Southern Cross Austereo $284.9m net loss blaming weak TV ad market for poor results
Grant Blackley
Southern Cross Austereo (ASX: SXL) has today posted a net loss for the second year in a row, recording a loss of $284.9m, which was an improvement on last year’s loss of $296m.
SCA’s losses, like Seven and Nine have been driven by writedowns, with net profit after tax also down 18.7 per cent to $64.8m.
New CEO Grant Blackley acknowledged what he described as a “disappointing” financial result but noted the TV and radio broadcaster was implementing new strategies to turn the result around.
Oh Dear
There is work to be done……
So SCA’s metro radio business is now by far the least profitable of all the networks with an EBITD of $57m (down 21%). and this is with more radio stations than the competitors.
After having to sit through one of the most ego driven interviews with a couple of their junior programmers talking about how amazing everything is after the last survey, these results should be a sign that these people need to tuck their heads back in and present themselves in a way that gives their shareholders some confidence, rather than a declining bank balance and a feeling of embarresment
lets not forget on SCA, NEC & SWM and all other media – that with no federal election in 2015 there is a lot of money out of market.
I would expect them to cost cut immediately but unfortunately like the MRN / Fairfax merger it will result in staff redundancies and more efficiencies in programming and syndication from local markets.
SCA shareholders would be appalled at the mishandling of the sales inventory in their markets. Talk about dropping their pants and messing up the yield. @Beancounter thinks the programmers are cocky, the sales team used to be when things were going swimmingly. diferent now.
Old sales guy. As a client in the past and nowadays first of all the sales people were never cocky, confident about their product is how I saw it just like any media, and with the diminution of ratings they are providing clients value for money with ratings loss. Dropping your pants no have not seen.