Getty Images Holdings, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call
Review the key takeaways and the transcript of this earnings call.
- Getty Images reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $229.1 million, down 2.5% reported and down 4.1% on a currency neutral basis.
- The decline was driven by ongoing challenges in the agency business and iStock, with agency revenue down 13% and iStock impacted by search engine referral traffic declines due to AI-generated answers.
- Annual subscription revenue grew 7.1% to represent 58.8% of total revenue, driven primarily by premium access subscriptions, which grew 5.5%.
- Editorial revenue increased 9.2% year over year, supported by strong demand for event-driven content such as the FIFA World Cup and archive content.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $62.3 million, down 8.4%, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 27.2%, compared to 28.9% in Q2 2025.
- Free cash flow was negative $122.6 million, primarily due to a $110.9 million payment related to the Alta and Crcm warrant litigation judgment.
- Getty Images ended the quarter with $51.6 million in cash and total debt outstanding of $2.1 billion.
- The company redeemed $628.4 million of 10.5% senior secured notes following the termination of the Shutterstock merger and drew an additional $30 million on its revolving credit facility.
- The company saw growth in its corporate and media service segments, which represent three quarters of its revenue, and in Unsplash Plus subscriptions, which grew over 15% year over year.
STOCKNOW INSIGHTS
Continue with outlook and guidance.
Log in to unlock executive comments and Q&A highlights.
Log in for the full summaryStockNow uses AI to translate and summarize earnings calls. Accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed.
Transcript
Preview the first five paragraphs, organized by speaker.
Afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Getty Images' second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Just a reminder, today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Steven Kanner, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury at Getty Images.
Please go ahead, sir. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call.
Joining me on today's call are Craig Peters, Chief Executive Officer, and Jen Leyden, Chief Financial Officer. This call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, including the determination by the company not to provide earnings guidance at this time, are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions which could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks, uncertainties, and assumptions are highlighted in the forward-looking statements section of today's press release and in our filings with the SEC. Links to these filings and today's press release can be found on our investor relations website at investors.gettyimages.com. During our call today, we will also reference certain non-GAAP financial information, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted EBITDA less CapEx, and Free Cash Flow.
We use non-GAAP measures in some of our financial discussions as we believe they represent our operational performance and underlying results of our business. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures, as well as the description, limitations, and rationale for using each measure, can be found in today's press release and our filings with the SEC. With that, I will hand the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Craig Peters.
Thanks, Steven, and thank you to everyone making time for this call. Q2 results are not where we wanted them to be, but I'm excited to have regained our focus as a standalone company to begin the work on improving liquidity and reducing debt, and to be the source for authentic, authoritative, high-quality visual content and coverage for quality-conscious customers around the globe. We believe that Getty Images is a great business with significant opportunities and a challenged balance sheet. Addressing the balance sheet and our liquidity is our immediate priority. Let me start with the factors that impacted the quarter. The cumulative real and opportunity costs of pursuing and planning for the Shutterstock merger, combined with the continued market challenges across our agency and iStock e-commerce business, weighed on our Q2 results. Second quarter revenue for 2026 was $229.1 million.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Continue the full translated transcript in StockNow.
Log in to unlock every statement, the English original, and speaker-by-speaker history.
Log in for the full transcriptCall participants
4 people spoke on this call — only 2 are shown here.
PARTICIPANT LIST
View participant details in StockNow.
Log in to see executives and analysts, their roles, and complete speaking history.
Log in to view all participantsKeep exploring