TVNZ has today announced a $9.1 million lift in its earnings in its annual results and will pay a dividend of $3.7 million for the year.
The broadcaster said it had strengthened its share of TV audiences and revenue, and significantly boosted online streaming for the financial year ended 30 June 2018.
TVNZ Chairman Dame Therese Walsh says: “I’m incredibly proud of the positive momentum shift in TVNZ’s performance this year – particularly the massive jump in online streaming scale.
“At the same time we’ve continued to set the pace in TV and delivered improved financial results. By leveraging our strengths in telling New Zealand stories, we’ve shown local media players can compete and succeed.”
TVNZ had an eight-year high share of TV advertising revenue, and passed the 100 million OnDemand streams mark for the year in July.
Chief Executive Kevin Kenrick says: “TVNZ is constantly renewing its content line up to meet the changing needs of New Zealand viewers. We’re progressively shifting our content investment from international to live and local programming – across news, entertainment and sport.
“Local is our compelling point of difference in a market that’s increasingly contested by global online streaming services.”
TVNZ said it screened 18 of the top 20 programmes in the period with 1 NEWS Vote 2017 Leaders Debate being the country’s most watched programme.
Sport played a greater role, with TVNZ’s live event coverage of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games reaching more than three million New Zealanders. TVNZ also secured future sports rights in the year including selected Rugby World Cup matches and exclusive rights to the next America’s Cup.
The company delivered EBITDAF of $24.6 million up $9.1 million (58.6%) on the previous year. After adjusting for the impact of onerous contract provisions in FY2017, EBITDAF performance was largely stable year on year. Total revenue was up $2.0 million (0.6%) to $318.5 million, and total operational expenses were down $7.1 million (2.4%) to $293.9 million. Net profit after taxation was $5.1 million, up $3.7 million (265%) on the previous year.
“We expect competition in the media market to intensify. Our focus for the year ahead is to optimise our TV performance, accelerate TVNZ OnDemand growth and actively explore opportunities to diversify audiences and sources of revenue,” says Mr Kenrick.
TVNZ said it will award a one-off $1000 before tax bonus payment to all permanent employees who don’t already benefit from an at-risk incentive scheme.
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