comScore, Inc. (SCOR) Earnings
comScore, Inc. is expected to report next earnings on November 3, 2026 (in NaN days), with a consensus EPS estimate of $-0.43. SCOR has beaten EPS estimates in 4 of its last 12 reported quarters (average surprise -230.2% over the last four).
| Report date | EPS est | EPS actual | Surprise | Revenue | Rev. surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12, 2026 | $0.13 | $-0.93 | -818.7% | $79M | -4.8% |
| May 14, 2026 | $0.29 | $-0.30 | -203.4% | $85M | -0.1% |
| Mar 17, 2026 | $1.94 | $6.48 | +234.0% | $93M | +8.8% |
| Nov 4, 2025 | $1.94 | $-0.63 | -132.5% | $89M | -3.5% |
| Mar 4, 2025 | $1.72 | $-0.27 | -115.7% | $95M | +3.6% |
| Mar 6, 2024 | $0.80 | $-6.69 | -936.2% | $95M | -2.7% |
| Feb 28, 2023 | $-1.40 | $-0.80 | +42.9% | $98M | +2.8% |
| Feb 28, 2022 | $-2.40 | $-0.20 | +91.7% | $97M | -0.4% |
| May 6, 2021 | $-3.80 | $-9.80 | -157.9% | $90M | +1.0% |
| Mar 10, 2021 | $-3.20 | $-3.60 | -12.5% | $90M | — |
| May 7, 2020 | $-6.00 | $-3.80 | +36.7% | $90M | -34.5% |
| Feb 27, 2020 | $-5.80 | $-6.20 | -6.9% | $95M | -8.8% |
Source: company filings + earnings calendar. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
Earnings call summary
Q2 FY2026 · August 12, 2026
AI summary of management’s prepared remarks and analyst Q&A. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
Management highlights
- Strategic Transformation & Core Assessment * ComScore completed the sale of its non-core movies business in late May 2026, eliminating $40 million in long-term debt and freeing up roughly $7 million in annual interest and principal payments, improving overall financial flexibility. * New CEO Matt McLaughlin, who joined in June 2026, identified historical operating model issues: a cost structure built for a larger business, misaligned investment prioritization (near-term gap-closing instead of long-term scalable growth), over-broad revenue pursuit that stretched capacity, secular pressure on legacy linear TV businesses, and under-scaled new products. * Management confirmed ComScore's core strengths remain intact: unique cross-channel data assets, decades-long trusted client relationships, and a unique position as an independent third-party measurement provider in a consolidating, fragmented media ecosystem. - New ROI Strategy Core Principles * Realign: Build a lower, more flexible cost base with clearer organizational accountability and a results-focused culture. Steps taken include headcount reductions and international footprint rationalization, with a focus on prioritizing work that delivers long-term value over indiscriminate revenue growth. * Optimize: Streamline legacy operations, improve legacy business profitability via adjusted pricing and packaging, sunset underused expensive features, and shift from bespoke custom solutions to scalable, reusable product development. * Invest: Reallocate freed capacity to high-potential growth opportunities aligned with ComScore's independent data advantage. - Key Growth Initiatives * AI: Leverage ComScore's opt-in digital panel to capture real consumer prompt and response data for answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) use cases, a unique advantage over synthetic LLM-generated data currently used in the market. Commercial negotiations with leading AEO/DEO firms are already underway. * Creator Measurement: Develop metrics to help advertisers plan and measure creator media alongside traditional linear and CTV, making creator audiences measurable for integrated media plans. * Proximic Activation Expansion: Broaden availability of ComScore data across enterprise ad buying workflows to create a closed-loop planning, activation, and measurement system for major digital platforms. * Next-Generation Cross-Channel TV Measurement: Deliver a large-scale platform combining real viewing data from millions of televisions with enhanced population modeling for consistent, aligned national and local audience measurement across fragmented TV ecosystems. Testing with large strategic broadcast and buying clients is on track to begin in 2026.
