In September, Nine arrested the rate of revenue decline it had seen in July and August, but there's been no improvement into the December quarter, he told shareholders in Sydney.Â
It's been a disappointing time for media companies: in August Nine reported a dive in profits of 38 per cent for the 22/23 financial year amid falling ad revenue.
But its full-year net profit after tax of $195 million came off a record result of $315 million the year prior and is still the second strongest result on record.
"Whilst we have faced tougher economic conditions which have impacted the broader industry, Nine has risen to the challenge, continuing to drive audience and revenue share and invest in the future of the business," Mr Sneesby said.
Peter Costello and Mike Sneesby outlined Nine's performance to shareholders.
The latest trading results are broadly in line with expectations set in August.
Nine has confirmed several advertising partnerships for the Paris Olympics in 2024, and Mr Sneesby said the company is on track to sell all its main partnership and sponsorship packages.
Nine maintains a strong balance sheet, chairman Peter Costello told the meeting, although the 2023 financial year has proved more challenging.
"The local economy stumbled against a backdrop of higher inflation and rapid interest rate rises," the former federal treasurer said.
But Nine's free-to-air metro market revenue share remained above 40 per cent over that time, the highest share recorded by any broadcaster for at least 20 years, he said.
Nine's board has over the past year assessed the impact of Artificial Intelligence, identifying uses in content production and audience optimisation.
Nine has recently launched an AI-driven advertising service that will allow small businesses to buy video ads on 9Now, using the technology to make videos and target audiences according to postcode.
The service is also being used to condense sporting broadcasts into highlight packages, reducing a day of play in the recent Ashes series to 40 minutes.
AI also drives a new text-to-audio feature for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and the Australian Financial Review.
But the biggest challenge posed by the technology is Nine's content and data being mined to train AI models to generate copy without human intervention, according to Mr Costello.
"This would mean the past and current work of journalists and our intellectual property being used, without fair compensation, to compete against them in future news reporting," he said.
During his speech, Mr Costello also warned proposed federal government reforms to privacy laws would harm press freedom, while streaming content quotas would stretch limited production resources.
The company has faced unprecedented legal costs in the defamation case brought against The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald by former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, which is now on appeal, Mr Costello said.
He would not reveal the costs of the case, but did say they would be far more than $25 million if the company was found to be liable for damages.
"We don't do this lightly, the board was involved in making the commitment," Mr Costello said in answer to a question from shareholder activist Stephen Mayne.
There was an almost unanimous vote of 98.5 per cent in favour of adopting the company's remuneration report.
Shares are broadly flat, trading around $1.92.
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