This is pretty special.
Got a flying shot, McEvoy shot it. Proud and Peaty on the far side, got a medal. After 15 or 20 meters, on the far side, going quickly, Dressel as well. In the center of the field, McEvoy and Proud go together. They're across the pool. McEvoy might be just a touch in front. McEvoy might be just in front of Proud. They come to the wall.
You touch the wall first. Olympic gold medal, it's one of the pinnacle moments that you can strive for and try to achieve.
McEvoy sells it. McEvoy getting to the wall.
Come on, man.
And spring from the edge.
Yes!
I can do it.
Yes!
From the other side of the wall.
Yes, McEvoy, you little bottler.
One incredible moment.
The first time we've won a medal in the 50 meters, and it's a gold medal.
Echoed across Australia.
Cam McEvoy.
Cam McEvoy.
Cam McEvoy.
Cam McEvoy.
Cam McEvoy.
Cam McEvoy.
Flash Cam McEvoy.
Flash Cam.
Delivered across Nine's unrivaled media ecosystem. This is the unique integrated power of Nine.
I was very confident with about three strikes ago that Australia would win gold. I didn't know who'd get silver and bronze, but I wasn't too worried, I can tell you.
Not just one part. The unmatched power of all parts. Reaching an audience and scale no one else can. And it's all designed and driven to deliver better business results.
It's happening every day. Stretching into every corner of Australia.
I've been up early listening on 6PR in breaking news this morning.
In every stage of life, Nine is by Australia's side.
Let's get married.
Yeah. Going, going, going.
From life's biggest moments.
The Nine for The Everest.
To news that shapes our understanding of the world.
Thank you from the victims' families and Australia's most loved entertainment.
Are you ready?
We know our audience better than ever.
Who they are. How to reach them. What makes them tick. Content, data, and technology integrated into one audience platform.
Total TV.
Total audio. You've seen transformations happen. And Total Publishing. One total solution. Powered by a vibrant and premium world of content.
We know what you've gone through to get to this point.
It's been a journey.
That brings millions together.
Absolutely brilliant.
Delivering better business results. Nine.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our First Half 2025 results briefing. I'm Matt Stanton, Acting CEO of Nine Entertainment. Joining me here today is our Acting CFO, Graeme Cassells. I'd like to start off by acknowledging the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people today. For myself, I am on the land of the Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation. At Nine, we remain focused on executing our strategy by bringing together a unique suite of media assets to maximize the scale, diversity, and monetization potential of our audiences. Through this latest half, we have continued to build on the foundations of this strategy.
We have invested in our premium content slate and successfully delivered major events like the Olympics, Paralympics, and the Melbourne Cup, and award-winning cross-platform investigative journalism. These events showcase the breadth and depth of Nine's commitment to ensuring our audiences and consumers have the best possible experience. We have expanded our offering with additional content through FAST channels and incremental publishing and digital audio content. We now have the team in place to ensure our integrated audience platform can optimize the value of our strategically aligned audience verticals. One recent example effectively drove audiences to 9 Now for the Australian Open. The CDP identified 316,000 people from the publishing audience who were interested in tennis based on the articles they were reading but had not watched the tennis on 9Now.
Targeted advertising of the AO to these people resulted in 57,000 of them logging on to 9Now for the first time to watch the tennis. That was 13% of the 9Now audience increase for the AO this year. We are continuing to progress our use of AI, focusing on optimization of content, product, and tech initiatives required for personalization, as well as operating efficiencies. Across each of our core revenue streams, we are changing our business model, including the introduction of ads on Stan, evolving our relationships with the key agencies beyond shared metrics, engaging across a broad range of digital platforms to ensure we are fully compensated, and strengthening our collaboration with Domain. We are very focused on ensuring Nine is appropriately structured and resourced for growth. To this end, Nine recently embarked on a transformation program, Nine 2028.
Over the next three years, this effort will reset the Nine business to put consumers at the center of what we do, unlock the power of the Nine Group to drive value across all our holdings and simplify the way we work. We will go into a bit more detail on the latter later in the presentation. It encompasses both strategic and cultural transformation and is heavily focused on both cost efficiencies and revenue opportunities as we position ourselves for growth. Let's now look at our results. While there were some headwinds to our reported numbers, including both the absence of Meta revenues and the challenging free-to-air advertising market, we were pleased with the underlying performance of much of Nine's business. Accounting for more than half of the total group's revenues, Nine's digital revenue grew by around 6% across the six months.
We recorded growth in revenues at 9Now and Stan, Domain and Drive, as well as growth in digital subscriptions revenues at Metro Media and streaming revenues at Nine Audio. This growth was underpinned by our digital audiences. Across the six months, we recorded growth in audiences across each of our key wholly-owned platforms. At 9Now, we recorded growth in daily active users and live minutes streamed. At Stan, content consumption based on minutes watched grew on both a total and subscriber basis for both Stan Entertainment and sport. Live streaming and monthly podcast listens grew at Nine Audio, while for publishing, weekly average articles read per user increased across all major masthead brands. We were very pleased with the outcome of our Olympic coverage during the half. The preparation was intense. It required unprecedented cooperation across the business, as well as investment in both technology and platforms.
