On Wednesday, PodcastOne (NASDAQ:PODC) discussed fourth-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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The full earnings call is available at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/795843010
Summary
Podcastone Inc reported a strong fiscal 2026 with an 18% increase in revenue to $61.7 million and a significant reduction in operating loss from $6.4 million to $2.6 million.
The company expanded its content portfolio with new talent partnerships and original content, emphasizing AI-powered tools for improved performance and monetization.
Podcastone Inc ranked as the seventh largest podcast publisher in the U.S., reflecting audience growth and increased scale.
Programmatic advertising revenue more than doubled year-over-year, driven by technology-enabled advertising solutions.
Management expressed optimism for fiscal 2027, focusing on strategic partnerships, technology, and content development to drive growth and enhance shareholder value.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR (Operator)
Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Podcastone Inc's fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended March 31, 2026 financial results and Business Update Conference Call. During today's call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be opened for questions. Presenting on today's call is Kit Gray, President and Founder of Podcastone Inc, and Craig Christensen, Interim Chief Financial Officer.
I would like to remind you that some of the statements made on today's call are forward-looking and based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve various risks and uncertainties. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the future performance of the Company, including expected future financial results and expected future growth in the business. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed on this call for a variety of reasons.
Please refer to the Company's filings with the SEC for information about factors which could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those described in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2026, and subsequent SEC filings. You'll find reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures discussed today in the Company's earnings release, which is posted on its investor relations website.
The Company encourages you to periodically visit its investor relations website for important content. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, contains time-sensitive information and reflects management's view as of the date of this call, June 24, 2026, and except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise this information after today's call. I'd like to highlight to all participants that this call is being recorded.
The Company will make it available to investors and media via webcast, and a replay will be available on its website in the Investor Relations section shortly following the conclusion of the call. Additionally, it is the property of the Company and any redistribution, transmission, or rebroadcast of this call or the webcast in any form without the Company's expressed written consent is strictly prohibited. I would now like to turn the call over to Podcastone Inc's President, Kit Gray.
Kit Gray, President
Welcome to our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026 earnings call. As a reminder, our fiscal year begins on April 1st. This quarter marked a strong finish to fiscal 2026 and reflected the continued execution of our strategy to grow Podcastone Inc through premium content, strategic talent partnerships, diversified monetization, and technology-driven operations. Throughout the year, we strengthened our position as one of the leading podcast publishers in the industry while expanding our network with established creator brands, developing original content, and driving meaningful growth across our advertising platform.
Podcastone Inc continues to distinguish itself as the leading pure-play podcasting platform in the public markets through a vertically integrated model that combines talent development, content creation, distribution, analytics, monetization, and operational efficiencies, all supported by our AI-powered infrastructure. Our AI toolkit continues to enhance performance across every aspect of the business. Flight Path drives predictive profitability, Booster scales advertising management and proposal recommendations, Adobe Audition ensures best-in-class audio quality, Odd Engine supports discoverability through SEO, and Incense Magellan AI powers advertising attribution. Opus Pro converts long-form video into short-form content that fuels audience growth across platforms. Our team constantly uses AI-based search components to discover new talent, match trending topics to specific content created on our programs, and more. These tools directly support how we grow shows, monetize audiences, and operate more efficiently at scale. Throughout the quarter, we continued expanding and strengthening our content portfolio through a combination of new talent partnerships, creator renewals, and original content development.
We added several established creator-led podcasts to the Podcastone Inc network, including Wellness Cafe, No Filter with Zach Peter, and the Michelle Collins Show. These additions expand our reach across lifestyle, entertainment, and culture categories while providing advertisers with access to highly engaged audiences. We also continued investing in original content with the development and launch of It's Okay, We're All Going to Die with Nurse Dooley, demonstrating our ability to identify emerging talent and create new intellectual property within the Podcastone Inc ecosystem.
Across our network, Podcastone Inc creators continue to attract high-profile guests and cultural influencers spanning entertainment, business, health, and public affairs. Notable appearances during the quarter include Mel Robbins on Off the Vine, Jerry Seinfeld on the Adam Frohl Show, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Adam Frohl Show, Meredith Marks on Let Me Save You 25 Years, and Morgan Stewart on Yesterday. These appearances demonstrate the reach, relevance, and influence of Podcastone Inc programming across multiple audience segments.
