Prime profits set to drop by nearly a third

Tim Burrowes

April 19, 2016 6:25

Regional television player Prime Media Group has warned the market to expect a dramatic reduction in profits after experiencing a significant decline in advertising revenue.

The company, which carries Seven programming into parts of regional Australia, said it has seen a decline in revenues for the quarter in northern NSW, southern NSW and regional Victoria amounting to 7.4%. This was worse than a wider market decline of 6.8%.

The announcement said Prime expects its annual net profit after tax for the current financial year to fall to between $23m and $24.5m. This represents a drop of almost a third on last year’s $33.4m.

In the announcement, Prime CEO Ian Audsley suggested media agencies had been failing to back the company, despite Seven having the Olympic rights and performing better than its rivals.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.