Seven profit slashed more than 60 per cent

Australia’s biggest TV web has been smashed arsenic declining advertizing gross and losing the Olympics rights wounded the bottommost line.

Seven West Media released its full-year results connected Wednesday, days aft an ABC probe reported misogynistic behaviour from elder unit successful aggregate newsrooms.

Shares successful Seven West Media and genitor institution Seven Holdings Group had dipped since the ABC reporting connected Monday, but Wednesday’s fiscal results saw aboriginal bounces successful some equities.

Before taxation nett fell 65 per cent to $67m astatine Seven West Media this past fiscal year.

Statutory nett net aft taxation slipped 69 per cent, to $45m. Revenue decreased 4.9 per cent. However, traders were buying successful aboriginal trading connected Wednesday, with the stock terms rising much than 6 per cent successful the archetypal hour.

“A softer economical and advertizing situation and an evolving media scenery person challenged accepted media concern models,” president Kerry Stokes writes successful the results.

“We telephone connected the national authorities to enactment the home media manufacture successful maintaining a just and equitable playing field, by compelling foreign-owned operators to afloat comply with the Australian regulatory environment.”

Owner of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, announced successful March it would not participate into caller agreements with media companies to wage for news, pursuing the extremity of contracts signed successful 2021 nether the Morrison government’s quality media bargaining code.

The existent authorities is considering utilizing powers nether the quality media bargaining codification authorities to “designate” Meta nether the code, which would unit the tech institution to participate negotiations for outgo with quality providers, oregon hazard fines of 10 per cent of its Australian revenue.

With this Meta dogfight successful the background, Seven West Media announced a broad restructure and large cost-cutting programme earlier this year.

“With this workout underway, we person had to farewell galore unit and elder executives, and we convey them for their dedicated work implicit galore years,” Mr Stokes said.

Newly-appointed managing manager and main enforcement Jeff Howard gave a motion to unit chopped escaped arsenic well, saying responsibly managing costs was critical.

“That means making hard decisions … we farewelled immoderate of our colleagues … I would similar to widen my sincere acknowledgment to everyone who has near us,” Mr Howard said.

The results emblem that advertizing declined astatine a faster complaint than the web had forecast. Television advertizing arsenic a full was down 8 per cent, to $3.2bn, for the fiscal year.

However, Seven West expanded its stock of the advertizing market, offsetting immoderate losses, and posted its “strongest ever non-Olympics quarter” successful that metric.

Channel 7 has paid for and cashed-in connected the Olympics since 2012.

But adjacent though the network’s streaming work 7plus saw 39 per cent year-on-year minutes-watched growth, “this assemblage show has not translated into gross performance”, it says successful the results.

Television pulled successful $1.1bn successful advertizing revenue, and the West Australian paper brought successful $88m from ads.

In the archetypal hr of trading connected Wednesday, Seven West Media shares bounced 6.4 per cent, up to $0.165.