iHeartMedia reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.03 billion, which is up 3.3% from the same period a year ago. Podcast and digital growth helped fuel the revenue growth despite lagging revenue from over-the-air radio.
But the expected flood of political advertising dollars this fall for radio broadcasters from the midterm elections might turn out to be more bust than boom, according to iHeartMedia’s latest financial disclosure.
The net loss for the largest U.S. radio broadcaster was $8.2 million in the third quarter. The broadcaster has $5.02 billion of total debt.
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, the company’s radio station segment was down 5% from the same period the year prior with $562 million in revenue. But excluding political revenue, it was down 7%.
Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman said on Monday’s investor call following the release of its Q3 financial numbers that the company is already working on plans for incremental cost efficiencies in 2027. Those include “leveraging the strategic deployment of AI and other technology solutions to enhance efficiencies through the organization as we had done in the past.”
Political spend pivots to TV
In a Monday statement, iHeart stated that the company’s radio segment decline was primarily the result of a decrease in its broadcast spot and networks revenue reflecting uncertainty on the part of advertisers regarding consumer spending.
Moreoever, what the company expected to be a robust political advertising year didn’t take shape, at least not yet in the third quarter.
Pittman explained Monday that a “greater percentage of political advertising spend moved to programmatic platforms in this cycle” than the company had anticipated.
“While this is in line with the broader transition to programmatic, it happened with political inventory faster than we thought it would. It’s important to note that overall, in this political cycle, radio’s share of political advertising is actually lower than radio’s share of the overall advertising marketplace — exactly the opposite experience of local broadcast TV,” Pittman said.
In Q3 2026, Pittman said political advertising revenue for the Multi-Platform Group came in slightly below the 2022 non-presidential election year.
“I think in political advertising the big surprise for us was how much money was spent in TV, that about 50% of the entire political expenditures were broadcast television,” he said.
iHeart’s revenue from its radio networks also dropped $13.7 million, or 12.0% YoY, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Digitally driven
The company’s digital audio group continues to grow its revenue share, listing $389 million in revenue in Q3 2026, which was up 14% from the prior year. Podcasting revenue was up 24%.
iHeart President and COO Rich Bressler said the media company expects to establish podcasting as a separate reporting segment sometime next year.
“It will provide greater insight into its financial performance and make it easier to fully value all four of our segments and our entire company,” Bressler said in the statement.
Audio & Media Services recorded a stronger quarter, according to iHeart, with revenue increasing $15.0 million, or 23%. The acceleration of revenue was primarily the result of an increase in political advertising revenue, as well as strong demand for digital advertising. The reporting segment’s revenue totaled $82 million for the quarter.
iHeart said operating expenses in the radio station group increased $22.4 million, or 4.7% YoY, driven primarily by higher non-cash trade and barter expenses.
That total was partially offset by a decrease in variable content costs related to the decrease in broadcast revenues, lower employee compensation costs related to our modernization initiatives and a decrease in bonus expense based on financial results, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, the Digital Audio Group’s operating expenses increased $50 million, or 27%, due to content costs and podcast profit sharing.
AudioGraph rollout
AudioGraph is an ad-tech suite built by iHeart’s subsidiary Triton Digital to bring digital-style targeting, planning and outcome-based measurement to traditional broadcast radio.
[Related: “iHeartMedia Brings AudioGraph Measuring to the Market”]
Pittman is bullish on its potential.
“Given the accelerating adoption of audio programmatic, we believe that the continuing rollout of our AudioGraph platform has the potential to meaningfully improve the performance of our broadcast radio business, enabling us to meet the advertising community the way they want to buy advertising,” he said.
The audio company expects total programmatic revenue of approximately $200 million for full-year 2026, up about 50% from 2025.
The percentage of advertising agencies that buy audio programmatically has grown from 41% in 2022 to 82% this year, according to iHeart.
Fourth quarter uncertainty
In his guidance for the fourth quarter, Bressler said advertiser uncertainty remains very high.
“This is one of the most uncertain periods in the advertising environment that we have managed through, including COVID, which is what makes it difficult for us to narrow the range of our expected results,” he said.
iHeartMedia recently disclosed it spent approximately $988,000 on lobbying in Q3 2026. Disclosure filings showed iHeart advocated for the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, EAS modernization, and foreign ownership regulations.
In addition, it spent money on lobbying for several proposals related to data privacy.
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