The Network Ten has this morning reported a $312.2 million loss for the 12 months to August citing a soft ad market and ongoing costs issues as primary reasons.
This follows on from a $168.3 million loss for the same period last year. Ten blamed the loss on a $251 million license impairment – something it flagged to shareholders in April.
Last Thursday, the Network announced that the ACCC had agreed to allow Foxtel to buy a 15 per cent stake in the station which it hoped would “enable Ten to reduce debt and provide additional financial flexibility to continue its strong ratings momentum”. It has been reported that the Foxtel deal will inject upwards of $80 million to Ten’s balance sheet.
On a positive note for the broadcaster, its revenues for the year were up 4.6 per cent to $654.1 million and it has also taken a bite out of both its competitors’ ad pie. Ten was the only network to increase its ad share over the previous 12 months.
The network’s CEO Paul Anderson said its priority was to increase audience share and revenues across all platforms. However, he added that the advertising market remains “short” in terms of forward bookings.
Anderson said: “Our strategy of reducing costs in certain areas and investing in prime time programming is clearly producing results.
“This year, the primary Ten channel has recorded its biggest prime time audience since 2012 and its highest commercial share since 2011.”
Ten’s shares are presently in a trading halt and will remain so until Thursday as the company looks to implement its $77 million share placement scheme that it announced to shareholders in June.
The network believes that the share scheme and the cash injection from Foxtel will put its cash balance back in the black to the tune of $14.6 million.
It’s also hoped its new ad selling deal with MCN should further add to efficiencies.
“For Ten, the partnership with MCN is creating scale, new efficiencies, improved data capability and broader integration opportunities for our clients,” Anderson said.
“We expect our partnership to drive further improvement in TEN’s revenue share and power ratio.”
