WideOpenWest Inc WOW

First Quarter 2024 High-Speed Data Revenue increased 1% from the same period last year to $106.2 million

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- WideOpenWest, Inc. ("WOW!" or the "Company") (NYSE: WOW), one of the nation's leading broadband providers, with an efficient, high-performing network that passes 1.9 million residential, business and wholesale consumers, today announced financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024.

First Quarter 2024 Highlights ⁽¹⁾

• Total Revenue of $161.5 million, a decrease of $10.7 million, or 6.2% compared to the first quarter of 2023
• HSD Revenue totaled $106.2 million, an increase of $1.0 million, or 1.0%, compared to the first quarter of 2023
• Net Loss was $15.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024
• Adjusted EBITDA of $67.4 million, an increase of $2.2 million, or 3.4%, compared to the first quarter of 2023
• Passed approximately 18,100 new homes in Greenfield and Edge-out markets in the first quarter of 2024
• Jose Segrera joined WOW!'s Board of Directors and will become Chair of the Audit Committee

"Our first quarter results represent a strong start to the year as we make further progress in our new Greenfield markets and continued improvements in our legacy footprint," said Teresa Elder, WOW!'s CEO. "The strong penetration rates across our business reinforces our conviction in our strategy and confidence in our teams to continue growing our business."

"Our first quarter results which included year-over-year growth in high-speed data revenue, ARPU and Adjusted EBITDA, reflect the momentum we are seeing across our business," said John Rego, WOW!'s CFO. "We are continuing to aggressively manage our cost base while also driving further growth in our broadband-first strategy."

Revenue
Total Revenue was $161.5 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, down $10.7 million, or 6%, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023.

Total Subscription Revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 was $149.0 million, down $10.4 million, or 7%, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023. The decrease is primarily driven by a shift in service offering mix as we continue to experience a reduction in Video and Telephony RGUs, coupled with a decrease in volume across all services. The decrease is partially offset by an increase in average revenue per unit ("ARPU") driven by rate increases issued in the third quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024.

Other Business Services Revenue totaled $5.3 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, up $0.1 million, or 2%, as compared with the corresponding period in 2023.

Other Revenue totaled $7.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, down $0.4 million, or 5%, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023 primarily due to decreases in advertising and shopping revenue partially offset by an increase in paper statement revenue.

Costs and Expenses
Operating Expenses (excluding Depreciation and Amortization) totaled $67.5 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, down $10.6 million, or 14%, compared to the corresponding period in 2023. The decrease was primarily driven by decreases in direct operating expense, specifically programming expense, which aligns with the reduction in Video RGUs between periods, as well as increases in capitalizable expenses, and decreases in insurance expenses. Selling, General, and Administrative expenses totaled $36.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, down $49.1 million, or 57%, compared to the corresponding period in 2023. The decrease is primarily attributable to the effect of the patent litigation settlement incurred in 2023, and a decrease in stock compensation expense, marketing expenses, and certain cash compensation expenses partially offset by increases in employee severance charges and other professional service fees.

Net Loss
Net Loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 was $15.0 million as compared to net loss of $38.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Net Profit Margin was (9.3)% for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 as compared to (22.1)% for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, was $67.4 million, an increase of $2.2 million, compared to the corresponding period in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 41.7% for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, as compared to 37.9% for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

Subscribers
WOW! reported Total Subscribers of 500,700 as of March 31, 2024, a decrease of 26,600, or 5%, compared to March 31, 2023, down 3,400 compared to December 31, 2023. HSD RGUs totaled 489,700 as of March 31, 2024, a decrease of 19,000, or 4%, compared to March 31, 2023, and down 400 compared to December 31, 2023.

Market Expansion
Market Expansion projects reached a total of 18,100 additional homes passed for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, including 15,100 additional homes in Greenfield markets and 3,000 additional homes in Edge-out projects. As of March 31, 2024, Greenfield initiatives passed a total of 45,500 homes and 5,700 subscribers, representing a 12.5% penetration rate.

At March 31, 2024, the 2024 Edge-out projects passed 2,500 new homes and 800 subscribers, representing a 32.0% penetration rate. The 2023 Edge-out projects include 5,000 Subscribers, which represents 27.0% penetration on such nodes. The 2022 Edge-out projects include 900 Subscribers, which represents 31.0% on such nodes.

Capital Expenditures
Capital Expenditures totaled $72.5 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, representing a $12.3 million increase compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2023. The increase is primarily related to increases in costs related to our market expansion in locations adjacent and nonadjacent to our existing network through our greenfield initiatives. Core Capital Expenditures, or total capital expenditures excluding expansion capital expenditures, equated to 16% of Total Revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.

