Fairfax Radio revenues slip

Fairfax Media is the latest media company to release their financial results, for the 6-months to 31 December, with the overall picture showing a fair bit of red ink.

For the broader Fairfax Media business, NPAT was down (to $26.3m), revenue was down (-12.9%), and EBITDA (excluding one-off significant items) was down 0.6% on the previous period.

Ahead of the proposed merger with Macquarie Radio, the Fairfax Radio division has reported a decline in revenue of 1.5% to $53.7m, with EBITDA declining 4.2% to $8.8m in an environment of metropolitan industry growth of 5%.

Fairfax have noted, as did Macquarie in their report, that they anticipate "considerable synergies expected to be delivered in FY16". 

Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood commented;

“Following completion of the Fairfax Radio Network and Macquarie Radio Network merger, expected in late March, Fairfax will own a 54.5% shareholding in an enlarged national radio network including the leading News, Talk and Sport stations in Sydney and Melbourne.

The merger creates a genuine national Talk radio network that was not previously available to advertisers.

“Radio has stabilised its performance, with EBITDA down 4% compared to the prior corresponding period. The business will derive both cost and revenue synergies from the merger, with the enlarged entity well positioned in a radio advertising market which continued to gain momentum in the half.”

From a broader Fairfax perspective, the company announced a share buyback of up to 5% of the issued capital of the business.

The outline of the Fairfax Radio financials is shown below.