Australia’s Nine Entertainment suffers 31% fall in profits despite Stan revenue hike

Nine Entertainment, the parent company of Australia’s Nine Network and streamer Stan, has reported disappointing overall annual revenues and a 31% fall in profit for the year to June.

Mike Sneesby

The media group’s profits declined from A$194.5m (US$132.4m) to A$135m while its television business saw a significant 32% drop in earnings.

On the positive side, Stan delivered 5% revenue growth to A$447.7m with earnings rising 24% to A$46m on the back of 2.3 million subscribers, up from 2.2 million last year.

Nine CEO Mike Sneesby remained optimistic, citing growth in total TV audiences and the company’s move to diversify revenue streams.

“Our subscription and licensing revenues are now more than 30% of wholly owned revenue, with 5% growth for the year, and growth at both Stan and our publishing divisions,” he told local media.

As the Australian broadcaster of the Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Olympic games, Nine Entertainment revealed it had so far paid A$77m out of a A$305m deal to air the events, which Sneesby claimed would be a long-term win for the company. Olympics coverage drove a surge in subscriptions, with Stan Sport subs up by 50%.

Nine has said it will slash costs by A$100m over the 2024 and 2025 financial years, which has already led to 200 redundancies.

Speaking to analysts, Sneesby indicated the company was seeking more “flexibility” in terms of M&A activity, which suggests it may be looking at selling stakes in publishing or radio assets.

Sneesby also addressed recent controversy surrounding the network’s workplace culture.

While he said he was proud of improvements, he acknowledged: “We have also faced very public commentary regarding our culture and the actions we are taking to deal with unacceptable behaviour in our workplace. We take these comments and the feedback from our team members incredibly seriously and have worked with industry-leading third parties to understand the extent of any issues, and similarly, to ensure our processes and culture encourage an inclusive and positive working environment.”