Good morning, everyone, and welcome to New Zealand Media and Entertainment's 2024 Result Webcast. My name is Kelly Gunn, GM Communications at NZME. Presenting on the call today will be Michael Boggs, NZME's Chief Executive Officer, and David Mackrell, NZME's Chief Financial Officer. All attendees will be in listen-only mode for the presentation, and then we will open the webcast to shareholders and analysts for questions. If you wish to ask a question, you can click "Raise Hand" at the bottom of your screen. I'll then prompt you to unmute your microphone so you can speak. Please note that only participants joining from the webcast can ask a question. If you have any technical issues, please use the chat function on your screen, and one of our team will help. I will now hand you over to our CEO, Michael Boggs.
Thanks, Kelly. Good morning, and thanks for joining us today, everyone, and we look forward to taking you through the results for 2024. For those of you joining through our webcast, as usual, you'll be able to follow the presentation pack on the screen that's in front of you. I'll start by outlining the three significant areas of focus before providing an overview of our results and our view of the trading environment. I'll then move on to cover our market performance and the progress of our digital transformation, which is obviously a key part of our strategic priorities. David will then present the financial results for the year. Following that, I'll cover the performance and strategic progress of each of our divisions—that's OneRoof, Audio, and Publishing—before talking about the trading environment and the year ahead.
At the end, David and I will then be very happy to take any questions. With a strong digital transformation strategy at the heart of our business, NZME also has three significant new areas of focus to drive success. Firstly, realizing the value that has been and will continue to be created by OneRoof. Secondly, adding additional specialists to the governance of the NZME business. Thirdly, helping to set a new tone for New Zealand and its prosperity. Let me talk to each of these on the next few pages. OneRoof continues to be a very strong performer with significant future growth potential. In order to continue to accelerate its growth and realize its full potential in delivering value for our shareholders, we have commenced an independent strategic review of OneRoof, which will look at a number of opportunities.
These include, firstly, the potential separation of OneRoof to enable raising external capital, either public or private, to surface its value. We will look at potential pathways to value recognition and monetization. We will review consolidation opportunities for OneRoof in the market here in New Zealand, and we'll explore additional resourcing and extra capacity opportunities to accelerate OneRoof's already strong growth. Jarden Investment Bank has been appointed to undertake this review, and we expect to be able to provide a progress update at NZME's half-year results later this year. Moving on to governance on slide five. With digital transformation at the heart of NZME's overarching strategy, the NZME board is seeking a new member with experience in digital acceleration to further complement the board's vast experience and skills of the current board. A new OneRoof board will also be implemented this year.
This will include the appointment of a property marketplace specialist. Thirdly, NZME will also focus on taking a leadership position to help New Zealand thrive. NZME will use its various platforms, including the New Zealand Herald, to support the reboot and acceleration of New Zealand's economic recovery, sharing stories of success and building positive momentum. This is in line with the company's commitment to keeping Kiwis in the know and connecting communities, facilitating conversations about the topics that matter. In summary, the board believes that these three areas of focus have the ability to add significant value to the business and to our shareholders. Moving on now to our results, you'll see on slide seven a summary of results for the 2024 year compared to 2023. Pleasingly, our operating revenue increased by 2% to NZD 345.9 million compared to 2023.
This was a good outcome given the challenges facing the advertising market in New Zealand. I'll speak more about the trading environment shortly. Operating EBITDA was NZD 54.2 million, which was in line with the guidance that we provided in early November, but was lower than last year's NZD 56.2 million. This reflects the difficult trading conditions experienced specifically in the second and third quarters of the year. NZME has reported a statutory net loss after tax of NZD 16 million. This includes a non-cash impairment adjustment of NZD 24 million to the value of intangible assets. At an operating level, earnings per share was NZD 0.065 per share, which was NZD 0.012 per share lower than 2023. Cash flow from operations was NZD 11.3 million. This reflects our earnings and the higher capital expenditure in comparison to the year before.
Net debt at NZD 24.1 million is in the middle of our target leverage range. The board has declared a fully imputed final dividend of NZD 0.06 per share. That is consistent with last year. As we have already discussed, 2024 proved to be a tougher than anticipated year. This is highlighted by some of the headlines seen here on slide eight.
The GDP graph on the left of the slide also demonstrates the very challenging economic conditions over the last year, including New Zealand slipping into recession. As noted at the half year, these challenges have led to a number of media industry participants making large-scale changes or, in some cases, closing parts of their operations. We have responded with the closure of our community newspaper products and a number of staffing reductions right across the business. Despite the tough market conditions, NZME has generally outperformed the market in 2024.