The outcome was outstanding. In total, revenues generated of more than AUD 160 million resulted in a clearly profitable outcome, with the ultimate benefit to Nine being significantly more far-reaching, providing superior experiences for audiences and advertisers, and demonstrating the power of Nine's unrivaled media platform. Subscription and licensing revenue are now more than 30% of total wholly-owned revenue, with 8% growth for the half, and growth at both Stan and publishing, excluding Meta. Contributing to this were price increases at Stan Entertainment and our mastheads, as well as strong underlying subscriber trends.
While our cost base was higher this half due predominantly to the Olympics and Paralympics, we continued to focus on underlying efficiencies. We removed around AUD 35 million of costs from the business across the half and are now expecting to exceed previous full-year guidance of AUD 50 million by AUD 10 million to AUD 20 million in FY25. At this point, I'd like to ask Graeme Cassells, our acting Chief Financial Officer, to talk through the group financials.
Thanks, Matt. Good morning, everyone. For the six months to the end of December, Nine reported group revenue of AUD 1.4 billion, up marginally in the prior comparable period, and group EBITDA of AUD 268 million. Group net profit after tax and minorities and before specific items was AUD 95 million. On a statutory basis, and inclusive of our net specific item expense of AUD 16 million, net profit for the year was AUD 96 million. Slide seven details the composition of specific items, which totaled a pre-tax cost of AUD 22.5 million. The key component is restructuring costs of AUD 16 million, which included AUD 15 million of redundancies and AUD 1 million of professional services and consultancy fees, the latter relating to the Nine2028 project. The loss and modification of debt facilities relates to the refinancing announced in December and is a non-cash accounting adjustment.
Our cost performance this half was distorted by the Olympics. Reported costs ex-Domain were AUD 67 million higher, which was more than accounted for by Nine's coverage of the games. The waterfall chart on page eight illustrates what we have achieved in terms of underlying costs. On this basis, we show underlying costs down by around 2%, with unavoidable cost increases like wage inflation and cyber more than offset by around AUD 35 million of cost initiatives. As Matt mentioned earlier, we have upped our expectations of full-year efficiencies, an incremental AUD 10 million-AUD 20 million above the previous AUD 50 million guidance for FY25. On page nine, we have reconciled net debt of the wholly-owned group from the starting position at 1 July 2024 of AUD 489 million to the AUD 481 million we've reported for 31st December.
For the half, cash flow from operating activities was AUD 209 million, excluding the Domain Group, with the breakdown of this shown in detail in Appendix Two. While this was positively impacted in the half by the Olympics, with part of the cash cost already paid in FY24, there was an offsetting payment to Tennis Australia, reflecting both a higher rights fee as well as a one-off upfront payment relating to the new contract. It is also worth noting the cash costs of the restructuring redundancy program announced in FY24 and further throughout this half, which resulted in a AUD 25 million cash impact. We have announced a fully-franked FY25 interim dividend of AUD 0.035, which together with the FY24 final dividend of AUD 0.045 equates to an annualized fully-franked yield of around 5.5%. On a wholly-owned basis, importantly, our balance sheet remains solid, with leverage at the end of December of around 1.4 times EBITDA.
Slide 11 is intended to give you some insight as to how we are strategically thinking about our video business going forward. You'll have all seen the announcement of Amanda Laing's return to Nine as Managing Director of Streaming and Broadcast, as we seek to bring Stan, 9Now, and Nine closer together operationally. For the latest half, Streaming and Broadcast reported revenues of AUD 860 million, of which nearly one-third is subscription revenue, and the business unit has a combined cost base of AUD 725 million, for the half of which more than 70% is content related. Our focus is on leveraging the premium content we create and curate and maximizing its value across streaming and broadcasting. Of course, the component businesses will have their own P&L, which we'll continue to report as we have. The recent strategic transformation project has resulted in a number of initiatives.
We will look to optimize content spend across streaming and broadcast. We believe there are clear efficiencies to be gained through windowing and commissioning, an opportunity to further enhance our offering to the content creators and sporting bodies. Our technology teams across our streaming businesses, Stan and 9Now, will work more closely together, the former with expertise in streaming, the latter bringing strength in advertising. We intend to streamline the news-gathering processes nationally, aimed at ultimately improving news editorial workflow. We will look for opportunities to bring production to Nine rather than relying on outside broadcast. We intend to adapt the digital advertising sales model to bring us increased control of our inventory, enabling better pricing outcomes. We are also actively pursuing third-party sales agreements aimed at expanding our inventory in the digital video market.
Looking now at the results for Total TV. Across 2024, Nine recorded real audience growth for Total TV in both total people and 25 to 54s. We recorded growth in Metro free-to-air and BVOD audiences across the six months to December. Nine's exposure to premium revenues, particularly through the Olympics, ensured we outperformed the Total TV ad market, which declined by around 5%. Nine recorded Total TV revenue growth of 2% to AUD 613 million, with almost 20% of this revenue coming from 9Now. It is worth noting that Nine's Metro broadcast revenue share of 42.1% was an all-time high for any network in the December half. Reported costs reflected Nine's investment in Olympics, which more than offsets some not insignificant cost initiatives across the six months. Excluding the impact of the Olympics, we estimate underlying Total TV costs were down by around 3%.
