Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Sphere Revenue Rises 14%

Key Takeaways

• Sphere Entertainment Co. reported Q3 2026 revenue of $274.3 million and adjusted operating income (AOI) of $39.2 million.
• Sphere segment revenue increased 14% year over year to $198.9 million, while segment AOI rose to $32.4 million from $17.1 million.
• The Wizard of Oz has sold more than 4.3 million tickets and generated approximately $540 million in ticket sales since its August 2025 debut.
• MSG Networks revenue declined to $75.4 million from $88.4 million, with AOI falling to $6.8 million from $19.3 million amid a roughly 15.5% subscriber decline.
• Management expects The Rocky Horror Picture Show to debut by the end of March and continues to target three to four Sphere Experiences by the end of 2027.
• Abu Dhabi construction remains on track for completion by the end of 2029. Management also expects to provide news on another U.S. Sphere project in the coming months, potentially within the current quarter.

Key Financial Data

Business and Operating Performance

Sphere segment growth was led by the Sphere Experience, reflecting more performances and higher pre-show revenue. The quarter included 241 performances of The Wizard of Oz, compared with 220 combined performances of The Wizard of Oz, Postcard from Earth and U2’s immersive concert film in the prior-year period.

Revenue also increased across Exosphere advertising, sponsorships, Sphere licensing fees and concert residencies. Management described the fourth quarter as seasonally the strongest period for the sponsorship business and said the deal pipeline remains strong.

Higher Sphere revenue was partly offset by increased direct operating costs and SG&A expenses. Direct costs rose because of additional performances and higher per-show expenses. The increase in company-wide SG&A primarily reflected higher employee compensation and benefits.

MSG Networks continued to face subscriber pressure. The company also recorded a noncash goodwill impairment charge after reassessing the business’s fair value during its annual impairment test.

Management Outlook

Construction of Sphere Abu Dhabi is progressing, with underground infrastructure installation and procurement underway. Management said the venue remains on schedule for completion by the end of 2029.

For National Harbor, a public incentive package has passed the local county government, but another county vote is expected no later than February. The company is addressing other open items before returning to financing discussions for the project balance.

Production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is underway. Management expects it to reach the market faster and at a lower cost than earlier Sphere Experiences, reflecting production technology improvements and lessons from The Wizard of Oz.

Management expects the Las Vegas Sphere business to grow in calendar 2027. The company plans to pursue growth through venue utilization, ticket sales per event, new content, concert residencies and Exosphere monetization.

Risks and Watch Items

• Las Vegas demand remains sensitive to visitation trends and seasonality. Management acknowledged a weaker summer and continues to refine forecasting models around conventions and other demand drivers.
• MSG Networks faces ongoing subscriber declines, which weighed on revenue and AOI and contributed to the goodwill impairment.
• National Harbor still requires an additional county vote and resolution of other open items before the company returns to project financing.
• The original concept for From the Edge did not meet management’s standards for a Sphere programming slot. The company is exploring ways to repurpose the footage already produced.
• International expansion decisions depend on market size, government support, construction timelines and project costs. Management cited its prior London experience as evidence of the importance of the regulatory environment.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Management said interest rates have not slowed or paused expansion discussions. Potential partners remain focused on the return profile demonstrated by the Las Vegas venue, according to the company.

On content strategy, management said Sphere does not rely solely on an intellectual property’s popularity. The primary criterion is whether the content can support a sufficiently compelling immersive experience. Newer film or television properties would still require AI-enabled upscaling for Sphere’s four-acre screen.

Management expects The Wizard of Oz and The Rocky Horror Picture Show to serve different audiences and dayparts. Scheduling will be adjusted using demand data, with family-oriented programming more suited to earlier hours and Rocky Horror likely weighted toward later showings.

The company reiterated its goal of having three to four Sphere Experiences by the end of 2027. Management expects continued improvements in production cost and speed as its tools and processes mature.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sphere Entertainment Co. Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ari Danes

Good morning, and welcome to Sphere Entertainment's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call will begin with our Executive Chairman and CEO, Jim Dolan, who will provide an update on our business; Robert Langer, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will then review our financial results for the period.

