Versant Media Group raised its full-year guidance on Thursday, citing favorable performance across its digital business segments and overall operational momentum. The company now projects total revenue between $6.2 billion and $6.45 billion for 2026, along with adjusted EBITDA in the range of $1.9 billion to $2.05 billion. The guidance increase represents the company’s third earnings update since its spinoff from Comcast’s NBCUniversal earlier in the year.
For the second quarter ended June 30, Versant exceeded Wall Street expectations on both revenue and earnings metrics, with shares closing up more than 6% following the announcement. The company’s linear television segment generated $954 million in revenue during the quarter, declining 6.3% due to subscriber losses. However, advertising revenue proved more resilient, declining just 0.6% to $423 million, reflecting stronger ratings driven by news and sports programming. The platforms segment, encompassing Fandango and GolfNow, posted $225 million in quarterly revenue with adjusted growth of 9.3% when accounting for prior divestiture impacts.
Total company revenue declined 3.8% year-over-year to $1.64 billion, reflecting broader industry headwinds in traditional pay television. Nevertheless, adjusted EBITDA on a comparable stand-alone basis increased 3% year-over-year to $624 million, as lower programming expenses and cost reductions offset revenue declines. Management attributed the EBITDA performance to operational efficiency measures across the portfolio.
Executives outlined strategic priorities centered on revenue diversification. The company aims to achieve a revenue composition where 50% originates from digital, platform, subscription, advertising-supported and transactional businesses, down from the current over 80% reliance on linear television. Recent acquisitions included golf simulation company Full Swing, complementing existing golf-focused assets GolfPass and GolfNow. Earlier this year, the company acquired StockStory, an artificial intelligence platform providing financial analysis and market insights for CNBC.
Versant declared its third consecutive quarterly cash dividend of 37.5 cents per share, with payment scheduled for October 22. The company completed a $100 million accelerated share repurchase program and announced plans for an additional $100 million repurchase agreement beginning in August.
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