Writedowns burn with $203m loss
BROADCASTER Nine Entertainment has reported a $203 million loss for the year, despite ongoing cost cutting and program changes, as writedowns and one-off fees took a toll.
Revenue across the group was down 3.5 per cent for the 12 months, to $1.24 billion.
However, the biggest underperformer was the company’s Nine Network television operations which saw a $50 million decline in advertising revenue for the year to June 2017.
Shareholders have been
forced to take the brunt of this year’s loss, with a 21 per cent cut to their payout.
The company declared a 5 ¢a share final dividend, taking full-year dividends to 9.5¢, compared with last year’s 12 a share.
After stripping out the one-off costs and the writedowns, Nine reported a profit before interest, tax and depreciation of $205.6 million.
This was a modest 1.9 per cent improvement on last year, however, this year also included a $33 million one-off benefit from removal of licence fees.
“Our group-wide focus on costs continues to reap rewards,” Nine chief executive Hugh Marks said yesterday.
“Overall and free-to-air costs were down a further 1 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. Including licence free relief, our group-wide costs were down 5 per cent,” Mr Marks said.
Nine Network expects to expand its television audiences and revenue within Adelaide and Perth, during the coming year, while having a “consistent” performance in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, he said.
The company’s second major division, Nine Digital, however, was a bright spot in the result, with revenue up 3 per cent to $155 million during the year and EBITDA up 11 per cent to $28.9 million.
“The (digital) group plans to expand its audience by increasing its content and the ways customers find and access this content, including via tablets and mobile devices, particularly in online video,” Mr Marks said.
“Based on current reading, TV revenues are trending to 15 per cent-plus growth for the September quarter, against the Olympic-impacted previous corresponding period, while digital revenues are pacing around 8 per cent ahead for the same period,” Mr Marks said.
The company said it was also expecting to achieve the “upper end” of the current analyst forecasts for its June 2018 full year profit of between $186 million to $207 million.