Seven West Media reported a stronger second half of the financial year, leaving CEO Jeff Howard upbeat that the rise of BVOD revenue can eventually overcome losses in its broadcast business.
Although Seven’s Total TV advertising revenue declined by 3.2 per cent to – reflecting a soft broader TV advertising market – the real story is the transition of audiences from broadcast to BVOD, and whether Seven is able to monetise that shift.
Its FY25 results provide cautious optimism. Seven’s broadcast TV revenue fell by $80 million (down 8 per cent) while BVOD revenue surged by $34 million (up 26 per cent) – a deficit of $46 million.
BVOD now accounts for 15.35 per cent ($166 million) of the Total TV pie with broadcast revenue dropping to $915 million, and it is slowly gaining.
The 7plus audience grew by 41 per cent, including a lift of 62 per cent in live streaming (no doubt a result of new digital AFL and cricket streaming rights), while on demand viewing grew 21 per cent. This ”more than offset” a 2 per cent decline in broadcast TV. Average viewing per day on 7plus is up 13 per cent to 148 minutes.
Seven West Media CEO Jeff Howard said the transition from broadcast to BVOD was “very near a tipping point” in which BVOD revenue gains would more than compensate for losses in broadcast.
When asked whether Free To Air TV could return to growth, Howard said: “Yes, it certainly has done for some of the months during FY 25.
“Our ambition is to get it to (growth) on a permanent basis. I think the first step…is to make sure that our 7plus revenue growth is more than enough to offset the linear decline, whatever that may be,” he said.
“Then things like (OzTAM’s) Streamscape reports and data that is now available to us (and advertisers) are going to be a very important part of that mix, as will be (Seven’s Total TV trading platform) Phoenix and all the other things we’re doing will drive that opportunity.”
Howard will be buoyed by the audience growth in 7plus, which was up by 27 per cent and lifted streaming minutes by 41 per cent in FY25. This includes a lift of 62 per cent lift in live streaming (largely due to new digital AFL and cricket streaming rights), and an on demand lift of 21 per cent – which ”more than offset” a 2 per cent decline in broadcast TV.
“In FY 25, we delivered a step change in the performance of 7plus, capturing existing viewers when they transition from broadcast television and attracting new, younger digital viewers,” Howard said.
“Our market leading content, live sport and our 7plus first strategy for premium overseas content is delivering strong results; 2.6 million registered users have watched cricket and AFL. There’s been 1.4 million new registrations on seven plus in FY25 and 92 per cent of these new users have streamed multiple content genres.”
Although Seven’s BVOD revenue growth has kept pace with its growth in audience size in FY25, whether that is sustainable in the medium to long-term will largely depend on Seven’s ability to convince advertisers who have shifted budgets away from TV into YouTube and other streamers to return.
Howard was keen to point out that TV is still the dominant video platform in the second quarter of calendar 2025 with FTA total TV accounting for almost 70 per cent of all video viewing in the 25 to 54 demo and BVOD’s share of streaming viewing around 20 per cent, just shy of Netflix’s 22 per cent.
“Across the free to air universe, we’re seeing that great content translates to great audiences. And I think that’s that message is starting to get through to the advertising community. TV CPMs are holding okay, so the effectiveness of TV is still very strong, and probably stronger than it has been for some time, certainly relative to other players in the media sector,” he said.
The market will get a better feel for how well Seven’s results stack up when Nine releases its figures in the coming weeks.
