Seven West Media Limited (WANHY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

August 11, 2025

US Communication Services Media earnings 46 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Seven West Media FY '25 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Jeff Howard, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#2

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Seven West Media's results for FY '25. I'm Jeff Howard, MD and CEO of Seven West Media. And joining me this morning is our Chief Financial Officer, Craig Haskins. I'd like to start by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the country we are meeting on today. We pay our respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people present today. This morning, we'll take you through our results, the progress of our strategy, and then provide you with an early view on FY '26 trading. After the presentation, happy to take questions from investors and analysts. In February, we called out an expectation for modest growth in the second half of FY '25. I am really pleased to confirm today that we delivered an EBITDA increase of 6% in the second half and underlying net profit after tax growth of 33%. This is the first half year of growth in EBITDA since FY '22. 7plus is 1 of our standouts. After the changes we made in 2024, we drove 7plus revenue growth of 26% across the full year, including 41% in the second half. The number of 7plus daily active users grew 27%, and the number of streaming minutes increased by 41%. The second half FY '25, Seven's total TV advertising revenue decline moderated to 1% versus a 6% decline in the first half. Across the full year, that decline was therefore 4%. Operating costs of $1.203 billion were 2% lower than FY '24 and in line with guidance. And reported cost of $1,196 million included revenue-related cost savings late in the year when the ad market slowed post the Federal Election. Seven's total TV advertising audiences increased 1.1% across the year, including growth of 1.5% in the key 25 to 54 demo. Our total TV revenue share increased for the fifth year in a row, up 0.2 points to 40.4%. And as you know, on 30th of June this year, we completed the acquisition of a number of Southern Cross Media's television licenses. The acquisition is immediately earnings accretive and makes Seven the largest commercial regional broadcaster in Australia. On Slide 3, we just try to highlight the positive performance in the second half with TV EBITDA up 4% in the second half compared to a 28% decline in the first half. And as I mentioned, group EBITDA are up 6% in the second half compared to 26% decline in the first half, and NPAT up 33% second half versus 41% decline in the first. So turning to Slide 4. We've spent a lot of time talking about our strategy over the last 12 months. It's built on 4 key pillars, and they underpin our FY '26 objectives. And those objectives are simple and clear. First, to grow net earnings and revenue to drive our Seven assets to achieve the tipping point that is now so close, where 7plus revenue growth offsets the broadcast decline; and third, to grow cash flow and get our leverage back inside our target range of 1 to 1.5x. This slide outlines some of the progress we are making against our strategy. From a delivering digital future perspective, it's all about creating a step change in high-value audience growth and revenue. We're driving our growth in 7plus daily active users, we're improving the user experience, the content and the capability to drive that engagement, and we're using data and data-led activation to drive monetization. Optimizing traditional assets and resetting the advertiser value proposition is stabilizing in the broadcast TV ad market. Phoenix has been live since March, and while there is more to do, it is already driving upside through dynamic trading and inventory optimization. There's a considerable regulatory agenda that we're working on constructively with the government. And our programming focus is to drive better audience value proposition, and we've already had some great success in this area. And new AFL content on Monday to Wednesday being a great example of that. Third pillar, managing costs responsibly without compromising content quality. In a strong inflationary environment, our discipline on cost absolutely continues. We're