We were really pleased with Stan's results this half, underpinned by a strong subscriber performance reflecting Stan's slate of entertainment and sports content. Revenue growth of 7% was due to a combination of higher average subscriber numbers and higher ARPU. Stan's margins expanded across the year. Sports costs were markedly higher, reflecting the Olympics coverage as well as a new UEFA contract. However, partially offsetting this, Stan worked hard across its overall cost base, keeping entertainment costs down on the prior comparable period. With costs up just 6% across the business, Stan reported a record H1 EBITDA result of AUD 29 million, up 16% on last year.
Current paying subscribers increased to more than 2.3 million, while ARPU growth of 6% reflected the March 2024 basic tier price increase for entertainment subscribers and the October 2024 increase for standard and premium subscribers, as well as removal of the entertainment free trial in June 2024. Stan exclusives, Yellowstone and From, led to entertainment performance, while Stan Originals have again been a significant driver, particularly Bump, Critical Incident, and Thou Shalt Not Steal. Stan Originals continue to attract critical acclaim, with a record 20 nominations at the 2025 AACTA Awards. Stan's premium Olympics offering, including key product features such as 4K Ultra HD and international multi-language channels, delivered a positive EBITDA outcome for Stan. Furthermore, Stan Sport reported strong subscriber retention through subsequent Grand Slam tennis, rugby, and UEFA competitions.
Stan has recently announced the introduction of advertising in Stan Sport during calendar 2025, allowing Nine's advertisers to reach audiences across live broadcast, live streaming, and on-demand platforms, creating the most powerful video platform in Australia. Turning now to page 14, in total, publishing reported revenue of AUD 268 million and a combined EBITDA of AUD 74 million. With the backdrop of the difficult advertising market and the absence of Meta revenues, the modest 4% decline in EBITDA was a testament to the strength of the group's subscriber base, as well as the work we have done to realign and refocus the cost base. On page 15, we take a closer look at our masthead business. We were very pleased with our digital subscriber performance, both in terms of subscriber numbers and ARPU, resulting in digital subscription revenue growth of around 15%.
Increases in subscriber numbers and price at The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian Financial Review more than offset the decline in print masthead sales. The ability to lift price reflects Nine's ongoing commitment to quality, public interest journalism, and remains a further opportunity. Nine's Metro mastheads were, however, impacted by the softness in the broader advertising market. Print advertising declined by 14%, reflecting the softness in travel, business, and luxury goods, while digital advertising revenue proved more resilient, declining by just 4% across the half. With a growing registered user base and the database opportunities around deeper advertising integrations, Nine is focused on incremental advertising opportunities going forward. Costs at mastheads declined by AUD 8 million, or 5%, while the voluntary redundancy program in late 2024 was very public. Publishing's cost initiatives began in FY24.
Moreover, the mastheads have continued targeted investment in their growth areas, focused on ensuring recent audience and subscription strength is maintained, specifically the opening of a new Parramatta bureau this half, as well as a focus on growing the AFR's B2B opportunity and enhanced audience capability. Nine's other publishing assets, namely nine.com.au and Pedestrian, were impacted by the recent restructurings, with lower revenue more than offset by reduced costs. We continue to be positive about the outlook for Drive, which grew its revenue by 6%, underpinned by a marked increase in used car revenue, a key part of Nine's investment in marketplaces. Domain reported a week or so ago, and the 14% growth in EBITDA reflected continued strength in the listings market throughout the half, coupled with firm cost controls.
With a focus in the half and growing audience, Domain delivered positive metrics, including double-digit growth in unique audience and listing views. The reported 8% growth in digital revenues was underpinned by 12% growth in revenues from Domain's core residential business, which accounted for 74% of total digital revenue. The strong take-up of new products, specifically Platinum Edge and Audience Boost, supported depth revenue growth of 14% to 92% of total residential revenue. Across its other assets, Domain recorded solid performances from its media business, Agent Solutions was modestly higher, while the softness in property markets impacted on developers and commercial. Total costs increased by 4%, with the timing of expenses impacting on H1.
Irrespective of the announcement of last week regarding the proposal by CoStar, we continue to be committed to working with Domain to ensure maximization of opportunities both separately and between our two businesses. To this end, Domain announced earlier this morning that Peter Tonagh, currently a non-executive director of Nine, would also join the Domain board effective immediately. The recent executive restructure at Nine, for the first time, appointed one of our key leaders as head of marketplaces, one of three consumer-focused divisions alongside publishing and streaming and broadcast. Alex Parsons' role will be to focus on capitalizing on value creation opportunities between Nine, Domain, and Drive. We do a lot already. Nine delivers material audiences to Domain, with nine.com.au reaching a record 1 million referrals in November, also providing marketing support primarily through brand integrations as proved successful in the Australian Open.
Being part of Nine's integrated audience platform provides Domain with unique opportunities to engage interested consumers with the right content and offers in premium environments. I am confident that the recent appointment of Greg Ellis will ensure this cooperation continues. Domain is of strategic importance to Nine's media ecosystem and our long-term growth strategy. We will consider CoStar's proposal with a focus on the best interests of Nine's shareholders.
Turning now to audio, this half saw a 50% rebound in radio EBITDA, driven by both revenue share and costs. The four-city Metro linear radio advertising market grew by circa 1% across the half, with continuing growth in digital revenues of 33%, underpinned the 2% total audio revenue growth. Slight share growth reflected the continued strong ratings performance, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney. Radio costs decreased marginally, with widespread cost initiatives offsetting the investment in digital and Olympic coverage.
