Earnings Call Transcript - IHRT Q4 2021

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the iHeartMedia Q4 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, please follow the operator's instructions. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like to turn the conference over to Mike McGuinness, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Mike McGuinness, Head of Investor Relations

Good morning, everyone. And thank you for taking the time to join us on our fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining me for today's discussion are Bob Pittman, our Chairman and CEO, and Rich Bressler, our President, COO and CFO. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, management will take your questions. Please note that in addition to our press release, we have an investor presentation that you can use to follow along with our remarks. Before we begin, let me quickly cover the safe harbor statements on Slide 2. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements, including the current and expected impact of COVID-19 on the company's liquidity, financial position, and results of operations. These estimates are based on the current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ from these expectations and assumptions, and these risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in our filings with the SEC. During this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures can be found in our earnings release or in the investor presentation available on our website. And now, I'll turn the call over to Bob.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

Thanks Mike, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining our fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. We're delighted to report another strong quarter and wrap up a very strong year, which we see as evidence of the progress we've made in the continuing digital transformation of the company. In 2021, we achieved a number of important milestones, both financial and operational. They reflect the success of our company's transformation into a data-led digital business with important new platforms like podcasting, all built upon the flywheel effect of the scale and unparalleled reach of our broadcast radio assets, and the only unified ad tech stack in audio advertising. We believe we're poised for continued success in 2022 and beyond, and that our Q4 and full-year 2021 performance is strong evidence of that momentum. Before Rich takes you through the detailed results of the fourth quarter, I want to touch on a couple of key points. First, our revenues continued their strong performance in the fourth quarter while driving margin expansion in both of our two key segments. Our fourth quarter consolidated revenue grew 14% compared to the prior year. You may recall that our guidance was an increase of 10% versus the prior year. Excluding political, Q4 revenue increased 25% versus the prior year. Importantly, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, our quarterly consolidated revenues exceeded their pre-pandemic comparisons with Q4 2021 revenues up 3.5% when compared to Q4 2019. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $294 million for the quarter, an increase of 11% versus the prior year, while generating $52 million of free cash flow. For our segments in Q4 2021, our Multiplatform Group adjusted EBITDA margins were 34% and our Digital Audio Group adjusted EBITDA margins were 36%, both of which represent year-over-year margin expansion. Second, we continue to deliver industry-leading growth in our Digital Audio Group and the momentum continues. The Digital Audio Group grew Q4 revenues by 59% versus the prior year. And within that group, podcast revenue was up 130% versus the prior year and Digital ex-Podcast revenue was up 36% versus the prior year. To put those results in context, according to Magna in Q4, 2021, we significantly outperformed the podcasting industry growth of 30% and the digital ex-podcasting industry growth of 20%, continuing our trend of outperformance compared to the industry. In Q4, 2021, digital revenues represented 26% of total company revenues compared to Q1 2019 when they represented under 10%. And in Q4, 2021, podcasting revenues alone represented almost 10% of total company revenues, clear evidence of our digital transformation. And in January, according to Podtrac, iHeartMedia was again the number one podcast publisher in the U.S., now with more downloads than the next four largest publishers combined. Finally, the Multiplatform Group, which includes our broadcast radio, networks, and events businesses, continues to demonstrate that it is also a growth engine for the company in both revenue and earnings. Q4 revenues grew by 9% versus the prior year. And when excluding the impact of political, Q4 revenues increased 17% versus the prior year. We're confident that we will reach our 2019 Multiplatform Group revenue levels and continue our growth past that point, and here's why. We believe certain key advertising categories will continue the recovery to pre-pandemic levels, like auto, entertainment and retail, and others like pharma continue their strong growth. And there are also new ad categories and customers that are continually added to the mix, like cryptocurrency players and sports betting. We'll also continue to take share from competitors in the radio advertising space. According to Miller Kaplan, we continue to outpace our broadcast competitors and expect to continue to take share there. Looking more broadly across the media landscape, we believe that TV total addressable market represents an important growth opportunity for us as well. Ad-supported TV reach continues to decline down to a 54% reach for the largest broadcast TV network and just 32% reach for the largest cable network, compared to iHeartRadio's broadcast radio audience, which reaches 90% of Americans every month. Broadcast radio in general, and iHeartMedia specifically is the most efficient and effective way for an advertiser to provide the missing reach in any TV-centric advertising campaign. We've also developed the capabilities for our broadcast radio assets to participate in the $160 billion digital total addressable market through the utilization of data and view solutions, including our SmartAudio product. Finally, within our Multiplatform Group, we expect our events business to not only recover to pre-pandemic levels but to grow from there, given the pent-up consumer demand for live events and experiences, and our ability to build new live and virtual events. These financial results we're reporting today are a reflection of the continued successful execution of our strategy and the momentum of both our Multiplatform and Digital Audio Group. As recent studies have shown, consumers now spend more time with audio than they do with linear TV, and advertisers are following that trend with an increased allocation to audio advertising. We believe that our consumer reach, as the number one audio company in America, with a leading position in broadcast radio, podcast publishing, and digital radio, supported by an unmatched sales force and ad tech capabilities, sets us up to benefit from those trends in a way no other company is capable of. And we will continue to build new platforms for our brands and creators to serve consumers and advertisers using our unique assets to build a strong position in Web 3, the metaverse, NFTs, and tokens as the market opportunity develops. And now Rich will take you through more details of our earnings and a look ahead into Q1.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

