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Date

May 14, 2026, at 8 a.m. ET

Call participants

  • Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — Mark Lazarus
  • Chief Financial Officer — Anand Kini
  • Operator

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Takeaways

  • Total revenue -- $1.69 billion, representing a 1% decrease driven by continued Pay TV pressure, with partial offset from growth in Platforms revenue.
  • Linear distribution revenue -- $1.01 billion, down 7%, due to ongoing cord-cutting, partially offset by contractual rate increases.
  • Advertising revenue -- $368 million, down 5%, but improved from a 12% decline in the prior year’s first quarter, driven by strong monetization in news and live content.
  • Platforms revenue -- $192 million, an increase of 9% attributed to growth at GolfNow and full integration of Fandango1.
  • Content licensing & other revenue -- $121 million, strongly increased from $57 million, mainly due to licensing deals such as "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," recognized fully in the quarter of delivery.
  • Adjusted EBITDA -- $704 million, a 5% rise, reflecting margin above 30% and improved operating efficiency.
  • Programming and production costs -- $519 million, down 5%, reflecting more efficient premium content delivery.
  • Total cost of revenue -- $638 million, a 3% decrease, despite an 11% rise in other cost of revenue from Platforms investment, particularly Fandango1 onboarding.
  • SG&A cost -- $346 million, down 9% as a result of organizational efficiency and tech modernization, with expectations of modest increases going forward for D2C development.
  • Free cash flow -- $558 million, supported by timing-related changes in receivables and payables that are expected to normalize as the year progresses.
  • Cash balance -- $1.2 billion at quarter end, with noted liquidity strength.
  • Capital return -- Declared $0.375 quarterly dividend per share, executed $100 million Class A share buyback in first quarter, and announced a $100 million accelerated share repurchase for second quarter under a $1 billion authorization.
  • Audience growth at CNBC -- Double-digit viewership increase marking the highest-rated quarter in four years, and over 50% demographic growth during the World Economic Forum week.
  • MS NOW performance -- Double-digit total day and prime-time growth with weekly reach exceeding 30 million viewers, paired with 1.6 billion YouTube and TikTok digital views year-to-date.
  • Golf Channel engagement -- Largest audience for The Players Championship in twenty years and 13.5 million unique viewers during Masters week.
  • Olympic audience -- Milan Cortina Olympics drew the largest Olympic audience in USA Network history, reaching about 75% of U.S. Pay TV households.
  • Platforms business expansion -- High single-digit revenue growth; GolfNow and Fandango cited as key drivers; INDY Cinema fully integrated as Fandango1; StockStory acquired to strengthen CNBC’s AI-driven investment platform capability.
  • Content licensing strategy -- Kini said, "all of our content sales are profitable" with consistently high margins, but timing can generate quarter-to-quarter variability.
  • Guidance for full year 2026 -- Revenue expected between $6.15 billion and $6.4 billion, adjusted EBITDA between $1.85 billion and $2.0 billion, and free cash flow between $1.0 billion and $1.2 billion, with expectations for cost and revenue variability across remaining quarters.
  • Recent divestiture -- SportsEngine was sold on May 1; Kini indicated, "It's not going to be from a materiality perspective within our financials as you look at kind of revenue and EBITDA. It's not going to kind of change our trajectory of kind of our guidance and so forth."
  • D2C and AVOD initiatives -- MS NOW direct-to-consumer launch and Fandango AVOD offering both on track for rollout later in 2026, with MS NOW as a paid subscription model and Fandango AVOD as a free, ad-supported platform.
  • Women’s sports and new properties -- League One Volleyball achieved its most watched match ever; first WNBA season launched this quarter.
  • Capital allocation framework -- Kini emphasized prioritization of maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing in growth, and returning capital as coequal priorities responsive to opportunity and market conditions.

