Last year the upfront was held as part of SXSW Sydney.
Hopefully, itâs not just a Sydney centric event for a list of Sydney based shows and presenters.
From ITV
Seven Network renews 25+ year partnership with ITV Studios
The Seven Network has renewed its long standing output deal with ITV Studios until 2029. This multi-year agreement will see Seven extend its first look agreement for all ITV scripted and non-scripted finished content from around the world to run across Sevenâs suite of channels and platforms.
Among the highly anticipated new scripted titles that will premiere on Seven are the multi-faceted contemporary psychological thriller The Crow Girl (Buccaneer Media for Paramount+). They join well known returners such as the most watched UK drama of the 21st Century Line of Duty (World Productions for the BBC) and the highly acclaimed and long-running detective dramas The Murdoch Mysteries (Shaftesbury Films for CBC and UKTV), Vera (Silverprint Pictures for ITV) and Endeavour (Mammoth Screen for ITV).
Sevenâs Angus Ross, Group Managing Director, Television, said: âSeven and ITV have been partners for more than two decades and we are delighted to extend this long-term partnership. ITV content is an important part of our schedule across the Seven TV channels and our rapidly growing 7plus streaming platform. ITV has some great shows that Australians are going to love.â
Augustus Dulgaro, EVP Asia Pacific Global Partnerships, ITV Studios said, âIâm so pleased to continue this fantastic partnership with Angus and the team at Seven. Given the challenging macroeconomic conditions, this deal underscores the importance of long term relationships and brand alignment in the market. Weâre delighted to see so much of our content find a home on Australiaâs no.1 network, speaking to the commercial quality of our catalogue and upcoming slateâ
Other recent ITV Studios programmes to air first in Australia on Sevenâs platforms include ratings hits such as Mr Bates vs Post Office (ITV Studios and Little Gem for ITV), The Marlow Murder Club (Monumental Television for UKTV in co-production with Masterpiece), The Chase UK (Potato for ITV), Abused by Mum - The Ruby Franke Scandal (ITN Productions for Channel 5 and Peacock) and The British Airways Killer (Moonshine Features for ITV).
Seven West Media
2024 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ADDRESSES AND TRADING UPDATE
Chairmanâs Address
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officerâs Address
Seven West Media acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the Country we are meeting on today.
We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations people present today.
Chairman: Mr Kerry Stokes AC
Firstly, please let me introduce the members of our Board:
I am joined by Teresa Dyson, Colette Garnsey, Michale Malone, Ryan Stokes, Michael Ziegelaar, and Jeff Howard, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Seven West Media.
I am very happy to report that Seven West Media is still one of Australiaâs leading media companies, an agile and ambitious business squarely focused on delivering world-class, market-leading content â in news, sport and entertainment â that attracts large, sought-after audiences across all of our broadcast, digital and publishing assets.
We face industry-wide challenges, including a subdued economic environment that is putting sustained pressure on advertising, and Federal Government policy settings that are creating unnecessary roadblocks.
Your Board acted swiftly this year to confront the headwinds facing our industry, initiating a group-wide restructure of our operations and management.
This was designed to invigorate the business and set us up to best exploit modern consumer habits, fast-track transformation, control costs, grow audiences and maximise revenues.
Among several management changes, the former Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Howard, was promoted to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
This preceded a new operating structure in which three streamlined divisions were created â television, digital and Western Australia. This positions the digital operations as our top growth priority and a fundamental driver of earnings.
While we drive sustainable change to bring consumers and advertisers together, our broadcast division once again dominated, cementing its place as the market leader, reaching 17 million viewers nationally every month.
Sevenâs prized sports programming, centred on our two most-loved national sports of AFL and cricket, continued to deliver exceptional audiences all year. Our new exclusive rights to major sporting events mean viewers can watch AFL and cricket for the first time on our free live streaming service, 7plus, as well as on our other digital assets.
The 2024 AFL Grand Final recorded the largest ever audience for an AFL game on a streaming platform. This is just the beginning, as we have big plans to dominate sports broadcasting in Australia on all platforms.
Not to be outdone, our news and current affairs programs, general interest and drama continue to attract strong audiences.
Iâm very proud to say our West Australian operation continues to set the stage for our national business, with its deep and unrivalled integration in the community helping secure exceptional market dominance across broadcast, print and digital.
The division is also a market leader in digital innovation, best exemplified by the successful launch of Australiaâs newest, and fastest growing, national news brand, The Nightly. Its impact with readers and advertisers will help drive further adoption of technology that will transform how our business both delivers news and tells the stories connecting communities across all corners of our vast country.