able to offset some of the late market weakness. As you'll see shortly, we've been able to largely address the inflation challenge going into FY '26. We are doing that by continuing to evolve the operating model and are looking for solutions to simplify and/or automate workflows to free our people to pursue more value-adding activities. The fourth pillar of finding new revenue streams and opportunities to add monetizable audiences to our own platforms, as said, well completed the Southern Cross TV asset acquisitions, those assets need to be embedded into our ways of working. We're very pleased with growth in The Nightly audience, 80% of which is outside the WA market and we continue to expand the capabilities of our data platform, Seven REDiQ. You won't be surprised to hear that we are firm believers in the reach and power of total television. The recent launch of Streamscape by OzTAM is an important step in rebuilding the investment proposition of total TV for Australian advertisers. Streamscape delivers a consolidated and independent view of Australia's video consumption across all platforms, including broadcast, BVOD, SVOD and AVOD. It clearly shows that Total TV is the dominant video platform. In the second quarter of calendar 2025, Free-to-air total TV accounted for almost 70% of all video viewing. In the 25 to 54 demo, its share was just shy of 60%. BVOD share of streaming on connected TV sets was just over 20%, just behind Netflix's total view, which includes ads and without ads on 21.7%. At a time when advertisers are obsessed with efficiency and effectiveness and performance in ROI, independently gathered and verifiable data is fundamentally important. Streamscape is another tool we can use to encourage more informed media planning to drive advertising spend back to our platforms. Yet another year of audience growth for Seven, our total TV audience growth of 1.1% was stronger than in FY '23 and FY '24. The 40% growth in 7plus audience, the majority of which is in the high-value 25 to 54 demographic, more than offset the 2% decline in linear broadcast audience. We remain 100% focused on delivering content to grow our own platform audiences. 7NEWS' Sunrise and The Morning Show reaching to 4 millions of Australians every day and with sport underpins our schedule. That sport, including live and free AFL, Test and Big Bash Lead Cricket ignites our audience's passions. Our entertainment program keeps going from strength to strength with many of our shows, including Home and Away, Australian Idol, The 1% Club, My Kitchen Rules, Dancing With The Stars, increasing their audiences during FY '25. Our total TV audience growth is expected to continue across FY '26, driven by the AFL finals and the Ashes test series, the streaming of premium content on 7plus and a strong lineup of news and entertainment content on Seven. The growth in our Total TV audience during the year clearly demonstrates that our content is resonating with audiences. Total TV is the most powerful way for advertisers to not only reach mass audiences but to target specific audiences through the power of digital TV. In FY '25, we delivered a step change in the performance of 7plus, capturing existing viewers when they transition from broadcast television and attracting new younger digital viewers with our market-leading content. Live sport and our 7plus first strategy for premium overseas content is delivering strong results, which includes 2.6 million registered users have watched cricket and AFL. There have been 1.4 million new registrations on 7plus in FY '25, and 92% of these new users have streamed multiple content genres. And as I've mentioned, the daily active user growth of 27% includes 37% growth in the second half, and our streaming units were up 41%. Live streaming was up 62%, led by premium sport, including the AFL and cricket and our on-demand streaming was up 21%. 7plus users spend an average of 148 minutes a day on the platform that has increased 13% over the past year. And there's a strong correlation between growth in audience and engagement and revenue. Annual operating structure and sales leadership delivered 7plus revenue growth of 26% across FY '25, as mentioned, growth accelerated from 15% in the first half to 41% in the second. I'll now hand over to Craig to take you through the financial results in more detail.

