Macquarie Media earnings show dip in latest half year results

Staff Writer

Macquarie Media has released its half-yearly results and the figures for the past six months tell an interesting story.

Both the EBITDA and net profit are down (4.9% and 6% respectively), while group revenues are down 0.4% to $86.2 million dollars.

The Alan Jones-Wagner family defamation case had an impact with a payout of $3.7 million as did an advertisers’ boycott following the Louise Herron/Sydney Opera House interview in October last year.

Macquarie also reported a ‘flat’ six months in advertising but says it has faith in the Macquarie Sports format launched in April to replace Talking Lifestyle.

In handing down the results, Macquarie Media Limited chief executive officer Adam Lang remained upbeat, but says it’s hard to predict the impact of the upcoming NSW and Federal elections and a subdued housing market.

“The six months to 31 December 2018 featured the delivery of sustained audience leadership by our top rating stations 2GB in Sydney and 3AW in Melbourne.

“4BC finished the year with the best audience result since 2013 and, in 2018, 6PR has proven to be capable of leading the talk radio audience in Perth. We are well set up to build on that success in 2019.

“Our Macquarie Sports Radio network was launched in April 2018 and has been refined throughout the year. We are pleased with the development of the format to date and confident that our audience and revenue will continue to grow as we head into the football season.

“Our sales team has improved customer service to advertisers by connecting our large and affluent audience with an increased range of solutions on our broadcast and digital assets. We have grown revenue on our News Talk network of stations by 4% over the prior period. We also continue to see the benefit of our advertisers connecting with both the News Talk and Macquarie Sports Radio audiences through live sport.

“We have seen a contraction, below prior year period, of advertising spends in the December, January and February months and a shortening of booking cycles.

“Whilst we are now seeing more positive signs for March to June revenues, it is extremely difficult to forecast the impacts of the NSW election in March and the expected federal election in May, a subdued housing market, and variable business and consumer confidence.”

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Neil McKenna
21 Feb 2019 - 10:28 pm

Serves you right for dumping the Magic music stations.

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