Nine Entertainment chief Mike Sneesby says Stan is ‘not in some kind of sale process’
Nine Entertainment boss Mike Sneesby says its streaming service is not up for sale but the company is open to considering any opportunities.
Nine Entertainment chief executive officer Mike Sneesby says the company is “not in some kind of sale process” for its streaming service, Stan.
Speaking after the company’s annual meeting on Thursday, Mr Sneesby said Stan was not on the market, but Nine would consider potential offers.
“The rumours around a potential or partial sale of Stan, there is no process running,” he said. “If the rights to strategic opportunities, which may extend to everything from commercial partnerships to more strategic or equity kind of partnerships, make sense for us and the opportunities evolve then we are open to considering them.”
The most recent figures released by Nine show Stan has 2.5 million active subscribers and revenue is up 22 per cent, while Stan’s sports subscribers are up by 150 per cent.
Nine chair Peter Costello noted the growth of the streaming platform. “We have extended Stan’s investment in live streaming, successfully differentiating our subscription video-on-demand platform from the plethora of other international services,” he said.
Stan’s deal with NBCUniversal is due to end this year, which means the platform will lose a significant amount of content.
Rival Foxtel recently inked a multi-year deal with the US film studio – the biggest deal done with the company in Australia, while Seven West Media also signed a multi-year deal with NBCUniversal.
Mr Sneesby told the meeting that the advertising market had taken a hit and there had been a “softening in the residential market and the flow-on effects of Domain”.
“There is an evolving economic landscape and we remain cautious around what that will look like,” Mr Sneesby said on Thursday.
Nine shares ended Thursday unchanged at $2.04.
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