I'd now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Sophie Moloney, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone, welcome to Sky's 2023 full year results briefing. Thank you for taking the time to join today's call. I'm Sophie Moloney, your Chief Executive, I'm joined by Andrew Hirst, Sky's Interim CFO, who will be familiar to many of you. As is the norm, I'll start by providing an overview of what we've achieved since we reported to you in February, followed by a look at the progress in key parts of the business. Andrew will take you through the numbers in more detail before I return to discuss the outlook for the period ahead. At that stage, we'll cross to the operator for your questions. We have a solid set of results to share, before we do that, I want to make a couple of opening remarks. First, on the new Sky Box.
Delivering this new platform and experience was a major milestone for us. While we remain excited by the opportunity it brings, I acknowledge that there have been some early teething issues. I'm sorry that some of our customers have felt let down by their initial experience. I'm grateful for their care to give us the feedback we need to improve. One of the advantages we have with the new Sky Box platform is the ability to address any issues and to continually improve features through software updates. My team is working hard to develop, test, and roll these out as swiftly as we can. We're on the right path. We will get this right. My second acknowledgement is that we're operating in an economic environment that is increasingly tough for many New Zealanders.
The cost of living and sobering economic outlook is putting strain on households, which we're very mindful of. Our business continues to demonstrate good signs of resilience. At the same time, we're alive to those Kiwis who cannot afford a content subscription business. With the launch of our new free-to-air channel, Sky, Sky Open, last week, we're demonstrating our continued commitment to drive our strategy, to maximize our content investments, and to meet New Zealanders where they are in ways that work for them. To our FY23 results. It's been a busy year at Sky on a number of fronts, and with a strong theme around continuing to deliver today while also investing in the areas that will see us benefit in future years. My team has worked hard to deliver for our customers across our range of products.
We've strengthened our competitive position through strategically important content wins, and we've delivered on several critical projects, including organizational changes that are transforming the way we operate, along with outsource arrangements with key logistics, technology, and contact center partners that have enabled us to deliver on the initial stages of the Sky Box and Sky Pod rollout. While change can be difficult, I'm proud of the way we've showed respect for our people through this process and the way that our teams are embracing the change. Turning briefly to slide five. One of the sources of our competitive strength is our multi-product offering, meeting customers where they are. I won't read off the slide, but will instead pick up on the pertinent updates through each customer product line as we move through the presentation.
Before doing so, we need to start with the clear competitive strength of our unmatched content bundle. Included on the slide 6 are instances of the way our disciplined strategy is playing out when it comes to attracting new customers and keeping existing customers engaged. Rather than traversing the details here, I want to call out four key themes that underpin our strategy and the confidence we have in managing the programming rights cost line moving forward. The first is that we value what our customers value, and we have a deep understanding of this value from what they choose to watch. It's a key driver for our acquisition and renewal decisions, and a great example is our deal this year with World Rugby, acknowledging the rating power of the All Blacks.
Crucially, this deal sees us securing the next 2 men's and women's Rugby World Cup and other season-long content for the rest of the decade. On the other side of the coin, this strong knowledge also means that we have a good understanding of what we don't need to have exclusively, and we are prioritizing our investments accordingly. The second related theme is around a strong focus on growth and capturing new audiences by understanding what may be of interest to them. This awareness underpins our strategic acquisitions to attract a new, wider customer demographic, as has already been proven to be the case with the Premier League and Formula One. The third aspect is our growing confidence and belief in the importance of free-to-air and free-to-access content delivery, whether on our own or with partners.
While in the past, I may have had some fear of the downside of this approach, the evidence is clear. All boats rise with the tide, provided the deals are structured in a mutually beneficial way to achieve positive results for Sky and our partners. Lastly, our most recent deal, the renewal of Warner Bros. Discovery, is important in many respects, not least because this significant renewal was struck on more favorable commercial terms than in the prior period, bucking the trend of the continued price inflation of the past. Turning now to our operational performance. Starting with customer relationships, this chart showing steady growth will be very familiar to you. In FY23, the growth rate was 2.5%, bringing us to over 1 million customers. We deal with the migration of the Vodafone TV customers on the next couple of slides.
For now, simply to note that we previously included these customers within our streaming numbers, but with the platform closure in March, these customers were able to move to the Sky product of their choice, and so as at 30 June, they are counted on that basis. Overall, the Sky Box benefits from 17,000 migrating Vodafone TV customers, contributing to an improved net decline of 2.7%. At the same time, our streaming customers rose 7%, but on a like-to-like basis, the Sky Sport Now and Neon, the real increase was 15%. The Vodafone TV customer movement to Sky Box is shown in more detail on Slide 9. Other Box acquisitions were lower than we'd have liked, due in large part to the delayed launch of our new products and the knock-on impact to our normal run rate of marketing activity.
