Paramount, who owns Network 10, has responded after Seven’s CEO James Warburton laid into the network when he was quizzed by shareholders on Seven’s results this morning.
In Seven’s financial results, released today, the network reported that its profit after tax had dropped 31 per cent year-on-year coming in at $146 million dollars, compared to $ 211 million last year.
In a call with shareholders, held after the presentation, Warburton didn’t hold back in criticising Network 10, saying that the television market is now becoming a “two-player race” with the third player “quickly evaporating” in terms of its share market.
A spokesperson from Paramount has now responded to Warburton’s remarks saying they are nothing but a “deflection” from Seven’s results.
The spokesperson said:
“The comments made by a competitor this morning are nothing more than a deflection and reflects a business strategy that fails to recognise how media companies are diversifying both domestically and globally.”
“Paramount is a diversified global business with a strong domestic footprint and audience base across linear TV, multi-channels, broadcast video on demand and Paramount+ streaming.”
“The imminent launch of Pluto TV this month will further strengthen our unique offering to the market with iconic global titles spanning all genres that will entertain every age group including new and nostalgic fans. We have also just won five TV Week Logies Awards, more than any other commercial broadcaster, validating the quality of our content and popularity of our shows.”
“We understand our competitors would like to see otherwise but we are confident of our unique offering to the market and we will continue to entertain Australian audiences with fabulous locally produced content and through Paramount’s unrivalled global content pipeline.”
Warburton said Seven’s results were ‘solid’ given the ‘challenging’ economic conditions that the network faced over the 2022-2023 financial year.
Industry body Think TV recently announced that TV advertising revenue was down 7.9 per cent year-on-year due to economic headwinds.