Increased advertising revenue and lower operational expenses lifted TVNZ’s earnings performance for the six months ended December – with the company reporting EBITDAF of $30.2 million, up $4.5 million (17.4%) on the same period last year.
Announcing TVNZ’s interim result today, ceo Kevin Kenrick said the company had made a positive start to the fiscal year. “We’ve achieved strong TV and OnDemand audience reach, and improved operational earnings through modest revenue growth and tightly managed costs.”
TVNZ is on track to exceed its full year targets set out in its 2018 Statement of Performance Expectations, he said.
Growth in both TV and online advertising income contributed to total revenue of $170.4 million, up $1.6 million (1%) year on year. “In recent years TVNZ has focused on growing digital revenue to offset TV revenue declines. Against this back drop, it’s encouraging for the business to achieve year on year growth in both TV and digital advertising revenue for the half year,” said Kenrick.
Operational expenses decreased $2.8 million to $140.1 million (2%), following organisational restructuring in the previous financial year.
“Given the strong first half performance, the TVNZ board has declared a dividend of $9 million.”
TVNZ posted an interim after tax net profit of $17.2 million, up $4.3 million (33.7%) on the previous year.
“The pulling power of TVNZ content is the primary driver of business performance,” said Kenrick. TVNZ’s local and international content line up reaches more than 2 million people every day across TVNZ 1, 2, Duke, OnDemand and 1 News Now.
TVNZ’s TV audience share strengthened to a five year high and it screened 18 of the 20 most watched programmes in the six months to 31 December, he said. The 1 News Vote 2017 Leaders Debate was the country’s most watched programme for the period.
TVNZ OnDemand cemented its status as the country’s most popular free to view video on demand destination. Its video streams increased to 42.2 million, up 5.9 million (16%) on the same period last year. Recent developments include the launch of live streaming of all TVNZ channels, a significant expansion of its content offering, and extended accessibility to Chromecast, Apple TV and Vodafone TV.
Given the strong first half performance and after reviewing potential future funding requirements, the TVNZ board has declared a dividend of $9 million for the previous financial year.
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