Our momentum throughout the year was further reflected in Podcastone Inc's growing industry standing. During the quarter, PodTrack ranked Podcastone Inc as the seventh largest podcast publisher in the United States, highlighting continued audience growth and the increasing scale of our platform. Our monetization platform continued to deliver strong results as advertisers increasingly embraced podcasting as a measurable and scalable media channel.
Programmatic advertising revenue more than doubled compared to the same January through March period of the prior year, reflecting growing advertiser demand for premium podcast inventory and the continued success of our technology-enabled advertising solutions. This growth demonstrates the effectiveness of our investment in dynamic ad insertion, inventory expansion, audience targeting, and automated buying capabilities. As advertisers continue shifting budgets towards digital audio and podcasting, Podcastone Inc remains well-positioned to capture increasing demand through both direct sales and programmatic channels.
Together with our growing content portfolio, audience expansion, and creative partnerships, these monetization gains further validate our strategy of building a diversified and scalable media platform.
Craig Christensen, Interim CFO
All right, thank you, Kit. As a reminder, our fiscal year began on April 1, 2025, and ended on March 31, 2026. Revenue in our fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 was $15.7 million. Operating loss in the fourth quarter was $460,000 compared to an operating loss of $1.8 million in the same year-ago quarter. This improvement was driven primarily by higher advertising revenue and operational efficiencies across production and distribution. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $460,000 or negative $0.02 per basic and diluted share compared to a net loss of $1.8 million or negative $0.09 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $1.9 million compared to $888,000 in the same year-ago quarter, driven by revenue growth and contribution margin improvement. We ended the quarter with $3.5 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt on the balance sheet. Switching now to the full year 2026 results. Revenue increased 18% to $61.7 million compared to $52.1 million in fiscal year 2025. Operating loss for the fiscal year of 2026 was $2.6 million compared to an operating loss of $6.4 million in fiscal year 2025.
This improvement was primarily driven by revenue growth, margin improvement, and disciplined cost management. Net loss in fiscal year 2026 was $2.6 million or negative $0.10 per basic and diluted share compared to a net loss of $6.5 million or negative $0.26 per basic and diluted share in fiscal year 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal year 2026 was positive $6.3 million compared to adjusted EBITDA of negative $0.5 million in fiscal year 2025. With that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Kit.
Kit Gray, President
Thanks, Craig. Fiscal 2026 was a transformational year for Podcastone Inc. We expanded our network with established creator brands, renewed many of our most successful long-term partnerships, developed original content, strengthened our monetization platform, and increased our industry standing among the largest podcast publishers in the country. As we look ahead, we remain encouraged by the broader trends shaping the podcast industry. Recent industry research shows total podcast listening time has increased approximately 386% since 2016 and now exceeds 800 million listening hours per week.
The continued growth of audience engagement, video podcasting, and advertiser adoption reinforces our belief that podcasting remains one of the most compelling and fastest-growing segments of digital media. We are also encouraged by continued investment, strategic partnerships, and innovation occurring across the podcast industry. Under Steve Lehman's leadership, we continue evaluating opportunities that can strengthen our platform, expand our creator offerings, and enhance long-term shareholder value.
While we remain disciplined in our approach, we believe the continued evolution of the industry creates meaningful opportunities for growth through partnerships, technology, content development, and other strategic initiatives. As we enter fiscal 2027, we remain focused on expanding our content portfolio, enhancing monetization opportunities for creators and advertisers, growing our audience reach, and continuing to build durable value across the Podcastone Inc ecosystem.
I want to thank our team, our creators, our advertising partners, and our shareholders for their continued support and trust. With that, we'll now open the line for questions. Operator.
OPERATOR (Operator)
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Sean McGowan with Roth Capital Partners.