Thanks, Bob. And good morning, everyone. As I take you through our results, you will see the consistency and stability of our financial performances. And we believe we have the assets to maintain that predictable growth going forward. Turning to Slide 13 of our investor deck, our consolidated revenues were up 14% year-over-year, exceeding our guidance for the quarter of up 10% year-over-year. We are also pleased with our continued sequential revenue improvement against 2019, highlighted by our revenue in Q4, which was up 3.5% compared to 2019. Our direct operating expenses increased 17% for the quarter, driven primarily by the significant increase in revenue, which drives higher content and profit-sharing expenses, third-party digital costs, and expenses related to the return of local and national live events. Our SG&A expenses increased 10% for the quarter, driven by increased employee compensation expenses, resulting primarily from higher variable bonus expense based on strong financial performance and higher sales commissions due to higher revenue. As a reminder, in 2020, the vast majority of our employees did not get paid a bonus. And as a result, you'll see our corporate expenses increase year-over-year. In addition, increased headcount from the investments in our fast-growing digital businesses contributed to the increases in SG&A. Increases in both direct operating expenses and SG&A expenses were partially offset by decreases in employee compensation and other expenses resulting from the modernization initiatives and cost reduction initiatives taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our fourth quarter GAAP operating income was $123 million compared to an operating income of $112.8 million in the prior-year quarter. And our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $294.2 million compared to $265.5 million in the prior-year quarter. If you turn back to Slide 4, I'll provide additional color on the performance of our operating segments. And as a note, there are additional slides in the investor presentation on our segment revenue performance. Digital Audio Group revenues were up 59% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA was up 65% year-over-year. Within the Digital Audio Group is our podcasting business, whose revenues grew 130% year-over-year and our non-podcasting digital revenues, which grew 36% year-over-year. We continue to expand our Digital Audio Group margins. In the fourth quarter, they were 36%, a 140 basis points improvement year-over-year. Multiplatform Group revenues were up 9% year-over-year, continuing our sequential improvement compared to 2019 and adjusted EBITDA was up 20% year-over-year. Multiplatform Group adjusted EBITDA margins also continued their improvement. Q4 2021 margins were 34%, up 300 basis points compared to Q4 2020 of 31%. The Audio and Media Services Group revenue was down 35% on a reported basis. Excluding the impact of political, revenues in this segment were up 7% year-over-year. On Slide 19, there is a summary of our debt. At quarter-end, we had approximately $5.4 billion of net debt outstanding, which includes a cash balance of $352 million. We also continued to improve our net debt to Adjusted EBITDA leverage. As a reminder, the terms of our debt structure include no material maintenance covenants, and there are no material debt maturities part of 2026. We are continuing to actively monitor market conditions and will optimize our capital structure as opportunities arise. In the fourth quarter, we generated $52 million of free cash flow. We also successfully executed against our previously announced savings initiatives. As a reminder, our pre-COVID monetization initiatives achieved a $100 million run rate target as of mid-2021. And we successfully replicated the majority of the previously announced $200 million post-COVID savings as well. In 2022, we expect significant revenue adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow growth, and we would like to provide the following specific guidance. Starting with Q1, our January consolidated revenues were up 18.3% compared to 2021. For the first quarter, we expect revenue to be up approximately 17% to 19% year-over-year. In addition to being a cash taxpayer in 2022, as previously announced, we will continue to have supplemental capital expenditures in order to complete our high ROI real estate consolidation project. And as a result, we expect our capital expenditures to be between $150 million and $165 million, and in 2022, we expect to make significant progress towards our previously announced leverage target, approximately four times. Bob and I would like to thank our employees without whom this journey would not be possible. The communities we serve, and our business partners. We appreciate you joining our fourth-quarter earnings call. And now we will turn over to the Operator to take your questions.