Guidance
- Full-year 2026 revenue guidance is set at $315 to $325 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin expected to land in the low to mid single digits, reflecting the impact of the movies business divestiture and ongoing transformation costs. - Management does not expect near-term revenue growth in 2026 as the company executes its strategic realignment. - The implemented realignment plan is expected to generate $20 to $25 million in annual run-rate cost savings once fully completed. One-time transformation costs (primarily severance) are estimated at $7 to $9 million, with most payments expected to be completed by the end of 2026. - A portion of cost savings will be reinvested to hire key strategic leadership, upskill existing employees, and fund ongoing transformation initiatives. - Management expects to enter 2027 with a leaner, more flexible cost base that will enable business stabilization and lay the foundation for future long-term growth.
Segment performance
Total Q2 2026 revenue was $79.2 million, a 11.3% decrease from Q2 2025. Excluding the divested movies business, total revenue was $73 million, an 8.5% year-over-year decrease. - Content and ad measurement: Revenue of $67.8 million, down 11.7% year-over-year, accounting for 85.6% of total Q2 2026 revenue. Within this segment: - Syndicated audience: Revenue of $55.2 million, down 13.6% year-over-year (81.1% of Content and ad measurement revenue, 69.7% of total revenue), driven by the movies business divestiture, lower renewals in national TV and syndicated digital offerings, and a year-ago one-time deliverable in local TV. - Cross-platform: Revenue of $12.5 million, down 2.1% year-over-year (18.4% of Content and ad measurement revenue, 15.8% of total revenue), driven by lower usage of Proximic products, partially offset by growth from new business and ComScore content measurement offerings. - Research and Insight Solutions: Revenue of $11.5 million, down 9.2% year-over-year, accounting for 14.5% of total Q2 2026 revenue, with declines driven by lower renewals and delayed project deliveries. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2026 was $1.3 million, an 85% year-over-year decrease, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 1.7% (down from 10% in Q2 2025). Core operating expenses totaled $87.9 million, a 2.8% year-over-year decrease.
Risks & headwinds
- Internal risks: Historical operating model inefficiencies, misaligned cost structure for the current business size, and over-broad prioritization of near-term opportunities that eroded long-term investment capacity have pressured profitability and growth in recent periods. - External market risks: Secular decline in traditional linear TV viewing, rapid industry shifts from AI that lower barriers to entry for new competitors, ongoing client consolidation, and growing competition from platform-owned in-house measurement tools create ongoing pressure on ComScore's legacy business model. - Financial risks: The company's largest costs (data and employee compensation) are largely fixed, so top-line underperformance has a disproportionate negative impact on adjusted EBITDA and cash flow generation. Current profitability and cash flow are challenged, creating urgency for transformation. - All forward-looking projections are inherently uncertain, and actual results may differ materially from current expectations due to unforeseen internal and external risks, as outlined in ComScore's SEC filings.
Analyst Q&A
Q: What is driving the recent top line trajectory decline, specifically the sharp downturn in cross-platform results, and did customer attrition contribute to this quarter's performance? /
A: Management stated there is no single specific driver of the cross-platform slowdown. They noted broader market weakness across the activation space that has impacted similar offerings from major platform partners, which aligns with the reported decline in Proximic product usage.
Q: How does the new next-generation TV measurement solution differ from ComScore's existing products, and what milestones will signal it is ready for broader commercial launch? /
A: The new solution differentiates itself via its comprehensive local market coverage, unified methodology that delivers consistent local results that roll up accurately to national measurement, leveraging ComScore's broad existing TV viewership data set. Customers are most enthusiastic about this aligned cross-level measurement capability.
Q: What key milestones should investors watch for over the next 2-3 quarters as the ROI strategy is implemented? /
A: Investors should expect to see visible progress and growing commercial activity in ComScore's four core priority areas: local TV measurement, activation expansion via Proximic, creator measurement, and AI-powered AEO/GEO solutions. By the start of 2027, the full impact of the company's cost reduction initiatives will be realized, creating additional financial flexibility for future growth investment.