Nine reports profit drop, but lifts revenue.

Nine Entertainment Co this week released its results for the 12 months ending June 30, 2023 with a reported revenue of $2.7b but with a a 38% fall in net profit to $195 million.

Stan lifted 30% to $37.1 million, with revenue also up 12% to $427.6 million,

Peter Costello, chairman of Nine Entertainment Co. said: “Through FY23, Nine continued to solidify its position at the forefront of media in Australia. Whilst we faced tougher economic conditions which have impacted the broader industry, Nine has risen to the challenge, continuing to drive audience and revenue share, and investing in the future of the business while focussing on the efficiency of our cost base.”

Mike Sneesby, chief executive officer of Nine Entertainment Co. said: “Every month, across Nine’s television, publishing and audio assets as well as Stan and Domain, we reach almost 20m people. It is this broad reach which gives Nine its unique position – our ability to distribute content to the broadest possible audience; to monetise that content in multiple ways and to use our extensive first party data to ensure optimisation of audience and revenue.

“Our Total Television business has had an extraordinary year, achieving record revenue share results as our content strategy and investment continues to further strengthen our relative position. Our high quality talk radio assets have also grown share, whilst expediting the expansion into digital, with 115% digital revenue growth reported for the year.

“Subscription and licensing revenues at Nine’s wholly owned businesses, Stan and Publishing, together grew by around 9%, to 28% of total revenue ex Domain, with price increases successfully executed reflecting the strong content and engagement of the group’s growing subscriber bases.”

Nine’s Broadcast division comprises Total Television (Nine Network and 9Now) as well as Nine Radio. Together, Broadcast reported EBITDA of $320m on revenues of $1.4b for the 12 months.

Whilst down on the record FY22 result, Nine Broadcast’s FY23 result was above pre-COVID levels.

Both Nine Network and 9Now comfortably outperformed their respective markets, growing Total Television share to an historically high level of 41.8% for the year, up 2.9 percentage points on FY22. Total TV revenue of $1.2b, was down 2% on FY22, with growth from 9Now close to offsetting the impact of weaker advertising markets on Nine Network. EBITDA of $307m was down 20% on FY22.

The Metro FTA advertising market declined by 11% for the year, and 15% for the second half, reflecting both the underlying weaker economy as well as Election-affected comparables. Nine Network markedly outperformed, with second half revenue share growth of 1.4 percentage points to 42.0% resulting in a Metro Free to Air (FTA) revenue share for FY23 of 40.7%, which is a more than 20-year high. As a result, Nine Network reported a revenue decline of just 4% for the 12 months to $1.1b.

Across the year, Nine Network was the #1 Network and Primary Channel of its targeted 25-54 demographic, attracting a commercial network share of 39.4%2 and a primary channel share of 40.7%, the latter a record share for any channel since OzTAM commenced.

Sneesby attributed Stan’s growth to its investment in sport and original content, which delivered four of the top six series and movies available on Stan in the 2023 financial year. New original series, including dramas Black Snow and Ten Pound Poms, attracted strong viewer numbers on the platform, he added.

Discussing the end of free trials, Sneesby said: “We’ve seen other platforms remove their free trials. Ultimately, what will happen is, as free trials get removed, paying subscribers obviously become that important metric.”

Source: Mediaweek, C21