The black line on the left-hand side of the chart on slide nine shows how consumer confidence has remained low over the last two years, with only very recent signs of improvement. Business confidence, which is shown in blue on the left, has been more positive, although it was more muted in the middle of the year. The last quarter of 2024 saw a sharp increase, and this has started to translate into healthier demand for advertising products. On the right, NZME's performance compared to the agency market is shown. The dotted line shows the year-on-year change in the agency advertising market over the past year. The blue line, that's the changes in agency advertising spend with NZME, and they've generally been higher over that time. This shows that we've been outperforming our competitors in the agency advertising market.
At NZME, we attract Kiwi audiences like no other, reaching nine out of ten Kiwis via OneRoof, Audio, and Publishing platforms. Slide ten shows the audience engagement with each of our platforms across the country. There is a substantial audience for each of our platforms. At the top of each box is the audiences for our traditional media of print or terrestrial radio. The audiences at the bottom of each box show the significant digital audiences for each platform. This sums to our overall audience reach of 3.5 million people right across New Zealand. Our digital transformation strategy results in a changing mix of revenue, and this is shown on slide 11. There are 2.5 million Kiwis that engage with NZME's digital platforms. The revenue from these platforms has grown to NZD 103 million, and it now represents 31% of NZME's advertising revenue.
That's more than double the portion of digital revenue in 2019. These charts also highlight the strength of our traditional media, such as print and broadcast radio, and the huge part they continue to play in our business. Our digital-first strategy is focusing on continuing our market-leading digital transformation in order to deliver value to our shareholders. Slide 12 shows that we have continued to deliver digital growth across each of the pillars of OneRoof, Audio, and Publishing. OneRoof has been the star performer, with a 51% growth in digital listings revenue and a 41% increase in OneRoof listings upgraded. This shows that vendors are seeing value in upgrading their advertising packages with us. We have increased our digital audio revenue by 32%. This is demonstrating the value our advertisers are placing in our online audio platform, iHeartRadio, as well as in our leading podcast network.
Podcast revenue increased by 67% compared to last year. Publishing has seen a 10% lift in digital subscription revenue and a 16% increase in digital subscription uptake year-on-year. We continue to enhance the value of our digital subscription offering. These outcomes really do demonstrate the success of our digital-first strategy. Let me now hand over to David to take you through the financial results for the year.
Thanks, Michael, and thank you to everyone joining us on the call today. We've delivered a solid result for the year given the challenging market conditions. This stands us apart from others within the industry. Slide 14 shows the performance of each division compared to last year. OneRoof has delivered a significantly improved contribution to the group. While the number of properties that came to market improved during the year, OneRoof growth was above market by having an increased proportion of these listings being upgraded. Audio's result was lower. The strong digital revenue performance was offset by higher selling and marketing spend in the first half of the year, which was to stimulate audience and customers. Core digital advertising revenue and digital subscription revenue improved during the year. However, the digital publishing performance was slightly lower than 2023 given the tougher market.
The declining print advertising revenue trend continued, though this was partially offset by additional third-party print revenue. The graph on slide 15 highlights the profitability by quarter. The year started with promise and delivered a strong comparative first quarter. Unfortunately, the difficult trading environment in the second and third quarters made for a tough year. However, pleasingly, the fourth quarter showed some improvement, and we have seen this continue into 2025. More on this later. Now, turning to our operating results for the year on slide 16, as Michael mentioned, operating EBITDA was NZD 54.2 million, which was NZD 2 million lower than last year as a result of the difficult trading conditions. Reader revenue was slightly higher overall due to a 10% increase in digital subscription revenue, which was significantly offset by lower print subscriber revenue of 3% and a 2% decline in retail sales.
Advertising revenue increased by 2% overall as a result of growth in digital revenue in both OneRoof and Audio. Overall, operating revenue was 2% higher than 2023. It was more than offset by lower grant income and operating expenses, which were up 2%. Operating net profit after tax was NZD 12.1 million for the year, which was NZD 2 million lower than last year, in line with the EBITDA reduction. Higher amortization was offset by lower taxation expense. Turning to the expenses on slide 17, overall operating expenses were 2% higher than last year, with the main driver being higher selling costs incurred to achieve the revenue improvements. We continue to have keen focus on improving the business cost structure. Efficiencies have contained people cost to just 1% over the year, 1% increase.
