Southern Cross Media Group has seen advertising revenue across its broadcasting brands decline across the past financial year, leading to a 4.4 percent year-on-year fall in overall revenue to $1.87 billion (US$1.317 billion), despite strong performance from its digital assets.
Newly appointed CEO and Managing Director Rohan Lund warned shareholders of tough trading conditions ahead.
“Advertising markets softened materially in the fourth quarter of 2025/26,” his report says.
“Consumer and business confidence is weak, macroeconomic pressures are real and the structural shift of advertising dollars toward global digital platforms has not been adequately challenged by our industry.
“We can’t afford to plan for a near-term bounce that may not come. What we can do is build a business that is lean and agile enough to perform well regardless of the cycle.”
He says digital is now “the core of how we think about everything we do.”
He says Southern Cross reaches more than 20 million people across its television, audio and publishing platforms, and more than 18 million registered users across 7plus and the LiSTNR app, which provides on-demand audio content from its stations and a range of other sources.
Lund also pointed to opportunities with user data.
“That first-party data asset is substantial, and it is one we have not yet fully leveraged with our advertising partners,” he says.
TV Market Stable, But Not Growing
The company owns the Seven Network, which runs Channel 7, 7plus, 7two, 7mate, 7flix, 7Bravo and the website 7news.com.au.
Television, in the six months it’s been owned by the merged company, generated $584.6 million in revenue, with EBITA coming in at $53.8 million.
Seven grew its total TV advertising market share to 41.6 percent (up 1.2 percentage points on FY25), but the report notes its performance was “impacted by declines experienced in the television advertising market.”
The company is pessimistic about its TV assets, projecting broadcast TV revenue will “decline at low single-digit rates,” though the video-on-demand operation is forecast to grow at double-digit rates over the medium term. Combined, that gives a projected 0.6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) across the next five years.
Radio, Print Growth Flat
Southern Cross also owns 104 radio stations under the Triple M and Hit Network brands, and provides sales representation to 56 regional stations.
That segment of the business brought in revenues of $429.9 million, up 1.9 percent on FY25.
Management attributes the upward trend to gains in metro market share and digital audio, partially offset by revenue declines in its broadcast radio sector. EBITDA for the segment was $100.3 million.
Revenue projections for that part of the operation are flat overall, with a CAGR of –0.1 percent.
The company dominates the print landscape in Western Australia, owning both The West Australian and The Sunday Times, a range of regional papers, as well as the PerthNow and the east coast-focused The Nightly. The newspaper part of the business is also just six months old, during which it generated revenue of $95 million and provided an EBITDA of $12.7 million.
Management states revenue “has been impacted by print advertising trends and lower commercial printing volumes, partially offset by digital growth.
In contrast, the digital audio advertising revenue (5-year CAGR) forecasts is 8.6 percent.
Merger a ‘Necessary Response’: Chair
Chair Teresa Dyson framed the recent merger as needed amid ongoing audience fragmentation, saying it was “the right response to a media landscape that has changed profoundly and which will keep changing.
“Audiences have fragmented across platforms. Global streaming services compete aggressively for attention and advertising dollars,” Dyson said.
“The only effective answer is scale—the ability to reach audiences across television, audio, digital and publishing—and to offer advertisers a genuinely integrated national platform.”
Dyson also said advertising remained “competitive and volatile” and that the pace of change in digital media would continue.
