PodcastOne (PODC) Issues Letter to Shareholders

PodcastOne (NASDAQ: PODC), a leading podcast platform and a subsidiary of LiveOne (NASDAQ: LVO), issued today the following letter to its shareholders from PodcastOnes President and Co-Founder Kit Gray.

Dear Fellow Shareholders:

Today marks approximately nine months from our September 2023 spin-out resulting in PodcastOne being a stand-alone company, publicly traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol PODC.

As we launch into our new fiscal year, I wanted to take this opportunity to personally communicate with you and let you know how much we appreciate your belief in our team and in our company. PodcastOne is a special place, and we couldnt do what we do without your support.

In this letter, Id like to give you an idea of who we are, including an opportunity to get to know some of the key players in our company. Ive always believed a companys most important asset is its people, and Im extremely proud of our team here at PodcastOne.

An estimated 505 million people will listen to podcasts in 2024, the most in this medium's short history. Since the term podcast was coined in 2004, the format has grown into a $25 billion industry. PodcastOne is leading this movement and determined to remain the leader in expanding audiences and forging synergistic relationships for its podcasters.

I founded PodcastOne in 2012 as one of the first people to recognize the potential of the podcast medium, developing a network-talent partnership model that has been emulated by many major broadcasters in the last few years. Our early success caught the attention of legendary broadcast leader and founder of radio network giant WestwoodOne, Norm Pattiz. In 2012, Norm and I partnered and together we built PodcastOne as a company focused on changing the world of digital audio, growing at a rapid speed, and building a prime platform for big-brand advertisers. My entrepreneurial spirit and love for the evolution of on-demand digital audio is complemented by my over ten years of sales representation experience in traditional spot terrestrial radio sales, network radio sales, national radio sales, mobile content sales and online sales.

Sue McNamara is our Chief Revenue Officer. She is an accomplished sales executive, with over two decades of experience, including as SVP at CBS Radio under Mel Karmazin where during that time, Sue generated a 200%+ increase in revenue to over $100 million annually. At Interep, she led ad sales for The Howard Stern Show among others and drove revenue from $100 million to $500 million for Infinity Broadcasting. Additionally, Sue was named one of RadioInk's "Most Influential Women in Radio" six years in a row and listed among the Top 1% of America's Most Honored Professionals.

In addition to our C-Suite, we have a unique and world class board of directors rarely seen with a company of our size that consists of Robert Ellin, Jim Berk, Patrick Wachsberger, Craig Foster, Jay Krigsman, Ramin Arani, and Carolyn Blackwood.

Together, along with our employees, we are generating impressive results and the numbers speak for themselves.

We are consistently ranked in Podtracs Top 20 publishersWe added 30 new podcasts in FY24We generate 350+ hours of content produced weekly We attract 10M+ unique monthly listenersWe have 200+ Fortune 1000 advertisersWe see 38M+ monthly downloads We see 600M+ annual downloads On the financial front, for our fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024 (Q4 FY24), we expect to report approximately $11.7M of revenue, up 32% year over year, with $256K of Adjusted EBITDA*, a $470K improvement. For our fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 (FY24), we expect to report $43.3M of revenue, up 25% from last fiscal year, with $660K of Adjusted EBITDA*. Considering this strong financial performance, we also recently increased our fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 guidance to $50M-$55M in revenue.

During FY24, we successfully added 30 new podcasts, with over 100 potential new shows in the pipeline, and we closed a B2B partnership with a Fortune 250 company with over 60M global streaming subscribers generating $20M+ annual revenues to PodcastOne. Our ownership and stake in IP is a flourishing aspect of our business. We sold "Vigilante" television rights to a major studio, and we own a slate of six plus scripted podcasts, including "Varnamtown", for which we are in negotiations and development for television or movie productions.

As you may also recall, in January 2022, LiveOne announced its expansion of PodcastOne content to over 1.7 million Tesla vehicles and Android Automotive Apps. We are excited to be in every single Tesla that rolls off the lot in North America, and are proud to play a small role in that companys remarkable and historical growth story.

As you can see, weve accomplished a lot, but we still have work to do. Our optimized business model seamlessly launches and onboards podcasts, making them immediately accretive by leveraging our parent companys resources. We're seeing unprecedented studio interest in partnering with our podcast slate, easily adaptable into major productions. With revenue streams from advertising, scripted series, and IP ownership, I foresee a clear path to continued growth with a goal of surpassing $100M in revenue with strong margins.

Over the next year you will see PodcastOne continue to lead the way in the podcasting medium testing the limits through the possible acquisition of existing successful podcasts, further developing and growing podcasts within our network and new ones, continuing to build our IP library with scripted shows, maximizing operational efficiencies, and finding new ways to create additional revenue verticals. The growth of video and social media has and will continue to be a big part of our expansion.

As you can tell, we are excited about the future here at PodcastOne. Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently, focused squarely on creating shareholder value.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kit Gray

President/Founder

PodcastOne

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