Seven West Media blames softer advertising market for $444.4m full-year loss

ASX-listed media giant reports full-year results for 2019 illustrating tough media conditions

Seven West Media has blamed softer advertising market conditions for a net loss of $444.4 million in full-year to 30 June 2019.

The ASX-listed media giant published its full-year results today, confirming $1.56 billion in revenue, a 4 per cent dip year-on-year, along with a $129.3 million underlying group net profit, a decrease of 7.9 per cent on 2018.

However, it was the final net loss of $444.4m that grabbed the headlines, a figure resulting from $573.7 million in impairment charge relating to licences, mastheads, goodwill and other intangible write-offs. Seven West Media (SWM) attributed these to softer advertising market conditions across its TV and newspaper mastheads.

Hardest hit across the divisions was publishing, which reported an 8.3 per cent decline in full-year revenue to $315.2 million, as well as a 25 per cent fall in EBIT to $23m. SWM also reported a one-off $16.8m net loss on the Yahoo7 sale, as well as $22.2m in redundancy costs.

“FY19 was a tough year in the economy and advertising markets, which impacted Seven West Media’s performance,” newly installed SWM managing director and chief executive, James Warburton, said.

“But we have incredibly strong assets, and our focus moving forward is to speed up the rate of transformation while exploring opportunities for growth in our core and adjacent markets.”

In its announcement, SWM highlighted several perceived positives for the year, including its 13th consecutive year of ratings leadership, along with a 40.3 per cent share of commercial free-to-air viewing, up one percentage point on 2018.  It also claimed Channel 7 and 7mate ended the year as the most-watched channel and multi-channel offerings, respectively, while streaming platform, 7plus, scaled up audiences and revenue.

In addition, Seven said its decision to own and operate its own digital properties resulted in a significant uplift in performance of all assets compared to its previous Yahoo7 joint venture. Verizon’s umbrella media brand, Oath, took full control of the Yahoo7 offering 18 months ago, ending a 12-year joint venture.

Seven Digital’s full-year revenue lifted 67 per cent to $39.7m, while EBITDA increased 219 per cent to $18.1m, and EBIT to $15.1m.  

“We will revitalise our entertainment programming, creating momentum to engage heartland Australia and enrich the demographic mix, ensuring we are the most relevant and exciting offer to advertisers,” Warburton continued bullishly.

“We will sharper our focus on being a high-performance audience and sales-led organisation, and we will redefine our working practices, becoming more efficient and effective and making savings which do not impact on ratings.”

On the Seven Studios front, the group said it’s looking for show licensing opportunities globally and is working with platforms including Netflix, Twitter and Facebook on co-production deals.

Warburton also said SWM was keen to pursue merger and acquisition opportunities in traditional media and non-traditional areas. The comments come after a big M&A year for Seven’s rival, Nine, which purchased the Fairfax Media Group and is now looking to secure the remaining portion of Macquarie Media it doesn’t currently own.

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.  

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in