Southern Cross Austereo CEO Grant Blackley agrees with most advertising industry commentators that the last 12 months have been challenging.
However, he believes the broader market will be back with growth of mid-single digits.
“We believe the market will flatten out ... move back into growth in October and beyond,” he told AdNews in an interview.
“Thankfully we've been able to weather the storm better than most of our peers. We actually grew revenue in the past 12 months through our suite of assets.
“We had four consecutive quarters of share gain in the radio sector ... against the backdrop of a market that declines 0.5%.
“You'll also see that in the television market, we've weathered that storm.”
The regional radio and television network posted full year revenue of $661 million, up just 0.5%, as advertising conditions slowed.
The statutory result was a loss of $91.3 million. However, the underlying net profit after tax was $76.2 million, up 3.1%, when stripping out impairments including the value of regional television licences.
A fully franked dividend of 4 cents a share was declared, bring tghe full year payout to 7.75 cents, steady on last year.
Audio revenue was up 2.4% to $453.4 million, as this table shows:
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