Nine today released its results for the 12 months to 30 June 2024 with revenue at $2.6 billion, down by three per cent, with EBITDA at $517 million, down 12 per cent.
It comes at a time of job cuts, an advertising downturn, headlines around workplace and management and on the back of the Olympics, for which Nine paid $305m through to Brisbane 3032. It also follows losses recently announced by Seven West Media.
Profit fell by 31% to $134 million for the full year.
The new chair of the company Catherine West said: “Nine has continued to perform well in a challenging market, remaining focused on delivering the best content to all Australians across multiple platforms.
“This performance reflects the focus and commitment of our people who have worked hard through challenging times to further strengthen our competitive position.”
Chief executive Mike Sneesby said: “In a year of challenging economic and advertising market conditions there were some clear positives in this result.
“We have seen growth in our total television audiences this year as we have continued to invest in our content, standing us in good stead as we approach agency negotiations for CY 25.
“As we continue to focus on the diversification of our revenues. Subscription and Licensing at Nine’s wholly owned businesses, Stan and Publishing, together grew by around 5%, to more than 30% of Group revenue ex-Domain.
“This is a positive performance, particularly against the backdrop of economic and competitive market conditions. Our Metro mastheads grew both overall subscription and digital revenues across the year.
“Over the past couple of years, we have been focused on rebalancing our cost base. In FY24 group costs ex-Domain were down on FY23, notwithstanding underlying inflation, allowing us to continue to invest in the content, data and technology that generates returns and underpins our long-term strategy and competitive position.”
Nine’s Total Television results were impacted by the weak advertising market which more than offset the positive impacts of audience performance and lower costs.
Across all of television, Nine’s revenue declined by 10% while EBITDA of $208m was down 32% on FY23.
Nine recorded growth in Total Television live audiences for both FTA broadcast and streaming across the full financial year. This was a positive reversal after years of audience fragmentation and a key highlight of Nine’s result.
Reflecting the weaker economic conditions, the Metro Free To Air advertising market declined by 12% for the year, with the rate of decline moderating as the year progressed (Q4 down 9%).
For FY24, Nine attained a full-year revenue share of 40.0% and 41.2% in the second half.
Stan recorded 24% EBITDA growth in FY24, with the result driven primarily by 8% growth in ARPU and cost controls, particularly in the second half. EBITDA of $46m was a record result, and marked Stan’s fifth consecutive year of profitability.
The company said the strength of current paying subscribers, at 2.3m, reflected Stan’s differentiated content proposition as well as the positive subscriber uptake due to the recent Olympic Games. Subscribers taking the incremental Sport bundle grew by more than 50% to a record level for Stan Sport subscribers during the Games.
Source: Mediaweek
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