Additional third-party print contracts and increased OneRoof print, which were both reflected in revenue, resulted in a 2% lift in print and distribution costs. As I've said, selling and marketing costs were higher overall as a result of several initiatives to drive improved revenue. Firstly, agency commission increased due to a higher portion of revenue through the agency channel. Secondly, there was an additional promotional activity for audio products in the first half of the year. Lastly, there were increased selling costs required to support the growth in OneRoof revenue. There will be more on this later. Third-party fulfillment costs were lower as a result of NZME's decision to reduce the amount of digital performance marketing sold onto third-party platforms. Other expenses were lower through improved efficiency across the group and non-recurring expenses, which relate to significant restructuring activity primarily in the second half of the year.
These will deliver an ongoing lower cost base into the future. Slide 18 shows the continued strength of our balance sheet, with net debt at the midpoint of the target leverage range. Net working capital, excluding cash, is NZD 1.4 million higher than December 2023 due to an increased tax receivable position of NZD 2.5 million, which was partially offset by lower inventories. The non-cash impairment of intangible assets by NZD 24 million was the main driver of the lower non-current assets. Net debt increased by NZD 6.1 million to NZD 24.1 million, with lower earnings, higher capital expenditure, and restructuring costs being the main drivers. Slide 19 shows that cash flow from operations for the year was NZD 3.6 million lower at NZD 37.9 million compared to 2023. This was primarily due to the lower earnings and higher restructuring costs.
Capital expenditure was higher due to the accelerated product development activity to support the continued digital transformation, which will support future audience and revenue growth. Distributions to shareholders remained at a similar level to last year, with a consistent dividend maintained despite the lower earnings. While net debt finished the year higher than last year, it is still well within the target range. The graph at the bottom of slide 20 highlights the changes in net debt and leverage over the last six years. The recent half-year positions are shown to highlight that mid-year net debt is generally higher due to the seasonality of cash flows. Lower earnings combined with increased net debt has resulted in an increase in the leverage ratio to 0.7 times. As I've said, this remains well within the target range of 0.5 to 1 times EBITDA.
The board has declared a fully imputed final dividend of NZD 0.06 this year, which will be payable on the 31st of March 2025. I'll now hand you back to Michael, who will take you through the performance of each division.
Thanks for taking us through those, David. I'm going to cover our OneRoof division first, where we have a strategic focus on it being your essential property platform. On slide 23, this highlights the progress on the three strategic pillars for OneRoof. Listings performance has continued to improve, with a 32% increase in listing inquiries year-on-year, off the back of an extremely strong audience growth that you'll see shortly. A key element of the revenue growth has been the number of listings upgraded. These have increased by 44% on last year. We are also focused on accelerating the non-listings revenue portfolio. This has seen our display and native advertising up by 60%. These strengths of the OneRoof platform and its overall performance have delivered an EBITDA improvement for OneRoof of NZD 4 million over last year.
Slide 24 shows OneRoof's monthly online audience in orange compared to Trade Me Property, which is shown by the yellow line. With the continued increase in audience, you can see that OneRoof finished the year number one in online web audience, and this has continued into the start of 2025. We are really pleased that agents continue to tell us that they are achieving great results for their vendors from the OneRoof platform. OneRoof has achieved a 53% increase in residential listings revenue, paired with a 20% market recovery in listings coming to the market. Slide 25 highlights the key dynamics of OneRoof's listings revenue growth. T he Real Estate Institute notes that the total new listings coming to market for 2024 was 110,000. This was up 20% on 2023. However, the average for the 10 years to 2021 is around 9% higher in this 2024 volume.
Combined with the growth in market listings, OneRoof increased the portion of listings that were upgraded by 24% overall, lifting the conversion rate in both Auckland and the rest of New Zealand. The third driver of the listings revenue growth has been from an increase in yield due to an improved mix of upgrade products sold. This has delivered a 9% increase in revenue. OneRoof continues to be a strong performer, delivering both revenue and profitability growth to achieve an EBITDA of NZD 2.7 million. That's an improvement on the loss for the 2023 year, which was a NZD 1.3 million loss. Digital revenue increased by 51%, largely due to the components of increased listings coming to market, improvement in those being upgraded, and higher tier product penetration, driving a higher average yield, as we discussed on the previous slide.
OneRoof print revenue also benefited from a recovering market, with year-on-year growth of 10%, partially offset by higher print and distribution costs. Our people costs increased by 7%. This reflects additional sales resources to drive the improved revenue result. Higher selling and marketing costs were required to support additional revenue, with some upgrade products requiring additional costs to support their performance. Slide 27 highlights the strong progress being made on OneRoof's strategic priorities. The audience gap in terms of web traffic has been closed, with OneRoof finishing the year number one. Inquiries continue to grow, and a meaningful profitability improvement has been achieved. For 2025, there are some exciting initiatives to be delivered, including the launch of an upgraded app in the first quarter of the year and the continued development of natural language search tools.
