Seven West Media has reported a $1.887bn loss as a result of major TV writedowns and goodwill, as it boasts online TV streaming to bolster its offering going forward.
The group noted that in the full year to 27 June 2015 it had booked impairment of $2.07 billion including writing down the value of its television licences by $929.3 million.
Total revenue by Seven West Media reached $1,774.7m with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reaching $407.0m. 76% of EBITDA is attributable to Seven's television business with newspapers picking up 17%, magazines 6% and other business and new ventures taking up 1%.
Seven West Media CEO and MD Tim Worner said at an investor briefing that due to softer ad revenue in television and publishing, group EBIT declined 12.7% to $356.3m.
Worner noted that the advertising market in the financial year grew 3.1%, while the metro television market dipped 1.6% as a result of a softer first half due to the federal election spend in the prior corresponding period.
“Despite this, we have delivered another market leading 40% share of revenue,” Worner said.
“Seven has recorded another year as number one in television, in fact our ninth consecutive year of leadership in television.
“We have delivered another robust revenue share performance in what has continued to be challenging market conditions.”
It also noted that its advertising revenue share for Pacific Magazines increased to a record high of 31.5% from 30.1% at FY14. In “a challenging market” revenue in the group's magazine division declined 7.3% to $220.1 mi compared to the prior period with an improvement in the rate of decline in circulation and advertising revenue.
Worner said that it had been a “year of transformation” as it put in place the “architecture that will define the future development of Seven West Media.”
Today it also announced the launch of 24/7 which gives consumers the ability the stream Seven live from any device, commencing this morning with Sunrise.
“A core part of of our strategy is making our content available anywhere, any screen and at any time with two key caveats,” Worner said. We make it available where it can be measured and we make it available where it can be incrementally monetised.
It all plays into our goal to create audiences for our content and execute our windowing strategy to maximise our return and strategy.”
“this will be a big part of our future, providing convenience for our consumers and data and analytics for our advertising customers.”
Seven West Media said its outlook for the advertising market over the next 12 months is low single digital growth for television, with newspapers showing early signs of improvement in trend – particularly early signs of an uptick in digital display - and a continuation of trend for magazines.
It also noted that it expects group EBIT to be five to 10% lower than in FY15.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.