Seven West Media posts 40 per cent profit slump

An Australian media giant has posted a huge slump in profit but says it is making “solid progress” under a new operating structure.

Seven West Media’s half-yearly profit has slumped 40 per cent.

Releasing the financial results on Tuesday, Seven West Media chief executive Jeff Howard said the TV advertising market was soft, but sport and My Kitchen Rules, Home and Away and The Front Bar were strong audience grabbers.

“Seven West Media’s H1 FY25 results reflect the ongoing soft total TV advertising market and the impact of major one-off sporting events,” he said in an announcement to the ASX.

Seven West Media points to continued weak TV advertising as the cause for a large slump in profit. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“Mitigating the full impact of these revenue headwinds was an increase in our total TV revenue share to 41.5 per cent (up 0.5 points) and the benefits of our year-on-year operating cost savings initiates.

“We remain disciplined on reducing operating costs without compromising Seven’s content or editorial quality.”

Statutory net profit after tax was down 67 per cent to $18m.

Seven West posted an underlying after-tax profit of $37.4m, down 40.2 per cent and excluding significant items, such as a new $21m internal revenue system.

Revenue also fell 6 per cent on the same period last year.

“We are making solid progress under our new operating structure to reshape Seven West Media into a better, more agile and returns focused business that can adapt to the challenges and opportunities in the changing media landscape,” Mr Howard said.

Seven hopes to attract more eyeballs and advertising dollars with extra AFL-adjacent shows.

Seven West says the upcoming election will be good for business. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We are carrying momentum into the second half with 7plus growth accelerating, underpinned by a step change in the monetisation of our new AFL rights,” Mr Howard said.

“This includes new ancillary ‘footy’ programs across the week on Seven and 7plus, which we expect to attract high-value audiences and new opportunities for advertisers.

“We also anticipate a positive impact from the yet-to-be announced federal election.”

Advertising bookings for the coming quarter are up “low single digits”, giving Seven West Media confidence second-half earnings will “modestly exceed” the same period last year.

Seven West owns the Seven Network and Perth’s The West Australian.

In mid-2024, the company made 150 jobs redundant in a $100m cost-saving measure. The restructure split the company into three divisions – television, digital, and Western Australia. Three high-profile executives lost their jobs.

Billionaire Kerry Stokes and his son Ryan own 51 per cent of Seven Group Holdings. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The three-way split was designed to steer more assets into Seven West’s digital presence.

Total television revenue fell 7 per cent in the six months to December, while TV ad revenue fell 6 per cent, the results show.

Overall, The West Australian newspaper was solid, with a 3 per cent revenue decline (an $86m dip) balanced by $71m of cost savings.

Supermarket advertising was “notably lower”, but there was “a reduction in labour and paper costs”.

“The labour costs reduction was achieved despite a 3.5 per cent year-on-year growth in wages in the WA market,” the company says in the results.

The investment conglomerate SHG – formerly named Seven Group Holdings – also posted its half-yearly results on Tuesday.

SGH owns construction materials company Boral, machinery supplier WesTrac and equipment hire company Coates, plus has a 30 per cent slice of oil and gas company Beach Energy and 40 per cent of Seven West Media.

SGH’s overall earnings for the half year grew 8 per cent to $1bn, driven by WesTrac Caterpillar dealerships and the Coates and Boral businesses.

Statutory net profit more than doubled to $518m, while underlying net profit grew 7 per cent to $508m.

SGH will pay a $0.30 interim dividend per-share, up from 23 cents a year ago.

Originally published as Seven West Media posts 40 per cent profit slump