Southern Cross Media Group feels the pain after falling advertising spending in the past financial year

The owner of the Triple M and Hit network has had a ‘watershed year’ after being hit by a falling advertising market and business disruption, says its chief executive.

Southern Cross Media Group managing director and chief executive officer John Kelly.

Southern Cross Media – the owner of the Triple M and Hit Network – has had a “watershed year” after being hit by a falling advertising market and business disruption, its boss says.

Unveiling the company’s annual results on Thursday, managing director and chief executive John Kelly said that, despite the ongoing challenges in the media industry, Southern Cross had “positive momentum into the 2025 financial year” and would focus on progressing the sale of its television assets.

“Despite challenging advertising market conditions, our improved financial performance in the second half has provided strong momentum into the new financial year,” Mr Kelly said.

The results showed the media company’s revenue was down 1 per cent at $499.4m, while underlying EBITDA was down 14.3 per cent at $66.2m.

The company’s net result after tax was a loss of $224.6m, and net debt increased by $2.5m to $105m.

Mr Kelly, who took over as the company’s CEO on July 1 last year, said SCA continued to be heavily focused on cutting costs.

“We are continuing to focus on reducing our operating cost base and we have progressively identified and actioned cost-put initiatives so we can reset our costs base,” he said.

Mr Kelly said this included job cuts and the potential to divest the company’s television assets.

Southern Cross owns TV stations in 105 markets, and Mr Kelly said it was in active negotiations with interested parties.

“The sale of our regional television assets will enable us to focus on optimising our leading radio and digital audio assets, led by LiSTNR, HIT and Triple M,” he said.

Mr Kelly has also not ruled out a further takeover bid of the ­company after multiple failed ­attempts over the past year including by rival media company ARN and private equity firm Anchorage Capital.

The company’s online audio platform, LiSTNR, which launched in 2021, has more than 2 million listeners and signed up an additional 500,000 in the past financial year.

The company did not declare a dividend for the financial year.

Southern Cross Media shares rose 0.94 per cent to 54c.