OneRoof now has a full dedicated sales team working together nationwide to improve the service we provide to our customers and the upgrade conversion rates we achieve across New Zealand. OneRoof has a proven trajectory with significant future opportunity across market growth, upgrades, and enhancing its yield. Slide 28 sets out the targeted trajectory across the key elements of revenue growth I discussed earlier. The market is still to fully recover, with another 9% growth to reach the historical average of new listing numbers coming to market. OneRoof's upgrade percentages are currently 43% and 24% for Auckland and the rest of New Zealand, respectively. Our target is 60% and 40% by the end of 2026. 2025 upgrades have started strongly.
The chart on the bottom right of the slide shows the average product package price compared to the highest price product, which highlights the continued significant opportunity to deliver yield growth. I'm now going to move to our audio division, which includes our many radio stations, our digital audio platform, iHeartRadio, and our leading podcast network. Our strategic focus is to be the number one in audio. The key components of our strategy for audio platforms are shown on slide 30. We're focused on creating the most listened to and loved content across all of our audio brands. Our Newst alk ZB station has been the number one commercial radio station for more than 16 years. Newstalk ZB and our ZB music station attract the most breakfast listeners in the country.
We're also delivering bespoke customer solutions, leveraging NZME's wide portfolio of brands and talent, and aligning them with customer needs to drive brand engagement. Podcast revenue increased by 67% and is a key driver of our digital audio revenue growth. More of that now on slide 31. Podcast monetization is driving digital revenue growth as audio engagements strengthen and international partnerships expand NZME's advertising proposition. The charts on slide 31 demonstrate growth of podcast products for our audio business over the last three years. The chart on the left shows that podcast revenues are now meaningful and have grown threefold in the last three years. In the center, you can see that podcast revenue makes up 34% of the digital audio revenue. Engagement continues to grow, as shown by the increased download hours in the chart on the right.
The graphs on the left-hand slide of 32 show that despite a slightly weaker audience share in terrestrial radio, our overall audio revenue share still grew. NZME drives impact through its top personalities, which, combined with our multi-channel portfolio, ensures that it reaches an unrivaled audience. Key to this are the audio personalities that drive engagement with the audience and commercial value for both NZME and our advertisers. Slide 33 shows the financial results for the audio division. As I've mentioned, the digital momentum continues with podcast revenue growing 67% and streaming radio revenue increasing by 19%. This delivered a 32% increase in digital audio revenue. Broadcast radio revenue was flat on last year, which is pleasing given the total market declined slightly year-on-year. The higher selling and marketing costs were the key driver of reduced EBITDA.
This included higher one-off marketing spend and promotional costs in the first half for key promotions and events to deliver improved revenue. In addition, agency commission costs increased with a higher proportion of revenue sold through this channel. As you can see on the bottom right chart, the first half saw a year-on-year decline in profitability given this increased investment in selling and marketing costs. The second half delivered a year-on-year improvement in profitability of NZD 1.2 million. Slide 34 highlights the key progress on the audio division's key strategic priorities. Despite a reduction in terrestrial radio audience share during 2024, we have seen an improvement in revenue share, albeit small. Digital audio is continuing its trajectory of growth, and we continue to deepen audience opportunities with our podcast network, expanding with both local and international content. Our initiatives for 2025 include improving attribution tools.
These allow us to demonstrate to customers the power of our audiences with integrated campaigns across our platforms. T ogether with our partner, iHeartRadio, we will bring new innovations to market for both audiences and clients during the year. Finally, coordinated industry collaboration is being used to advance audio advocacy, targeting key events and client decision-makers. As noted, we have strong momentum with podcasting and digital listening, and we're continuing to simplify how we go to market to sustain the strong revenue growth. We will be focusing on improving margins as part of delivering on our strategy. Let's now turn to the publishing division, which has a strategic focus to be New Zealand's leading news destination. Slide 36 highlights some key achievements of our publishing business. The New Zealand Herald was New Zealand's most visited news app based on Nielsen's ratings.
Our digital subscriptions continued to grow, increasing by 16% year-on-year in a difficult economic environment for subscribers. Our key print products continue to be valued, with the New Zealand Herald being ranked the number one newspaper every day of the week. On page 37, you'll see how the New Zealand Herald balances free and premium stories to maximize reader engagement and profitability. In 2024, our top 10 free stories achieved 5.2 million page views, with free users generating 59% of New Zealand Herald's digital revenue from the digital advertising that they see. This compares to our top 10 premium stories shown here on the right, which achieved a smaller 800,000 page views, with our premium subscribers generating 41% of New Zealand Herald's digital revenue. This includes revenue from premium subscription revenue and the advertising that they see. The operating highlights for our publishing division are on slide 38.