Summary

Versant Media Group (VSNT +9.87%) reported mixed headline financials, with a slight revenue decline balanced by 9% growth in its digital Platforms and significant gains in content licensing. Management detailed acceleration in non-linear businesses, highlighted by strategic acquisitions — such as StockStory for CNBC and INDY Cinema integration as Fandango — and announced the upcoming launch of MS NOW and Fandango AVOD direct-to-consumer offerings scheduled for later this year. The company confirmed sports and live events as prominent growth engines, including record Olympic and Golf Channel audiences, and continued to capitalize on content licensing variability, notably with "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." Recent capital return actions included a $100 million share repurchase, a $0.375 per share dividend, and the initiation of an accelerated buyback. The sale of SportsEngine was cited as non-material to ongoing financial guidance. Executives reiterated a commitment to balanced capital allocation while navigating secular Pay TV pressures with digital platform scaling and flexible distribution strategies.

  • Kini said, "the buyback A, both the ASR for Q2, and then we bought back $100 million in Q1. And then we also have the $0.375 dividend. I think all exemplify our capital allocation approach," framing capital returns alongside investments and balance sheet strength as central to current financial policy.
  • Lazarus stated, "We are focused not only on continuing to improve the content and reach of our leading brands but also aggressively expanding Beyond TV through direct-to-consumer initiatives," underscoring a strategic pivot toward digital and diversified revenue streams.
  • Future margin dynamics were characterized by expectations of "higher programming costs in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter," reflecting increased sports rights investment and anticipated content delivery timing.
  • Lazarus confirmed, "there are a set of consumers who are looking for sports and news. We are proud that," highlighting the company’s portfolio positioning in evolving Pay TV and streaming distribution models.
  • Management clarified that digital investments for MS NOW and Fandango AVOD are "not substantial" and primarily relate to marketing rather than fundamental infrastructure, indicating measured expense growth in pursuit of new digital audiences.

Industry glossary

  • Pay TV: Traditional cable or satellite television services requiring a subscription, distinguished from free-to-air broadcast or streaming platforms.
  • Platforms revenue: Segment capturing revenue from digital and transactional businesses beyond traditional TV, including GolfNow, Fandango, and related digital ventures.
  • AVOD: Advertising-supported video on demand; video content provided free to consumers and monetized through advertising rather than subscription fees.
  • Direct-to-consumer (D2C): Content and services delivered directly to end users through proprietary digital channels, bypassing legacy cable or satellite intermediaries.
  • Accelerated share repurchase (ASR): A method by which a company buys back a substantial quantity of its shares in a short period, typically through an agreement with an investment bank.
  • Content licensing: The commercial practice of granting third-party distribution rights to company-owned video or entertainment properties, generating revenue that may be episodic or highly variable.
  • MVPD: Multichannel video programming distributor; entities such as cable, satellite, or streaming services that aggregate multiple content channels or networks for subscribers.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Mark Lazarus: Thank you, Wylie, and good morning, everyone. We're off to a strong start to the year with continued progress and growth across key areas of the business, driven by disciplined execution and the strength of our portfolio. As we report our first quarter as an independent company, I want to recognize the truly unique culture and organization that we are building. I am incredibly proud of how our teams are executing with focus, rigor and a shared commitment to performance. The teamwork is evident in the results and in the momentum we're building across the business.

This momentum reflects our strategy at work, operating scale, market-leading brands anchored in live sports and news, winning with premium content, expanding audience reach and accelerating the growth of our digital platforms. We hold a leadership position in each of our 4 large and growing markets: business news and personal finance, political news and opinion, golf and sports and genre entertainment. Across each, we continue to make meaningful progress against our objectives, deepening engagement and driving new monetization opportunities. Let's talk about the results. At CNBC, we saw exceptional engagement during a period of heightened market volatility.

The network delivered its highest rated quarter in 4 years, with double-digit year-over-year growth. reinforcing CNBC's role as the destination for business news when it matters most. That strength was on full display in Davos at the World Economic Forum, where CNBC was on the ground having and covering the most consequential conversations shaping today's global economic agenda with CEOs, policymakers and business leaders. Viewership among key demographics increased more than 50% during the week, resulting in our largest Davos audience in 5 years.