Coming back to Nine's 2028, it's not so much a change, but more an acceleration of Nine's strategy. We are reshaping the business in recognition of shifting consumption patterns towards digital video, a changing mix of short and long-form content, and convergence of delivery platforms. The recent announcement of the creation of a streaming and broadcast division is the first step. Behind the scenes, we will make better use of data, product investment, and AR tools to create even more compelling experiences for our audiences and consumers across the group, and create easier pathways between all the touchpoints in the Nine ecosystem. Using the power of the Nine Group, we will deepen our connection with audiences and advertisers by harnessing our unique data and premium content to drive growth. The program also includes a significant performance improvement element.
We are focused on growth opportunities, underpinned by continuing investment in the digital video market, a streaming-first approach, a sharper focus on commercialization, and an executive team aligned around group value creation. We are pursuing opportunities to materially reduce our cost base, such as streamlining our news production, rethinking our approach to content and marketing investment, and merging our tech stacks across streaming platforms. We expect these efforts will result in additional cost savings of more than AUD 100 million, primarily landing in FY26 and FY27, in addition to the AUD 50 million cost-out effort already committed to in FY25. At the same time, we intend to take this opportunity to transform both the culture at Nine and, as leaders in the industry, the underlying cultural issues that have plagued the broader media sector in Australia for many years.
That is the role of us as leaders, and one which we fully embrace. Following events from early 2024, Nine commissioned The Intersection report, an external review of Nine's workplace culture, which was delivered late October 2024, and released to the market simultaneously. We have committed to implementing all 22 recommendations from the report. In late November, Nine released its formal action plan, the roadmap to implementation of these recommendations, focusing on four areas: people and culture, leadership, policies, procedures, and governance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Two-thirds of these recommendations are already complete or underway. The vast majority of our people are proud to work for Nine. They think Nine is well-positioned in the media space and feel optimistic about our future. We are incredibly proud of what our people have achieved this year, and I'd like to thank each and every one of them for their efforts.
As we embark on this journey, we will build on the incredible strengths that have served Nine Group so well for many decades. We will extend our leadership as the recognized creators of experiences that matter most to our audience members and consumers, the news, sport, and local entertainment highlights that shape who we are as Australians. Before we turn to trading, I'd like to say a few words about the current regulatory environment. Australian-regulated media companies play a vital role in supporting a well-functioning democracy by providing accurate and trusted news, fostering public debate, and holding power to account. Our content, such as Australian news, live sport, and iconic Australian programming, brings Australians together. We reflect and preserve the stories, values, and diversity of Australian society and contribute to shaping our national identity.
Nine welcomes the government's planned reforms, including the announcement that they will establish a news media incentive and introduce a digital competition regime to ensure that the correct regulatory settings are in place for Australians' future. The introduction of the news media incentive is critical to ensure that commercial deals with the digital platforms are entered into or continue to be entered into in respect of our valuable Australian news content. Equally, the digital competition regime is an essential framework, which must be put in place to address the global platform's anti-competitive behavior and the power imbalances correctly and consistently identified by the ACCC in its digital platform reports over the past seven years.
We urge the government to go one step further and also close the gap in the anti-siphoning scheme to ensure that large global platforms cannot snap up streaming rights to iconic Australian sport events before broadcasters have the opportunity to acquire those rights for our free BVOD platforms, such as 9Now. With the ever-increasing number of Australians choosing to stream live sporting events on 9Now, it shouldn't matter whether you have an aerial on your roof as to whether you can access free live Australian sport or not. We also welcome the government's announcement that it will suspend the commercial broadcast tax, which will save Nine around AUD 14 million during the suspension period.
We encourage the government to permanently revoke the tax and ensure that the correct regulatory balance is in place to enable us to continue to create and showcase the content that Australians enjoy, trust, and rely on. Okay, I'll now turn to current trading. Calendar 2025 has started well, as Nine's premium content continues to attract audiences and advertisers. Across streaming and broadcast, audiences have remained strong into 2025, particularly driven by the Australian Open, plus 5% Total TV audiences on 2024, and with Stan viewing time up 20%, and Married at First Sight, plus 23% Total TV audience, with a plus 14% live and 33% catch-up on Nine. And Stan's summer originals, particularly Bump and Black Snow. Nine's Total TV ad revenue in the March quarter is expected to be up in the high single-digit %, reflecting the strong audience performance and the benefit of Easter timing.
9Now continues its positive growth trajectory, with advertising revenue growth in the low-mid-teen % expected in the March quarter on PCP. Nine's broadcast advertising revenue from both Metro and regional free-to-air in the current quarter is expected to show mid-high single-digit growth on Q3 FY24. With the market remaining short, it is too early to estimate Q4 performance. Over the past 12 months, Nine has focused on realigning its total TV cost base with increased investment in content and technology, more than offset by the other cost reductions. 9Now expects full-year reported total TV costs ex-Olympics to be broadly flat, previously marginally higher. While subscriber numbers are expected to consolidate in the second half, Nine expects Stan's second-half EBITDA growth % to exceed the 16% growth reported in H1.