Sean, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Sean McGowan
Thanks. Hey, kid, how you doing? And hello again, Craig. My first question is, you know, regarding this PodTrack number. You know, Kit, you and I have talked about this quite a bit over the last couple of years, but some of those numbers seem to kind of move around a little bit in terms of audience size, you know, and how it's classified. So how should we think about that move to number seven in terms of growth of podcasts versus, you know, either consolidation or, you know, other stuff going on in companies that are higher, that, you know, ranked more high than that, like how much of this is real growth?
Kit Gray, President
Hey, Sean, good to hear from you. Thanks for the question. I appreciate it. Yeah, so PodTrack, you know, it's an interesting measure of success for how you're doing comparative to other people. Just like, you know, all rankers when it comes to what's going on, you know, in the world in terms of timing. Right. Like, you know, I would say the sports networks may be coming off of football and, you know, it's a cyclical thing, right? Summertime is not as heavy for sports, although this year at the World Cup and stuff like that, it's an interesting time, but it's typically cyclical based on, you know, what's going on.
I mean, if we have shows we're covering that are live right now, those typically get some good numbers. So, you know, hard to tell where it's really coming from. I look at it as exciting for us as a group in terms of our presence in the podcasting world. And I think that, you know, as we continue to grow up the ranker and grow, that's a good thing. You know, that's a good thing for talent to see when we're going out there and acquiring them, that we have significant scale.
We are a big player in that space. So that's a good thing to say, and it's a good thing to say to advertisers. But at the end of the day, that's not where we're paid, and that's not where we make our money. Our money is on, you know, are the shows growing? Are we getting our CPMs higher? Are we getting our fill rates higher? That's where we're all graded on. On the real crust of the business. It really doesn't come down to PodTrack. It really comes down to how are the shows performing, are we getting more ad dollars on?
And that's how we look at it.
Sean McGowan
So that's helpful. So I guess related to my next question is, so if it isn't just PodTrack, what are some of the other metrics that you use internally to measure, you know, how you guys are doing relative to the overall industry?
Kit Gray, President
Yeah, well, when it comes to the industry, you know, PodTrack's a good reference. It doesn't have all the podcasts or podcast networks out there. It's still finding its way through the video side of things and social media side of things, and they've got some things coming out this year that we'll try to incorporate some of that stuff, you know, I can't really. I look at our competition, obviously, and what they're offering, shows that maybe we're not and so forth like that and what's working out there.
But really my job and the team's job is to look at the shows that we have, the shows that we're trying to acquire, and, you know, just tackle in running and doing the right things that we do every, every time with the show, it's what are the sellout rates? Can we get the CPMs up? Is the show growing? Are we marketing it the right way? Are the shows marketing in it the right way? Are we getting them on other podcasts to grow? That's really important.
So every, every two weeks, we as a team look through all our shows and how they're doing. What they're doing in the marketing side of things is new things pop up, whether it's pod roll or new videos, social media techniques that are working. We are looking at how every show in our network can, you know, use those tools to move forward.
Sean McGowan
Okay, thank you. A couple of questions of a different nature again. We've talked a lot about using stock as a way of compensating the talent and keeping them kind of more in line with shareholders. So what should we expect for non-employee stock-based comp going forward? Should we expect the fourth quarter to be an indication of what we would see each quarter or will it fluctuate going forward?
Kit Gray, President
Yeah, you know, the ones that we're able to do those type of deals with are seeing great, you know, great value. Right. And something that's unique that no one else can offer, really. So the partners that have jumped on early on, that have reaped the reward, the stock has gone the last three or four months. That's been a great payout to those guys. So we see them all the ones that are currently doing that, continuing. But I believe you're going to see a lot more jumping into the fray.
Right. Because we now have the case studies of it working and people making more money and having some great upside on it and enjoying the process. So I think we're going to see more of that over the next 12 to 24 months.
Craig Christensen, Interim CFO
And just to jump in there for a second, Sean, this is a game changer, right? In that what you always want is your talent to get behind your company. We want everyone rowing in the same direction. You'll see. My brother was on Adam Carolla this morning. Yeah, I'm going on Carolla, I think in two weeks on Fox with him. Right. We're going to start to get our talent getting behind the company as well as behind the stock. And when that happens, you get these big social media stars with big audiences.