After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. If you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, it is available in the Investors section of our corporate website. Please take note of the following. Today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for a discussion of risks and uncertainties.

The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call. On Pages 4 and 5 of today's earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income, or AOI, a non-GAAP financial measure. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Jim.

James Dolan

Thank you, Ari, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'd like to focus on two areas that remain important to our long-term vision for Sphere, our plans for a global network of Sphere venues and developing a diverse slate of original content. In Abu Dhabi, construction is moving forward. The venues underground infrastructure is currently being installed. Procurement is also underway with the general contractor starting to award key contracts. Construction remains on track to be completed by the end of 2029. Last week, the public incentive package for Sphere and National Harbor was passed by the local county government. However, there remains an additional county vote related to the package, which is expected to take place no later than February. We are also working through a number of other open items before we turn back to the financing for the balance of the project.

We'll continue to keep you updated. At the same time, we remain in discussion with a significant number of other markets around the world. That includes advancing our plans for the next Sphere project, which we anticipate will be located in the U.S. We expect to have more news to share on this project in the coming months. Moving to original content. Production is well underway on the Rocky Horror picture show. Rocky Horror will expand our content slate to a new genre and help drive the number of Sphere Experience showings to a new high next year. We expect to debut the production by the end of March, which would be the fastest time to market for a Sphere Experience. This reflects the technology advancements we've made in content production as well as our learnings from the Wizard of Oz.

Since late September, we've been showing an enhanced version of the Wizard of Oz, which has been well received. The show has now sold over 4.3 million tickets for approximately $540 million in ticket sales since its debut last year. With respect to From the Edge, we have completed a substantial portion of the production. And while we have determined that the original concept didn't work, we're exploring ways to create an immersive experience with the footage captured. At the same time, we continue to have active discussions with Hollywood studios to use existing IP for future sphere experiences. So in summary, we continue to advance our plans for additional venues and content as we move closer to our goal of a global network of Sphere venues. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Robert, who will take you through our financial results.

Robert Langer

Thank you, Jim, and good morning, everyone. For the September quarter, we generated total company revenues of $274.3 million and adjusted operating income of $39.2 million. Our Sphere segment generated revenues of $198.9 million an increase of 14% compared to the prior year period. This growth was mainly driven by the SphereIR experience, reflecting additional performances and higher pre show revenues. In the current year quarter, the Sphere experience included 241 performances of the Wizard of Oz as compared to a combined 220 performances of the Wizard of Oz, Postcard Earth and U2's immersive concert film that prior year quarter. As a reminder, the Wizard of Oz launched on August 28, 2025, in the year ago period.

We also saw revenue growth in Exosphere advertising, sponsorship and speed license fees as well as concert residences. Third quarter adjusted operating income for our Sphere segment was $32.4 million as compared to $17.1 million in the prior year quarter. This reflected the increase in revenues, partially offset by higher direct operating and SG&A expenses. The increase in direct operating expenses was primarily driven by the Sphere experience reflecting higher per show expenses as well as additional performances. As mentioned, the current year quarter solely reflected the Wizard of Oz as compared to showing of Wizard of Oz, Postcard from Earth, and U2 in the prior year quarter.

SG&A expenses for the third quarter were $98.3 million, an increase of $5.6 million as compared to the prior year quarter. This was primarily due to higher employee compensation and related benefits. This increase was partially offset by the impact of mark-to-market adjustments for certain share-based compensation awards driven by the decrease in company stock price during the quarter. Turning to MSG Networks. The segment generated $75.4 million in revenues and $6.8 million in AOI in the third quarter. This compares to $88.4 million in revenues and $19.3 million in AOI in the prior year period. These year-over-year results primarily reflect an approximately 15.5% decrease in subscribers.

In addition, in connection with the company's annual goodwill impairment test, we recently reassessed the fair market value of the MSG Networks business. And in light of the ongoing challenges facing MSG Networks, we took a noncash goodwill impairment charge, which you can see in today's operating income results. Turning to our balance sheet. As of September 30, our SE business had approximately $501 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, $259 million in convertible debt and the $275 million term loan related to Sphere in Las Vegas. At MSG Networks as of September 30, net debt was approximately $80 million. This included $106 million outstanding on the MSG Networks term loan, which, as a reminder, is that -- is recourse only to MSG Networks.

