Share price, page-37

Just finished going through the Half Yearly report for SWM, a very messy report as always with the companies various media interests and wright downs. What is of most interest to PRT holders though is what is happening at Channel Seven.

Revenue increased by 5.4% but the total expenses increased by 16.4%. The main reason for this being an increase in media content from 270.6M last year to 349.2M this year, an increase of 78.6M. There is no detail on what the increase was for but assume that it went towards new content as well as the broadcasting rights for the Olympics.

An increase in content quality (ie spend), was for a long time on the cards as content has for a long time needed improvement but if well spent should hopefully pay dividends in the future if it can increase the number of viewers and advertisers.

Does anybody know what the compensation payment to Seven from PRT was towards the Olympics broadcasting rights?

Overall I see the increase in revenue as a plus for PRT and with the wright down from last year now behind us they may just come through at the high end of guidance ie 16.3M.

We may also be seeing a bottom in the fall in FTA advertising revenue with this comment in The Australian today;

"The company has retained its guidance for the television advertising market to be down low single digits, however management has been encouraged to see growth in February and March for the first time since 2014 and the market beginning to trade longer,” the company said.