It's a great help to everybody here. It's a great help to building the network and audience and continue to grow. So we're really proud of this and it gives us a huge leg up when we're negotiating with talent to be able to offer them a currency. Right. And a pretty liquid currency now that they can now jump into. And eventually if the stock has a big run like it deserves, eventually they'll make money, they'll make additional money, but they'll also create enormous liquidity for the company.
So we're really excited about this and it's something that Kit and I have been working on for the better part of five years. But now the talent is getting so excited about where the company is going. And as we head towards break 50 million revenues, now we break 60 million and we start to talk about getting to 100 million, there's going to be more and more talent that want to join and want to join our platform. And when you see guys like Dr. Phil join the platform, it's a great indication of how the equity can really be a game changer in locking down talent.
Sean McGowan
Okay, that makes sense. Just to clarify, for non-employee stock-based comp for Podcastone, are all of those shares Podcastone shares or are there any LBO shares as well?
Craig Christensen, Interim CFO
We've used both. Right now it's all Podcastone, but we've used both. We've used both along the way, Sean. Right now all these are in Podcastone.
Sean McGowan
Okay, thank you.
OPERATOR (Operator)
A reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Star one again. Your next question comes from the line of Leo Carpio with Joseph Gunner. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Leo Carpio
Good afternoon, gentlemen. Actually, good morning for you. Actually, couple quick questions. First on the fiscal 2027 guidance, could you break it down in terms of what is going to be organic, growth driven versus acquisitions in terms of new talent that you're going to bring onto the platform? I have a few follow-up questions.
Kit Gray, President
Sure. You know, that's a little fluid in terms of where exactly that's going to come down to. But you know, we've kind of, like I mentioned in the call, three or four really exciting M and A opportunities that we don't know which ones are going to fall but, but we know some of them will and we also have some really big shows and some other tech things that are in the works. Now I can't tell you like if it's going to be 10% this or 15% this or 70% this.
But what I will tell you is that we're seeing good growth. You know, even as we're, you know, charging through the end of Q1 this year, we're seeing some good things on the sales, just organic growth just based on the medium and, you know, you can read it in the trades. I don't even have to make it. These aren't secrets. The podcasting world is doing great. The ad spends are continuing to grow. The programmatic numbers are continuing to expand. The world is embracing not only the video side of things and the audio side of things, but social media, how to buy into the communities better.
So it's really going to be a blend of all those three things to get us to where we need to be. You know, there's always different things that come along the way too. We talked a little bit about, you know, some of the AI content licensing opportunities that are really exciting as well. So we don't really know exactly how it's going to go to the T, but we're pretty confident by a blend of all those things, we're going to get to the number we need to get to.
Craig Christensen, Interim CFO
And then turning to the M and A, just to add to that for one second, you know, in that guidance is not acquisitions, it's acquisitions of talent. Because we continue to acquire, you know, talent every month. We probably add one to two new pieces of talent every month. We probably added 20 last year. But that does not include an acquisition of a company. That includes acquisition of talent. And so we're really excited about the pipeline and maybe, Kit, you just want to talk a little bit about the pipeline right now and how robust it is.
Kit Gray, President
Yeah, you know, on the M and A side of things, we're not only talking to small podcast companies, but bigger podcast companies in the media space, which are all really exciting. There's a bunch of tech aspects that we're looking at too, in terms of them, you know, being a part of Podcastone in interesting ways. And then, you know, really the talent side of things, you know, is strong, if not stronger than it always has been. You know, and again, it comes down to how are we going to make the right decisions for the company that we can continue to grow on, you know, both the top line revenue and then, you know, in terms of just making money.
So we've got a lot of things that we're really excited about. I'm traveling a lot, my team's traveling a lot. We're meeting with some really big people that have big aspirations and we think would be great fits for Podcastone. Okay, so turning back to in terms of M and A of platforms, are you seeing a robust opportunity in terms of platforms that are available at a rational cost? Is and, or is it just the same conditions that we saw in the prior year?
I wouldn't, I mean, I think. Let me just jump in for a second, Kit. In that, it's not that there are a lot of smaller, just like we are, we're the micro cap of podcasts, right? We're acquiring those podcasts that are doing less than 10 million revenues. The same thing in terms of networks. The networks that we're seeing that are out there are too small for the big guys to gobble up. So it's a great opportunity for us to pick up, you know, one, two or three of these, really take this to over $100 million quickly.
