Earnings call webcasts and AGMs. Investor events with no second take.
An earnings call webcast carries your results, your guidance and your board to shareholders and analysts in real time. It is the one webcast where a dropped stream or a missed question can become a disclosure problem. This guide covers the formats, the risks, a readiness checklist, and how a listed company should run one.
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What is an earnings call webcast?
An earnings call webcast is a live broadcast of a listed company presenting its results. The CEO and CFO speak, the slides follow them, and analysts ask questions at the end. Investors watch on the company's investor relations page. A replay stays up afterwards, with the slides in place.
The same approach covers an investor webcast for a capital markets day and an AGM live stream for shareholders who cannot attend. The audience is small next to a product launch. The stakes are higher. Every word is part of the record.
If you already know the date and need a team to run it, see our webcasting services. If you are planning one for the first time, read on.
Four kinds of investor webcast.
Investor relations teams run four kinds of webcast. Each carries a different risk.
Earnings call
AGM and general meetings
Capital markets day
IPO and roadshow briefings
Why IR webcasts are different.
A marketing webinar that drops loses an audience. An earnings call that drops can lose the market's trust. Analysts are waiting to ask questions. Results are often published at the same moment. Every word on the call is part of the record.
That changes how the webcast is built. It needs a second path for the picture and the sound, a tested audio line for analysts who dial in, a moderator who controls the question queue, and a recording that is complete and kept.
Disclosure rules differ by exchange and regulator. Your company secretary and legal team decide what the rules require. Our job is to make the broadcast do exactly what they decided, every time.
AGM live stream, virtual AGM or hybrid AGM?
Three words get used for the same meeting, but they ask different things of the broadcast. The difference is whether online shareholders only watch, or also take part.
| Format | Online shareholders can | The broadcast must carry |
|---|---|---|
| AGM live stream | Watch the meeting | Picture, sound, slides and a complete recording |
| Hybrid AGM | Watch, ask questions and, where allowed, vote | All of the above, plus a moderated question route and a link to the voting platform |
| Virtual AGM | Attend, ask and vote with no room at all | All of the above, with every speaker remote or in a studio |
Whether a virtual or hybrid AGM is allowed, and whether online votes count, depends on your regulator and your articles of association. Your company secretary decides. We build the broadcast to match that decision, not the other way round.
How an earnings webcast runs.
Before the date
Agree the format, the speakers, the slides, the question process, and who approves the replay.Rehearsal
A full run with the CEO, CFO and IR lead, with every slide cue and the analyst audio line tested.On the day
The crew checks every link early. The stream opens on a holding slide, then goes live on the minute.Live
The director follows the speakers, the slides change on cue, and the operator brings in analyst questions in the agreed order.After
The replay goes up once IR approves it, with the slides in place. The full recording goes to your team.
A readiness checklist for results day.
Most of what goes wrong on an investor webcast is decided before anyone goes live. Settle these six points with your IR, legal and company secretary teams before the rehearsal.
Who can watch, and who can ask?
What is the clock?
Who screens the questions?
Who handles attendee data?
Who talks to whom if something goes wrong?
Who signs off?
| Role | Signs off |
|---|---|
| IR lead | Running order, speaker preparation, question order |
| CFO | The numbers and any forward-looking statements |
| Legal or company secretary | Disclosure timing, replay release, attendee data |
| Broadcast lead | Technical readiness, second path tested, rehearsal complete |
What to ask a production partner.
Five questions that separate an IR-ready team from a general events crew.
What is your second path?
How do analysts ask questions?
Who controls the slides?
Can you run it in Arabic and English?
What do we keep?
What we bring to a results day.
We are production professionals who build the tools we use. We bring the same discipline to an earnings call that we bring to a live broadcast with ministers on air. We ran the stand-up interview broadcast position at IRENA. Ministers were on air with a broadcast cut inside three minutes.
For a slide-led presentation, the replay matters as much as the live. We delivered a two-day, eleven-session live broadcast for a global fragrance house, with slide-synced replay published per session.
To plan your next results webcast or AGM, start with our webcasting services. New to the format? Read what is a webcast.
01 / 08 What is an earnings call webcast?
Contents
What is a webcast? A guide from the control room.
A webcast is a video broadcast over the internet to an audience that watches rather than joins. What it means, how a professional webcast is produced, and what drives the cost.
Read the articleWebcast vs webinar: what is the difference?
Webcast vs webinar: a webinar is built for conversation with a smaller group, a webcast for reach with a produced programme. How they differ, and which your event needs.
Read the articleWebcast vs Microsoft Teams: when you have outgrown the all-hands tool.
Microsoft Teams is right for most internal video. For large, external or high-stakes events, a produced webcast is the better answer. Here is where the line sits.
Read the articleQuestions we get asked.
What is an earnings call webcast?
A live broadcast of a listed company presenting its results, usually followed by questions from analysts. Investors watch on the company's investor relations page, and a replay stays up afterwards.
Can anyone listen to an earnings call?
Most listed companies make the webcast public on their investor relations page, while only invited analysts can ask questions. The company decides, within the rules of its exchange.
Can an AGM be webcast?
Yes. Many listed companies webcast their general meetings, either as a broadcast for shareholders who cannot attend or as a hybrid meeting. Whether online attendance and voting count depends on your regulator and your articles. Your company secretary decides, and we build the broadcast to match.
Should an earnings call be audio or video?
Audio with slides is still common and is the safest base. Video adds presence for the CEO and CFO. When we add video, we keep an audio path running, so analysts on a phone line are never cut off.
Where should the replay live?
On your investor relations page, with the slides, for as long as your disclosure policy says. The full recording goes to your own archive.
Tell us the results date and who needs to hear it.
We scope every investor webcast against its run of show, with your IR team.
CBA webcast production covers conferences, launches, investor calls and town halls across Dubai and the GCC.