Nine Entertainment Co has reported it’s financial results for the last six months and happily reported a 20 per cent jump in profits.
Nine is the owner of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Stan and The Australian Financial Review along with other assets.
For the period, Nine reported Revenue of $1.3b and a Net Profit After Tax of $213m, which included a post-tax Specific Item expense of $12m. – basically, things are looking pretty good!
The main takeaways are that total television has seen growth of 16 per cent on revenue growth of 11 per cent. Meanwhile, Nine’s streaming service Stan has seen a 23 per cent revenue in growth and now has 2.5 million active subscribers.
Nine also saw 39 per cent ($27 million) in its first half publishing driven by subscription and licensing. Nine also saw 53 per cent growth in Domain’s outgoing and 31 per cent growth in digital revenue. Overall there was a 40 per cent increase in interim dividend to 7.0 per cent share.
Mike Sneesby, Chief Executive Officer of Nine Entertainment Co. said: “We are really pleased with how Nine closed calendar 2021, with strong audience and revenue performance across all businesses, both subscription and advertising, underpinning 15 per cent growth in EBITDA for the December half and surpassing the guidance we gave back in November.
“Momentum remains clearly positive, with full-year guidance now of around 25 per cent Group EBITDA growth to what would be a record result for Nine. Importantly, these results continue to be delivered by increasingly diversified, and increasingly digital revenue streams.
“Moreover, this momentum has continued into 2022, with Nine’s content across all platforms underpinning a strong start to the year which, coupled with continuing strength in advertising markets and further growth in subscriptions, creates a great foundation for the business looking forward.
“Nine’s opportunity has never been clearer. In Total Television, we have balanced our programming decisions across broadcast and streaming, and carefully invested in and expanded the reach of 9Now, resulting in record Total Television revenues in calendar 2021, more than any year in Nine’s history.
“At Stan, we are continuing to grow revenues and subscribers while expanding our annual volume of Stan Originals as we take greater control of our premium content pipeline and continue to invest in Stan Sport.
“In Radio, we have been strengthening our underlying business, while building our audiences, and with 23 per cent of our listeners now live streaming our content, there is a real opportunity to further expand our Digital revenues.
“And in Publishing, we will continue to invest in the product, ensuring greater audience reach and higher subscriber numbers, of course, augmented by the licensing agreements with Google and Facebook.
“I’m very proud of what the team at Nine has achieved this year. We understand the importance of amplifying and sharing the stories Australians want to watch, read or hear and we are defining what an Australian digital media company looks like.“