Right? And you know, as we said, we're very excited about the M&A side of it and what is going to happen very shortly. You know, about accretive add-on acquisitions to it, right? Separately, you know, Kit is talking about the pipeline of the amount of podcasts, the actual talent that's coming to us. And some of that is because of our stock-based comp, but some of that is also because the industry is getting rolled up. So a lot of acquisitions have happened.
For the first time in five years, they're starting to buy podcast networks very aggressively. And so OpenAI just paid a fortune, paid 13 and a half times revenues for a podcast network. And Fox just bought two major networks, including Vox, and they're paying huge multiples again. So you know, for the bigger networks, right, they're gonna take those out of the way for us. We're sitting in the sweet spot where Kit and his team, right, really give such an advantage to talent because of that 360 play that those smaller networks really need our services in order to really stay in the game.
And so I think, you know, this is probably the most robust lineup of smaller acquisitions we've seen in the last five to seven years.
Sean McGowan
Okay. And then in terms of just the advertising environment, it sounds like it's pretty rich and robust in spite of the economic backdrop we've been hearing in the last few weeks. And is that you think that will persist in the coming quarters and. Everything is pointing towards, you know, good things in the podcasting front just because brands are seeing great results. They have the ability to do their digital attribution, to see, you know, uptick and what shows are working and where their budgets are working, what demographics are working for their brands.
So we've seen, you know, great, great things on that. You know, as always, when we go out to advertising agencies, we're not a spots and dots company. I mean, we do that. But really where you get your value is being able to buy into these communities that we offer and not only buy into them, make sure that the campaigns are done the right way. And that's the key. Right? That's what we offer that's different than everybody else, is that we're meeting with talent, we're working on campaigns that fit into their community the right way and the brands feel comfortable about it and that's where they'll pay premiums on that.
So it's hard to do. You know, there's a million companies out there that say they can do it, but actually getting the talent to do what the brands need to do, that's the name of the game. And that's where you're going to get paid, you know, higher CPMs and more and get better Red splits, things like that. And the talent that we have, you know, whether they've been with us for, you know, seven, eight, nine years, like a lot of them have been, or some of these new ones, they are telling us that I literally had lunch with one of our shows on Monday in New York City and they were with two or three other companies before us.
And just how they're loving the experience, the relationships, the working hand in hand with the team that really understand the business that we're partnered in has been great to them. So I think you're going to see more and more of that. And I think you're starting to see agencies, ad agencies and brands just buy the ones that they're comfortable with and making the right deals based on proven track records of doing what you'd say you do. And that's our business.
Okay, and then last question. Can you provide us an update on the Amazon relationship with R19? I recall you've been moving in terms of the volume activity. You've been moving up on the thresholds for the contract. Does that momentum continue?
Kit Gray, President
Yeah. So the Amazon relationship has just been a great one. You know, Andy and his team over there have been, you know, just amazing partners. The technology and the efficiencies that we've just been able to use by working with them has been just tremendous. We don't have to spend nearly as much time, you know, perfecting that and working on that. So just the efficiencies alone have been great. But the connection to their sales platform and their sales team at Amazon took a little bit of a bumpy start over the last year, over the first couple months, just in terms of getting set up and having their team package our programming and podcasting programming into what their offerings are. But we're really hitting our stride and, you know, we look at sellout percentages and CPMs almost daily, and they're all going in the right direction. So we're really happy with that. If we can acquire some of these shows and networks that we're talking about, it'll keep moving us up on the next tier of the minimum guarantee. But, you know, we're really excited and happy about where that is right now.
OPERATOR (Operator)
Your next question comes from the line of Barry Sein with Litchfield Hills Research. Barry, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Leo Carpio
Hey, good afternoon, Kit and Rob and Craig. First question should be an easy one. I didn't see the number of shows in the press release. How many shows do you have, did you have in the March quarter that you're reporting? Where are you now in terms of the number of shows? What are your top three? And I'm particularly interested in how the Dr. Phil show is going, you know, given the high hopes you had for that when he first came on.
