Key Financial Data
- Q2 Total revenue: $54.1 million (+16.5% year-over)
- Service revenue: $53.1 million (+18.2%)
- Product revenue: $1.1 million (-31.7%)
- Broadcasting revenue: $45.8 million (+20.5%)
- Broadcast advertising revenue: $24.4 million (-7%)
- Broadcast affiliate fee revenue: $13.4 million (+81.9%)
- Broadcast subscription revenue: $3.5 million (-7.9%)
- Broadcast licensing revenue: $4.6 million (+563.5%)
- Digital revenue: $8.3 million (-1.3%)
- Gross profit: $23.3 million (+32.3%)
- Gross margin: 43.1%, up from 38%
- Operating income: $1.3 million, compared with an operating loss of $76.4 million
- Net income: $2.9 million, compared with a net loss of $75.2 million
- Adjusted EBITDA: $5.7 million, compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.8 million
- Newsmax Plus paid subscribers: Approximately 260,000
- Read more Q2 2026 media earnings coverage | Newsmax coverage
Newsmax posted its first-ever quarter as a publicly-traded profitable company as higher advertising revenue during the second quarter (Q2) of the year, coupled with a concerted effort to squeeze distribution fees out of cable and satellite companies, juiced its overall earnings.
Total revenue increased 16.5 percent to $54.1 million during the quarter ended June 30, up from $46.4 million a year earlier. Broadcasting revenue rose 20.5 percent to $45.8 million, while digital revenue slipped 1.3 percent to $8.3 million.
The strongest growth came from Newsmax’s distribution and licensing businesses. Affiliate fee revenue increased nearly 82 percent to $13.4 million as new distribution agreements and rate increases took effect. Licensing revenue surged to $4.6 million from about $700,000 a year earlier.
Newsmax has announced a number of pay TV distribution deals over the past two years where it earns affiliate fees for the carriage of its flagship cable news channel. It was an evolution in the company’s model to scale the availability of its channel, where historically Newsmax has allowed cable and satellite companies to take the channel for free.
Those fees increased sharply on a year-over basis as Newsmax continues to prioritize receiving per-subscriber fees for its channel. The company says its fees are significantly less than that of comparable networks like Fox News and CNN, so it has some room to grow as the channel resonates with traditional and streaming pay TV viewers.
Some of the companies that have onboarded Newsmax or renewed their carriage deal with the channel include YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Fubo, DIRECTV and Verizon.
In a statement that accompanied Newsmax’s earnings report, CEO Christopher Ruddy called Q2 a “milestone quarter” and said growth in affiliate fees and licensing, which carry higher margins than some of Newsmax’s other revenue streams, helped drive the company into profitability.
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Broadcast advertising revenue declined 7 percent to $24.4 million. Broadcast subscription revenue fell nearly 8 percent to $3.5 million.
Digital advertising provided a partial offset, increasing 21 percent to $4.4 million. Digital subscription revenue declined 12 percent to $2.8 million, while product sales fell 32 percent to $1.1 million.
Darryle Burnham, the comapny’s Chief Financial Officer, said the results demonstrated increasing operating leverage as the company shifted toward higher-margin revenue and reduced expenses associated with legal matters and its transition to a public company.
Newsmax continued investing in streaming and international expansion during the quarter. Its investor presentation says Newsmax Plus has approximately 260,000 paid subscribers, while the company’s apps have generated about 22 million downloads. Newsmax’s website averaged about 6.5 million monthly users during the quarter.
The company also expanded its international licensing partnerships: In a telephone call with The Desk this week, Ruddy said Newsmax’s core channel is already available in more than 100 countries and the company is focused on increasing the availability of its stateside channel while simultaneously working with foreign cable, satellite and media companies providers to launch regional variants of its network.
“People like our news; there’s a real appetite for American news,” Ruddy said. “I think people have a real dissatisfaction with CNN and CNN International. In terms of English-language, people like Newsmax, and we’re giving out a lot of news and information that they just don’t get anywhere else.”
(CNN International offers much of the same programming as the domestic version of CNN, with a few exceptions; Fox News and Versant’s MS Now also make global variants of their U.S.-based news channel available over cable and streaming platforms in other countries.)
On the domestic side, Ruddy noted that regional variants of Newsmax are already available in Poland, Serbia, the Balkans area and a few other countries, and “we’re expecting to have licenses and other operations in a few other countries in Europe.”
In June, The Desk reported the other countries where Newsmax is prepping a domestic version of its channel include Greece, Italy and Germany. Those deals, coupled with others, are expected to push its international licensing revenue past $25 million by the end of the year.
Newsmax said its second-quarter television audience reached 26.9 million viewers, up 4 percent from a year earlier and its strongest second-quarter reach in four years. Social media followers increased 28 percent to 26.2 million.
Ruddy said Newsmax also signed its first major artificial intelligence content partnership, a multi-year agreement with Meta that will distribute Newsmax content across the company’s apps and devices.
Newsmax reaffirmed full-year revenue guidance of $212 million to $216 million, representing approximately 13 percent growth at the midpoint. Newsmax expects affiliate fee increases, new distribution channels and licensing partnerships to drive most of that growth, while political advertising is not expected to make a meaningful contribution.