We also continue to expand and build on the strength of our programming with the launch of Morning Call, a new early morning program that begins our Business Day lineup by delivering premarket analysis, insights and global financial developments to set the agenda for the trading day. At MS NOW, the network achieved its most watched quarter since 2024 with double-digit growth in both total day and prime-time viewership among key demographics. MS NOW reached an average of over 30 million viewers weekly, and our viewers watched an average of 9 hours weekly. The second highest engagement across all cable networks regardless of genre and nearly double the next closest competitor.

That scale extends to digital, where the MS NOW website and app delivered the strongest first quarter on record. MS NOW generated more views on YouTube than the 3 broadcast networks combined from their news divisions. And we had over 1.6 billion views across YouTube and TikTok combined year-to-date. Growth also continued in digital publishing and podcasts with original podcast downloads up more than 60% year-over-year. MS NOW is the network audiences turned to during the most important moments in politics. With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, MS NOW will continue to deliver premium programming with differentiated analysis.

In Golf, Golf Channel continued to build on its leadership position as the #1 golf media outlet, driven by strong early season engagement. The PGA Tour is off to an exceptional start with the golf channel drawing its largest audience for the players championship in 2 decades. And that momentum continued more recently at the Masters, where Golf Channel reached 13.5 million unique viewers during the week, reinforcing its role as the primary destination, not only for live Golf, but for news, interviews and post-round analysis as well. We are extending that leadership Beyond Pay TV through our Platforms business. GolfNow delivered broad growth across tee time bookings and payments.

GolfPass, boosted by our partnership with Rory McIlroy in the first quarter reached the highest number of subscribers ever. In just a moment, I'll talk about the Platforms business. But as it relates to Golf, this is a clear example of how we are integrating content, commerce and consumer engagement within a single ecosystem. Turning to sports and genre entertainment. In the first quarter, we delivered the largest Olympic audience in USA network history with the Milan Cortina Olympics, which aired across USA Network and CNBC, reaching approximately 3/4 of U.S. pay TV households and securing the #1 rank among sports and entertainment cable networks. In addition, we are building on our momentum in women's sports.

Our first season of League One Volleyball in USA Network was a breakout success highlighted by the most watched match in league history. We are also proud to have just kicked off our inaugural WNBA season this past Sunday with our opening game and the doubleheader just last night. Beyond live sports, we are driving value from our deep content library the licensing of keeping up with the Kardashians and other iconic entertainment titles to third-party platforms underscores the enduring demand for our own content and our ability to monetize it across the evolving distribution landscape. In addition, our entertainment brands continued to perform throughout the quarter. E!

Live from the Red Carpet drove strong audience engagement around major events, including the Oscars, the Grammys and the Critics Choice Awards. The Critic's Choice Awards aired as a simulcast on E! and USA Network doubling viewership compared to the prior year. And finally, in Platforms, we delivered high single-digit growth in the quarter, continuing to build a scalable revenue stream Beyond Pay TV while expanding the reach and distribution of our iconic brands. Our performance reflects disciplined execution and progress in scaling these businesses, which remains a foremost strategic priority. Platform's growth in the quarter was driven by GolfNow and Fandango with Fandango1, formerly INDY Cinema, expanding Fandango's value proposition for cinema operators.

An important component of our platform strategy is to build on CNBC's position as the leading source for business news and expand our audience relationships through deeper and broader coverage. As part of this strategy, we acquired StockStory, an AI-driven platform that enhances our ability to deliver real-time actionable investment intelligence and supports the next phase of CNBC's direct-to-consumer product development. We're building on this momentum with other new platform initiatives as well, including the previously announced MS NOW direct-to-consumer offering and Fandango AVOD service, both on track to launch later this year. These initiatives and strategies underscore that we are actively managing through Pay TV secular changes.

