Q2 2026 Getty Images Holdings Inc Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Getty Images Holdings Inc (GETY) saw continued growth in its largest business segments, corporate and media, which represent three quarters of revenue, with strong customer adoption, consumption, and retention.
- Annual subscription revenue grew 7.1% (5.6% currency-neutral) and now makes up 58.8% of total revenue, driven by Premium Access, which grew 5.5% and has a nearly 100% revenue retention rate.
- Editorial revenue grew 9.2% (7.6% currency-neutral), fueled by strong demand for FIFA World Cup coverage, global news events, and archived content from broadcast and production customers.
- The company is actively addressing its balance sheet by hiring Guggenheim Securities to explore strategic financing alternatives, and it redeemed $628.4 million of high-cost notes in July, reducing debt.
- Getty Images Holdings Inc (GETY) is innovating with new offerings like single-seat subscriptions, a prompt-based AI editing tool, and an MCP server, positioning itself for future growth in AI-driven content services.
- Customer quality is improving, with higher average order values and stable subscriber health, including mid-90s revenue retention rates for Getty Images and Unsplash+ subscribers.
- Q2 revenue declined 2.5% (4.1% currency-neutral) to $229.1 million, missing expectations, due to ongoing challenges in Agency and iStock businesses.
- The Agency business continued to decline, down 13%, due to secular headwinds, industry consolidation, and a business model that incentivizes internal production, including AI.
- iStock faced significant headwinds from declining search engine referral traffic and AI-generated answers, impacting new customer acquisition and leading to a decline in revenue.
- The company terminated the Shutterstock merger after spending over $100 million in professional fees and financing costs, and it is now burdened with a challenged balance sheet and $2.1 billion in debt.
- Free cash flow was deeply negative at -$122.6 million, driven by a $110.9 million warrant litigation payment, and the company had to draw an additional $30 million on its revolver to enhance liquidity.
- Annual subscription revenue retention rate fell to 88.4% from 93.4% year-over-year, and active annual subscribers dropped to 240,000 from 321,000, reflecting strategic exits and traffic headwinds.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Getty Images second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Just a reminder, today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Steven Kanner, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury at Getty Images. Please go ahead, sir.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call. Joining me on today's call are Craig Peters, Chief Executive Officer; and Jen Leyden, Chief Financial Officer. This call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, including the determination by the company not to provide earnings guidance at this time, are subject to various risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions are highlighted in the forward-looking statements section of today's
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