Southern Cross Austereo’s Profit Suffers

With a spate of poorly rating TV programs and the controversial radio prank that resulted in the suicide of a nurse in the UK, Southern Cross Austereo’s earnings for the latest financial year has dropped.

Sales revenues fell to 6.5% or at $642.6 Million at its regional stations, where Channel Ten has been showing poor performance. Overall, its TV revenue fell to 12.9%.

The media company said, however, that it still expects a profit increase from its TV shows on Ten Network.

Southern Cross Austereo’s chief, Stephen Kelly, said that they are still confident about Channel Ten’s plans. “They presented to us a very solid and robust strategy for the next three years on what they are trying to do with programming.”

He also said that they are expecting ratings will improved as Channel Ten is bent on refocusing sales in the coming year.

The company’s revenue for its radio stations, meanwhile, fell to 4% or $262.5 Million, eve as its regional revenues improved. Analysts attributed this to the scandals involving its presenters like Kyle Sandilands, and the “UK incident”.

Early this year, Austereo’s advertising on 2Day FM were suspended following the suicide of a nurse in London, after being subjected to a prank call by its radio DJ’s Mel Greig and Michael Christian.

Following this incident, market share for the company fell to 33.3%, but eventually recovered at 35%.

Overall, Southern Cross Austereo earned $96.1 million in profit, or a 1.2% increase for the current financial year. The gain was boosted by the sales of its Queensland radio station.

The company also declared its fully franked divided is at 4.5¢ a share, down .5¢ to last year’s 5¢.