We are focused not only on continuing to improve the content and reach of our leading brands but also aggressively expanding Beyond TV through direct-to-consumer initiatives. Our strong balance sheet enables us to both return capital to shareholders and invest in these growth opportunities. That includes acquisitions such as INDY Cinema for Fandango, StockStory for CNBC and Free TV Networks, which expand our platform capabilities and accelerate our evolution. As I just mentioned, we remain committed to returning capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, including this morning's announcements of an accelerated share repurchase transaction as we enter the second quarter. With that, I'll turn it over to Anand and we'll walk through the financials.

Anand Kini: Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin by reviewing our first quarter 2026 results then discuss key performance drivers and finally, touch upon our outlook for the remainder of the year. As Mark mentioned, our first quarter performance reflects a strong start to the year with disciplined execution, driving robust profitability healthy margins, significant free cash flow generation and continued momentum in Platforms revenue. Total revenue for the quarter was approximately $1.69 billion, a 1% decrease from the prior year quarter. This performance reflects the expected continued pressure on Pay TV, impacting Linear distribution and Advertising revenues. This was partially offset by significant growth in Platforms, which, as we've mentioned, is a top strategic priority for Versant.

Linear distribution revenue was $1.01 billion, a decline of 7% year-over-year, driven by continued cord-cutting trends partially offset by contractual rate increases. This decline is consistent with the prior year trajectory. Advertising revenue was $368 million, down 5% year-over-year a significant improvement from last year's Q1 decline of 12%, reflecting the power of our portfolio, particularly in our news businesses, where we successfully monetized strong ratings and robust advertiser demand. Platforms revenue was $192 million, up 9%, with strong results at both GolfNow and Fandango.

Mark mentioned the breadth of GolfNow's growth and it's a similar story with Fandango, with robust performance in ticketing and home entertainment within the cinema now known as Fandango1, also fully integrated and contributing to our success. Content licensing and other revenue was $121 million, a significant increase compared to the $57 million in the prior year and was favorably impacted by the licensing of select titles in our content library including Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which we announced in January. A reminder that the value of licensing transactions is generally recognized immediately when the content is delivered. As a result, Content licensing and other revenue can vary significantly quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year.

In the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $704 million, reflecting our continued focus on operating efficiency and increasing 5% versus the prior year. Margins remained well above 30%. Programming and production costs were $519 million in the first quarter, down 5% year-over-year as we continue to deliver the premium content our audiences love efficiently. As a reminder, these costs have some degree of seasonality with higher costs in the second half of the year driven by sports rights timing. Other cost of revenue increased 11% in the first quarter due to our continued investment in Platforms including costs associated with onboarding Fandango1. Total cost of revenue was $638 million, down 3% compared to last year.

SG&A costs of $346 million represented a decrease of 9%. We remain focused on operating with a lean organization and modernizing our technology infrastructure, driving efficiency and productivity. We expect a modest go-forward increase in SG&A costs to support our growth initiatives, including the ongoing development of our D2C offerings. Free cash flow totaled $558 million in the quarter, reflecting strong cash generation and timing-related items, including accounts receivable collections and payable processing, which we expect to normalize as the year progresses.

Capital expenditures were relatively light in the first quarter and are expected, consistent with our prior commentary to increase modestly over the remainder of the year, largely driven by the build-out of our Manhattan facility and targeted investments in our Platforms and other growth businesses, demonstrating our commitment to return capital to shareholders. Our Board has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.375 per share. And as Mark mentioned, in the first quarter, we repurchased $100 million of Class A shares under the $1 billion authorization approved last quarter. And this morning, we have announced a $100 million accelerated share repurchase agreement, which we expect to complete in the second quarter.

