Nine Entertainment is keeping costs tight with the media group expecting more falls in advertising spend in the current June quarter.
In a presentation to the Macquarie annual conference, Nine said the current operating environment was "challenging" but the company was "well positioned".
The metro FTA market fell by about 13% in the March quarter, marginally better than February guidance of a mid-teens percentage decline.
Nine says a similar dip is expected in the June quarter.
"With the benefit of targeted savings, we continue to expect total television costs in FY24 to decline marginally," the company said.
Nine Entertainment reported falls in revenue and profit in a "weak" advertising market for the half year to December.
Revenue fell 2% to $1.37 billion in the six months. Net profit after tax was down 21% to $149.5 million.
CEO Mike Sneesby told the Macquarie annual conference Nine has reported some significant wins.
Not only Has Nine gained audience share, but in the current financial year, Nine’s metro free-to-air audiences on an average 24 hour, 7 day a week basis have shown growth, both in Total People as well as the younger demographics.
"That’s a marked change to recent industry audience performance and signals a stabilisation of the land grab we have seen in the growing consumption of video content in Australia," he said.
"Audiences on 9Now continue to grow and calendar year to date, total live minutes, Nine’s key point of focus, have grown by 54%.
"As a result, Nine’s Total TV audiences are in clear growth - this markedly improved audience trend gives us confidence that the group is well-positioned when economic conditions and advertising markets begin to recover."
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