And with that, we'll now open the call for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of David Karnovsky with JPMorgan.

Question-and-Answer Session

David Karnovsky

Jim, on the prior earnings call, you spoke to an expectation for an announcement on Sphere expansion, if not by the end of '26 then by Q1 of next year. So I just wanted to check in on that and see if that time line is how you're still thinking about new location announcements?

James Dolan

Yes. No. The -- we're I think likely is still this quarter, right, rather than next quarter, and we're still on track. So stay tuned.

David Karnovsky

Okay. And then in the last few months, we've obviously seen a jump in interest rates today, notwithstanding, but can you just discuss how that impacts any discussion around National Harbor financing or even just sphere expansion conversations generally?

Robert Langer

Well, I'd answer that, but Jim is signaling me across the table that he really wants to.

James Dolan

Sure. David, so the interest rate environment has not affected any of our expansion conversations. As we look at all of our discussions, nothing has been slowed down or paused due to interest rates. Our potential partners, they recognize the attractive ROI of a sphere venue based on the proven business model in Las Vegas, and that really is the conversations we have with them. With respect to National Harbor, as Jim mentioned, we're working through a number of open items before we turn back to the financing, and we'll keep you posted on that.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Ross with Lightshed Partners. Please go ahead.

Brandon Ross

Jim, WOZ has been really successful, but the results you're showing is clearly maturing. Do you need a faster cadence of bigger studio IP to ensure the Sphere experience stays fresh and exciting. And you said in the prepared, you were having discussions, what are the puts and takes to getting those discussions finally?

James Dolan

Well, first up, I mean, is WOZ maturing? I guess, a little bit, but it's maturing. The -- but I expect that 10 years from now, we'll still be showing WOZ somewhere in one of our spheres. So there's still a great deal of value left in that content. And then for instance, we have Rocky Horror that we're working on now, which is going great. I'm very excited. You all need to learn the Time Warp when we go to Rocky Horror, doesn't mean that we're going to stop showing Wizard of Oz, right? Rocky Horror kind of a little more adult programming, right? So likely we'll run Rocky Horror more towards the later part of the day and have showings of Wizard of Oz earlier part of the more family-oriented product.

As far as negotiating for the IP from studios to that kind of product. It's just what you think it would be. It's a give and take and it's the usual thing, which is that they either want to check or they want to participate. We generally don't do both. The -- so if you want to take a risk with us, sure, right? But you take the risk with us. I mean -- but if you want to guarantee your money, then that's what you do. And I think that you will see the overall cost kind of stay where it is the it seems appropriate for what we're doing.

Brandon Ross

Great. And you mentioned quickly that from the edge was having some issues. Can you tell us more about why that original concept didn't work? And if it means anything for the non-studio concepts as opposed to what we just discussed.

James Dolan

Yes. Well, look, From the Hedge, we went to the edge and unfortunately, we went over the edge. So the -- and we learned a lot from it. We got some great content over it. But overall, the concept wasn't strong enough and wasn't honestly executed well enough, right, to warrant it taking up the space in Sphere. I mean the -- on this, I think you're going to see this dynamic go on and become stronger and stronger as the business grows, which is that the most valuable thing is the slots right, the airing slots in the Sphere itself. So it has to be content that's worthy of that. And we already have content like Wizard of Oz. And we didn't actually think that what we were going to produce with from the edge was going to outperform the Wizards of Oz or Rocky or a concert, et cetera. And so therefore, we didn't move forward with it. But we'll repurpose the content until we get something that comes up to that level.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Condon with Citizens Bank.

Matthew Condon

Jim, I just wanted to follow up on your comments from last quarter that you expect 3 to 4 sphere experiences planned by the end of 2027. Is that still the expectation?