Liquidity remains strong with a total cash balance of $1.2 billion at quarter end, supported by healthy free cash flow generation as well as timing-related items discussed earlier, which we expect to normalize in the second quarter. Our capital allocation priorities remain consistent: investing to evolve our business model and generate growth, returning capital to shareholders and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We mentioned previously our decision to explore strategic alternatives for SportsEngine and sold most of the business on May 1. Our focus will always be to maximize long-term value through disciplined capital allocation, and this sale, along with the growth investments we've mentioned, underscores that commitment.

As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we continue to expect $6.15 billion to $6.4 billion in revenue, adjusted EBITDA of $1.85 billion to $2.0 billion and free cash flow of $1.0 billion to $1.2 billion. We expect quarterly fluctuations driven by content licensing working capital and higher programming costs in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter. These dynamics are reflected in our full year outlook and consistent with 2025. As mentioned, content licensing revenue can vary across quarters, and we expect higher programming costs driven by sports rights timing relative to both Q1 and last year in the second half and particularly Q4.

With respect to free cash flow for the remainder of 2026, we also expect continued variability due to working capital timing differences. And with that, I will turn it over to the operator for Q&A.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question is from the line of Michael Ng with Goldman Sachs.

Michael Ng: I have 2, one on advertising and one on skinny bundles. First, on advertising, it was a little bit better than expected in the quarter. Can you just talk a little bit about how much of the performance was driven by growth initiatives gaining traction versus the strong new cycle across CNBC and MSNBC. Was there any halo effect on USA from the Winter Olympics? Just trying to understand the sustainability of the outperformance in ads? And then on skinny bundles, could you talk a little bit about whether you're seeing a wider range of performance across your network portfolio?

Said differently, are MSNBC and CNBC outperforming the rest of your networks, just given their inclusion in the news inclusive plans?

Mark Lazarus: Thanks, Michael. Thanks for the question. It's Mark. So on advertising, we -- the marketplace has been strong. The portfolio of news and sports, along with a bunch of the live entertainment we had has been resilient. And the -- our partnership with NBCU representing us in the market has proven to be fruitful for both parties. And we believe that this is sustainable. There is not really was not a big halo from the Olympics. The Olympics were wonderful, and were great for us. But as a reminder, that they buy -- NBC buys the time from us. So we didn't benefit from growth in advertising from the Olympics.

But the -- our portfolio of live content is what advertisers are seeking and I feel that, that will continue, and we have all good indicators going forward. On the skinny bundle side, I think what I would say is that we're well positioned, and we are in all of the appropriate bundles, as you point out, we're in the sports and news and sports and news bundles with our content. And the portfolio is diverse and has networks that is prepared and built to work with the distribution marketplace in this new tiered bundled world.

Anand Kini: Mike, just to add on to what Mark said. On the advertising side, the organic presence drove kind of the trajectory improvement. So yes, we have some new initiatives like Free TV Networks, but to be clear, that was not the reason that we saw that performance improvement. That was just based on the organic businesses and the health of them and all the factors that Mark just mentioned. And then again, just to reiterate Mark's point on the skinny bundles. The way we look at this also from a business model and financial perspective, we look at it in total revenue.

And we're -- as you saw the kind of the linear distribution revenue and our focus is on maximizing that across the portfolio. And that's how we manage the business, and it kind of shows up in our results and how we'll continue to do so.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Brent Penter with Raymond James.

Brent Penter: First one for me. On MS NOW and Fandango, digital and AVOD strategies, I appreciate the color launching later this year. Are there any more details you all can give at this point on what the go-to-market or maybe pricing strategies will look like for each? And then can you help us size the investment this year to bring those both to market?

Mark Lazarus: Thanks, Brent. We haven't settled on pricing yet. And really, that's only for half the equation. MS NOW will be a direct-to-consumer and be a subscriber-based service which will center around content that MS NOW, it's reporters, its contributors, it's anchors create, but not only that, there'll be a build-out in a sense of community and mindfulness and it will be a much broader service than what we provide today, bringing together voices that are both on our air and not necessarily on our air today. But that will be a subscriber-based service. Fandango AVOD will be just that, be free with advertising.