Kit Gray, President
Okay, a lot of good questions there. Thanks. I don't know the exact numbers of where we were when we ended the quarter to where we are exactly right now, but it's in that 200 to 185 show range, give or take one or two. The podcasts that still remain, you know, atop the world and podcasting for us, you know, Adam Carolla, Jordan Harbinger, the A and E properties, those remain our top dogs. Stassi has been doing really great, you know, so there's a good solid group of those that continue to remain at the top of the podcast ranker.
And I don't know if I got all your questions in there. Did I miss something? Dr. Phil McGraw. Oh, Dr. Phil. Yes. And Dr. Phil. It's been good. You know, Dr. Phil has two really good shows, right? He's got the Dr. Phil podcast that he does a bunch of times a week and then, you know, the murder and mystery or Mystery and Murder show. I always get that back the wrong way, but that's been doing great, too. So they fit well into the network we continue to promote in our lifestyle.
And really our male network, the, you know, the Dr. Phil show and then the mystery murder show fits really well under a crime network. And when we go out and sell the crime space. So it's been a good one. You know, he's under, you know, big demand. We have, you know, high hopes that he does a tour through Austin in the next couple months to hit up the, you know, some of those big podcasts that he has great relationships with. So, you know, Bill's been amazing.
We were really happy with that relationship to date.
Sean McGowan
Okay. And then Sean asked about the POD track data. And I know you said that, you know, there's some better, you know, data items, but, you know, things like CPMs, you guys don't report. So it's the kind of the best we can do. And it does come out monthly. One flaw that we've talked about with the POD track data is, and you just alluded to it, is it does not pick up all of the viewing sources. And in fact, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't believe it picks up the largest viewing source, which is YouTube.
So what percentage do you think of viewing do they pick up? How might we adjust the POD track numbers upward to get a, you know, to get a broader number?
Kit Gray, President
Yeah, so we're in constant contact with the POD track team, and they're in a world where they're testing some things to include, you know, video as well. So, you know, YouTube, Rumble, all those, or even looking at social reach now, that'll include, you know, everything from LinkedIn to TikTok, Instagram, all that. So that number is going to get, you know, wild hard for you guys to do full analysis on that because it doesn't, you know, correlate from impression to impression in terms of sales.
So, you know, what we. It's, again, the podcast world is just. It doesn't have all the shows, it doesn't have all the networks, but we look at it as, you know, at least a good tracker in the industry for where we are and, you know, our continued growth, really, really, it comes down to the internal side of things, which I know you guys don't see. But the, you know, the sellout rates, the increased CPMs, the growth, the marketing and the backlog content to monetize that that's where, where we live and that's how we try to, you know, do the best that we can.
You're seeing more and more video numbers, and we have seen a little bit of press on how video can't be quantified as strong as maybe the audio experience that seems to be evening out recently in some of the press out there and some of the attribution on it and seeing really good sales results or ROI results just on the video side of things, which is great news for the industry. So again, really hard to answer and give you all the information because POD track just doesn't have that.
They just do the best that they possibly can. They're continuing to evolve so you'll have more information to look at. But I would, I would hesitate to say the millions and millions of social media followers that we have is gonna. It's gonna just grow our revenue exponentially when, when you do see that stuff, it's. It's more how we use it to package individual sales deals and buying into communities and really hard to kind of like quantify for you guys, but that's our world.
Sean McGowan
Okay, just to clarify on that POD track point, in the past, I think you've said to me that YouTube is the largest source. They're not in there, and they represent about 22% of viewing. Are those three data points still directionally correct, do you think?
Kit Gray, President
I think so. You know, but it really, like, it's hard because not every show has YouTube, right? Or if they do, they put it out on YouTube as still imagery, right? Because look, we have A&E Cold Case Files, and that network of shows is one of our biggest groups, right? And they're not on YouTube. Right? And the reason they're not on YouTube is because they're on A&E and we don't do the video side of things. So they lose out on some of the discovery to that other crime shows, you know, they're not conversations that you can just put on YouTube.