There is no better example of this than Telethon, which this October brought the entire state of WA together to raise an incredible $83.3 million for sick and vulnerable kids.
Our people are deeply ingrained in our towns and cities, where we fight for our viewers and readers. We are a business built on and loved by millions of Australians, who make up our broad Seven family.
This is in stark contrast to overseas-based streaming platforms. Unlike them, we pay our taxes, look after our people and follow the strict broadcasting rules.
Unfortunately, the Federal Government has failed to create a legislative environment that allows Australians unfettered and guaranteed access to free sports programming. Our parliamentarians are not doing enough to reinforce and strengthen the anti-siphoning rules in order to give every Australian access â for free â to iconic sporting events of national significance.
Seven will continue to give audiences first-class, free and live, content across all our platforms, and we will fight to protect families from unfair and un-Australian price barriers for viewers.
Our new management has also taken decisive, proactive steps to modernise our culture, and continue to build positive, inclusive, creative and high-performance environments that we are all proud to work in.
Our national broadcaster, the ABCâs Four Corners program, recently veered well away from the ABC charter to engage in an egregious and unfair assault on our business and the reputation of our good people.
Our formal complaint to the ABC â making a compelling case that Four Corners had clearly failed to meet the broadcasterâs own principles of impartiality, accuracy and fairness â was unsurprisingly ignored.
Despite our request, the ABCâs Ombudsman has also refused to investigate the matter. The Four Corners program backfired as the ABC itself is now the subject of charges of hypocrisy and entrenched cultural problems including racism, misogyny and bullying.
This attack failed to dent the spirit and pride of our incredibly talented, hard-working and professional teams.
Despite the ongoing difficult economic conditions and the Federal Governmentâs failure to create a fair media policy framework, we continue to reduce costs to stabilise the business and set us up for sustained growth.
We are fortunate to have in place a great team of creative people, who have made an incredible contribution to our success over many years.
On behalf of the Board, I thank you, our shareholders and our staff, for your ongoing support of Seven West Media as we navigate this challenging environment in order to propel our business toward a successful future.
I would now like to welcome Jeff Howard to speak to you.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer: Mr Jeff Howard
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning everyone. Itâs a real privilege to lead our great media business.
Seven West Media is, first and foremost, passionately focused on creating and delivering valuable connections. Weâre very proudly a content-led business. Every day our audiences are growing as they engage with that content, whether that be news, sport or entertainment; on broadcast, our publishing assets or our digital properties. Our data platforms connect our partners with that audience like never before, enabling those audiences to be reached at scale â or at a totally micro level.
Financial Results
Our FY24 results reflected the challenging macroeconomic environment. Seven grew its audiences across total television: broadcast audience was up 0.5% and 7plus consumption grew by 39% in the financial year. Against this, revenue share was up 1.7 share points or the equivalent of $44 million.
However, in a television advertising market that was down 8.2% or nearly $300 million, group revenue including share of associates of $1.415 billion was down 5% on FY23.
In an inflationary environment operating cost growth was held to 2% during the period, with a 4% year-on-year decline achieved in second-half costs.
Statutory net profit after tax of $45 million was therefore down 69% on FY23, while underlying net profit after tax after excluding significant items was $78 million, down 46%. Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before significant items of $187 million was down 33% on FY23.
Net debt of $301 million increased from $257 million as of 30 June 2023, driven by the $67 million invested in the purchase of ARN Media shares. Underlying cash generation, excluding this investment, was $16 million. Reported net leverage (net debt/EBITDA) was 1.6 times; however, when adjusting for the ARN investment, the underlying leverage was 1.3 times.
Strategy
Our objective is to build a better media business, one that will prosper despite our industryâs current structural changes and the broader economic challenges. Our priority is to focus on delivering on our digital future while we optimise our traditional assets, finding new revenue streams and business opportunities, and managing costs responsibly.
To do that we need to think differently about how we work and how we are structured. In June 2024 we introduced a new operating model of three divisions to help us achieve that ambition. Digital, Television, and Western Australia are supported by every department across Seven West Media.
This structural change does not mean we are moving away from converged audience thinking â if thatâs what our advertisers want. What we are doing is making sure that we deliver the best of Sevenâs assets in the most flexible ways we can, and making sure we have dedicated resources focused on driving digital.
By focusing on these areas, we can build a resilient and future-ready organisation that can thrive in the evolving media landscape. Content and valuable connections are at the heart of our strategy. We are committed to producing and delivering high-quality news, sport and entertainment content that resonates with our audiences and can be monetised effectively across all our platforms. This includes investing in original content, securing exclusive rights to major sports events, and continuously enhancing our news coverage.