Craig Haskins

executive
#3

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 8 and our financial performance of FY '25. Seven West Media reported total group revenue, other income and share of net profit from equity accounted investees of $1.354 billion, which was down 4% against our FY '24 results. The decline of $61 million was attributable to a $56 million fall in Seven's TV revenue, and a $5 million decline in The West. It's worth remembering that FY '24 included revenue from Meta, who exited the, News Media Bargaining Code late that year, and so FY '25 cycles against this. Operating expenses before depreciation and amortization were $1.196 billion, down $33 million or 3% on FY '24, and slightly favorable to our guidance range of $1.2 billion to $1.21 billion. However, when looking at the $1.196 billion, this includes the benefit of some $7 million of revenue-related expenses, such as contra commissions and incentives, which we did not incur largely because of the weaker market later in the second half. Therefore, on a normalized basis, our operating expenses were $1.203 billion, which is down $26 million or 2%. In line with our strategic pillars, we continue to manage cost effectively to mitigate contractual and other inflationary pressures. The effort to achieve this cost result was no small feat and reflected a huge amount of work across the entire business. Just as a reminder, our FY '25 operating costs include the full cost of our new cricket contract, which commenced with the India test series in the first half. You will recall that in FY '24 expenses did not include $36 million, which was the benefit to the P&L from the onerous provision we had against our previous cricket contract. Therefore, with revenue growth down 4% and operating expenses down 3%, our EBITDA before significant items was also down by $28 million to $159 million, which is 15% back on FY '24. As noted by Jeff, we did deliver EBITDA growth of 6% in the second half, which was a very solid outcome. Our depreciation and amortization expense of $43 million was up $7 million against FY '24. $3 million of this increase reflects an increase in our fixed asset depreciation and a similar amount from makegood on the exit of our Melbourne lease, which we exited in June '25. Going forward, we expect D&A to settle around that $40 million mark. EBIT before significant items of $116 million was down 23%. Our net finance costs were $40 million, which is flat on FY '24, to reflect higher interest paid on drawn debt, reflecting higher average borrowing through the year, but partially offset by lower lease -- interest costs as our lease portfolio matures. Significant item of expenses before tax were $46 million, and I'll talk about that on the next slide. Statutory NPAT was $17 million. Underlying NPAT when excluding significant items was $57 million, which is down $21 million on FY '24. So turning to Slide #9, looking at our statutory results. As noted, our statutory NPAT was $17 million and basic EPS was $0.011. On an underlying basis, excluding significant items, NPAT was $57 million and EPS was $0.037. On the right hand of the slide, you can see the components of the significant items totaling $46 million pretax. Net costs related to investments include movements in the carrying value of several of our ventures assets, primarily View Media, which was also adjusted down at the half and the full year, institute on conversion of our convertible note to equity and the mark-to-market ARN cash flow. Other movements in our ventures portfolio, direct equity holdings do not flow to the P&L and are disclosed in other comprehensive income. Just on Ventures. Post balance date, 1 of our venture investments, Mad Paws Limited, received a binding bid and as such, we expect to realize about $6.25 million on the completion of the transaction in November. Our initial investment in Mad Paws was $1.25 million worth of cash, plus advertising contract over the past 18 months, which served to fuel their customer growth. Needless to say, we're pleased with the outcome of our investment. Our major IT projects include the last tranche of project Phoenix costs, which cannot be capitalized due to accounting standards, but are consistently treated as SIG items as in prior years. As Phoenix is now operational, there will be no further costs in SIG items going forward. We've also included some costs for a new payroll system project that is currently underway. We've also recognized an expense on the reassessment of our legacy onerous contract provision, which is offset by a small gain recognized on a previous programming valuation change. For completeness, you'll note that in FY '24, we recorded a gain of $15 million relating to the right-of-use asset on our Melbourne lease, which has not been renewed and a $3 million dispute settlement receipt, as well as a $10 million restructuring charge. Turning to Slide 10 and looking at our cash flow. In line with our previous disclosure, which show the reconciliation from EBITDA to cash flow before temporarying capital items and then disclose those items to arrive at the net cash flow and change in net debt. Cash flow before temporary and capital items was $47 million, after allowing for working capital, tax paid before balancing payments for PP&E, software, financing expenses, including interest and lease payments. Working capital represents normal movements in typical items such as accounts receivable and payables, timing associated with program work in progress and deferred income, et cetera. It also includes approximately $16 million of noncash contra advertising utilized during the period by our ventures portfolio companies, including View Media, Willed, CarExpert and Mad Paws. The temporary items then relate to a tax balancing payment, a small balance of onerous, which is the legacy contract on a long-term contract, which is on broadcast TV. The IT project costs and the $5 million we spent on the acquisition of the Southern Cross television assets and a $1 million incremental investment in CarExpert as part of our ventures portfolio. On tax, we made a tax balancing payment and recommenced monthly installments during the second half, which should also reduce the timing differences in these items. As I noted, FY '26 should be cleaner as far as the temporary capital items go with the principal items expected