Liquidity and Leverage
As of March 31, 2024, the total outstanding amount of long-term debt and finance lease obligations was $969.9 million, and cash and cash equivalents were $19.2 million. Total Net Leverage as of March 31, 2024, was 3.4x on a LTM Adjusted EBITDA basis and undrawn revolver capacity totaled $4.3 million.

Second Quarter 2024 Guidance

Webcast
WOW! will host a webcast and conference call on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. ET to discuss the financial and operating results contained in this press release. The conference call and webcast will be broadcast live on the Company's investor relations website at ir.wowway.com. Those parties interested in participating can use the information as follows:

A replay of the call will be available on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 on the investor relations website.

About WOW!
WOW! is one of the nation's leading broadband providers, with an efficient, high-performing network that passes 1.9 million residential, business and wholesale consumers. WOW! provides services in 16 markets, primarily in the Midwest and Southeast, including Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. With an expansive portfolio of advanced services, including high-speed Internet services, cable TV, phone, business data, voice, and cloud services, the company is dedicated to providing outstanding service at affordable prices. WOW! also serves as a leader in exceptional human resources practices, having been recognized nine times by the National Association for Business Resources as a Best & Brightest Company to Work For in the Nation® for the 10th time and by the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) for the sixth consecutive year. Visit www.wowway.com for more information.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements represent our goals, beliefs, plans and expectations about our prospects for the future and other future events. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical fact and can be identified by terms such as "may," "intend," "might," "will," "should," "could," "would," "anticipate," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "project," "predict," "potential," or the negative of these terms. Although these forward-looking statements reflect our good-faith belief and reasonable judgment based on current information, these statements are qualified by important factors, many of which are beyond our control that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors and other risks that could cause our actual results to differ materially are set forth in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report filed on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and other reports subsequently filed with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this report are made as of the date hereof or the date specified herein, based on information available to us as of such date. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company has included certain non-GAAP financial measures in this release, including Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin. These terms, as defined herein, are not intended to be considered in isolation, as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America ("GAAP"). These terms may vary from the use of similar terms by other companies in our industry due to different methods of calculation and therefore are not necessarily comparable.

We believe that these non-GAAP measures enhance an investor's understanding of our financial performance. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful financial metrics to assess our operating performance from period to period by excluding certain items that we believe are not representative of our core business. We believe that these non-GAAP measures provide investors with useful information for assessing the comparability between periods of our ability to generate cash from operations sufficient to pay taxes, to service debt and to undertake Capital Expenditures. We use these non-GAAP measures for business planning purposes and in measuring our performance relative to that of our competitors. We believe these non-GAAP measures are measures commonly used by investors to evaluate our performance and that of our competitors.

Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the impact of expenses that do not relate to overall business performance and is defined by WOW! as net income (loss) before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (including impairments), impairment losses on intangibles and goodwill, write-off of any asset, loss on early extinguishment of debt, integration and restructuring expenses and all non‑cash charges and expenses (including stock compensation expense) and certain other income and expenses. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss), operating income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP as measures of operating performance, operating cash flows or liquidity.

Refer to "Reconciliations of GAAP Measures to Non-GAAP Measures" and the accompanying tables below for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income and Adjusted EBITDA margin to Net Profit margin which are the most directly comparable corresponding GAAP financial measures.

Subscriber Information
The Company uses the terms defined below throughout this release.

Homes passed are reported as the number of serviceable addresses, such as single residence homes, apartments and condominium units, and businesses passed by our broadband network and listed in our database.

We deliver multiple services to our customers, as such we report Total Subscribers as the number of Subscribers who receive at least one of our HSD, Video or Telephony services, without regard to which or how many services they subscribe. We define each of the individual HSD Subscribers, Video Subscribers and Telephony Subscribers as a Revenue Generating Unit ("RGU").

While we take appropriate steps to ensure subscriber information is presented on a consistent and accurate basis at any given balance sheet date, we periodically review our policies in light of the variability we may encounter across our different markets due to the nature and pricing of products and services and billing systems. Accordingly, we may from time to time make appropriate adjustments to our subscriber information based on such reviews.

Additional Information Available on Website:
The information in this press release should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and footnotes contained in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, which will be posted on of our investor relations website at ir.wowway.com, when it is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). A slide presentation to accompany the conference call and a trending schedule containing historical customer and financial data will also be available on our website.

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SOURCE WideOpenWest, Inc.