Seven West Media CEO James Warburton gave an upbeat outlook for his media group at the company's annual general meeting today.
"Our company is in much better shape than it was two years ago," he told shareholders.
"We will continue to work harder and smarter to make Seven West Media even stronger and more successful – and to grow its value for all our stakeholders."
Seven West Media reported a 240% increase to $125.5 million in underlying net profit after tax for the year to June. Statutory net profit after income tax was $318 million on group revenue of $1.276 billion, up 3.5% on the previous year.
Digital revenue grew 78%, driven by BVOD market growth of 55% and five percentage points in share gains during the year.
And last week Seven West launched a $131.9 million takeover of regional broadcaster Prime, creating a leading wholly-owned commercial premium broadcast, video and news network across Australia, reaching more than 90% of the Australian population..
At today's AGM, Warburton told shareholders Seven "will win" the TV ratings survey year, with or without the Tokyo Olympics, in total people.
"That will represent our first total people win since 2018," he says.
"We are well positioned to hit our target of a 40% share of the metropolitan TV advertising market in the current six-month period."
In a trading update, Seven West says revenue from 7plus has soared 145% since the start of the the current financial year, including post-Olympics growth of about 50% in September and October.
The company's target of $15 million to $20 million in new cost savings in the 12 month to June next year is also on track.
Warburton says revenue growth and cost savings give confidence that the company will exceed analysts’ consensus forecast for full year EBITDA of about $260 million by between 7% and 10%, excluding any benefits from the acquisition of Prime.
His update on strategy:
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