to be to make good payment to finalize the exit of our old property lease in Melbourne. After accounting for all inflows and outflows, we generated $16 million of cash, which saw us reduce net debt over the year to $287 million, with leverage of 1.8x, which is up slightly on the 1.6x reported at 30 June, but well within covenants. And net debt leverage were up slightly on the half, reflecting the lower earnings and cash -- however the second half cash result was better than the similar period in FY '24. As Jeff said, we remain focused on driving cash flow and are targeting to reduce leverage within our target range of 1 to 1.5x in FY '26. And the Board continues to hold off on any capital management initiatives but we'll continue to assess these opportunities at each reporting period. Looking at Slide 11, and Seven's total TV. As Jeff called out earlier, the decline in our total TV advertising revenue moderated to 1% in the second half compared to 6% in the first half and 4% across the full year. 7plus' revenue grew 26%, including the 41% growth in the second half. We did see some benefit of incremental total TV revenue from the Federal Election. However, as we know, there also tends to be a softening of general advertising during election periods. Frustratingly, that softness continued post-election, notwithstanding what was a clear result. Breaking that down a little, we saw our January to April total TV revenue up about 3%, in line with the guidance we provided in February, remembering that the third quarter is our seasonally weakest. But the fourth quarter market weakness was beyond what we had anticipated and in what is seasonally a stronger quarter for us. Our total TV revenue share of 40.4% improved 0.2 points on the prior year. The gain in share reflects our momentum in BVOD, as Jeff discussed, with a positive impact of 7plus revenue from the launch of premium digital sports rights and continued growth in daily active users and streaming minutes growth. The total TV ad market was down 3.2% across FY '25 with the second half decline moderating to 0.7%. Metro markets were down 7% and 6% in regional markets, BVOD growth accelerated during the year with the market growing 18%. Our other TV revenue of $103 million was down $10 million or 9% on FY '24. As noted, Meta did not renew their deal under the News Media Bargaining Code, and that was a meaningful revenue headwind in FY '25. The 2% reduction in total expenses reflects the benefit of our revised operating model introduced in June '24, an ongoing cost discipline pursuant to our strategy. Media content costs included the new cricket contract as I mentioned earlier, and personnel costs reduction was driven by productivity and headcount initiatives. Turning to Slide 12 and The West. The West continues to perform solidly with EBITDA of $27 million steady on FY '24. And as they continue to transform the business, driving digital audience growth and paid subscribers, lean into digital products, reduce costs and create new revenue opportunities. Digital audiences at The West continue to grow strongly with The West digital platforms achieving 54.5 million monthly page views, an increase of 4.4% on FY '24. The Nightly, which was launched only 18 months ago, saw a huge 60% increase in page views and has successfully launched The Nightly On digital magazine series. The Nightly's editorial content made a real impact particularly during the Federal Election and the task now is to effectively monetize the strong, high-quality audience they are achieving and reaching, particularly on the East Coast. Revenue of $169 million was down 3%. Advertising revenue declined by 7%, reflecting the macro environment. That decline was partly offset by digital advertising growth primarily on The Nightly. Circulation revenue increased by 4%, thanks to home delivery sales and subscription price increases. Costs of $142 million were down 3% with tight cost control and efficiency improvements seen across advertising, production and editorial teams. The West is deeply embedded in the West Australian community as demonstrated by the 2024 Telethon. Telethon raised more than $83 million to support 161 organizations that help sick children and their families. Turning to Slide 13, which summarizes our FY '25 cost result that outlines our FY '26 outlook. This chart is familiar but highlights the significant lean in to mitigate the new cricket contract as well as contractual and inflation impacts to our cost base in FY '25. As I mentioned, operating expenses finished the year at $1.196 billion, benefiting from the cost-out program that delivered to $1.203 billion, and the incremental $7 million reduction in revenue-related costs. So looking into FY '26, we expect to see the unavoidable cost increases from the normalization or reintroduction of revenue-related costs. The $18 million on the chart also includes incentives and other performance-related costs provided for in FY '26 based on expected performance outcomes. Our new AFL contract commenced in March. And as we've called out previously, it sees a meaningful one-off step-up in cost on the prior contract. The first half of FY '26 bears the brunt of that increase, which is why we've called out the first half, second half split of 54% to 46%. The acquisition of Southern Cross's regional TV assets bring with it costs including people in sales, operations and news as well as transmission, traffic and playout costs. As we integrate these markets fully would expect to generate synergies, but at present, we're working hard to integrate the 5 markets. We've initiated a new cost-out program targeting $35 million to mitigate some of these increases. Over the past several years, the team has done a very good job on holding costs and outside Southern Cross and the AFL step-ups we would similarly look to hold costs largely flat, excluding the step-up in revenue-related costs. Putting that together, as the chart shows our FY '26 cost guidance is in the range of $1.235 billion to $1.245 billion. As ever, the team will continue to evaluate operating conditions, and ways of doing business to identify any further opportunities without compromising content quality and audience delivery. With that, I'll hand back over to Jeff to wrap up with our priorities at the trading update.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#4