Digital subscriptions have continued to increase over the last three years at a compound annual growth rate of 22%. This is shown in the chart on the left. The center chart shows how we have balanced subscriber growth with targeted yield improvement. The recent decline in yield is driven by the large increase in new subscribers as part of a campaign. While the volume of print subscribers has continued to reduce, yield improvements have substantially offset much of this decline. The publishing financial results are presented on page 39, and a s I just said, digital subscription growth underpinned overall subscription revenue growth. Overall reader revenue was flat, driven by a 10% growth in digital subscription revenue, offset by lower print subscriber and retail outlet sales. The 4% decline in advertising revenue reflects the difficult trading conditions we have seen during the year.
This digital advertising revenue was impacted by our decision to reduce the low-value revenue that was resold onto third-party networks. This was offset by reduced third-party fulfillment costs. Core publishing digital revenue grew despite the challenging market. Other revenue is lower due to reduced government grant revenues, which have been partially offset by increased third-party print and distribution revenue. We do continue to focus on core efficiencies, and these have delivered a net 1% cost reduction in the year. The overall publishing EBITDA was 11% lower compared to the period last year. This was driven by lower print publishing earnings. Let me show you that now. Page 40 separates the financial performance of the distinct digital and print parts of the publishing business. The results show that the digital business delivers a positive result on a standalone basis.
While digital subscriber revenue increased, lower other revenue, including lower government grant revenue, resulted in flat earnings. As a reminder, all editorial people and content costs are allocated to the digital business, unless they are specifically and only focused on the print business. From an editorial cost perspective, the print business is treated as a byproduct of digital and is only allocated the cost for transitioning digital content into the print product or for editorial people dedicated to producing the print product. On this basis, the print product continues to deliver a very strong EBITDA contribution, albeit it is lower than 2023. Slide 41 highlights some of the key newsroom f uture-focused initiatives. We have developed a new streaming product, which will be an always-on video-based offering. This will deliver live breaking news and in-depth journalism. We are enabling and improving our newsroom experience with AI tools.
The first application of this is in the way the homepage is curated automatically with personalized and regionalized news, which is lifting audience engagement and digital conversions. We are also exploring AI tools to automate back-end production processes. We recently refreshed the newsroom operating model, establishing specialized desks to focus on publishable journalism that resonates with readers to drive traffic and subscriptions. This refreshed newsroom model will deliver annualized savings of NZD 4 million, even after investing in the new video capability. Moving now to slide 42, which shows progress on publishing's 2026 strategic priorities and the key initiatives for 2025. An enhanced subscription platform went live in 2024, and this delivers a dynamic experience that will maximize subscriber lifetime value and open up new segments. This allows us to increase the personalized news experience, building deeper reader relationships.
This will deliver improved subscriber targeting, accelerate acquisition, and improve our overall retention. In 2025, we will migrate BusinessDesk to NZME's core digital and subscription platforms. This will enable us to enhance the user experience and grow subscriptions of this key brand. As mentioned, we are implementing a new video streaming proposition to fulfill audience and advertising demand for video products. The newsroom is being reorganized around an operating model to focus on live news and premium journalism, utilizing productivity tools enhanced with AI. Finally, we do continue to be pleased with the performance of the print products and the subscriber base despite its declines. We will continue our focus on reshaping this part of the business. Let me now turn to the outlook and how we are viewing the trading environment. The four graphs on page 44 support the premise that early signs of recovery are evident.
The graph on the top left shows that business confidence improved significantly in July, and consumer confidence, while improved, has yet to lift significantly. Inflation appears to have settled, and as a result, the official cash rate has been lower, with an expectation of further cuts in 2025. The final graph on the bottom right shows that house prices are expected to recover through this current year. I n summary, these suggest that market conditions are improving for both consumers and for advertisers. Page 45 backs up the metrics with some of the more positive headlines in early 2025. Business confidence is high, and economic activity is expected to lift in 2025. Having said that, the global landscape does make us raise some caution.