Operator, Operator

If you would like to ask a question, please follow the operator's instructions. Your first question comes from the line of Steven Cahall with Wells Fargo. Please state your question.

Steve Cahall, Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. Rich, thanks for that outlook on the leverage targets. I was wondering if you might just be able to unpack maybe the two primary components for us. So we've got adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow generation, would love maybe a little bit of color on how we think about each of those as contributors to deleveraging this year. And then on Multiplatform, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about SmartAudio? You talked about the tech stack that you've built. I'm curious what percentage of Multiplatform revenue or spots is being done through SmartAudio? It's probably a question I'm going to ask every quarter or so, I thought I would keep on that theme. Thank you.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

Thanks, Steven. First off, let me start with the first one. With respect to our leverage target. Look, there's two pieces as you articulated in terms of driving, what our objective is to get the four times debt EBITDA leverage. I think you can see we've made significant progress even from Q3 to now and throughout the full year. And I think to put that in context in terms of '21, what we've always said is the value creation for iHeart in terms of driving the equity value, that we do drive the equity value by just paying down our debt, I think we'd all agree with that, mechanically, and we've made significant progress and we intend to make significant progress again towards achieving our goal of 4.0 on leverage ratio and I think that's going to come from two areas. Again, we haven't given full-year guidance, but we expect to get significant EBITDA growth for this year, and we expect even with becoming a full cash taxpayer, and along with the capital expenditure guidance we gave today, we expect to see significant increase in free cash flow. So both of those pieces moving forward. And then finally, we just add one thing to make sure is very clear. When we get to about four times as a company, Bob, myself, and the rest of our independent Board members will take a step back and we'll say, okay, we've been returning value to shareholders and equity shareholders due to pay down of debt on a levered capital structure. And now we're going to take a step back and say, okay, what's the next step in iHeart's capital structure life in terms of returning equity value to shareholders. So, and one final piece I'll add before turning over to Bob on your second question. As a reminder, also, we have the billion 450 of debt that has a soft call in March, and we are monitoring that situation along with the rest of our capital structure. But that's another lever we have to pull that will create value for all our shareholders.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

And then I think going to the SmartAudio question, SmartAudio continues to, you might imagine, although it's a small piece of the total revenue, continue to outpace the revenue growth of the Multiplatform Group, again, indicating the power there in audio. That suite of services is used not only to generate money directly through the SmartAudio line but also we're finding increasingly that the data analytics associated with SmartAudio are finding their way into a lot more buys and a lot more discussions with advertisers. So it remains really an important focal point for us, for our future growth, not only in digital but probably significantly in the Multiplatform Group as we make that inventory much more digital.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

And we are answering your question in regards to SmartAudio.

Steve Cahall, Analyst

Sounds good, thank you.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Bossi with Goldman Sachs, please state your question.

Steven Bossi, Analyst

Hi, good morning. So if I could, first thanks for the commentary on January revenue growth. I was wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit more about advertising trends and activity as it trended across digital and Multiplatform in Q4 and into Q1. Digital appears to maybe have grown a little bit faster than we expected in Q4. I'm curious if that's a trend that we could extrapolate or if there's anything unique to Q4, maybe COVID that we should consider and then could you talk a little bit more about some of the recent trends we're seeing across your ad verticals, what verticals are over-indexing, what verticals are under-indexing, and which of those do you think are most likely to see improvement over the first half of the year. Thank you.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

Well, let me hit the second part first and then I'll let Rich take the first part you have there. I think in terms of what we're seeing with advertisers is we saw some advertisers pull back some during the pandemic. Some doubled down during the pandemic. And so we've seen not necessarily an impact from the way you might have expected looking at headlines and certainly nothing like we saw in the first year of the pandemic. So we remain optimistic that the country and advertisers are just beginning to settle down, and we're not seeing the kind of disruption we've seen in the past. In terms of the cross verticals, I think we haven't broken out verticals, but I would remind you that we have no category that's more than 5% of our revenue; no single advertiser was in 2% of our revenue. So we have a very diversified revenue base, which allows us, I think that anytime you get a shock to the system within reason, we probably see a corresponding benefit somewhere else, which tends to mitigate that risk a bit.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

Yeah, and Steven just on the revenue trends, looking pretty much as we talked about in Q4, we really haven't seen any slowdowns in the overall revenue trends. And just as a reminder, that January tends to be one of our slow months of the year, just historically, and it's also a little of war of small numbers compared to the rest of our numbers which again is nothing new historically. But you see the guidance we gave for Q1 coming out, and quite frankly, I think it tied into what Bob said. Without specific categories, part of the reasons we really don't talk a lot about categories is because as certain categories go down, which is our job to find other categories and bring our offerings to them and find the revenue streams there. So not much to add to that.

