Interesting reading from Imparja’s submission to the ACMA closed captioning review. They are losing money - 9GO!, 9GEM and the joint venture Ten channels run at a loss.
Imparja is the smallest commercial free-to-air broadcaster in Australia and it only makes up 2% of the regional revenue and has no other revenue stream to offset costs. Imparja’s profitability alone throughout the last five-years has been negative. Imparja’s revenue is around $9,000,000 annually and our annual broadcasting costs reach over $10,000,000 (transmission costs $1,500,000, affiliations fees $3,000,000, staff costs $3,500,000, playout costs $730,000, Optus fees $1,300,000 and Telstra fees $300,000). This year we have seen a major reduction in our revenue with major national advertisers pulling or drastically reducing their advertising dollars on Imparja, instead moving their advertising dollars to other media streams like catch-up television, which is available in Imparja’s footprint, but for which Imparja does not receive a dollar. Imparja’s multi-channels run at a loss, as the programming costs and staffing costs exceed the revenue generated on those stations (combined we report a $900,000pa loss across both stations). As part of the digital rollout Imparja was also forced to take on 50% ownership of CDT in our licence area, which has never turned a profit and will continue to lose money into the foreseeable future. In addition, another extra one or two channels have been added by the networks. Imparja has not been able to add these extra channels, as the extra cost would cripple the company.
The full submission, which mentions that their lack of local News is due to cost:http://www.acma.gov.au/~/media/Content%20Projects%20and%20Policy/Issue%20for%20comment/IFC%2014%202016/Sub%2003%20-%20Imparja.docx (Word)
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