Thanks, Craig. Our final slide focuses on our priorities and an early outlook into FY '26. Our key priorities include driving 7plus audiences and revenue growth to offset the broadcast outcomes, which for the avoidance of doubt remains a key focus. Delivering on our costs, at least in line with the plan that Craig has talked you through. And then thirdly, improving Seven West Media's cash flow to reduce leverage and get it back to our target range of 1 to 1.5x. From a trading perspective, the total TV ad market is stabilizing with total TV tracking flat year-on-year in July and August, and we are seeing some good momentum into September, our critical AFL finals period. Our digital strategy continues to deliver results with 7plus bookings currently tracking up 25% in the first quarter of FY '26. Based on current market expectations and trading to date, we are aiming to modestly exceed the consensus FY '26 EBITDA forecast of $161 million. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for joining us this morning. We are now happy to take any questions from investors and analysts.

Operator

operator
#5

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from Jamie Laskovski from Goldman Sachs.

Jamie Laskovski

analyst
#6

Firstly, just on the 1 to 1.5x leverage ratio target. And any color you can provide on when you expect to be within target range. And how much buffer you would need before considering a dividend? Then on the momentum comment into September. Could you provide more detail on what you mean by momentum specifically for free-to-air and BVOD? And should we expect that traditional free-to-air revenues return to growth at some point? And then lastly, any added visibility you can provide on conversations with advertisers into Q1 and Q2?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#7

Jamie, thanks for that. So in terms of the 1 to 1.5x leverage target, we did call out that we're aiming to get it back within that range during FY '26. Obviously, it depends on a whole bunch of factors. But if we can hit the consensus number that we called out today, then that helps us get that back within FY '26. In terms of dividend, it's a matter for the Board to talk about capital management approach. We obviously haven't had a dividend for some time. There is alignment with the Board and shareholders to consider dividend as soon as possible, but we're not in a position to be doing that today. So we'll reassess that in 6 months. In terms of momentum into September, it is pretty good. September is our biggest month from a revenue perspective given the importance of AFL finals. It's still relatively early, but we're pleased with the way bookings have come in for September, and we think there's opportunity to grow our revenue in September. Touch wood, everything else being equal, et cetera, because the markets can move quite quickly as we saw at the back end of FY '25 immediately post the election. In terms of your question about can free-to-air return to growth? I think the answer is yes. It certainly has done for some of the months during FY '25. Our ambition obviously is to get it to that on a permanent basis. I think the first step, as we called out today is to make sure that our 7plus revenue growth is more than enough to offset the linear decline, whatever that may be. So that's step 1. But ideally, yes, getting free-to-air back to growth. And things like the Streamscape reports and data that are now available to us are going to be a very important part of that mix as well be Phoenix and all the other things we're doing to drive that opportunity. From an advertiser perspective, you obviously appreciate we have lots of conversations with lots of different advertisers, feeling at the moment is not too bad, but there is sort of cautious optimism, I would probably say around what might happen with rates over the next 3 or 4 months as we go to the end of the year.

Operator

operator
#8

Your next question comes from Entcho Raykovski from E&P.

