Newsmax, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Good afternoon, and welcome to Newsmax's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I am joined today by Chris Ruddy, Chief Executive Officer, and Darryl Burnham, Chief Financial Officer. On this call, Chris and Darryl will provide prepared remarks on the most recent quarter. We will then take questions from the investment community. A recording of this conference call will be available on our investor relations website shortly after the call has ended. Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements regarding Newsmax's financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management's current expectations. Actual results could differ from what is stated due to certain factors identified on today's call and in the company's SEC filings. Additionally, this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Reconciliations of these measures are included in the earnings release and our SEC filings, which are available in the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Chris Ruddy, Chief Executive Officer of Newsmax.

Chris? Thank you, Chris, and welcome everyone to our second quarter 2026 earnings call.

The story of the second quarter is simple. We did what we said we would do and more. Revenue came in at a record $54.1 million, up 16.5% year-over-year. For the first time as a public company, Newsmax was profitable. We delivered net income for the quarter of $2.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of $5.7 million. Let me put the profitability in perspective. The one-time costs of becoming a public company and legal costs are now largely behind us. These numbers carry less noise and give a cleaner view of the business. We are encouraged by what we see and will look to invest behind this growth. We remain in strategic investment mode. That will not change. We are also seeing growth in key areas of our business.

Broadcast revenue rose 20.5% to $45.8 million, led by our higher-margin affiliate fees and licensing. Overall, the value creation opportunities of our multi-platform model are showing positive results. Our audience tells the same story. Despite the post-cycle normalization, total viewership rose again. We reached 26.9 million total viewers, up 4% year-over-year. This represents our highest second quarter reach in the past four years. Our total viewers also include 11.3 million adults 35 to 64. We remain the fourth highest-rated cable news channel and rank number 2 in the category for engagement among adults 35 to 64. Even when the news cycle slows, our viewers stay with us, and we continue to grow. Our audience is highly loyal. That is one of the great strengths of the Newsmax brand.

The way people find news is not standing still, and neither are we. We maintain a strong presence on social media. Our growth there is resilient. Total followers climbed over 28% year-over-year to over 26 million. This shift in news consumption has also increasingly been moving to AI, and we continue to be at the forefront in meeting viewers where their preferences evolve. We are excited about our multi-year AI content partnership with Meta. Our journalism and reporting will help power AI answers across Meta's ecosystem, social, streaming, AI. We see this as the beginning of our AI efforts, and it's nice to start with a bang by partnering with one of the largest online companies in the nation. None of this works without a solid foundation.

Newsmax is the fastest-growing basic cable network since Nielsen began measuring us in 2020, up more than 280% across key day parts. That broadcast strength is what allows us to invest in the rest of the platform. Even as consumption shifts across platforms, there is still a strong place for linear news. We are well-positioned to maintain that presence. Streaming continues to be a strategic focus for us. It's a key investment area and the next frontier of our business evolution. On our year-end call, we said Newsmax+ needed stronger content and more on-demand programming and that we would put resources behind it. We have. The Newsmax+ catalog now tops 300 titles, including broadening our content library of family-friendly content, including more new original premium specials and documentaries.

Newsmax2, our free streaming channel, keeps gaining ground on the major platforms, with news hours continuing to grow. Subscription revenue is still an area we are building. You will be hearing a lot more about those efforts in the months ahead. We will keep taking deliberate steps to improve engagement, strengthen retention, and translate the expanded lineup into subscriber growth. Our international business is building rapidly. In 2025, we reported $3.6 million in international licensing fees. This year, we expect fees of about $16 million, a 344% increase. During the past quarter, we officially launched Newsmax Polska, solidifying our already vast distribution footprint in more than 100 countries. These are true partnerships. The operators know their markets, run the channels locally, and license the Newsmax brand. We provide our high-quality content and the editorial framework. It is a capital-efficient way to add value for all parties, especially the viewers.

Most importantly, we are bringing independent center-right journalism to these underserved audiences around the world. We believe Newsmax can become a truly global news brand, and we are building toward exactly that. Looking ahead, we are reiterating our full year 2026 revenue guidance of $212 million to $216 million, representing 13% growth at the midpoint. We continue to expect this growth to be structural, not cyclical, led by affiliate fee expansion and licensing. We also expect the full-year operating profile to improve compared to 2025. Let me close with the big picture. Nearly half the country feels underserved by legacy media, with trust at an all-time low. The center-right audience is underserved both domestically and internationally. That creates a significant and durable opportunity. This audience is not shrinking, and few media companies can reach it with the scale, credibility, and multi-platform presence of Newsmax.

We deliver independent, values-driven journalism across cable, streaming, and digital. Our social audience is large and highly engaged. Our reach continues to expand. We are also positioning Newsmax at the forefront of emerging technology as AI becomes a more important channel for news discovery and consumption. I like to say that Newsmax is leading a news revolution, and I don't say it lightly. We continue to grow, reach millions of Americans digitally, on social, and on TV, both linear and streaming, as well as through our Plus service, podcasting, and radio, and now in a very robust way across the globe. This quarter showed that the foundation of our revolution is stronger than ever. Record revenue, a growing international footprint, our first profitable quarter as a public company, a strong cash position and debt-free balance sheet, financial flexibility to support investments in content and growth.

We are operating from a position of strength, and we are excited about the journey ahead. To our readers, our viewers, our advertisers, and you, our shareholders, thank you. With that, I will turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Darryl Burnham, to walk through the financials.

Darryl? Thank you, Chris, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today.

As Chris highlighted, we delivered record revenues and our first quarterly net income since becoming a public company. The way we got there is just as important as the result. Our revenue mix continued to shift toward affiliate fee and licensing revenues, and higher rates across both expanded gross margin to 43.1% from 38% in the prior year quarter. We are also operating with better visibility, absence of the prior year legal settlement expense allowing strong top-line growth to flow through to the bottom line. Importantly, profitability does not change our investment plans. Our capital allocation priorities remain focused on supporting long-term growth, which includes investment in programming, talent, technology, distribution, digital initiatives, and other strategic opportunities. With improved visibility into our cost base, our focus is on sustaining this operating leverage as we continue to grow.