That said, we now have the product with the ability for continuous improvement, as I referenced earlier, to go after this opportunity. When I take a step back, it's not the numbers, but the improved margin, that's a key, a key consideration. I'm very pleased with the 43% reduction year-on-year in foregone revenue. This impressive reduction is across acquisitions and save offers, and so it's also a relative comfort to see that despite the challenges facing household budgets, disconnections were held flat. We now have 79% of our customers who've been with us more than 5 years, with a very low churn rate of 7%. As you'll see from Slide 10, the Vodafone TV base had been in steady decline the past few years, and in March 2022, there were 31,000 paying customers.
Approximately one year later, we migrated 18,000, or 60%, of that original number to their chosen Sky product, with 17,000 choosing the full Sky service via Sky Box or Sky Pod, and with at least 1,500 having opted for Sky Sport Now or Neon. Paying to keep this platform open was the right call, as this customer cohort has made a positive revenue contribution throughout, with the ongoing benefits on a customer lifetime value basis. Turning to the new Sky experience. As a reminder, the wider rollout began on April 19th, and by year-end, we had around 35,000 new Sky Boxes and 13,000 Sky Pods in use. Customer NPS is an important metric, and we're pleased that NPS from the customers on the new Box is trending in the right direction, up 7 percentage points compared to our existing Box base.
The main driver is the enhanced customer experience, such as the vastly improved content discovery that's revealing the full value of customer subscriptions. There continues to be pleasing demand for the new Sky Box, with plenty of positive feedback from those customers who are loving the new experience. This interest, along with the significant savings available from refreshing the Sky Box fleet and richer data insights to inform content decisions and advertising attribution, is part of our strong case to accelerate investment in the rollout this financial year. Turning to Sky Box revenue on Slide 12. It's pleasing to see the continued stabilizing of this revenue line with an under 1% decline in FY23, which is a vast improvement on the 3.4% decline we saw in FY22.
This improvement was helped by the Vodafone TV customers made in the period, and the Sky Box and Sky Pod access fee, which is included in revenue but not ARPU numbers. Increasing ARPU by NZD 2.21 also played an important part in this effort, with the contributing factors being listed on the slide, including the sports pack increases and consistent sports penetration, that also serves to give us confidence in our sports pricing strategy going forward. This improvement was also achieved despite some spin down from multi-room and higher value entertainment packages. Now, as it now stands, 48% of our base now pay NZD 89 or more per month, which is an impressive increase of 44% year-on-year.
As you may have seen, we've announced further pricing changes last week, with an increase in our overall entertainment package and a change in the composition that gives additional value while simplifying the offer. This is consistent with the principles of our pricing and packaging approach that we've referenced in the past. Turning to our streaming business on Slide 13, you'll see that for the first time, we've provided more detail to Sky Sport Now and Neon. Sky Sport Now continues to go from strength to strength, with 37% customer growth year-on-year, and with an impressive 50% jump in revenue. There's strong evidence that our content strategy is doing what we intended, with 41% of year-end customers coming from new acquisitions. Increased content value we're delivering supported a 12.5% lift in the price of the monthly and annual passes.
We also took the decision back in January to remove the free trial option, this has had a positive impact on sales. What we're seeing in abundance is a strong year-round diet of sports content, attracting and keeping customers engaged, and there's plenty more in the pipeline to continue this trend. On Slide 14, you'll see the steady growth in Neon customers to 318,000. Revenue was up 19%- $57 million, ARPU increased with a 12.5% price rise in August 2022. In tandem with the price rise, you may recall we introduced a second product tier that provides customers with the option of a lower price point. This Basic product is attracting an audience segment and positioning us well for a potential move to introduce an ad-funded option in the second half.
Neon's locally curated content is resonating with subscribers, with consistently strong engagement and a 24% increase in tenure. We are very mindful of the impact caused to our studio partners by the ongoing writers and now actors strike in the United States. In simple terms, this means the potential for delays to acquisition-driving titles such as The White Lotus and Yellowstone, which are the lifeblood of an entertainment subscription service. The Neon team is working hard to mitigate the likely impact of this on our acquisition lines, to focus on the depth and breadth of our strong library. That said, this is the nature of the streaming business model, which we understand and are comfortable with, given the breadth of our multi-product offering and the depth of our content partnerships. The call-out on the next slide is the positive contribution from Sky Broadband from FY23.