Entcho Raykovski

analyst
#9

So my first question is just around the building blocks to your EBITDA target in FY '26. So how do you think about those building blocks? Obviously, you're targeting to get to over $161 million, up from $159 million costs going to be higher, even ex-SCA. So how do you think about the expected revenue contributors, please? And I've got a couple of others. Do you want me to give them to you now or wait for the answer.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#10

Whatever is easiest for you, happy to do one by one. Well, I do have a piece of paper, so we can take notes. But either way works for me. In terms of looking at FY '26, obviously, we've given the cost number. So you can work out the sort of revenue growth we need to drive to get to a slight beat to that consensus. A chunk of that revenue growth comes from SCA's TV assets. And when they're embedded in our business, we think we can drive slightly better result on that -- given the strength of our national and regional and local sales teams and all that sort of stuff. The balance then comes from a combination of market and share. And as we said, we've seen the market stabilize in the second half. We think that's sort of continuing as we get into FY '26. But critically, it also comes from that growth in 7plus and with things like AFL finals for the first time this year, the Ashes, which I think is going to be absolutely massive. If you have a look at Cricket Australia's website, a lot of the tickets have already been exhausted. So consumer interest in the Ashes this year is going to be massive. So we're confident that will translate to audiences from a TV perspective. And so we're seeing pretty meaningful bookings for cricket already. So it's, as I say, a combination of share and market. Each share point is still worth about $30 million for us. Each market points do worth about 10% to 12%. So you can see how a combination of those things, as I say, with a moderating ad market and continued share growth after 5 years of share growth, we still think there's more enough for us. We can help drive to that sort of revenue differential.

Entcho Raykovski

analyst
#11

So the second one, I mean, sort of a follow on, particularly around the AFL benefit you expect to see. Is it possible to quantify the AFL digital rights revenue benefit in the second half? And sort of what's your broad expectation into FY '26?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#12

Yes, I don't really want to unpack the split from a revenue perspective, Entcho, and particularly between the 2 halves. I mean, 1 good thing about cricket is it all falls within 1 financial year and AFL sort of splits between 2. So we'll see substantial revenue growth in first half of FY '26, just based on the fact that we didn't have digital rights last year and particularly for the AFL finals, which are looking pretty promising at this point. In terms of overall revenue for AFL, we're pretty happy with how that's gone across the '25 calendar season.

Entcho Raykovski

analyst
#13

And so the final one just around our Q1 trading. I suppose, from what you can see, can you sense whether you are gaining share, I mean, it seems like that's the case based on your AFL comments. But -- so you're seeing sort of flattish revenues. Is that in line with what the market is doing? Or do you think the market is slightly down? I'm just very conscious that we're comping the Olympics impact in the pcp, which is likely impacting the market to some extent. So any comments around your share versus market in Q1 would be useful.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#14

The benefit of going 2 weeks before everybody else in results season is we don't really have a vague idea of what everybody else is doing at this point, Entcho. So obviously, we are thrilled with the fact that we have grown share for the fifth year in a row. We do expect to grow share again in '26, but it's a bit early to be able to give you any sort of meaningful color on whether we think we've gained share in July, August, September, again, I don't think we've got a position to really be able to share with anybody. Note though that you're right, we are comping Olympics. And as we know from times past when we had them. And obviously, last year, when we didn't have them, there does tend to be share swings around that, and the market does change a bit. So we're conscious of that as we think about July and August and the comments we made about holding it flat so far.

Entcho Raykovski

analyst
#15

And sorry, maybe just as a follow-on, I sort of had a look at what you said a year ago, and you mentioned at the time your revenues were being impacted by the Olympics. Are you comping -- I mean, are they particularly easy comps in July and August? Or do you think -- and that's -- I guess I'm just trying to unpack perhaps whether there's growth potential from here, whether the market is still sort of depressed. Do you recall where -- what July and August numbers did last year?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#16

Top of my head, Entcho, sorry, now we can try and get out. What I will say is in terms of -- we were seeing momentum January, February, March, which we called out at the February half year results. April was helpful with election. We're seeing some election money in March, and obviously, April picked up a bit of it. But then it sort of really slowed down in May and June. I think what we're seeing now is that slowness has started to abate, and we're seeing it sort of come back to the sort of levels that we'd be hoping to see. And I say, as we get into September, we'll start to see that market pick up like it typically does. But for us, it comes in early with the AFL finals in that month.

Operator

operator
#17

Your next question comes from Roger Samuel from Jefferies.