The beginning of 2025 has started well with strong momentum across the business, and it is anticipated to deliver advertising revenue growth of 4% for the first quarter of 2025, after adjusting for the recent exit of community newspapers. This growth is on top of the growth experienced in the first quarter last year of 4%. OneRoof has continued its strong audience performance into 2025 and remained number one for web audience in January this year. OneRoof is delivering year-on-year digital revenue growth of 30% across January and February 2025. Given the revenue growth to date and our focus on cost control, subject of course to the continuing improvement in the market advertising demand, we expect to deliver improved operating results during 2025. As noted earlier, the board is committed to ensuring that the shareholder value created by OneRoof is recognized through the strategic review process.
We will update you on this at the half-year results. The board is also cognizant of the corporate activity that is currently taking place in this property marketplace sector. Despite the difficult trading environment and lower profitability for 2024, the strong capital position enables NZME to deliver a final dividend in line with last year, and f inally, we do expect lower capital investment in 2025. However, we will assess opportunities that may become available to increase earnings and shareholder value from time to time. That now concludes our presentation. David and I are now very happy to take your questions.
Thank you, Michael and David. We'll now open the webcast for any questions from shareholders. If you'd like to ask a question, please click Raise Hand on your screen, and I will unmute your microphone for you.
Please can we ask that you ask just one initial question and one follow-up to ensure everyone gets an opportunity to ask their question? If you have another question to ask after that, can we ask that you rejoin the queue so we can give others the opportunity to speak? Our first question is from Arie Dekker. Thank you, Ari.
Good morning. Yeah, my initial questions are on OneRoof, and then I'll follow up with publishing. Just on OneRoof, if you maintain the momentum and revenue in FY25, do you think you can achieve that with cost growth sort of in line with what you achieved in FY24?
Oh, I think we think we're pretty well fixed from a cost perspective, other than maybe in some of the selling and marketing costs tha t as we sell some of the larger products, we do put some of the money from those products into advertising on external platforms, but it is a minority of the revenue growth. The others are pretty fixed.
Okay. Just on audience, just so that we get a little bit of context, and that's obviously a great result over the last few years in terms of the closing of that gap. How much of the audience for you guys would be on mobile app versus the online audience you highlight? Do you have an idea of where you sit on the app versus your competitor?
We do see a substantial, if not the significant majority, on our web audience from visitors to our site on a daily basis. We would expect to be behind our competitors from an app perspective. We, as I mentioned, have another app being launched very shortly, and that will be our focus to continue to push that harder.
I mean, you've been getting the results through organic growth with OneRoof, but in the value realization, you talk about looking at what additional resourcing and capability, how that could accelerate growth, something that was sort of talked about over the last couple of years, I guess, albeit you've gone down the organic approach. What are you alluding to there in terms of opportunities there that resourcing could provide?
I think all we're saying there, Arie, is if there are opportunities to invest more money in the business to create shareholder value faster, let's make sure we analyze that and take the time to assess it. We're not going to rush off and do it. It would be something we would obviously announce and talk to shareholders about as part of the strategic review. It would be solely focused on ensuring that we can increase overall value for the business.
Yeah. What would be some examples of that?
First, it could be, are there opportunities to consolidate other products into OneRoof? For example, we now have OneRoof Mortgages available on OneRoof. Are there other product opportunities that would make sense to have all things property under OneRoof that would be helpful?
Right. Thanks. I may come back, but just on publishing, a few quick ones. Just in terms of those third-party fulfillment savings, can you just give a bit of color on where those savings came from and whether you're looking for more savings in that area?
Arie, that's a pretty direct perspective in the context that it relates to the selling onto third-party platforms. Effectively, there's a direct cost to that. As the revenue onto those that we get from those third-party platforms, the cost automatically comes back, and there's a circa late 20s margin in the middle there.
Gotcha. Just the newsroom savings, will that $4 million be, is that going to fully be realized in the FY2025 year? Or was part of it realized in 2024, or part of it will be realized into 2026? Just some context there.
That four is an annualized 4 million. Most of it effectively lands towards the back end of the first quarter.
Yeah, just a little bit will flow into 2026.
That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yep. A little bit extra in 2026.
Lastly, just any sort of, yeah, just a reminder on how much longer is left in the Google deal and what your expectations are in that area beyond the term?
Yeah, I think we have a five-year deal with Google as we announced, which we're sort of halfway into. Regulatory-wise, we regularly catch up with the minister. Without regulatory impact, we still expect Google to remain engaged with us. With regulatory impact, we feel like there might be other players who are brought to the table to actually increase what's paid to us.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Arie. We now have a question from James Lindsay.
Morning, James.
Apologies. Yep. Just unmuting there. Well done on the result. Obviously, tricky environment to be operating in. Just a couple of questions on the cost side of things, if I may. Just your view about sort of right-sized cost for locking into FY2025, or do you think the business needs to be sort of more aggressively looking at cost out?