And it will be -- we will be able to serve content based on the data and information we have from our current Fandango users, both in buying movie tickets as well as buying home video services for buying and renting TV series and films, and we'll be able to serve advertising relevant advertising as people consume our content. But again, that's a free with advertising service.

Anand Kini: And then just to answer your question on the investment. So the investment is not substantial. A, we get the benefit of leveraging our existing infrastructure, say, on the video, for example, we already have a well-established Fandango infrastructure to support video playback. And similarly, on MS NOW, we have existing streaming services that have video playback at CNBC. So there was some kind of bespoke user design investment, but we have a very strong base that we're starting with. So a lot of the investment is actually just on marketing and driving awareness to the product for the consumer. But it's embedded in kind of the outlook we said.

We mentioned that you'll see, for example, SG&A tick up modestly. And that's really to support those plans and a little bit on the CapEx side, we've mentioned that you'll see a little bit there, both for the New York facility build-out and to support them. But from a size perspective, it's not like substantial dollars.

Brent Penter: Okay. That's helpful. And then on the accelerated buyback, what drove the decision to do that? And why now? And then still with $800 million of authorization pro forma for that. Is there any color that you can give on what will drive your decisions around the pacing of the remaining buyback?

Anand Kini: Sure. A couple of things. So just to reiterate, the buyback A, both the ASR for Q2, and then we bought back $100 million in Q1. And then we also have the $0.375 dividend. I think all exemplify our capital allocation approach. Which just to remind everybody, kind of 3 prongs here and in there -- and that we're uniquely positioned. We think to do all of them. A, is maintain a strong balance sheet, which we think gives us a competitive advantage and a strategic advantage. B, is to invest in growth to evolve the business. And then c, is a return of capital to shareholders, and we take each one of them are equal priorities.

And I think the results that you just see in our share buyback and dividend kind of exemplify that. I think one other thing in terms of the ASR, it kind of just underscores our confidence in the business and our commitment to that capital allocation approach. And just one final thing, but we don't view these capital allocation decisions within this framework as static, but rather like we make those decisions in the context of the market environment and opportunities we see to add value. And that's going to be our approach going forward as well.

Brent Penter: Okay. And then final question for me. Could you just size the benefit from Keeping Up With the Kardashians? And then what's the time frame on that licensing deal?

Anand Kini: Sure. So just a couple of things. On the sizing, it was a driver, as you can see in the Content licensing and other growth. It is a driver of that. Again, I think it reiterates that we have a multifaceted business model where we Content licensing, we have ad sales, Linear distribution platforms. This is one of the levers that we have and I think it exemplify the value of the library. And yes, this quarter was Keeping Up With the Kardashians. We have a lot of other programming, great True Crime kind of library.

We have a lot of other unscripted programming that we will sell in the future as well. just by notion or I should note that this is inherently, there's some variability in this revenue stream on Content licensing just based off of the timing of the sale. We recognize all the revenue for the sale just based off of a gap this quarter that it's announced, and that will be the same with other sales that we do going forward. And it's a multiyear licensing deal that we did with the Kardashians.

Mark Lazarus: Yes. I'll just add to that, that we do have a robust library titles that are part of the current structure of the library, but also as we continue to create new and original content that will also be things that we're able to put into the marketplace. And shows that we have -- are creating now. We have been -- we know have been attractive to third parties who have already reached out to us about licensing.

Operator: The next question is from the line of David Karnovsky with JPMorgan.

David Karnovsky: Maybe just following up on the prior question. Is there any way to help frame residual cost, I mean, either for Kardashians or just how to think about your library content generally to help us better understand flow through to EBITDA or cash flow when you do move some of this programming? And then on SportsEngine, maybe this detail will be in the queue, but I don't know if there's anything you can say on the terms of the sale or just revenue and EBITDA impact.