Roger Samuel

analyst
#18

I've got 2 questions. Firstly, just on the news bargaining incentives. What's the status of that? And just wondering if that could be extended to AI companies as well. Second question is just on Southern Cross regional assets. And just wondering how much of synergies can we expect from combining those assets with Prime and the rest of Seven West Media?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#19

Roger, thanks for the questions. So news bargaining incentive, you might have seen there was some press about discussions last week that the industry is having with the government. The latest status is that we are still waiting for the discussion paper on that. The government is still working through that. So hopefully, that will be out fairly shortly. And then there'll be a period of time for everyone to provide feedback on the discussion paper before it gets to sort of legislation stage. So we're still confident that the government is pursuing the news bargaining incentive, and we'll continue to work constructively with those guys on that. Whether it extends to AI or not, we'll have to wait until what the discussion paper says. Obviously, the AI piece got quite a bit of coverage last week with the Productivity Commission comments. At this stage, the news bargaining incentive, I don't think is meant to cover AI, but we're very keen to have a conversation about AI generally as well. In terms of synergies for Southern Cross TV, it's a relatively small asset base. It was very well run by the Southern Cross guys. So our first step is to integrate it into our ways of working, as I said, and then we'll look to try and find efficiencies from the cost side of the equation, but also the revenue opportunity from that side, which you may recall when we bought Prime, we did find some helpful revenue opportunity, particularly with regards to 7plus and driving audiences and revenue in the 7plus and regional markets where Prime had been not actively promoting it. So we're quite keen to get that all integrated. It will take us a bit of time because it's a very different set of assets to Prime, but we're working through that, and we'll keep providing updates on how that goes.

Roger Samuel

analyst
#20

All right. Can I just follow up on your Q1 trading update. And maybe just for avoidance of doubt, July and August total revenue that you're referring to your Seven West Media's revenue and not the market revenue.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#21

Yes, Seven West.

Operator

operator
#22

Your next question comes from Brian Han from Morningstar.

Brian Han

analyst
#23

Jeff, with that OzTAM's streaming report, I assume you guys have been telling your customers and agencies for some time now, the dominance of total TV. But does having an independent OzTAM report in any way force agencies to allocate more money to total TV?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#24

Brian, I'm not sure it forces them but it certainly provides, as I said, that independent verifiable data source that confirms what we've been saying for some time. It's still frustrates me that when we speak to advertisers and other stakeholders when we talk about audience growth, I still get sort of blank looks and go really. So Streamscape, as I say, it's another data point independent that our teams will be using actively when we're talking to our clients and our partners about the strength of total TV, the power of total TV, the power of the industry's BVOD platforms. As I said, it's only a slight fraction behind where Netflix is at and well ahead of many of the other very noisy streaming platforms. So it's very helpful that have come. It's only been out for a month or so. So we'll continue to work through that, but I don't think we're in a position to get to force change of behavior. The conversation we've been having sort of -- some people have indicated that maybe they've gone a little bit too far the other way.

Operator

operator
#25

Your next question comes from Evan Karatzas from UBS.

Evan Karatzas

analyst
#26

Just going to -- I've got 3, so I'll ask them one by one. Can you just -- apologies if I missed this anyway, but can you just give us an idea of what the revenue contribution was the last 12 months in those SCA TV assets, just so we can sort of think about that to how that comes through in FY '26?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#27

I mean we only owned it from 1st of July. So the revenue contribution to us in our FY '25 numbers is 0. But it's -- as we've called out, it's an earnings accretive business. And we've given you the cost numbers. So it's a little bit more than the cost number.

Evan Karatzas

analyst
#28

All right. Fair enough. And then the BVOD, the 7plus bookings of 25%. It's obviously pretty strong, continues the momentum from the second half. How are you guys thinking about the sustainability of that rate of growth for FY '26? Like should we be expecting this 20%-plus growth can sustain. Is that sort of the expectation you guys have?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#29

Certainly our ambition, as I said, with AFL and AFL finals for the first time on 7plus through to the end of September. We had Supercars last year, so we've got it again this year. But we saw some pretty substantial audience growth when we had cricket for the first time with India last year. My expectation is the Ashes is even bigger than the India series last year. So the first half and through the Big Bash until the end of January, there's pretty strong momentum from an audience perspective on 7plus. We'll obviously be working hard with all our properties and content in the beginning of calendar '26. But, Evan, yes, we are aiming to have that growth sustained right through.

