Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has reported a 22.5% surge in TV ad bookings in the first year it has sold spots against Nine content.
The media group also reported single digit growth across its metro and regional radio networks, lifting group revenue by 7.5% to $690.8 million and underlying profit by 21.5% to $93.8 million, which benefitted from licence fee relief.
The results are among the most impressive by a media company in this year's reporting season.
They are also the first since SCA switched its metropolitan TV licensing affiliation from Ten across to Nine, with Nine’s former regional partner WIN going the other way.
The move has paid off handsomely for Southern Cross, which grew TV revenue by 15.8% to $246.9 million in a regional advertising market that declined by 2.8%.
The growth was mostly due to a $42.8 million lift in TV advertising sales, with regional areas covered by the Nine partnership reporting a 52.5% spike in sales.
SCA’s commercial share has also benefitted, growing from 21.7% under Ten to 35.8% in the second half of FY17.
The Nine affiliation has led to a 17.7% increase in SCA's regional costs. Nine has invested in 107 regional journalists to produce 15 local news services.
SCA’s network of radio stations increased metropolitan revenue by 2% to $247.2 million and regional revenue by 3.3% to $169 million.
In the past year SCA completed a major rebrand splitting radio stations into two networks, Triple M and HIT.
Prime Media Group’s annual results come out tomorrow while WIN Network keeps its under wraps.
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