Anand Kini: Sure. So on the residual cost, like, a, I should say, like really all of our content sales are profitable, like we generate heavy -- good margins from our Content licensing it is going to vary a little bit on deal by deal depending on the individual talent that's associated with the show. But I guess the best guide I can kind of give on that is it was a driver of kind of -- one of the drivers of the increase in content licensing and other revenue. and those incremental revenues are profitable. It's a good margin business for us.

And then I think your other question that you asked on -- can you just remind me of that was? SportsEngine. So on SportsEngine, it's like in terms of we did sell on May 1. It is -- we're very proud of the business. We think, like I mentioned, an attractive deal for our shareholders. It was a way to kind of maximize value of the asset. It's not going to be from a materiality perspective within our financials as you look at kind of revenue and EBITDA. It's not going to kind of change our trajectory of kind of our guidance and so forth. As you can see, we've kind of stuck with where we were.

And so it kind of gives you a sense of that. And then financially, again, we're pleased with the outcome, but we don't think it's going to really change how we run the business going forward.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Rich Greenfield with LightShed Partners.

Richard Greenfield: When I look at companies like Disney, and Fox even, they sort of talked about how their D2C strategy is sort of counteracting or lessening the declines they're seeing in the Linear business, in terms of how they talk about their overall trajectory of subscribers. And so I'm wondering, I know you can't get into details on pricing and the exact strategy on the MS NOW launch. But I guess, how should we judge success? Like will success be lessening the declines on the Linear business? Like what are the sort of the ways you think about we're going to be able to understand the success and progress of that D2C strategy?

And then just I wanted to follow up on the cord shaving comments at the beginning of the Q&A. Disney warned about the impact of the YouTube TV skinny bundles on their nonsports assets. I guess when you look at both DIRECTV and YouTube TV, they've gotten more aggressive with sports bundles and sports and news bundles, anything you can say on are most people from what you can tell, taking sports and news? Are they gravitating towards sports, obviously. You have a unique view given the portfolio you have where are consumers gravitating to as these skinny bundles play out?

Mark Lazarus: Sure, Rich. So I'll start with the second one first. And clearly, we are seeing -- there are a set of consumers who are looking for sports and news. We are proud that 4 of our 7 linear businesses fall into those areas and in those tiers and that we are participating in that. As it relates to the entertainment side, what we're seeing is a fair amount of stability. We still have a large and robust subscriber base. We're also being creative and flexible with how we're able to distribute. And by way of example, I'll share that oxygen over the last few years, while it is a very, I'll call it, very fair priced to the MVPD.

We also have some availability in free over-the-air as a multicast network. And we think that, that's a way to expand creatively and flexibly without -- and being additive to our distribution flow mechanisms. And we see a lot of opportunity. And as the MVPDs change, their tiers, we'll be creative and flexible and that's one of the things that we, as a stand-alone company, have the ability to do to work with all of the MVPD partners to make sure our content is available through them, but also in other forms and fashions without damaging or hurting those relationships. On the MS NOW question or really the D2C question.

Our goal is to continue to build scale and expand our audiences. Yes, we hope that comes with a large base of subscribers and where we'll gauge ourselves is how do we work, how do revenues look across all of our various forms of distributing content. One of the things that we want to do is make sure we grow revenue diversification within each of our verticals as we have been doing. And as we talked about, we have done a very good job over the years with Golf by adding StockStory, adding INDY Cinema, adding Free TV Networks. So MS NOW is the MS NOW version of growing revenue diversification into that very important vertical for us.

Richard Greenfield: So it goes well beyond subscription in your mind, but you do think it should lessen subscription declines in success?

Mark Lazarus: Yes, yes, very much so. I mean we want to build an audience, a circular way to move audience between various platforms for our content. And this is one of the key elements.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Sean Diffley with Morgan Stanley.

