By Peter Saxon.

It’s reporting season for public companies.

On Tuesday we’ll find out how HT&E, ARN’s parent company, did for the first half of the financial year 2022-23.

But last Thursday, it was SCA’s turn. You can take a peek at some of the main numbers here.  

For me, the three main takeaways were:

The Good

Metro radio revenue was up by 6.8% compared to H1 the year before. What’s more, digital audio revenue grew 37.5%.

The not so good: Regional radio was down 2.5%

The Bad

Regional television revenue was down 9.5% – which was enough of a drop to all but wipe out the revenue gains made by the audio sector.

The Warning

All broadcast media markets performed more strongly in the first four months of the period than in November and December. In the case of audio, revenue growth of 8.7% in the first four months was paired with a contraction of 5.1% in the final two months. The advertising categories that declined the most included Government (down 28.8%), Consumer Electronics (down 19.5%), and Financial Services (down 37.4%).

How does that auger for the industry in the second half of the financial year and beyond?

I put that question to SCA CEO, Grant Blackley and asked him about the various factors that contributed to the results.