Steven Bossi, Analyst

Great. Thanks for that color.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley. Please state your question.

Ben Swinburne, Analyst

Thank you, good morning. I wanted to inquire about your technology platform after the Triton acquisition and integration. I also noticed your investment in a company called Sounder focused on brand safety. How do you perceive the podcasting business evolving from host-read ads to more programmatic and radio-like options in the market? Companies like Sirius XM and Spotify are also developing marketplaces. Could you elaborate on how you view your portfolio compared to theirs? Additionally, I have a question about expenses, either for the first quarter or for the year. Could you provide insights on expense growth on a fixed cost basis, or whether the employee base and compensation levels in Q4 are a reliable benchmark? I’m trying to understand if the structural changes you’ve made over the years are largely complete, and if we can expect more normalized expense trends moving forward. Thank you.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

Let me address the question about podcasts, and then I will ask Rich to discuss expenses. Our podcast business relies heavily on our strengths as a publisher. We have published and control a significant number of podcasts, and interestingly, about 18 months ago, we were competing closely with NPR. In the latest Podtrac report, we recorded more downloads than the next four podcast publishers combined. This strength provides us with a significant advantage in building marketplaces. What differentiates our approach is that our marketplace isn't solely focused on technology; we also have the product, allowing us to leverage technology to enhance monetization. You are correct that a major area we've capitalized on, and many others have too, is host-read ads. We developed technology early on to dynamically serve these ads, ensuring they aren’t permanently linked to any specific podcast, thus maximizing revenue potential. We invested in Triton and expanded our ad tech stack, recognizing that a portion of the podcast inventory cannot be sold through traditional sales methods, even with our extensive ad sales team. We have the long tail of various episodes or regional and smaller podcasts to consider. Using our data and analytics tools, we have been able to grow our audiences and connect them across the marketplace, while also opening it up to other publishers, leveraging our substantial podcasting presence as a key advantage.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

Hey Ben, regarding the expense question, I have a few additional points before we dive into expenses. I understand that everyone on this call is very busy, so we aim to provide more written information for your benefit. If you check out the investor deck we released today, you'll find several slides that elaborate on the points Bob discussed. These slides provide guidance, particularly about the breadth of our podcasting offerings and our strong outperformance, not just recently, but consistently over time, which explains why we are leading in this area. I recommend everyone look at those numbers, as they should instill confidence. We saw a remarkable 130% increase in podcasting revenue this quarter, while the industry grew about 30% according to Podtrac. Concerning your question about Triton, we've included a slide that highlights the audio tech stack we've developed over the years, which has received positive feedback. It's important to note that Bob and I have consistently conveyed this story for several quarters, showing solid consistency in our numbers and growth rates, as well as the margins that we need to communicate to our shareholders. It's essential to highlight that this is not just a one-off occurrence; there has been a consistent core narrative here, and we remain confident about its future. Additionally, Bob mentioned in his opening remarks that, for the first time, we included a slide indicating that in Q4 of this year, 26% of our company revenues came from digital, compared to just 6% in Q1 of 2019. This information should help with your modeling. As we discussed in the script, we've accounted for expenses in our numbers and met all our Q4 targets. You might have noticed higher corporate expenses due to full-year bonuses this year. Bob previously mentioned that our team did not receive bonuses in 2021 and 2020 due to the challenges posed by Omicron and COVID. Our expenses have reflected improvements, and our margins increased – people often question if we'll return to mid-30s margins. We are currently in the mid-30s range again, showing a one-point margin improvement over Q4 last year, which should be seen positively. We will keep focusing on operational efficiency to enhance our bottom line in both digital and Multiplatform sectors this year. While my answer was lengthy, we will maintain our expenses as a good indicator of our future run rate. That said, we continually seek operational efficiencies while also investing in our rapidly growing businesses, especially on the digital front.

Ben Swinburne, Analyst

Thanks, guys.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please state your question.

