TVNZ posts horror $85 million loss

Friday, 30 August 2024

TVNZ has reported an $85 million net loss in the year to the end of June after a $62m write-down of its assets added to a pre-tax $28.5m trading loss.

The company has previously signalled a $30m revenue gap for the current financial year, raising the spectre of further major job losses after cuts to its news and current affairs operation earlier this year.

A spokesperson would not provide more detail on what assets TVNZ was writing-down.

The losses came despite TVNZ increasing the number of streams played by its TVNZ+ digital service by 25% to 464 million streams in the year just passed.

Chief executive Jodi O’Donnell said TVNZ had successfully executed its strategy to “deliver compelling content that drove growth in audience reach”.

“Despite this, and our careful management of costs, our financial performance reflects a constrained economy, market disruption and a difficult advertising market,” she said.

“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, the company said in a statement.

“The company is 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.”

O’Donnell reiterated the message that the decline in its revenues had moderated recently.

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

She did not provide an update on how the state-owned broadcaster intended to plug its $30m budget hole, saying only that it needed to stabilise losses quickly and was working with staff to find solutions.