Seven West Media swings to annual $318m profit amid TV and digital boom
Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media has returned to the black, delivering an annual net profit of $318m after slashing its debt.
Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media has recorded an annual net profit of $318m after repairing its balance sheet from the pandemic, which saw advertising revenues severely hit.
In their annual results released on Monday, the media company recorded underlying earnings of $253.9m for the 2021 financial year, more than double from $123.4m last year.
Annual revenue rose by 3.5 per cent to $1.27bn.
Seven chief executive officer James Warburton said the improved balance sheet signalled their company’s ability to sign further investments, building on the “outstanding success of broadcasting the Tokyo Olympics”.
“Our results today reflects the material progress in its transformation strategy, repairing the balance sheet, making the necessary changes for the business to capitalise on a market recovery, and positioning the business strongly for the future,” he said.
“Since 2019, we have increased EBIT and grown our digital business to over 25 per cent of earnings.”
The results also showed $200m in operating costs and cash savings being actioned, resulting in a 7.5 per cent fall in operating costs to $1bn.
Net debt was also slashed by $158m to $240m.
Mr Warburton said the television market was “recovering from the lows” of the pandemic and said the launch of ‘VOZ’ last month would be critical in providing a truer picture of TV networks’ ratings audiences, instead of relying on overnight ratings which the industry has done so for the past two decades.
VOZ includes broadcast viewing on TV sets and also connected devices across all-screen, cross-platform planning and reporting for the nation’s TV industry.
Mr Warburton also spoke of the “outstanding success” that saw Australians registering with the company’s streaming service 7Plus – their subscribers grew from 6.4 million users just days before the Olympics to now 9.2 million users.
“We expect to reap the benefits of the Tokyo Olympics for many years to come,” Mr Warburton said.
Seven notched up incredible success at the Tokyo Olympics after Australians tuned into more than 4.6 billion minutes on its streaming service.
The opening ceremony also remains the most-watched event of the year with 3.85 million views nationally across broadcast video on demand and seven-day catch-up audiences.
Seven’s West Australian newspaper business including The West Australian and The Sunday Times newspapers also saw readership growth of 19 per cent and circulation revenue climb by 5 per cent, representing 35 per cent of total revenue.
No dividend was declared, in line with recent years as Seven looks to cut its debt.
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