Jim Goss, Analyst

Thanks. I was wondering if you have noticed any significant differences in ad sales trends based on market size, considering you operate in a variety of them, and whether you see notable fluctuations in political spending as we approach that period.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

It's interesting that we start out with a national footprint, which sets us apart from broadcast radio companies. Our broadcast radio alone reaches 90% of the country's consumers in a month, allowing us to present to advertisers the advantage of a national presence with local execution. Instead of viewing each market as an independent business unit, we consider them as local execution opportunities for advertisers, tailored to their needs. We can also combine this with digital podcast audiences and our SmartAudio suite, enabling us to accurately identify audiences across all platforms. With the Triton acquisition, we now have a unified electronic ad tech platform, allowing us to seamlessly reach audiences through podcasting, digital audio, and broadcast radio. This unique position enhances our capabilities, giving us significant reach and large audiences across all product lines and platforms. It enables us to integrate everything for advertisers, providing a major advantage by helping them effortlessly find their target audiences wherever they are.

Jim Goss, Analyst

Are you suggesting that your national platform, with its variety of market sizes, tends to obscure the differences in trends that others may see in smaller, medium, or larger markets due to its diverse nature?

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

That's a great observation. Yes, I believe the answer is yes. In the past, there was a clear distinction between local and national advertising in radio. We've previously discussed our strategy where any seller can operate from anywhere and sell anything. We have developed training and electronic platforms to support this and enable tracking. This approach allows us to blur the lines between local and national. For instance, a local seller in Jackson, Mississippi, can manage a national ad campaign, or they can sell across multiple markets regardless of their location. Internally, the definitions of national and local have become very ambiguous. Our focus has shifted to understanding the advertiser's goals and identifying the best methods to achieve them using our diverse assets. With the many platforms we have and our extensive market reach, no one else can match our capabilities. Ultimately, when comparing our reach to what I call tier 1 media in the U.S., we, Google, and Facebook reach about 90% of the population, which is a significant advantage. In contrast, broadcast radio reaches only about half that, and pure digital players like Spotify or Pandora reach even fewer. This positions us uniquely, and our company capabilities and strategy have been developed around this advantage.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

Hey, Jim, it's Rich. I might just add one more thing to what Bob just said. The other important point is at the end of the day, we are responsible for delivering, Bob and myself, the rest of our management team, no more priority is to create value for our shareholders. We've been building out these capabilities we have, whether it's between the Multiplatform, and the reason why Bob mentioned, and I point that out in the audio tech stack, which is highlighted, I think the reason over Triton, our investor deck. The reason why it's important that we mention for context what digital was part of the overall company's revenue in Q1 and what it is today. Again, all of that is context to say, okay, we've invested in digital. We are investing in podcasting following the consumer, following the advertisers. I think we've just consistently put some pretty significant increases on the board and expect to continue to do that going forward. Again, we didn't give specific guidance, but we did say that if you look back to what we said in the earnings remarks a few minutes ago, substantial growth in revenue, substantial growth from EBITDA, substantial growth in free cash flow, substantial improvement to getting to four times which, by the way, the leverage ratio is a data point for what I said earlier, but all the pieces that I talked about, how do you get to the revenue, good expense for generation and free cash flow manifests itself into that accelerated rate of getting to four times. One of the reasons you will never hear us talk about different categories or individual advertisers, all, by the way, big and small markets, because the company is focused as one and then there's only one stock that's there, which is the iHeart stock. So great question out there, but I just want to make sure we bring it all back with the one focus and mission we have is to create value here through all these pieces that we're talking about.

Jim Goss, Analyst

Thank you. I have a quick question. Networks and broadcast radio usually follow similar trends, but this quarter, networks underperformed compared to radio. Could you explain why that might be? Also, you mentioned that people are spending more time with audio than with linear TV, which you've stated multiple times before. When discussing linear TV, is part of that a result of the shift towards streaming, and how does that compare to overall TV viewing? Additionally, there has been a notable lag in time spent listening to radio. Could you share some insights on that trend as well?

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

Sure. On our broadcast radio, we average about 30 minutes of listening per day. This surpasses social media and search, indicating it's quite significant. Overall, our company isn't facing an audience issue but rather a monetization challenge, which is where we have directed our efforts. In contrast, the TV industry might worry about losing its audience. Even though TV usage hasn't significantly decreased, it has shifted to non-ad-supported platforms, with viewers opting for streaming services for scripted content, leaving mainly reality shows and sports on ad-supported television. From our unique position, we see opportunities that others may overlook. Regarding networks, our Q4 premiere network was slightly down, but overall, our total traffic and network increased. While some areas are improving, others are not, and we don't think networks directly correlate with our broadcast radio since we market them differently, targeting various audiences with distinct characteristics.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

Thanks.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Day with B. Riley Securities. Please state your question.

