Nine Entertainment is reportedly planning redundancies in its broadcast business in a challenging advertising market.
The company has been keeping a tight control of costs for more than a year as revenue from advertising falls.
Crikey reports “... dozens of jobs are slated to be lost.”
Nine released a statement. “As change occurs in the media industry, we are always evolving to best meet the needs of our business in order to remain the market leader,” a spokesperson said.
Nine, according to its half year results announcement, expects full year total TV costs to be down marginally on the previous year.
“Over the past 12 months, Nine has focussed on realigning its Total TV cost base, the increased investment in content and technology, more than offset by other cost reductions,” the company said.
Nine then said about $28 million of underlying costs had been removed, while still continuing investment in growth.
In a presentation to the Macquarie annual conference this month, Nine said the current operating environment was "challenging" but the company was "well positioned".
The metro free-to-air market fell by about 13% in the March quarter, marginally better than February guidance of a mid-teens percentage drop.
And a similar fall is expected in the current June quarter.
The latest SMI (Standard Media Index) results show spend, as measured by media agency bookings, falling 6.6% in March.
And the slide continues. Data released to SMI subscribers, but not made public, show bookings for April lower than usual. Forward bookings for May are also down.
Television was down 14.6% in March, weaker than most market forecasts of around a fall of 13% for the six months to June.
Nine Entertainment reported falls in revenue and profit in a "weak" advertising market for the half year to December.
Revenue fell 2% to $1.37 billion in the six months. Net profit after tax was down 21% to $149.5 million.
Competitor Seven West Media in February reported a steep drop in net profit after tax, down 52% to $54.46 million for the half year to December, reflecting "weakness" in advertising.
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