We are definitely continuing to look at adjusting the cost base and keeping that contained. That will, as we see the environment continue, our expectation is we will continue to reduce our cost base, particularly as we look at how we achieve margins in audio.
Got it. Thanks. Yeah. Just on the comment with regard to lower CapEx in FY2025, just interested in sort of where the sort of savings are coming from versus a slightly higher FY2024, and what are the main priorities on spend for this year?
In terms of 2024, we accelerated the level of investment we were making into our digital products, both in terms of OneRoof, but also in the publishing space in particular. For 2025, we'd expect the spend in the publishing space to return to a more normal level, which is where we expect the reduction to come from.
Right. I suppose just on costs and with regard to sort of OneRoof as well, just interested in your view about sort of looking for additional resourcing versus your own internal capabilities. This is not that you haven't got the ideas to invest in OneRoof. It's just trying to have additional value added on, or just trying to get some context with regard to sort of your opportunities and potential investments.
Yeah. From our perspective, we think we've got really strong capability from a people perspective, a technology perspective to continue the growth rates as you've seen. We're underpinned from continuing to deliver strong shareholder growth and profitability growth. I think part of the review is going, are there any step change opportunities with things that can be added on to the business to actually take it to another level?
Got it. Thanks. Yep. Obviously, big numbers out of Domain. That would help in the process. Just interested on the dividends. Well done on being able to maintain that over this year. Sort of while you're having a given guidance on that, your view of maintaining the dividend into FY2025 versus debt reductions? Maybe just David, some commentary on that.
I think so our expectation is that we'll continue to be able to sustain a dividend of that sort of size in terms of the earnings that we're to achieve in 2025 that will help to continue to keep debt well under control.
Cool, and m aybe just a last little one with regard to the impairment on the publishing assets. Just any sort of further detail about the process that's occurred there? I mean, it's probably not new news to anyone with regard to that, but any further commentary on it?
Only that this is a process that we're required to go through every year to consider those intangible assets that aren't amortized regularly. We go through a process of considering that based on what we see out into the future and taking a particularly conservative view as what's required. As you see, if you read through the note, obviously the market conditions and the slower recovery together with what we see in terms of future cash flows from that publishing division has been the key driver of that reduction. I would emphasize this as an accounting review that's based on some very conservative forecasts.
Got it. I'll just be a bit cheeky if I can with another one. Just with regard to the good progress we've obviously seen on the listings upgrade certainly outside of Auckland. Just interested in sort of how far through you think that process you are of improving that. I suppose the improvement in Auckland did seem to decrease relative to prior last few years. Just any further commentary on the upgrade side of things?
In terms of where we've—Auckland's been our focus, and that's been where our strength is. As we lift that conversion rate up, it gets harder to continue the lift. Whereas what we've done outside, we've put a lot of emphasis and put a lot of resource into the rest of New Zealand, which is why we've seen a bigger lift out where the opportunity's been. The rest of New Zealand represents about two-thirds of the listing market. That's where really our resource has gone. I would say in terms of our drive in Auckland, that has been maintained. We have a strong sales force in Auckland.
It's just the opportunity is somewhat less because that's where our focus has been right throughout OneRoof's time.
James, one thing that's just changed effective 1st of January this year is we now do have a 100% dedicated OneRoof sales force right across the country. It used to be a dedicated sales resource in Auckland who would also support the rest of the country, and people outside of Auckland would be partially doing OneRoof. We now have dedicated resources nationally effectively reporting directly into the OneRoof team effectively January this year, and we're already seeing the benefits of that.
Got it. Thanks for all that, and I will pass you back. Much appreciated.
Thanks, James. We now have a question from Roger Coleman. Thanks, Roger.
Hi there, Roger. Are you there? Are you on mute? It looks like we've lost Roger. Sorry.
We did actually have one come through from Roger online, so I might just read that one out. Could the new board member be announced before the AGM so shareholders can vote on the board choice?
Certainly something I can't give a commitment to. A process has commenced from a recruitment perspective. I need to leave the board chair to update on that as part of that.
Okay. Look, I'm back online, so I'm just.
Hi there, Roger.
Look, the performance of making the company smaller by splitting an asset up, I mean, is a broad consequence of the fact that a comparative company like Frontier Digital Australia is priced at one-to-one times revenue now in a similar business that you're in. There is a lot of EBIT multiple gain from being higher up the scale rather than two smaller companies.
Do you think OneRoof has got sufficient EBITDA to be able to be a valid ASX or NZX listing?