Dan Day, Analyst

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Once again, excellent work on the podcast front this quarter. I believe the focus will be on the growth rate. It will be challenging to maintain over 100% growth quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year. If you could identify one or two key factors—such as CPMs, rising ad fill rates, or more creators joining the network—that you think will be most crucial in driving podcast growth in 2022 and the following years, I would appreciate that. Additionally, any insights into what that growth rate might look like would be helpful. Thank you.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

Sure. Ultimately, we have a strong advantage as the leading podcast publisher, and when someone has a great podcast idea, they are likely to approach us first to explore a partnership. We are open to almost any deal that aligns with our content or financial goals. If we decide not to pursue a deal, it’s usually due to unfeasible economics, and we are perfectly fine with that going to another outlet. Furthermore, if a deal is not economically viable for us, it’s likely not feasible for others either, and we aim to avoid the pitfall of sacrificing profits for superficial growth. Maintaining our profit margins is essential to us. To ensure our continued profitability, we focus on increasing our podcast offerings and enhancing the performance of our top podcasts. The number of our podcasts that achieve over a million downloads is growing, highlighting our success. We are also exploring various advertising products to incorporate into our podcasts. The podcast industry is definitely expanding its inventory, which still remains considerably lower than that in radio. Additionally, we address the long tail of podcasting through broad seller access and comprehensive outreach, which provides a significant sales force for podcasting. Our technological advancements have enabled us to tap into diverse inventory to sell audiences alongside podcast titles. We offer popular content from major figures and events, allowing us to reach specific audiences within podcasting and connect them to digital audio and broadcast audiences, enhancing our overall scale. These efforts contribute to our growth, and it’s noteworthy that podcasting usage continues to rise in America, surpassing the reach of major streaming music platforms like Spotify and Pandora. The future of podcasting in relation to broadcast radio is uncertain, but it certainly demonstrates strong engagement and popularity. We are actively contributing to and benefiting from this growth.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

I'd like to highlight a couple of points. Firstly, to remind everyone, yesterday we reported a 130% increase in Q3, and as we begin Q4, it's crucial to look at this quarter as a strong indicator for confidence heading into 2022. We have also experienced a 148% growth in podcasting for the year, not just the 130% for one quarter. The consistency and predictability of our revenue growth contribute significantly to our bottom line, and this is something that investors should focus on. Secondly, Bob mentioned that while we can drive high podcasting revenue, it’s essential to have the sales force and efficiency to effectively translate that into profit. By examining our margins and conversion rates for both Digital and Multiplatform, you will see that we effectively generate value from additional advertising revenue, and we’ve proven that once again. Lastly, looking ahead four to five years, various projections suggest a podcasting revenue pool of around $3 to $5 billion, which marks significant growth compared to previous years. Regardless of which projection you believe, it’s evident that we are poised for substantial growth in the future.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO

And let me add one more thing because we didn't highlight it in the call but I think it's worth noting, is we're increasing our share of the podcast revenue pie. In addition to the pie growing, the second vector for us is increasing our share of it. Our performance based on the MAGNA number gives you a pretty clear indication of how we're doing that. Although we haven't given guidance for podcast revenue going forward, we have that we intend and we expect to continue to increase our share of it. So we do get that flywheel going as well. Finally, in terms of some comfort about the growth of podcast revenue is to look at the engagement numbers. Almost anyone you want to look at, whether it be listening to the whole thing, how long they spend, how many episodes they now listen to, is clearly that's engagement that the advertiser is very interested in because messages get through and the impact is great. Indeed, when people are measuring the impact of advertising through podcasts, it's pretty dramatic too. So I think all of those things give us confidence that this is a great growth area for us, both in terms of the marketplace for podcasting growing and also our vector for growth, and both in terms of product and in terms of monetization.

Rich Bressler, President, COO and CFO

With that, we'd like to thank everyone for the support, for taking time today to listen to the iHeart story. Bob, myself, Mike McGuinness and the team are available for follow-up questions. And we're always see you around again. Thanks for the time and support.

Operator, Operator

Thank you for participating in today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines at this time.