Nine's publishing business continues to benefit from the growth of digital audiences, with Q3 digital subscription revenue growth expected to be in the low mid-teen %, underpinning a strong performance from the mastheads. However, the programmatic advertising market remains weak. Second-half publishing EBITDA is expected to be below H1 due both to advertising seasonality as well as the cycling of cost efficiencies implemented through FY24. As Domain commented with its earlier set of results this month, new for sale listings have increased by 3% in January. FY25 costs are expected to increase in the high single-digit % from the FY24 base of AUD 254 million, at the low end of previous guidance, reflecting ongoing investment in growth opportunities from Domain marketplace. Domain continues to expect stable EBITDA margins in FY25 on FY24.
Nine's radio Q3 broadcast advertising revenue is expected to decline in the low- to mid-single-digit %, while digital revenue continues to grow strongly. As Nine continues its strategic and cultural transformation, there is expected to be further restructuring in H2 FY25 and FY26. These changes will be designed to ensure Nine's optimal position into the future, while also maximizing the efficiency of our cost base. At this stage, Nine expects further cost efficiencies through to the end of FY27 of more than AUD 100 million, of which AUD 10-20 million is expected to be realized in FY25, in addition to the previous guidance of AUD 50 million in FY25. Nine is similarly focused on revenue opportunities as the group's strategic transformation gathers momentum. Over the next few months, Nine will be progressing plans to accelerate revenue growth from its unique suite of assets through additional content, subscription, and advertising opportunities.
Before we open the line to questions, I'm sure you are all interested in further details about the CoStar Domain proposal. As you would appreciate, it is very early days, with Domain receiving the proposal from CoStar late last week. Domain has told the market that it has commenced an assessment, and in the meantime, Greg and the Domain team remain focused on driving the ongoing momentum in the business. For Nine, as we outlined earlier, Domain is of strategic importance to our business. We are, of course, taking the situation seriously and will give the proposal due and proper consideration, taking into account the best interests of shareholders. However, it is simply too early for us to make any further comment, which I'm sure you will understand. So, Graeme and I will take your questions. Operator, if you could pass through our first question, please. Thank you.
Your first question comes from Eric Choi from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Matt and Graeme. And I hear you on the comments on Domain, but I might take a stab anyway, if that's all right. Just on the first question, everyone's going to ask about the Domain tax base or the value on the books so we can work out potential CGT. Even if you don't want to comment on that, can we confirm if I look at the accounts, it looks like you guys have capital losses of AUD 19 million. So could these be used to offset any CGT? And then just secondly, can we just talk broadly about Domain's strategic value? So obviously, Domain's worth more to NEC than minority shareholders. Are the reasons broadly sort of number one, there's tax leakage.
Number two, looks like you guys are about to accelerate growth, so your view of the undisturbed share prices is probably higher than 312. Number three, you guys probably want a controlled premium. And then number four, there's probably diseconomies from losing Domain data if you did sell it. So just qualitatively, are we missing any other reasons besides those? And then just lastly, can I pivot to just the advertising outlook in 4Q for TV? So obviously, you guys have no visibility on what March and there's going to be Easter and AO impacts. But if I just look at the industry SMI data, it looks like Q4 '24 was further below FY18 and FY19 levels than 3Q '24 was. So the June quarter of last year just looks like an easier comp than the March quarter of last year. Just wanted to confirm that's the case. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Eric. There's a lot in those questions, so we'll try and go through them. First off, as I said at the outset just a few minutes ago, Domain is of strategic importance to Nine, and we are giving it proper consideration, as you can imagine, but it is too early to talk about and comment on this, including the tax base as well, so I can just confirm that your point on the AUD 19 million, yes, that is correct. I think that's all we'd like to say at this point in time, and the broader question around the strategic value of Domain to us, we've always thought there's a lot of strategic value in there.
Probably the bit you've missed, not missed, but what I'd say in there as well is as our business becomes more digital in nature, and as you can see, sort of the BVOD grows, etc. As we become more digital, it becomes even more synergistic with Domain, put it that way, because we can push around our platforms and so forth. So I think there's that consideration as well. But as I said at the outset, if we can leave it at that, that would be so I'm not going to take any more questions on that. Going on to the advertising outlook, to be honest, we'll have to have a look back at FY2018-2019. I haven't got those on us. The Q4 is too short for us to really sort of look at. We've only just opened our books to that. Q3, as we've said, was good. And we'll go through Q4 and give you more updates as we go through from there. But it is a bit too early at this point, and we recognize Easter and so forth in there. Thank you.
That's good. Thanks, Matt.
Thanks, Eric. Okay, next question.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Entcho Raykovski from E&P. Please go ahead.
Morning, Matt. Morning, Graeme. All right. I do have a CoStar question. Maybe I'll keep it right to the end. Hopefully, it's not going to be one you can actually answer. Just firstly, on the ad market, I mean, can you talk in a little bit more detail around the market dynamics which have driven the turnaround from the first half when obviously the Metro TV market was down 10%, with Olympics coverage contributing, so on an underlying basis, arguably even lower to the growth that you're seeing in 3Q? And as part of that answer, can you perhaps help us quantify the benefit of Easter timing? It's probably going to be tough, but any color you can provide would be useful. I might just hold off for my others.
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Entcho. Morning. On the ad market side, yeah, look, you're absolutely right. H1 was a soft market in there. If you strip out the Olympics, sort of the market was quite down. But if we look at Q3, I think it started very well, as we said. I think we have got to the market's good. The sentiment's better in the market, there's no doubt. And I think there's a realization I'm expecting as well of how strong our audiences are, and that's across the TV networks. The audiences have been strong for some time, and we see that going through and where we're at.
