Comscore Reports First Quarter 2024 ResultsRESTON, Va., May 7, 2024 Comscore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.Q1 2024 Financial Highlights
Revenue for the first quarter was $86.8 million compared to $91.6 million in Q1 2023
Net loss of $1.1 million compared to $8.7 million in Q1 2023
Adjusted EBITDA of $8.1 million compared to $5.2 million in Q1 2023
Maintaining full-year guidance
While revenue came in slightly below our expectations, our teams continued to make encouraging progress against a number of key initiatives that are critical to our transformation, said Jon Carpenter, CEO of Comscore. Our adjusted EBITDA performance, and key product and client progress that weve continued to make with our cross-platform offerings, are evidence were moving in the right direction. The quarter also saw major milestones like MRC accreditation for Comscore TV and JIC certification as a cross-platform currency - both are major validations of the progress that we continue to make. I remain confident in the direction were taking the business, and we will continue to leverage Comscores cross-platform capabilities to deliver value to our stakeholders.
First Quarter Summary Results
Revenue in the first quarter was $86.8 million, down 5.2% from $91.6 million in Q1 2023. This result was primarily driven by a decline in Cross Platform Solutions revenue of 9.7% from Q1 2023 due to lower national TV revenue, partially offset by growth in our movies business. Digital Ad Solutions revenue also declined 1.5% from Q1 2023, primarily due to lower syndicated digital revenue, partially offset by an increase in Activation (Proximic) and Comscore Campaign Ratings (CCR) revenue, which on a combined basis grew 28% compared to Q1 2023.
Our core operating expenses, which include cost of revenues, sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses, were $87.4 million, a decrease of 4.5% compared to $91.6 million in Q1 2023, primarily due to a decline in employee compensation as a result of our restructuring efforts and lower cloud computing costs.
Net loss was $1.1 million in Q1 2024, compared to $8.7 million in Q1 2023, resulting in net loss margins of 1.2% and 9.5% of revenue, respectively. After accounting for dividends on our convertible preferred stock, loss per share attributable to common shares was $(1.08) and $(2.66) for Q1 2024 and Q1 2023, respectively.
Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $8.1 million, compared to $5.2 million in Q1 2023, resulting in adjusted EBITDA margins of 9.4% and 5.7%, respectively. Excluding the impact of foreign currency transactions, FX adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7.2 million, compared to $6.7 million in Q1 2023. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin exclude stock-based compensation, restructuring costs, amortization of cloud-computing implementation costs, change in fair value of contingent consideration and warrants liability, transformation costs (added in Q3 2023 and applied to prior periods), and other items as presented in the accompanying tables. FX adjusted EBITDA excludes these items as well as gain/loss from foreign currency transactions.
Change in Revenue Solution Groups
In the first quarter of 2024, management decided to evaluate revenue results using solution groups that better represent the companys evolving business and customer needs, which are largely centered around measurement and insights. Beginning with Q1 2024, we are presenting revenue in the following two solution groups:
Content & Ad Measurement represents the measurement portion of our business measuring audiences across content and advertisements for linear TV, CTV, desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices. Product offerings reported in this solution group include our legacy subscription-based syndicated offerings that measure audiences for linear TV (national and local), digital and streaming, as well as theatrical box office receipts. Also included in this solution group are our transaction-based cross-platform products, Proximic and CCR. These syndicated and cross-platform products are used as currency to plan and execute ad campaigns, measure the outcome of ad campaigns, optimize ad campaigns that are in-flight, activate programmatic campaigns, and make content easier for programmatic advertisers to reach.
Research & Insight Solutions represents the custom solutions we provide that are tailored to our clients specific needs. These offerings include custom TV, digital and cross-platform data feeds, as well as other data integrations. They also include our survey business, our Consumer Brand Health (CBH) business, and other bespoke research, data and insight deliverables that help our clients better understand their business, competitive landscape, clients and market.
Using the new solution groups to evaluate revenue in the first quarter, Content & Ad Measurement revenue declined 5.3% from Q1 2023 due to lower revenue from our syndicated audience offerings, primarily related to national TV and syndicated digital products. This decline was partially offset by an increase in cross-platform revenue primarily driven by increased usage of our Proximic and CCR products. Research & Insight Solutions revenue declined 4.5% from Q1 2023, primarily due to lower deliveries of certain custom digital products.
If we had evaluated revenue based on the new solution groups in 2023, full-year revenue from Content & Ad Measurement and Research & Insight Solutions would have been approximately 83% and 17% of total revenue, respectively. Additional information about the new solution groups is set forth in the accompanying tables.
Balance Sheet and Liquidity
As of March 31, 2024, cash, cash equ
