Seven West Media records $1 billion loss after writing down value of TV ‘good will’
Seven West CEO Tim Worner.
Seven West Media has revealed a $1 billion loss in its half yearly profits for the period ending December 2014 after writing down the value of its TV assets by $960m.
The net loss of $993.6 million came as the company wrote down the value of its television, magazine and newspaper and other media assets by more than $1.148 billion. The company’s shares have slumped from almost $2.20 12 months ago to $1.48 yesterday, its half yearly statement revealed this morning.
The $1.148 billion included write downs of the televisions assets of $960.9m, newspapers and magazines titles owned by The West Australian and Pacific Magazines down $65.7m, with mastheads and licences losing a further $38.4 million. There was also a $56.6 million cost around restructuring the business.
Apart from the write downs the group, which also includes Yahoo!7, saw revenue fall from $966.3m to $933.8m, with an underlying net profit of $137.5 million.
CEO Tim Worner said in a statement: “This adjustment reflects the revision of future growth rates given recent subdued advertising conditions, which we must account for.”
Despite the result Worner continued to insist that free to air TV remained the future for the business, and reiterated the network’s strong position in terms of revenue share, despite predictions free-to-air TV will drop its overall share of advertising revenues in coming years.
On the TV side Seven delivered earnings before tax and interest of $181.7m on revenues of $677.2m.
The West Australian and regional newspapers delivered EBITDA of $39.1m and EBIT of $28.4m on revenues of $125m. There was a 5.9 per cent decline in circulation revenues to $30.3 million and a 12.5 per cent decline in advertising revenue to $88m.
Pacific Magazines delivered EBIT of $12m on revenues of $114.1m with circulation revenue of $71.2 million down 9.4 per cent. Total advertising revenue of $38.9m was down 3 per cent.
The digital joint Venture with Yahoo, Yahoo!7 which has suffered successive write downs in recent years recorded a total revenue of $50.8 million and an EBITDA margin of 34.1 per cent.
Someone plans to delist and make the company private..
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I am with the GONZ
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Unless you live over here you don’t know the reach this group dominated by Kerry Stokes has. They make Murdoch appear to be balanced reporting. Fox News looks like ABC 24 in comparison. History (first commercial TV channel) and a monopoly (the west newspaper) is all that they have. People inertia is the only reason they keep selling stuff.
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