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge some of the tougher parts of the past 12 months. Seven West Media has been subject to a number of claims and media coverage. Where they do exist, we are addressing the various behavioural issues that have come to light and a number of people have already left the company as a result. Unfortunately, some historic matters are still playing out. We are dealing with these appropriately.
The Digital Future
Our digital platforms, particularly 7plus, continue to see excellent user growth and engagement.
7plus is a streaming powerhouse thatâs at least as good as the global SVOD platforms. It has high brand recognition. It already has one of the biggest content libraries and the biggest FAST â Free Ad-Supported Television - channel selection, all available for free. 7plus will soon become the regular home of first run exclusives to drive new, younger audiences.
Weâve been revving up everything to do with 7plus over the past 12 months as we get ready for Sevenâs biggest gamechanger: the arrival of this summer of cricket and the 2025 AFL season.
Two of Australiaâs most loved sports will be available on digital for free for the very first time. Early results indicate this is growing a new audience for Seven â it is not cannibalising our broadcast audience. Sport will also drive daily habitual audience behaviour and consumption of the 7plus content library. For advertisers, this represents the start of a golden opportunity to capture and engage millions of new, younger sports fans who can now watch for free on their device of choice.
Our digital strategy extends beyond content acquisition. We are investing in technology and working with market-leading partners such as AWS and Databricks to enhance the 7plus user and advertiser experience. The integration of AI into the 7plus personalisation engine has allowed us to provide tailored content recommendations, significantly boosting audience engagement and retention. Our data-driven approach ensures that we can deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time, maximising both viewer satisfaction and advertising effectiveness.
The Phoenix trading platform will open for bookings in a few weeks and will go live in the first quarter of calendar 2025. Phoenix will allow our customers to buy seamlessly, trade dynamically and on a converged basis nationally across metro, regional and streaming â and will be the only trading platform covering those three markets. Phoenix will allow us to maximise inventory utilisation and yield to drive better outcomes for campaigns and revenue.
Optimising Traditional Assets
Our digital and television platforms continue to reach more than 17 million people nationally every month. With a robust digital presence, including 7plus, The Nightly and 7NEWS.com.au, and a truly national broadcast network, we reach audiences across all corners of the country.
The West has continued to transform its business, driving a greater share of its revenue from digital subscriptions and circulation through high quality local editorial. The result of this focus is demonstrated in the leading readership and circulation results across the country, as well as the strong growth in digital subscriptions.
The West has also successfully expanded nationally with new ventures such as the digital newspaper The Nightly. In just its first seven months, The Nightly has established an audience of more than 2.5 million unique users a month. You can expect to see more market-leading innovations from the West.
Regulatory
The regulatory environment is presenting new challenges, particularly when it comes to the digital and social media giants. We are actively advocating for fair regulations that ensure a level playing field for all media companies.
Trading Update
As anticipated, first half FY25 trading has been mixed, reflecting the impact of the
Olympics. Based on performance to date and forward bookings, Sevenâs revenue for the first half of FY25 is currently pacing down ~ 6.5%.
When adjusting for one-off events (such as the FIFA Womenâs World Cup and the Paris Olympics), we estimate Sevenâs underlying first half revenue will be approximately 1% lower than the same time last year. This has been powered by strong content on Seven and 7plus and, in particular, premium sports content including the AFL Finals and cricket which will continue through the year.
SWM remains on track to deliver full year net cost reduction of $20 million to $30 million versus FY24.
Looking Forward
Iâm excited about the opportunities that lie before us. Our focus is on delivering exceptional content, engaging our audiences, creating and delivering valuable connections. This will drive our digital future and underpin sustainable growth.
My thanks to the Chairman and Board of Directors, our executive team and to all our people for the hard work and dedication throughout FY24.
Thank you also to our shareholders for your continued support. We are committed to delivering value to our shareholders, employees and communities. Together, we will build a better Seven West Media.
The CEO of Seven West Media has publicly addressed a wave of allegations and misconduct aimed at the media giant.
Opening the companyâs Upfront presentation in Sydney on Wednesday, Jeff Howard said Seven is committed to enacting change after a number of incidents that have occurred in recent months.
âLet me reassure everyone that we recognise the critical importance of every brandâs reputation and need for absolute safety,â Howard said.
âAnd that all our clients and partners have a choice. Weâve taken specific action to address our⌠shortcomings. Weâve made some fundamental changes to our teams and the ways we work.