James Dolan

Yes. The -- and you already know some of them, right, the -- and -- but we are still working on more content -- and just to give you an update on that, the -- what we are seeing, for instance, with Rocky Horror is we're seeing that the that we're able to produce it a little less expensively, a little more efficiently. So it's going to be like Rocky Horror will cost less money and will be faster to market from concept inception. So -- and I expect that, that trajectory will continue for quite a while.

Matthew Condon

Great. That's helpful. And then maybe just given the recent weakness in Las Vegas visitation, is how do you think about the underlying trends for the Wizard of Oz? Are you still seeing evidence that Sphere's maintaining a relatively consistent share visitors or is there some more natural moderation in demand as the production matures.

James Dolan

Not sure. Can you -- I'm not sure what you're asking there. I mean I'm just talking about the Las Vegas market, which that they -- it had a less than stellar summer. Of course, if you were in Las Vegas this summer, you would understand why because it was about 110 degrees. But we're continuing to learn more about the Las Vegas market, and we are also -- that learning is transferring into other markets that we're looking at for Spheres, the seasonality of it, things like conventions coming in, coming out. I mean, did this convention hit? Did it not hit? Those kinds of things. And we're continuing to build algorithms that tell us and predict what the market is going to do.

Given that, I don't think anybody expected as much of a fall off this summer. But I will tell you that the algorithm say that it's going to be a very strong fourth and first quarter. And so we'll continue to refine the model, the Wizard of Oz as well as, I'm sure, Rocky Horror, et cetera, will be market sensitive. The -- I mean it's not like we've had 4 million people, I think, to see the Wizard of Oz, there's over 40 million people that visits Vegas every year. So we still got another 36 million of burn through. and then we have new content for them, et cetera. But the overall performance of Sphere in that content is definitely market sensitive.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Peter Supino with Wolfe Research.

Logan Angress

This is Logan Angress on for Peter. Jim, on your film strategy so far, your licensed IP has been older library content like Wizard of Oz and Rocky Horror. Are you also open to licensing newer flashier IP? Or do you think licensed IP will primarily remain older library content that studios aren't actively monetizing elsewhere?

James Dolan

Yes. It's a good question, right? I mean there's a couple of factors involved with it. But I will tell you that we don't rely on the popularity of IP to drive ticket sales. It's much more about how much of an experience we could create for the customer and that's what sells. And of course, then there's the sphere itself. I mean, people just want to come. I mean, I think we could show the Three Little Pigs in there and we'll still get people coming because they want to go to the sphere. They want to see what it is. They want to experience, et cetera. But the selection of IP, right, is that's what we look for is what we can create with an experience.

The older content is kind of interesting because it's the ability to take something like the Wizard of Oz from the 30s and turn it into something from -- that's present day with all the bells and whistles that come with it that make it really interesting. The newer content it's still going to be -- no matter what content it is, if it's been film or TV related, it's going to require something called uprezzing. It's because of the nature of the screen. It's a 4-acre screen. And even if you take like a 4K product, right, of which there isn't really a lot of out there. That -- as you stretch it on to that screen, it becomes quite fuzzy, et cetera. So we need to use the AI and the tools that we've developed in order to uprezz those.

The -- so it's the new products could be interesting if we could create enough of experience, right? If it's an outer space product, right, we really wanted you to feel like you're in outer space. So if we can achieve that, then we'll consider the product.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Stephen Laszczyk

Jim, thinking longer term, could you give us an update on the conversations you're having around New sphere franchises around the world? What markets are top of mind, what regions are top of mind. And what the time line could potentially look like as you look out to expand the Sphere network outside the U.S.?

James Dolan

Yes. We continue to develop and refine the model that we look at to go into other marketplaces. I will say that one of the big factors is environment, right? Other words, we love -- when we were looking to build in London, we love the London market. We thought the London market was going to do great, et cetera. But what we didn't take into account enough was the environment which, in this case, with the governmental environment. The -- so as we look at each one of the marketplaces we're assessing how much market there is. I mean you say look at a market like Tokyo with million people, right?

