A 2.4% increase in Southern Cross Austereo’s Audio revenue, for metropolitan and regional radio plus podcasting, to $453.4 M has contributed to a modest overall growth in SCA’s revenue of 0.5% to $661.0M.
While local advertising slowed in metro and regional markets, influenced by federal and state elections and a contraction in the housing and automotive markets, there was still a 9.2% growth in national revenue which benifited from the federal election and the Boomtown regional marketing campaign.
CEO, Grant Blackley, says, “SCA’s Audio business grew during the year, outpacing the market. In metro markets, SCA’s Audio revenue increased by 4.1%, while the broader radio market declined by 0.5%. SCA’s regional radio revenue grew by 1.5%, boosted by the Boomtown initiative.”
The company’s decision to aggregate the FM and digital radio reach has been rewarding with an extension of the Hit and Triple M brands rolled out across Australia.
Television revenue declined slightly, down 3.2% to $206.5M.
The underlying NPAT is up 3.1% to $76.2M while underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is up slightly to $159.9M.
The underlying amounts exclude the impact of one-off restructuring charges of just over $3M, the loss of $9.2M on the broadcast transmission assets held for sale and other non-cash significant items.