I'd say that we've had the tennis and the ads, specifically in this quarter, which have been driving quite a bit of the growth as well. And I'd say we have learned actually quite a bit from how the teams have done a great job of selling, especially into the tennis, and especially on the back of the Olympics, the way we sell premium assets like some of the sporting codes is really strong. And I think we're getting better at that as well. I think we learned quite a bit through the Olympics from the premium side of how to sell through, also into the programmatic and the late market coming through. And I think we're getting a lot better at that, and I think we've done a good job, very good job on the tennis this year.
So, I think there's an underlying sentiment. The sentiment seems a bit better. I think we've got a bit more. We've got stronger in that and improved our selling of some of the big sporting codes and some of the big assets such as MAFS as well. So, I think that's helping. Easter coming in, if you remember. I think Easter straddled sort of March, April last year. This year, it's in April, and you do lose a bit into April. And also we've got Anzac Day. So, you've got a bit of stuff going on there. But there'll be a few million dollars impact from between quarter, well, between April and March flicking in. So, you do have to take that into account between the two quarters. I think that was it, Entcho. You can hold if the question's on CoStar. I won't be taking any more questions on CoStar, so.
All right. Okay. Maybe I'll ask a couple of others. That's useful color. I'm sorry. I'm trying to reconcile the growth in TV in Q3 with your comments around publishing and radio because those markets, those ad markets seem softer. I mean, is that fair? Am I reading too much into it? You've obviously pointed to programmatic advertising remaining weak, radio expected to decline in 3Q. So is there a bit of shifting of spend between mediums, do you think? Or do you think there's other factors driving that performance? And then my last question, Stan question, how do you think about the ad revenue potential for the business? I mean, very broadly, if we're thinking about it, could it get to 10% of the revenue base over time, higher, lower, any sort of broad steer could be useful? Thank you.
Sure, sure. First of all, on the publishing and audio side of this, there are swings that happen a little bit through from our platforms and so forth. So I don't think there's anything that we're too concerned around on the publishing and audio side. I think there's just swings and timing and events and so forth. So I don't think there's anything untoward there. On the question on Stan, yeah, look, we've announced Stan Sport, ads in Stan Sport, and we're obviously looking at the Stan Entertainment situation as well and tiers and so forth. We constantly review that, and the team looks at that.
Look, I think we really believe, as a broader point, there's a real opportunity in the broader digital video market. And that is broader outside the TV bit. We compete across with the major overseas big tech players in this. It is a big market. I think the thing is that people have thought about us as a market here. We feel like we are, and we are targeting competing in a lot bigger market than before. And our assets are so trusted, as are the other guys as well, so trusted in this marketplace. We do feel there's really, really good upside for the digital video market for the local assets.
Okay, great. Thanks, Matt.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tom Beadle from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunities. I might follow up just on Entcho's question just on the ad market. I'm just interested to hear your feedback just at the advertiser level. Are there any particular advertiser categories or industries which you could call out which are driving the growth in the third quarter? And just with an election in Q4, what is your view on how it might impact this time around? For example, do you think you've become a bit more sophisticated at selling BVOD inventory, which might actually be an important driver this time around? And then secondly, just on costs, can you please provide more color on those AUD 100 million of efficiencies? Just firstly, is that a gross or net number? And are there any areas where you are investing in which might offset some of this? And just to clarify, I'm also assuming that excludes the Olympic costs. Thanks.
Yeah, sure. Thanks. Okay, I'll try and get through these in that order. So you might have to come back if I get them all wrong. But first of all, on the ad market, on the government side, you're talking about what's happening. Yeah, look, on the ad market color, from an election point of view, we're a little bit unclear how this is going to work because we do get government money through a lot at the moment. The Q3, we've had quite a bit of government money in Q3 itself, which has helped. Clive Palmer has also spent quite a bit in this quarter as well. So that has helped us. How that goes into the next quarter, we're interested to see how that works. At the moment, we sort of feel it's a bit neutral into Q4, but we'll wait and see.
As for how we sell, it's a good question. Yes, with BVOD, obviously, you can be more targeted from that point of view, geographically especially, around when you're doing targeting for government. So we do have sort of the data around sort of hotspots we can work through and where we can target in a lot more granular way than we could in the past. So that will help us, there's no doubt. If we talk about, move on now to the cost side of the question that you asked about, the in excess of AUD 100 million in the areas that Graeme talked about and I talked about there around it. First of all, yeah, confirm that that doesn't include, sorry, the Olympics is outside of that completely. So ignore that. That's just a one-off cost that goes up, netted off some displaced costs.
The AUD 100 million is the number. And when you say net vs. gross, there always is an element of cost coming out, but then investment that goes in. So the AUD 100 million is, I suppose, the number gross from that point of view. There will be considered investment elsewhere, whether it be in Stan or Nine's content, streaming, AI, etc. There will be some of that as well. And we'll take that into account as we go through our budgeting process. So hopefully, that's answered those questions.
Thanks. And yeah, I probably wasn't completely clear as well with the first question. I just was interested to hear as well, outside of government, are there any advertiser categories, for example, automotive that are worth calling out?