That's a pretty good marketplace, but then you also take a look at the governmental aspects and how long it will take to build and do they really want a project like ours. And those all go into factoring whether we're going to go forward or not. But I will say that it does -- we really -- we have the financing available, right? The -- so financing really isn't an issue. So then the next question is which market, how good of a market will be, how long it will take to build and how expensive it will be to build. Those are all factors that go into it. we're getting better at being able to analyze markets and determine what we think will be good and what might be problematic. And I think you'll see by our next announcement that we're doing pretty well with it. And I think we're only going to pick markets where we think we can be very successful.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Cameron Mansson-Perrone with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Cameron Mansson-Perrone

Jim, I wanted to follow up on something you said about Rocky Horror earlier, which is just about kind of dayparting and the outlook for that to fill kind of later in the night or evening slot. Do you see like potential for that to be screened more frequently than just the late-night part? And how do you think about weighing the balance between Wizard of Oz and moving Rocky into earlier dayparts?

James Dolan

Well, look, it's really all an algorithm. It's no inclusion in the market at that particular time. The -- and which one will appeal to the more the more data we can get on that will help us continue to schedule, right, the with some products like Wizard of Oz, the mornings are really -- are possible. Sundays might be better because it's more family-oriented product. showing Rocky Horror picture show at 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning, right? The people who we really want to have to go to Rocky Horror picture shows, particularly Vegas they're not awake yet. Obviously, you couldn't get them to do anything at 11:00 in the morning. So I mean, we're just going to continue to work on the algorithm and attempt to maximize ticket sales.

Cameron Mansson-Perrone

Understood. That's helpful. And then separately, any update on the outlook for Exosphere in your broader sponsorship business as we look forward to the fourth quarter and into '27.

James Dolan

I'm going to give that one to Jen Koester.

Jennifer Koester

So we continue to see great momentum in this area of our business. Significant growth in this category this quarter and led this is probably our slowest quarter from a seasonal perspective. We watch major brands like Google, bringing forth their viral campaign featuring global K-Pop band like BTS to bring these high-impact moments that are offering them built in the zeitgeist of what's happening. And I think that's really attractive to brands, and we continue to see a strong pipeline there. As we think about the next quarter, which is probably seasonally our strongest quarter, we continue to make progress expanding those roster of official partners.

We recently announced Lyft to our growing list of sponsors and we've got a strong pipeline of deals behind them. So we expect to share more in the coming months. But again, we see this area of our business with substantial growth opportunity for 2027 and beyond.

James Dolan

Just to add to that, there's two aspects of the Exosphere, right, that are continuing to show improvement one of which is that we're seeing more and more companies, products, et cetera, want to debut their products and their outputs on the sphere because it's not just the Vegas market. It's a viral market. And when you take your product, whether it's a new movie or a new hard products, et cetera, and you put it on Sphere, you get a lot of coverage really worldwide. So the other thing that actually that I'm really kind of happy about is that our sponsors themselves have really embraced the medium. So if you take a look at their content at what they're putting up on the sphere, it's interesting. It's exciting. That's what we want for the Exosphere. We want people to keep looking at the Exosphere and see what's on it and who did this and what does it look like? And we're really seeing, like I said, the sponsors embrace that. They're investing in the content and putting some pretty amazing stuff up on the Sphere.

Ari Danes

Operator, we have time for one last follow up.

Operator

Your final question comes from the line of Peter Henderson with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Peter Henderson

So just wondering, as you look ahead to the calendar '27 as Wizard of Oz mature a bit further and you face tougher comparisons, do you expect the Las Vegas Sphere business to grow year-over-year? And just how should we think about contributions from concert residencies, sponsorship and new content to driving growth in '27?

James Dolan

Well, we definitely expect growth. The monthly -- but where it comes from, it's we're learning still about how to maximize revenue at Sphere, both from Exosphere to what content is inside for residencies, et cetera. So I expect most of the growth to come from that it's -- when we built the sphere, the model was for a venue that was busy 365 days a year. And we've achieved that literally every day of the year is busy. So the capital you invested in the project, right, there's a much quicker, better payoff to it. So -- but we'll continue to work on utilization because it's utilization and then, of course, how many tickets you sell per event, et cetera, that is going to drive the growth of Sphere.

Operator

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Ari for closing remarks.

Ari Danes

Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Have a good day.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.