Pacific Star Network broadcasting revenue up 6% as company considers merger

At today’s Annual General Meeting of Pacific Star Network, shareholders heard that broadcasting revenue was up, but that the company’s other revenue sources were down in the last financial year.

Shareholders also considered a motion to merge with CrocMedia (see related report). When the result of the motion is known, we will report it here on radioinfo.

Year on Year Group revenue was down 8% to $22.09 million:

  • Broadcasting revenue up 6% to $15.46 million (FY16: $14.63 million)
  • Publishing revenue down 29% to $6.63 million (FY16: $9.33 million) due to a decision to discontinue to publish some titles
  • YOY Group costs at $20.32m (excluding restructuring costs of $8.5 million), down 10% on the comparative period of $22.55 million

 
The company delivered an underlying Group EBITDA result of $3.11 million for the year, down 10% on the prior year of $3.45 million (excluding restructuring costs of $0.3 million).
 
Earnings Per Share was 4.3 cents, down 10% on the prior year’s 4.8 cents
 
The company has secured another six years of AFL Broadcast rights, an important renewal for the business, noted the presentation to the AGM.
 
Frankie magazine continued to rate as Australia’s number one women’s fashion magazines, with readership up 19% to 382k for the 12 months to 30 June 2017, based on Roy Morgan Research figures.
 
This year the company recognised an $8.24 million impairment in the value attributed to publishing intangibles.

In its outlook for the year ahead, Pacific Star commented on the proposed merger.    

Highlights of the company’s broadcasting business, which features SEN as the flagship station and also a range of digital radio music stations, included:
 
Launch of new breakfast show with Garry Lyon, Tim Watson, Hamish McLachlan and Sam McClure in January this year.
 
Football line up included Garry Lyon, Danny Frawley and Nick Dal Santo. Mike Sheahan and Bob Murphy joined as regular breakfast show contributors
 
The new line up contributed to 8% revenue growth in HY to June 2017
 
The local market was down 2.2%, but SEN outperformed the market with a revenue increase of 4.6%. The Sydney market onto Melbourne increased 1.3%, with SEN outperforming with a revenue increase of 19.4%
 
A major focus was to drive listeners to the cpompany’s digital platforms, resulting in growth every month (see charts below)
 
With 30% of digital audience interstate, this provides a National audience offering for clients
 
The Kool and Aussie audience remains consistent and Classic Rock was launched in October 2016
 
Underlying EBITDA result was $2.50 million, on par with the prior year’s result  



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