Australia’s Nine ups sales in ‘difficult’ market

Nine airs Britain’s Got Talent

The parent company of Australian free-to-air broadcaster Nine Network has upped revenue in its 2014 financial year.

David Gyngell, CEO of Nine Entertainment, said it had posted ratings and revenue increases in “an increasingly difficult advertising market”.

He added: “While the more recent advertising environment has been challenging, we are focused on improving the things we can control and enhancing our relative positioning through market leadership, consistency, and innovation.”

The broadcast group, which completed a A$2 billion US$1.87 billion) IPO late last year, posted revenue of A$1.23 billion compared with A$1.17 billion a year earlier.

The total was slightly below the ASX-listed company’s own revenue forecast with Nine blaming weak regional ad markets and lower than expected non-ad revenues.

EBIDTA profit was ahead of forecast and came in at A$241.5 million against A$221 million in FY13.

Overall costs were up A$30 million through the year with increased spending on rugby and cricket rights partially offset by the absence of costs associated with Olympics rights.

Nine’s chief rival recently bagged TV rights to the upcoming Olympics. Seven’s parent group also reported results this week, registering positive revenue and profit figures.

Yesterday, Nine revealed Australian publishing group Fairfax Media was to be its joint venture partner on A$100 million SVOD platform StreamCo, which launches next year.