Yeah, there's a bit of automotive, sorry, and insurance. Sorry? Insurance and. Oh yeah, insurance. Sorry, Graeme was just reminding me that there's a bit of insurance and retail as well coming through. We can get some more detail for you on that as well. I'll ask Nola to pass that on.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Kane Hannan from Goldman. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. I had a few as well. I mean, I suppose firstly, just on the cost program, I mean, Matt, you've been in the seat four or five months now. It's moving pretty quickly from a cost perspective. I mean, this is a big number we're talking to. Just curious, are there any major decisions, sort of strategic pivots you made that unlocked this cost? I mean, I assume it's wrapped up in the Nine2028 strategy. And then just in terms of line of sight of those savings, I mean, do we have a spreadsheet that sort of goes cost item by cost item to get to that number? Or is it more a benchmarking exercise where you think Nine should be by that time to get those savings?
Yeah, thanks. Morning as well. Yeah. So look, when we go through this, yeah, we have tried to move quickly on this. Obviously, we announced back in FY24, we're taking AUD 50 million. We took AUD 50 million out there. This year, we announced AUD 50 million. It'll be more like AUD 60 million-AUD 70 million because of some of this pull forward of this hundred that we're trying to do, reacting to. The cost program is both pretty strategic in what it does, but also it is granular as well.
We have got a spreadsheet line by line where we go through and work through every area of the business what we look at. But there's some strategic nature to it as well, moves through that. And that allows us to set us up for growth in the future, especially around the digital video market and our platforms that we've got. So the big three or four things we talked about, especially in the better use of content commissioning across our platform. So the whole point of the operating model change to bring streaming and broadcast together is very considered in the fact that it will look at how do we use our content across those, in effect, three platforms at the moment in free-to-air, BVOD 9Now, and through Stan. So we'll look at how we do content commissioning and windowing, etc.
And we think there's a lot more value as we put through there from that point. So that unlocks that. Our marketing engine, obviously, we've got a big marketing engine. We spend money marketing, but also, obviously, we are a media company. We can utilize our assets a lot better than we have done. So that is a strategic move to move that together to allow for the whole group driving of marketing of our assets through that. So we're very excited about that through there. And the other couple of areas is we're looking at across the business, the news editorial workflow processes as we go through. And there's some opportunities there through there. You've probably seen some announcements just recently in areas like Darwin and the Gold Coast as well. And that's the start of it of looking through that.
There's some opportunities to re-engineer and make us more effective through that. Probably the other big chunk as well is our tech side of the business in the streaming side around bringing the tech stacks from both 9Now and Stan closer together and the teams working closer together as opportunities. We then go through a number of those other typical areas in the business to look. It is a pretty considered process we go through and have been going through. It's part of the whole transformation we've been doing, both from a leadership point of view around culture, but also from a business point of view. Yeah, this is, there's been a lot of work from the team. I've been really pleased with how they responded to it over the last couple of months as we developed this plan. And so yeah, it's not sort of a benchmarking exercise and we pluck the number out at all.
Yep, that's helpful. Okay, thanks. Just one follow-up one. Just as you've done the 2028 strategy and you've gone through the verticals and then segmented the assets, just interested to hear you talk about how you think if you've got the sufficient scale across those verticals. There's obviously been press around Foxtel, Optus Sport, audio sort of juts out to one side on that streaming and broadcast vertical. Just how you think about the portfolio of assets you have today.
Yeah. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, look, I think as well as the AUD 100 million in excess we've talked about, we are looking at the program as well and a lot of growth initiatives. We have got a clear sight of a lot of opportunities for us, whether it's content and the commercialization of it. The digital video market is a very clear one, the fact that we've entered into there as into Stan and we'll start that process. We're working with some of the other players in the marketplace in a very collaborative way as well, Seven and Ten, around opportunities for us to scale in this marketplace as we go to market. For us, I think the digital video market is something we do want to scale up in. It's something on our agenda to do. That's one of the key ones.
The assets we have at the moment we've got is we're very happy with the assets. They're all part of the ecosystem at Nine. We're always reviewing them and making sure are we progressing them as much as possible. But we will look at different content assets. There's obviously sport assets that come up now and again as well, as you just mentioned one. We will consider those and look for scale in those strategic areas that we are trying to progress in.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Han from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Matt, the additional costs that you announced today, can I just confirm that that's all on the OpEx side? And if so, will there be any step change on the CapEx side going forward?
Thanks, Brian. Hey, morning. Yeah, the AUD 100 million is OpEx. But there is some CapEx opportunities as well, probably more in the one area in the tech side that I just mentioned as well. So there's a bit of CapEx. But I think that's one where I'd be a bit cautious because that's probably an area where we do invest from a CapEx point of view in more tech data enablement from there as well.
Okay, thanks. And my second question is, with the new operating model, I see a lot of cost out and efficiency drives, which is all good stuff. But I'm just a little confused about the whole platform-led to consumer-led language. So can you please explain in simple language what that all means, as in how does that lead to more revenue?
Yeah, sure. Thanks. And when we talk about consumer, we talk about consumer driving consumers and making sure they have the first-class experience they'd expect. So that would be under the content we do or under the product and tech we do. So, personalization being a key point of that. So, how do you make sure the consumer has a first-rate experience when it comes to Nine and its different platforms? And how does it receive that, whether it be audio, written, whether it be video, etc., making sure that they get the right content, the right time, the right place? That's what we mean by consumer and supporting and helping the consumer. So, we have a very consumer-first angle on things. If we talk about things like classic about watching a sport match, you watch a sport match, you might want to watch it live with 80 minutes in there, or you might want to do a mini match, etc., as catch-up.
