Prime CEO: a revenue drought has affected us “substantially” and things won’t be the same
The CEO of Prime Media has told a Senate inquiry that a revenue “drought” has hit Australia’s regional broadcaster and it is difficult to see pathways to growth outside of mergers with metropolitan brethren.
“It is fair to say that in a drought it is the edges of the lake that dry up first,” Ian Audsley, CEO of Prime, told a Senate Committee. “In the television lake regional broadcasters are at the extremities of the lake.
“That drought has hit us already. Three years ago, when I sat here, my company was worth $366m today it has a market value of a $130m. The structural change has hit us substantially.”
Audsley was appearing alongside the CEOs of Southern Cross Austereo and WIN – all of which were appealing to the Senate to pass the government’s proposed media reforms which would allow them to merge with their affiliate stations Seven, Nine and Ten.