Hi, Roger. I certainly do not want to jump to any conclusions as to what the review would say, and I absolutely appreciate the points you are raising there. I do not think there is any expectation that right here today we are saying actually NZME is looking to sell the OneRoof business and list it immediately on a stock exchange, probably for the reasons you are saying. Ideally, let's go through the review and work out what are the best ways to make sure that we are delivering the value that one has been generated and will continue to be generated for OneRoof and make sure it is visible.
Yeah. Going back to the circa 15%-20% agency revenue growth in the first two months of this year and correlate that to the 4% overall revenue growth you're looking at, what's remained heavily negative in the January-February period today?
Yeah, I think what we are seeing is Auckland is the slowest to recover. Large businesses are certainly spending, as you say, from an agency perspective, but from a direct business, which is by far the majority of our business overall, it's Auckland-based. In fact, the South and Lower South Island has been the strongest performer for us. We really are looking forward to helping New Zealand businesses thrive in 2025.
Right, right. That brings me to visibility. Obviously, t he June quarter and September quarter is when the company's performance and the New Zealand economy fell away. Have you got any visibility past 31st of March in any of the businesses? And give us a feel if you've got any.
No. I mean, as you know, by far the majority of our revenues from an advertising perspective are booked sort of in a quarter period. Looking out past that, difficult for us to see specifically from a lay-down perspective. I think what we are hearing, though, is anecdotally, people are feeling better. People are spending. Hospitality right at the moment appears to be quite strong compared to what it's been over recent months. As you will have seen, and as we talked about, the OCR has been coming down quite quickly with the Reserve Bank actually just saying it'll come down more than what people were expecting even just a few weeks ago. I think those are good signals for helping.
Right. Just looking at the Trade Me accounts in 2024, property had revenues of NZD 107 million there. Hard to determine their cost base, but do you think you've got an equivalent resources base to them? Secondly, following that up, their motors revenues were NZD 125 million, bigger than property. What's your thinking about having succeeded in property? Congratulations there on that UV premium, even adjusting for rentals and editorial visitation. What's your feeling about the rest of the Trade Me activity that could be addressable by the company?
Yeah. I think specifically on property, we think we have likely a bigger sales force in the market than Trade Me does. That's important for us in building the relationships and wanting to grow as quickly as we can. That's, I think, a strong thing for us.
As we look at motoring, there are a couple of organizations, obviously, other than Trade Me in the market at the moment. Auto Trader is in the market, and there is been another recent new entrant. We are not seeing significant growth in those businesses, and I think part of it is the difference in real estate is it is actually the vendor writing the check. In motoring, it is the dealership writing the check. We are finding that dealers are doing it tough at the moment, so they are not overly excited about writing out more checks for specific car advertising. I think that is putting pressure on some of the other players in the market right now. It is something we absolutely continue to assess because like OneRoof, if you can bring together the listings, the audience, and then a sales team, you can actually generate a strong profit. Those are the key elements that we'll look to see if we can make that work from a motoring perspective if it's possible.
Right. My last question relates to the video streaming component. What's your expectation for potential revenues a couple of years or two years down the track from having this perpetual news stream?
Yeah. We do have obviously some video from an advertising perspective at the moment on our site, but it would be single-digit millions. We would expect it to be many multiples of that. There's no specific forecast I'd like to give you today, but we do think it's certainly the growth area from a media perspective. It's something we're not strong in today. We see it as a real new market opportunity. As you'll see from all TV media companies around the world, TV video advertising is certainly disappearing, and it's an opportunity for us to grab it.
Right, right. It's just in Australia, about 25% of revenues are made in the one-hour news hour. Applying that to the TVNZ result last year, there's about NZD 70 million they probably make out of their news components. There again, digital doesn't have the same penetration as a broadcast TV terrestrial network. Would you consider providing a signal to somebody else after the News hub closed down and if stuff fucks up? Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Sorry, if stuff stuffs up.
There's definitely opportunities to do that, and there's definitely been people expressed interest in us doing that. The key thing for us, the key thing for us actually is let's build our own audience and monetize it and then decide what's best for us.
Right, excellent. Okay, thank you very much, gentlemen, and congratulations on getting that premium in UVs and real estate. It does not happen so often in the rest of the world.
Thanks, Roger.
That looks like it's a bit over now, the questions.
Great. That brings us to the end of Q&A. Thank you. Thanks for everyone joining us today. As usual, there will be a recording of this available on our website later today, and we look forward to catching up with some of you over the coming days and weeks. Thanks again for your support of NZME. Have a good day.