TVNZ posts $85m loss amid ‘extremely challenging period’

Friday, 30 August 2024

Former Sunday presenters and journalists Miriam Kano and Mark Crysel talk to Stuff’s Emily Brookes about the closing down of the TVNZ flagship current affairs programme.

Broadcaster TVNZ has had a net loss after tax of $85m for the for the year ended 30 June 2024.

The company also had an underlying operational earnings (EBIT) loss of $28.5m.

Online streaming platform TVNZ+ had a better year with a 25% year-on-year growth in viewership.

TVNZ has reported a loss of $85 million for the year ended 30 June 2024.

The broadcaster, which released its FY24 annual results on Friday, had a net loss after tax of $85m for the period, which included a non-cash impairment of $62.1m.

It also reported an underlying operational earnings (EBIT) loss of $28.5m, which was in line with its market disclosure earlier in the year, where it said it expected a loss between $28m and $33m.

TVNZ has reported an underlying operational earnings loss of $28.5 million for the year ended 30 June 2024.

There was a $38.8m reduction in revenues and it had achieved $9.9m in annualised savings off the back of strategic cost reduction measures, resulting in a net reduction in TVNZ’s cash reserves of $7.4m.

It comes after the TVNZ cut some of its most popular programmes and staff earlier in the year.

News bulletins at midday and in the late evening were no longer and current affairs show Sunday and consumer show Fair Go were axed.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the broadcaster. TVNZ+, it’s online streaming platform, achieved 25% year-on-year growth in viewership with 464 million streams for the period and delivered year-on-year increases in weekly audience reach (+16%).

Digital advertising revenue also grew 8.2%.

TVNZ CEO Jodi O’Donnell said the company had successfully executed on its strategy to deliver compelling content that drove growth in audience reach in FY24.

“TVNZ was the highest reaching content provider across TV and TVNZ+, ahead of YouTube and Netflix, and 1News was surveyed as the most popular and trusted source of news.

“Despite this, and our careful management of costs, our financial performance reflects a constrained economy, market disruption and a difficult advertising market. It has been an extremely challenging period for ad-funded broadcasters globally, including TVNZ, but we are confident in our turnaround plan and digital strategy.”

TVNZ had sufficient cash to fund its digital strategy over the next three years.

In light of the FY24 loss and aligned with prior years, TVNZ will not pay a dividend to its shareholder and the company was in a position to address its multi-year tech debt, build a robust and scalable IP platform to support its digital progress, and return to profit.

TVNZ also released its 2025 financial year outlook, where it was working to deliver $30m in savings as it worked towards its Digital+ 2030 strategy.

“We are cautiously planning for a stabilising of the economy and expect challenging market conditions to continue until the end of the calendar year,” O’Donnell said.

“We continue to be disciplined on our cost outlook and are working with our people to find solutions to a $30m challenge in FY25. We need to stabilise losses quickly and continue with a multi-year programme to strengthen our streaming technology.

“We’ve proven our ability to deliver must-watch content for viewers and unrivalled scale for advertisers. Now our focus is on maximising new ways to monetise our content so we’re in a strong position to take advantage when the market stabilises.”