Seven’s Bottom Line Roars Back, As Ad Spends Surge By Almost 26%

Seven West Media has posted a net end of-year profit of $318 million after the local advertising market’s dramatic turnaround following 2020’s downturn that saw spends up 25.8 per cent in the April to june quarter.

Announcing its numbers this morning, the braodcaster reported its underlying EBIT earnings [before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] of $253.9 million for the 2021 financial year, which was at the upper end of its guidance it announced in June. Overall revenues increased 3.5 per cent to $1.3 billion.

You can view the results at at a glance here.

Seven West Media has made significant progress in its transformation strategy, repairing the balance sheet, making the necessary changes for the business to capitalise on a market recovery, and positioning the business strongly for the future.

Company CEO James Warburton said: “Our result today reflects the material progress of the changes made over the past two years.

“Since 2019, we have increased EBIT and grown our digital business to over 25 per cent of earnings. We have a new entertainment schedule that is increasing ratings across all key demographics. We were the only network to grow commercial audience share across the key demographics in the financial year, which has set us up strongly to monetise this in FY22. At the same time, we have slashed our net debt position by 57 per cent since FY19, giving us a balance sheet to pursue future growth opportunities.”

The results from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 clearly demonstrated the reach and scale of the Seven West Media platform across TV, publishing and digital. During the 17 days of the Olympics, television and digital coverage reached 20.2 million Australians, with a record- breaking 4.74 billion minutes streamed on 7plus.

Warburton added: “The evolution of the digital and data side of our business has been a core element of our transformation strategy and the results are clear. 7plus revenue grew 78 per cent in the financial year, outstripping the BVOD advertising market growth of 55 per cent, and 7plus now has 9.2 million registered users. Seven’s digital earnings in FY21 were $60 million, up 131 per cent on the previous year.

“A landmark milestone achieved this year was our commercial agreement secured with Google and Facebook, which was first in market and reflects the quality and value of our news content.

“WAN has grown its audience across print readership and digital, increasing circulation and subscription revenue while also transforming the cost base,” he said.

“We have reignited the Seven West Ventures strategy, with several new investments underway, and the portfolio increasing in value by 11 per cent to $56 million,” Warburton said.

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James Warburton Seven West Media