Evan Karatzas

analyst
#30

Good one. Last one, the AFL scheduling, especially for some of these marquee slot, I mean, it's something that's played out a lot in the public media. Is that something you can sort of comment on around, I guess, if you'll be a bit more active in the scheduling of those marquee Thursday, Friday night slots going forward, I guess, for the remainder of that AFL contract.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#31

Well, we already play a very active role in the scheduling of the AFL, Home and Away season and everything. So it's a multi-stakeholder process, as you'd imagine, Evan, with AFL in middle, Foxtel, Seven and others taking a very keen interest in the games. And when they're on and when they're not on, et cetera. I think if you look at AFL this year, there's been a couple of teams that have been decimated by injuries. And so when you set the schedule and injuries happen, it can be quite hard to predict how things will play out. So as I say, we play a very public -- we play a very active role in participating in that schedule setting. And we're always agitating for better results for Seven West Media.

Operator

operator
#32

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Fraser McLeish from MST Marquee.

Fraser Mcleish

analyst
#33

Jeff, just on that audience -- I mean that improvement in the audience in the industry level is obviously quite a big change that what's probably been happening for 18 months now. With the work that you guys have done or trends that you're seeing, is there anything kind of structural that you're seeing sort of driving that, for example, younger people being brought back into an ecosystem through BVOD and maybe watching a bit more linear TV as well, anything like that is my first question. Just also related to that, I mean, I guess, cost per 1,000 must be coming -- have come down quite a bit given that revenues at the industry level are down, audiences are flat or up. I mean, why is that message not getting through to advertisers that TV is more competitive than it has been? And then just a quick 1 for Haskins. Just Haskins, in your cost chart, you didn't mention or pull out this digital, I don't think in anyway so the digital specs or the spectrum, tax holiday that you -- I think you're supposed to be getting for '26. Are you still expecting that?

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#34

You're right. The audience improvement has been happening for some time. We've been calling it out. I know Matt and the guys at night have been calling out pretty actively, and I expect probably do the same in a couple of weeks when they do their results. Structural, probably not. I think it's a combination of, as you say, audiences coming into BVOD. I think it's more about the content and the content proposition. We're very active in what content we put on the 7plus platform and how we manage and how we service it, we're using a lot of AI capability to make sure we're reengaging lapsed users that have been in the platform before making sure that they can find the content that they might be interested in. And I think that's reflected in that 148 minutes a day, up 13% that we've seen. And that applies to broadcast as well when you put great content to where people find it. So voice on Sunday, I haven't seen last night's numbers yet, but Voice on Sunday night was up or 3% compared to the same launch episode for the Voice last year. I think the block is doing pretty well. So across the free-to-air universe, we're seeing great content translate to great audiences. And I think that message is starting to get through to the advertising community is that you're right, CPMs are holding okay. And so the effectiveness of TV is still very strong and probably stronger than it has been for some time and certainly strong relative to other players in the media sector. Do you want to cover that?

Craig Haskins

executive
#35

Yes. So obviously, we've got a -- we have 1-year break from the spectrum tax, which commenced at the beginning of June sort of run through the year. That sort of wound up in the whole sort of overall sort of contractual and inflationary aspect of the chart there. So we're not sort of forecasting at this stage beyond that. Obviously, it's been a welcome realization by government that the spectrum taxes are pretty antiquated impost on the free-to-air broadcasters.

Fraser Mcleish

analyst
#36

Can you just remind us what that saving is next year?

Craig Haskins

executive
#37

About $15 million.

Operator

operator
#38

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Howard for closing remarks.

Jeffrey Howard

executive
#39

Thanks, everyone. Thanks for joining this morning. Obviously, we're pretty pleased with the progress we're making against our strategy. Some pretty good operating metrics as we've gone through FY '25, particularly in the second half, momentum building into '26. And our objectives are clear, and we're getting on with it. So looking forward to catching up with everybody over the next couple of days. And feel free to reach out with any questions. Have a good day, everyone. Thanks.

Operator

operator
#40

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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