Sean Diffley: I had 2 on capital allocation follow-up and then a sports rights question. So obviously, you can buy back your own stock, the ASR is helpful, but you're also able to do M&A. I was hoping you could walk us through how you assess the relative attractiveness of each and where your strategic focus is from an M&A standpoint and how you would describe the valuation backdrop for some assets out there? And then second, on sports rights, obviously, some of your bigger competitors are very focused on the NFL. Do you see the potential for smaller rights to free up and which sports we should be focused on?

Mark Lazarus: So we'll talk about the framework for M&A. Clearly, we're looking in a variety of areas and obviously can't be too specific here. But we're adding to our verticals as the 3 that I've already mentioned that we've done, and we're looking for accretive opportunities within each of those verticals. More broadly, we are interested in being -- we're going to be very disciplined, but we're interested in things that help us diversify our revenue streams. And as we've talked about, a vertical strategy, not a horizontal strategy, across the linear landscape. On the NFL question, and then I'll let Anand come back to the capital allocation side.

On the NFL question, yes, the competitive set, they're working through whatever -- however they and the NFL are going to work through the next cycle of contracts. I do believe that, that will put pressure on those companies that retain or grow their NFL expense to make decisions on other content and that we will selectively look at contracts, if you can just be -- look at who the next groups of leagues that come up, whether it's baseball, hockey, soccer, or Premier League, there's a variety of content coming due. I think what I would just express is that we are well positioned.

If you think about -- since we've announced our spin, we have extended our USGA contract. We've extended our PGA of America Ryder Cup contract. We have expanded our WNBA relationship. We have done a deal and have now completed our first season of League One women's Volleyball. So I do think there will continue to be opportunity for us to build upon our sports portfolio being judicious with our capital.

Anand Kini: And just to kind of go back to what Mark said on the capital allocation and M&A. So in terms of, again, like whether it's share repurchase, whether it's ASR or on the market and M&A. Again, we view it as it's -- these are both 2 prongs, and the third prong is maintaining a healthy balance sheet that we are going to execute concurrently. And that's what we've been doing. And we hold each one as very important. And I think, again, they all work together. So we think we're in an advantaged position to be able to do it all. And I think our results kind of show that. And then on M&A, Mark mentioned the strategy focus.

It's also we have a lot of focus on value. I think hopefully, our results in Q1 demonstrate that we have a resilient, strong business model. And we're going to do things, whether there's a lot of room to grow organically. Our Platform's revenue growth this quarter demonstrates that. That was really organic growth in GolfNow and Fandango. So we're going to look when there's opportunities that are inorganic. They have a very high threshold even as they fit within those markets and those strategies. And if it makes a lot of sense and it adds a lot of value, we'll pursue. But if it doesn't, we really like the hand that we have.

Operator: Our last and final question is from the line of David Joyce with Seaport Research Partners.

David Joyce: Anecdotally, it seems like you've been self-promoting Fandango and GolfNow and GolfPass more. What's the engagement and subscription growth been like year-over-year? And where do you see your share going in a few years? And then secondly, some of your other peers have been starting to work on vertical video. Is this possibly going to be part of your strategy? And what would be involved in that?

Mark Lazarus: So first, thank you for noticing. Yes, we have been utilizing our airtime given the portfolio we have. We've been utilizing our airtime to promote Fandango, GolfNow and Rotten Tomatoes some, you left that part out. Hopefully, you've seen those as well. I think what we've been doing there, I think the results that we just announced of growing at 9% is indicative of the power of our linear promotion, helping grow those businesses. They're not really subscription businesses, they're transaction businesses, but our growth is evident that our transactions are growing. And I think, and part of that, for sure, is our ability to promote those services on our air, and we will continue to do that.

It's one of the benefits we have of having this closed loop of multiple businesses. In terms of vertical video, we are investigating it, where there's a couple of companies that we're working with. In fact, if you look, we just launched a new golf channel app, and it is all -- it is built for vertical video. We'll continue to do that in other areas and other genres as well.

Operator: This now concludes our question-and-answer session, and will also conclude today's conference. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.