They're a lot of research, a lot of writing, a lot goes into it behind the scenes. So it's not, you know, something that you could add video to. You can just put the still imagery out there and put your commercials in and use YouTube for discovery and shareability and consumption. But it's different, right? So everything's a little different. So, you know, again, it comes down to the shows. How much can we package them together, video, audio, social media, and just go from there.
Leo Carpio
Okay, and then my last question is regarding the competitive environment versus the other podcast publishers. If I look at the, you know, the rankings, the guys that are the bigger guys that are above you, are they getting more or less aggressive in going after talent? It seems to me that a lot of the ones that are above you are really just only doing their own content, not third party as you do. And then below you, the smaller podcast publishers, historically you've had a competitive advantage because you just give your podcasters a lot more data and they're able to run their business more effectively.
So what are you seeing both above you in terms of competing for talent and above you, your ability to perhaps take talent away from some of the smaller publishers that are below you.
Kit Gray, President
Yeah, so above us when you look at into the ranker, I mean, iHeart's got the top two boss there. I don't, I don't, I don't know. They've explained that to me a couple times on how that works, but I think what it is is their original shows and then, you know, then the ones that they represent in air quotes. Right. So there and some of those other shows that you see above us lives in is a lot of hosting large run of network type sales that they do on their end, but they also have shows that they work with hand in hand.
We're stealing from a bunch of those companies. You know, iHeart has their own financial issues that they're working through. You know, every time you listen to them on what they're, what they're talking about in their earnings calls, it's really strong in terms of podcast growth. Right. So that's probably picking up for a lot of the other lagging verticals in their world. So they're concentrating on podcasts and they can make different deals than we can just because they can funnel money different ways and show growth in certain things.
So they like to do that. But they're a great place for us to go and steal content. And we say that in the right way because we just are very connected. I mean, if you look at all the shows that they have, it's almost impossible to manage all those the right way. So when we go to podcasters that are with them, we talk about what we do and people really like it. They like the attention, they like the things that you mentioned earlier about being able to see the numbers and run their business that way.
Based off of that, I think that's a real competitive advantage for us. When you look at some of the smaller ones behind us, I think it's the same story, right? It's the hand holding ability to use all our marketing our talent booking or hosting our sales team that's still attractive to some of these other shows that are with some of these smaller networks. And we're able to offer scale, right? So it's nice to be able to say, well, you're going to get all that attention, but you're also going to get, you know, scale where we can offer you to, you know, 30 million or 25 million, you know, downloads a month.
Right. And genres and get you on a bunch of podcasts in our network and off our network to grow. So we look at, you know, we like to kind of, I guess, for lack of better words, attack both the bigger ones and the smaller ones just by knowing what we do best.
Leo Carpio
All right, that's it for me. Thank you very much, Kit.
Kit Gray, President
Sure. Good to talk to you.
OPERATOR (Operator)
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Kit Gray for closing remarks.
Kit Gray, President
Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your time today. It's been, you know, a tremendous Q4 and year. We, we learned a lot, we continue to grow, we made some great relationships. It's been just really a thrill to get Podcastone Inc stock, you know, heading in the right direction. We feel really good about where we are and huge upside. I, you know, Rob mentioned it earlier when he was talking, but we think we're a great value play, a great growth play.
We're a great company and a great medium. So we're really excited about the next year and what we're going to, what we're going to do with Podcastone and the industry. But we just wanted to say thank you for your time today. We appreciate you guys following us, listening to our podcast and understanding our, our meeting. So thank you so much for your time today and I look forward to talking to you guys throughout the year and updating you as we continue to grow and have great success.
So thank you so much and have a great day.
Rob
And I'm just, just adding one last thing. Live One will continue to buy back a substantial amount of Podcastone stock every quarter. We are extraordinarily proud of Kit and the team and what they've done. This is a world class team, is really held us together this year in a tough year. Coming off of Slacker, Podcastone is just shine and done a great job and so we will continue to do buybacks and continue to add to it. And if the stock tend to trade way below the industry levels, we'll just keep buying back as much stock as we can and we'll start again next week.
So thank you everyone for joining. And thanks, Kit.
Kit Gray, President
Thanks, Rob.
OPERATOR (Operator)
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
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