Making sure the consumer has choices of what he wants to do, whether we look at the Olympics and what we did on the platform of the video platforms through into publishing and making sure it's all seamless and it works together, so making sure we really have the consumer in mind as we take these choices, and as we have the consumer in mind and work with them as well, that leads to better advertising results as well, so making sure we can commercialize that, so in the past, we've been a bit siloed through there in some of the platforms we've done, but making sure we cross-link and work across and drive the consumers across our platform so we can monetize them a bit better across advertising and subscriptions or even into marketplaces.
That's really helpful, Matt. My last question is, does Domain play a big role in that whole profit improvement program you announced today?
The AUD 100 million there we talked about is not in the AUD 100 million cost out OpEx at all. And as I mentioned before, I'm not going to talk any further than that on Domain.
Thank you.
Next question. Any more questions?
Thank you. Your next question comes from Evan Karatzas from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Just want to understand or confirm that the terminology is for FY25 that they're now expecting cost out in period benefits of AUD 60 million-AUD 70 million. And if that's right, maybe can you just speak to what you're thinking that the exit run rate will be, even if it's rough, just for the incremental benefits we should expect into FY26 as well? Just conscious there will be likely more in line with that AUD 100 million FY27 target, but just trying to get an idea of that, yeah, that run rate, exit run rate.
Graeme, do you want to pick that up?
Yeah, I do. So yeah, you're right. It will be AUD 50 million. Up to another AUD 10 million-AUD 20 million out this year. Including that, we'd then take up to AUD 26 million. We'd expect half of the AUD 100 million to be out at this time. You'll appreciate we're still going through detailed budgets, so it might change marginally. And then the last part of the other AUD 50 million will come out in FY27. That's what we're expecting just now.
Okay. That's good. Thanks for that.
Thank you.
Thanks. Okay. I'm just trying to understand with these additional costs that you've taken and this upswing or, I guess, recovering ad spend markets maybe coming, I guess, a bit earlier than expected from a few months ago. Can you just talk about or just speak to, does any impact your ability to benefit from this upswing? If there's any additional costs that need to be, I guess, added ahead of what looks like a decent market-type recovery ahead of us?
Thanks. I think it was a bit unclear, but I think what you were asking was, is there any cost increase in the increased revenue coming through? Look, there's the COGS that you get coming through and commissions and so forth, but relatively small. Pretty much a lot of the increase will drop through to the bottom line.
There are, depending whether it comes from BVOD or free- to-a ir, different cost sides of that, but it should drop through pretty much in the same way when we saw last half our numbers were down. Pretty much a lot of the revenue side of it dropped down as well there. So there's small bits for COGS and commissions and so forth, but most of it does drop through. Thank you.
Thanks.
Next question, please. Is there any others?
Thank you. Your final question comes from Fraser McLeish from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Matt. Hi, Graeme. Just one on the audience sort of trends. There's obviously been a big shift, I mean, more across the industry in the last, what, 18 months with audiences which had been declining, kind of high single digits, looking like you're actually getting some growth now. I'm sure you've kind of had a look at this internally with your teams, but what's the view on what's driving that? And is it something you think's sustainable? And also, is that sort of getting through with advertisers? Is that message getting through to them that these audience trends have changed? Thanks.
Thanks, Fraser. Okay. So on the audience growth, yeah, look, we've been seeing audience growth for some time coming through as of the other networks as well. I'd say why are people coming to Nine and to Seven and Ten as well through there is really around, I'll put it down to quality content. When we've had the real premium quality content, we really are seeing audiences come through. If you look at the AO, for example, what happened there, and MAFS is incredible at the moment.
What we're seeing there on a BVOD scale, 9Now is doing over a million coming through that, as well as the one and a half. So you've got two and a half million watching this on a regular basis. Huge numbers. I think, and it's not just on Nine. I know Seven and Ten are getting a good bounce and have got some quality content there as well, which is working for us. I think there is a sort of understanding of the quality of the content is good and strong. So I think that's probably the biggest element of why the audiences are up with that. There probably is a little bit of a tightening of purse strings a little bit from the consumer. And maybe so this is the free market is an area to go to. So I do think that is happening.
We are actually getting, which has been really encouraging, the youth audience coming back into TV. The Olympics, 25% of people watching the Olympics under 25 years of age. For example, if I look at what's happening on 9Now, the 16 to 39s are now is the proportion, the biggest area as well. You are seeing the demographics shifting in the right direction for us. Quality content coming through. I think that's what's driving it. On the second question around the advertisers, I definitely don't think they've come in enough yet and recognized this enough for us. I would expect that they should be piling into our platforms because it's trusted, it's great content, there's great brands out there.
And for CMOs and CEOs trying to drive and invest their own businesses, coming into Nine, 9Now, or the other networks is a way to drive your own business. So I think there's pressure there as well. So we'd like to see the advertisers, as you can imagine, coming back more and more to us. Thank you. Is there any other question? I think that was the last question.
There are no further phone questions.
Okay. So, well, thank you all. That wraps up this results briefing. And thank you for your attendance. And we will see you again at our full year results briefing in August. Thanks very much.