EBITDA piece.

39:45 We we don't need to take on too many more costs to start, you know, as as we scale up this business. So we will see that that effect coming through. AUDIOBOOM's in a in a great place, I think, and we're really excited about the future. Perfect. Stuart, Brad, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I would just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can all be accessed via your investor dashboard. Brad, Stuart, as you can see there, we have received a number of questions throughout your presentation this afternoon.

40:33 And thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. But, guys, at this point, if I may just hand back to you just to read out those questions and give your responses where it's appropriate to do so, and And then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Jake. So let's let's tackle that one first. I'll I'll read you the first question on it, but there were were a few others. I'll answer Andrew P's question as part of this as well, I think, and and somewhat more. But first question just says, you first mentioned a few months ago that you thought the business may be valued more fairly in in America, today's release mentioned it too. When will this happen? Pulling a putting a timeline on this different is difficult, but just to step it back. Look. I think you know my frustration in our valuation. I've talked about it on a number of of these of of these calls, you know, relative to transactions in the space, relative to our publicly traded peers, we we are, obviously, I think, fairly undervalued.

41:34 And it's not really just purely from my point of view, a frustration in that number, that valuation number. It it's what it limits us to to to do as a business. Right? One advantage of being publicly traded is the ability to, you know, use stock to make acquisitions, but that's really been impossible over these past five years. You know, this is a platform business. We've talked about it today. It's a platform business. It's perfect for rolling up other companies, putting them on on top and and scaling this up and forward. But every time we've identified a target and tried to move into a process, our share price has made it pretty impossible to do because using shares as part of that transaction would be too dilutive. I think similarly, investing in accelerated growth has been pretty impossible for us because we've operated the company on a small cash balance for a number of years, raising money at these prices too dilutive. So isn't hasn't been something that we can do. So very frustrating, I think, not just from a, you know, a valuation perspective, but how it limits us operationally with a platform business.

42:49 So, look, that's why time is right to more formally explore and investigate this. Operationally, we are a US business. As I said at the top, 95% of of our revenue comes out of of The US. I I do believe The US perhaps understands the media market and the media industry and the technology industry a little more, and so it'd be a good place for us to to to be exposed. As for when, I think I think that's complex. There's a lot to explore first, but I think that we are now more formally kind of taking consultation on that and how to approach it and the processes and the requirements behind it. So I think it's, you know, it it's it's front of mind for the board for sure.

43:44 I guess linked to that because we talked about valuations, a question here from Luke, says, if you've if, you know, if you do believe that the company is undervalued, why have why have you and the rest of the board not bought shares? I I can't speak for anyone else on the board, but for me, obviously, comes down to personal finances. I think many of you will know that I have bought shares in and around this level in in in the past, but personally, that's not possible right now. But we all believe, I think, that that this is this is undervalued, and know, I would be buying if I had that ability right now, I think.

44:31 What else do we have here? Asks, are we seeing lower advertising demand in in in The US? No. I think the advertising demand in The US is stronger than it has been over the last two years. We've worked through the ad market recession. Even though we've improved pricing in our showcased model, the demand is is still there to to back it up. So I think we will we'll continue to see good demand in in in The US. And think this speaks to a question that came in here from Danny g, which says, how much will the US election boost the business in the second half of the sorry. He didn't answer that question, but it is part part of part of of what he was talking about was that demand. So, yeah, the US election obviously coming up. Q four is very seasonally strong for AUDIOBOOM anyway because of the NFL season and the holidays, but I think this year, we are expecting it to be our best ever quarter because of the additional ad demand around the election.

45:45 We've done a really good job, I think, over the last twelve to eighteen months of of building out a slate of political programming. So we have shows like politics war room, the bull war, Hacks on Tap. Those will undoubtedly see audience boosts in the in the run up to the election campaigns. Podcasting, I think, as a whole will capture some of that political spend, but it isn't set up to do that the way that that US TV and radio is. So, you know, I think what I mean by that is podcasting is a is a kind of independent creative medium. So it's, like, highly attuned to the personality of the host, and that puts limits and restrictions on where and how that political advertising can can run. It's not just a case of selling a political ad campaign and then running it across the entire network, which would be dangerous, what we actually have is quite a heavy lift process there. We have to match podcasters up to the messaging that sits right for them without harming their audience. So it's a much heavier lift process, I think, capturing those political dollars, but we will. And I think, overall, podcasting will leave some political dollars on the table, but that's that's probably the right thing to do in order to protect and preserve the medium.

47:07 Overall, though, the effect of the election will be positive on our network. And I do think it will be a bumper q '4. And going back to Sid's question, demand will be very high, I think, to towards the end of the year. I think that's all the the the the questions that I have here. So any more, you can send them in. We can answer these offline towards the end. But, hopefully, that got through a bunch of them before we have to go. Perfect. Stuart, Brad, that's great. And thank you very much indeed for addressing all of those questions that came in from investors this afternoon. Of course, we will give you back all of the questions that were submitted this afternoon just for you to review to then add any additional responses, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. And we'll publish all those responses out on the platform.

47:59 But, Stuart, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great. Thanks, Jay. Yeah. Look. I think today's results are really about, like, drawing a line in the sand around the ad market recession that's limited our performance for the last couple of years. Three straight periods of back you know, return to revenue growth and EBITDA profit highlight that we have stepped beyond that. Now the business is built to to to grow quicker moving forward, so we expect accelerated revenue growth in the second part of this year. We expect gearing of the the EBITDA number across the second part of of of the year. And you've seen it there before. Podcasting isn't going away. It's continuing to grow. We are a leader, biggest independent podcast business globally.

48:55 We, as a publicly traded company, are the best way to be invested in the fastest growing medium media medium in the world. So, you know, we're a great place to be, and as I said, but still believe we are undervalued, and there should be significant upside and opportunity going forward. Stuart, that's great. And thank you once again for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of AUDIOBOOM GROUP PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation.

49:41 That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.