âUnfortunately there are some historic matters that are still playing out and we will manage those appropriately. We hold ourselves to account and we expect our peers to do the same.
âI look forward to a future where our industry works truly collaboratively together to address these and other opportunities.â
âThey seem much more interested in talking about a narrative of TV decline, which is not happening on Seven and Nine networks for the last two yearsâ
Any evidence to this? At all?
(Summary by Mediaweek)
Seven West Media has brought in advertising heavyweight Henry Tajer, former IPG Mediabrands global CEO and head of Amazon Ads Australia, to lead its sales function.
The hire marks a significant reversal of last yearâs restructure, which saw long-serving chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette depart as the company split into three divisions and cut 150 roles.
Expected to be announced this week, the move highlights CEO Jeff Howardâs push to refocus on driving revenue growth. Seven declined to comment on the appointment.
UPDATE 22/1: SWM confirmed Tajerâs appointment today.
Sevenâs marketing director Larissa Ozard announced her resignation today, effective from mid February.
She will be replaced by Marni Crutchley, currently Sevenâs head of brand and product marketing.
https://mumbrella.com.au/sevens-marketing-director-goes-out-with-a-bang-863066
Starting this month, WTFNâs digital business Radar is managing Sevenâs âGreat Home Ideasâ channels on YouTube and Facebook, relaunching them with a refreshed look and feel and a new programming schedule.
It will be the first time Great Home Ideas is managed externally by a multi-channel network (MCN). Radar currently manages a network of over 30 owned and third-party channels, including Bondi Vet, The Dog Whisperer and Oceanliner Designs.
Had no idea Seven even ran these channels, the YouTube channel has almost a million followers. Facebook doesnât look to have been active since 2017, and doesnât have that many followers.
Summary of H1 FY25:
⢠Sevenâs total TV audiences are up 1.5%1 with strong growth in BVOD (+43%) offsetting a modest decline in linear (-1.8%)
⢠Digital sports rights (AFL and cricket) driving step change in high value audience and revenue on 7plus
⢠Group revenue of $727 million, down 6% on H1 FY24
⢠Total TV advertising revenue down 6% due to ongoing soft market (-5.4%) and major sporting events (in line with AGM outlook)
⢠Seven increased total TV revenue share to 41.5% (+0.5 points), a record share for a non-Olympic broadcaster
⢠Costs down 2%. Full year costs tracking to guidance of ~$20-$30m down YoY
⢠EBITDA of $92 million, down 26% on H1 FY24
⢠Net cash flow before temporary and capital items of $52 million, down 25%
⢠Net debt decreased $41 million to $260 million; leverage of 1.7x
Total Television
Every month, Seven reaches more than 17 million people nationally across television and digital. Sevenâs content continues to resonate with audiences. Sevenâs total TV audiences (excluding FIFA Womenâs World Cup and Olympics) for the half were up 1.5% with strong growth in BVOD (+43%) offsetting a modest decline in linear (-1.8%).
Revenue declined by 7% during the period to $641 million. Total TV advertising revenue fell 6% to $590 million driven by a weak market (-5.4%) and major one-off sporting events. TV advertising revenue declined 9% to $505 million, whil3 7plus advertising revenue increased 15% to $85 million in the half.
Other TV revenue of $51 million declined 9% during the period including the impact of the non-renewal of the Meta agreement.
The decline in total TV advertising market was made up by declines in metropolitan markets of 10.1% and 5.3% in regional markets, offset by an increase in the BVOD market, which grew 19.7%.
Total TV revenue share of 41.5% improved 0.5 points on the prior year and included a revenue share of 43.8% in Q2 (+4.0 points) which rebounded significantly from 39.4% (-2.8 points) in Q1. In line with this improvement in share, Q2 revenue decline was down 4% versus down 8% in Q1.
Costs of $558 million were $12 million or 2% lower than H1 FY24 driven by initiatives delivered along with the revised operating model announced in June 2024. Media content costs declined 1%, notwithstanding higher contracted sports costs (and the prior year benefit of $16 million from the onerous cricket provision). Personnel costs reduced by 5% and other costs by 3%.
Total TV EBITDA declined by 28% to $83 million. EBIT of $64 million declined 35%.
Mumbrella has created a composite chart, which shows that the first half year EBITDA of $92 million is a record low for Seven West Media since it was formed in 2011.
Hence the ongoing focus on managing the cost base. They have done well to reduce the cost base slightly while we come out of a higher inflationary environment.
B&T has posted a feature interview with Sevenâs national TV sales director Katie Finney.