Seven West Media has seen revenue, profits, and EBITDA drop as advertisers move away from traditional broadcast television.
Seven saw pre-tax profit drop by 10.3 per cent to $155.7 million, with net profit down 4.6 per cent to $114.9 million.
Revenue dropped a modest 0.5 per cent to $815.4 million, while EBITDA was down 4.8 per cent to $205 million.
Seven West CEO James Warburton cautioned that these result were “tracking against the Tokyo Olympics in the prior year”, although admitted that television advertising was down.
“Despite some of the negative economic commentary, the market has been relatively robust, with growing demand from our core advertisers,” he said.
The company is continuing to shift its focus to digital.
Australians streamed 6.366 billion minutes of 7plus content during the last six months of 2022, claiming 37 per cent market share of the free-to-air catch-up market. The platform now has 12 million registered and verified users.
“Our digital earnings have soared from $3 million in the first half of FY19 to $80 million in the most recent period and digital now accounts for approximately 40 per cent of group earnings,” Warburton said.
“The BVOD market continues to grow strongly, up 18 per cent in CY22, even with the Olympics in CY21.
“We’ve been highly disciplined in the bidding for our new sport and content deals, with incremental rights offsetting any increase.
“7plus will now feature all content on broadcast with significant upside from the addition of the AFL, cricket and NBCUniversal digital content rights.
“Seven’s content pillars with news, live sport and our strengthening entertainment schedule ensure that Seven will continue to be a dominant player in ratings and grow its revenue share.”