Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd executives will take a haircut after a poor earnings report.
Annual net profit fell sharply on a lacklustre TV advertising market, with net profit after tax slumping 22% to $216.4 million.
Revenues slipped 3% to $2.62 billion.
Group earnings fell 2% to $517.4 million while revenue in the company’s broadcasting arm – which includes free-to-air station Channel 9 – fell 10% to $1.13 billion.
The results have left Nine’s key executives without their full bonus entitlements in the past financial year.
Chief executive Mike Sneesby forfeited 77.5% of his target short-term incentive for the year, however, his total remuneration of $2.1 million, down from $2.69 million in the prior year, won’t leave him penniless.
Chief finance and strategy officer Mike Stanton received 50% of his bonus to earn $1.07 million while chief sales officer Michael Stephenson received 36.5% of his bonus entitlements for total remuneration of $1.24 million, down from $1.8 million.
Group EBITDA target of $553 million was unmet. It reached $513 million which impacted the executives’ short-term financial incentives.
“Nine’s total television results were impacted by the weak advertising market which more than offset the positive impacts of audience performance and lower costs,” the company said in a statement.
Focus on diversification
Nine reported that Subscription and Licensing revenues from wholly owned businesses, Stan and Publishing, grew by approximately 5%, now representing more than 30% of the group's revenue, excluding Domain.
This performance is particularly strong given the challenging economic and competitive market conditions. The company highlighted that its Metro mastheads achieved growth in overall subscription and digital revenues throughout the year.
Over the past few years, Nine has focused on rebalancing its cost structure. In the 2024 financial year (FY24), the group's costs, excluding Domain, were reduced compared to FY23, despite underlying inflationary pressures.
This cost management has allowed the company to continue investing in content, data and technology, which drive returns and support its long-term strategy and competitive positioning.
Looking ahead, Sneesby said, “Our industry has been the subject of significant regulatory review over the past 12 months, including Prominence, Anti-Siphoning, and gambling advertising. We have also seen the News Media Bargaining Code challenged as Meta demonstrates its intention to disregard the policy behind the code.
"The common theme across the majority of these regulatory matters relates to the increasing dominance of global tech companies. The rate at which these companies are broadening and deepening their influence is becoming an increasing threat across a wide range of industries, including media, creating greater urgency for the Government to act quickly and decisively in the interest of all Australians.
“As our audiences become increasingly digital, and with the implementation of our new consumer data platform complete, the value of the combined media and data assets of Nine becomes clearer.
"As we bring these assets together with our Marketplaces businesses, Domain and Drive, there will be further opportunities to leverage the strength of the Nine Group and these content verticals.
“Through the Olympics and Paralympics, which begin today, the power of Nine’s Integrated Audience Platform has come to life — with 40 channels of amazing content available across free-to-air (FTA), 9Now and Stan, highlighted across Nine’s audio assets, mastheads and websites.
"The Olympics in Paris proved to be an enormously successful event for us, clearly demonstrating the merits of our strategy and significantly enhancing our future positioning.
"Premium content, coupled with cross-product distribution and promotion, creates a unique, integrated, and complementary platform for both audiences and advertisers. This is our future as Australia’s media company.”