MediaCo posts 40% revenue jump in 2025 as losses widen after EstrellaTV deal

MediaCo Holding Inc., the owner of New York radio fixtures Hot 97 and WBLS and the EstrellaTV Spanish-language network, reported nearly 40% revenue growth for 2025 but also a sharply wider annual loss—highlighting both the promise and strain of its push to build a national multicultural media platform.

Revenue rises, losses deepen

In a Form 8-K filed March 31 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Indianapolis-based company said net revenues rose to $133.3 million in 2025, up from $95.6 million a year earlier. Net loss, however, ballooned to $66.2 million from $1.3 million in 2024, weighed down by noncash charges and higher interest expense.

The results mark MediaCo’s first full calendar year since acquiring most of Estrella Media’s content, network and digital operations in April 2024, a deal that turned what had been a New York-centered radio business into a national, cross-platform network targeting Latino, Black and other multicultural audiences. The new numbers show that strategy driving strong top-line growth and digital advertising, but at a cost that leaves the company fighting for profitability and to maintain its Nasdaq listing.

“Over the course of 2025, our first full calendar year of operation with the Estrella portfolio, we delivered substantial gains across every facet of our business plan,” Chief Executive Albert Rodriguez said in an earnings news release furnished with the filing. He said the company is building “a modern, cross-platform, multicultural media ecosystem designed for scale,” adding that it remains “in growth mode.”

Fourth quarter: growth, but a deeper deficit

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, MediaCo reported net revenues of $38.7 million, up 17.9% from $32.8 million in the same period a year earlier. The company posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $32.3 million, compared with a loss of $4.2 million in the prior-year quarter.

Digital revenue continued to climb. MediaCo said digital accounted for 53.5% of advertising sales in the fourth quarter and 42.8% for the full year, reflecting growth in streaming video, free ad-supported television (FAST) channels and digital audio.

On an adjusted basis, the company’s preferred profitability metric improved. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—excluding items such as warrant fair value changes and impairment charges—rose to $7.3 million in 2025, from a loss of $1.6 million in 2024, an $8.9 million swing. But fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA slipped into the red at negative $3.7 million, compared with a positive $1.7 million in the prior-year period.

What drove the wider GAAP loss

The widening GAAP loss was driven in part by a roughly $23.1 million noncash impairment charge on goodwill and intangible assets, including Federal Communications Commission licenses tied mainly to the company’s audio portfolio. MediaCo also recorded a negative swing in the fair value of a warrant liability issued as part of the Estrella acquisition and higher interest expense on its debt.

Total operating expenses climbed to $158.1 million in 2025, up from $123.8 million a year earlier, although corporate expenses fell to $7.3 million from $11.9 million as the company sought to streamline overhead. Interest expense rose to $15.5 million from $11.1 million.

MediaCo’s complex capital structure is contributing to volatile headline earnings. In connection with the Estrella deal, the company issued a warrant to purchase more than 28 million Class A shares at a nominal exercise price. That warrant is carried as a liability and remeasured each period, with changes in fair value running through the income statement. In 2024, the valuation produced a large noncash gain; in 2025, it produced a loss.

The impairments put MediaCo in line with other traditional broadcasters revaluing legacy assets amid audience fragmentation and the shift to streaming. Urban One Inc., a large African American–owned broadcaster, and other peers have also recorded sizeable write-downs on radio and television licenses over the past year as expectations for long-term cash flows from linear broadcasting have cooled.

Nasdaq compliance risk

The financial strain is showing up in MediaCo’s stock price. The company’s Class A shares trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker MDIA and recently changed hands at around 74 cents, giving it a market value of roughly $68 million. On Dec. 19, 2025, MediaCo disclosed it had received a notice from Nasdaq that it was out of compliance with the exchange’s $1 minimum bid requirement after the stock closed below that level for 30 consecutive business days.

The notice does not immediately affect trading, but if MediaCo fails to bring its share price back into compliance within the grace period, it faces potential delisting to an over-the-counter market—a move that could reduce liquidity and make it harder to raise capital.

Building a multicultural, cross-platform portfolio

Behind the financial swings, the company is reshaping its portfolio around multicultural audiences that many advertisers view as key to future growth.

Formed in 2019 to buy Hot 97 (WQHT-FM) and WBLS from Emmis Communications, MediaCo now reaches more than 20 million people each month across television, radio, digital and streaming. The Estrella acquisition brought Spanish-language EstrellaTV and Estrella News, digital and FAST channels, and additional radio and TV stations in major Hispanic markets.

MediaCo said 2025 was EstrellaTV’s strongest growth year on record, citing a 14% year-over-year increase in prime-time ratings among adults 18 to 49 across the week and a 57% jump in the fourth quarter. The network expanded its over-the-air footprint in New York through WMBC and in the Orlando, Florida, market through WDYB-CD under local marketing agreements.

On the audio side, the company highlighted “strong year-end audience growth” across its radio portfolio among adults 25 to 54 during key weekday listening hours. The Don Cheto Radio Network, built around a popular Spanish-language personality, added KZOM-FM 96.5 in Phoenix, one of the fastest-growing Latino markets, as an affiliate in late 2025.

MediaCo is also repositioning its marquee New York hip-hop brand. In January, Hot 97 introduced “HOT 97 Mornings with Mero,” a new morning drive-time show hosted by Joel “The Kid Mero” Martinez, replacing the long-running “Ebro in the Morning.” The company simultaneously launched “HOT 97 News,” a daily live news program produced in Atlanta and carried on the Hot 97 TV FAST channel and local television outlets, blending music, culture and current events.

In February, MediaCo rolled out Sigma Audio Networks LLC, a national audio sales and content platform it described as a “groundbreaking multicultural audio network.” The business combines broadcast, digital audio and live events under a single umbrella aimed at advertisers seeking to reach Hispanic, Black, Asian American and bicultural audiences with one buy. Sigma’s InterWave Digital Audio Network claims a reach of about 210 million monthly unique users.

Ad spending and the 2026 election cycle

Those moves come as brands step up spending to reach multicultural consumers. Research firms project that advertiser outlays specifically targeting multicultural segments—including Hispanic, Black and Asian American audiences—could reach into the mid-tens of billions of dollars within a few years. Separate demographic studies have found that Hispanics alone are approaching 70 million people in the United States and account for a majority of recent population growth.

MediaCo is trying to harness those trends. Rodriguez said the company is focused on serving a multicultural population of roughly 150 million Americans and offering “precision targeting and measurable results” to marketers across its platforms.

At the same time, the company is positioning itself for the 2026 election cycle. Late last year it named Katz Television Group as the exclusive national sales representative for political advertising on its EstrellaTV owned-and-operated stations and as a preferred partner for other advertising categories. Katz will handle political ad sales for EstrellaTV outlets in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago and Denver—four of the five largest U.S. Hispanic markets among them.

What comes next

MediaCo’s latest filing underscores the stakes of its strategy. The company has stitched together a broad portfolio of brands with deep roots in Latino and Black communities, and it is showing rapid growth in digital and streaming. Whether that momentum will be enough to overcome heavy leverage, noncash charges and a struggling stock price—and to keep the company on a major exchange—may determine how much influence a diverse-owned broadcaster can wield in the fast-changing U.S. media landscape.