The most recent accolade as the winner of the Customer Choice Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customer Award, is a testament to the quality of our plans and the technology choices that back them. Our customer growth was a little slower in the second half as we focused our resources on higher margin activity. Even so, we delivered a 45% increase and an attachment rate to Sky Box of 5%. At the same time, revenue climbed to NZD 20 million, and ARPU was consistent, with 52% of our customers choosing the 1 Gig plan. On Slide 16, the news is good for our commercial business, with monthly revenues now above pre-COVID levels. A highly successful FIFA Women's World Cup event has provided a welcome boost for many of our hospitality and accommodation sector customers going into FY24.
The 13% revenue increase includes the regular step-up and value-based tier pricing for licensed premises and the first 12 months of normal billing for our accommodation providers. Our commercial business is back in positive territory, with the Rugby World Cup and the ICC Cricket World Cup around the corner, we see this momentum continuing. There's reason for optimism in advertising, too. 9% growth on a like-to-like basis after excluding RugbyPass. To put that in context, the total market contracted by 5%. We're able to buck that trend with revenue market share rising to 9.5% from 8.3%. Now, I've made no secret of our view that while we're performing well in our subscription business, we haven't been achieving as well as we should in advertising.
I have a very talented leadership team in place to drive the growth we're seeking, with an existing team who are excited about the strategy they're now leaning into. FY24 will see us lift our game further to capture a share that's more appropriate to the breadth of our content and size of our audiences across both paid and free-to-air platforms. We will also be expanding into the high-value and fast-growing digital space. It's still at an early stage, the response we've had from the advertising sector has been very encouraging, I look forward to updating you further in the future. With that, I'll hand over to Andrew, who will take you through the numbers in more detail.
Thanks, Sophie, and good morning, everyone. As Sophie has said, we're reporting a solid set of numbers with revenue, EBITDA, and NPAT all within guidance on an underlying basis, while CapEx is slightly over. We had another year of revenue growth, driven by improved ARPU across all products, growth in streaming customers, continued stabilization in Sky Box, and uplifts in broadband, commercial, and advertising. As significantly guided, we have adjusted for NZD 6.8 million of one-off costs associated with the organizational changes made during the year. We also removed the NZD 1.1 million net loss of RugbyPass this year, with the business being sold in October 2022. Adjusted EBITDA of NZD 156.4 million was 1.8% ahead of last year, above the midpoint of guidance.
Adjusted NPAT of NZD 56.7 million was a 15.2% improvement on last year, with most of this coming from lower right of use depreciation following a reassessment of the Optus lease term, as well as lower depreciation on our existing Sky Box fee ahead of the new products coming on stream in FY24. Sophie has already talked about revenue at a product level, I will now cover off the overall revenue picture this year. As you can see on Slide 20, at a reported level, we have delivered an increase of 2.4%, our second consecutive year of growth at the revenue line. The NZD 754 million revenue number does have some noise in it. Firstly, the impact of streaming from extending the operation of the Vodafone TV platform through to March 2023.
The cost of NZD 10.1 million measured against revenue. Comparable cost last year was only NZD 4 million, thereby masking underlying growth in streaming of 16%. You'll see that other revenue returned to a more normal run rate, following a one-off increase last year relating to on-sold programming rights, most of which was the sub-licensing of the Olympics to TVNZ. Lastly, is the impact of the sale of RugbyPass , with only NZD 1 million of advertising revenue this year before it was sold, versus NZD 4 million last year. After adjusting for these factors, our underlying revenue growth was 4.5% on a comparable basis. Turning now to expenses, well, I'm happy to report that overall expenses were in line with the forecast that underpinned our guidance.
Overall, we had a NZD 15 million increase in expenses, which is net of NZD 33 million of cost management, that partly offset the cost of growth and increases in programming costs. NZD 13 million costs of growth affects the costs of delivering revenue growth in Sky Broadband and our streaming products, along with establishing our new three-player partnership with Pacific Media Network. The NZD 35 million increase in programming costs, which is before factoring in NZD 13 million of savings, compares to the NZD 40 million that we indicated at the time of our FY22 results. That NZD 35 million is split into three categories. The first is rights one-offs of NZD 2 million, which is the net impact of one-offs and cyclical events coming in and out of the P&L. For example, in FY22, we had the Olympics and the tail effect of COVID cancellation savings.
While in FY23, we had the Commonwealth Games and the FIFA World Cup. We have a NZD 28 million increase for new rights and renewals. New rights include the Premier League from August 2022, and Formula One from January 2023. Renewals included the NRL, which came into effect from January 2023, and a step up in the second year of our Warner HBO deal that was renewed in 2021. Part of this NZD 28 million uplift was also the roll-off of the tail of equitable rights reductions in FY22. Lastly, there was NZD 6 million, which was categorized as returning content. That relates to the uplift in production costs associated with the return home of New Zealand teams that have played overseas during COVID, such as the Breakers, Warriors, and Phoenix.
As noted earlier, NZD 13 million of our cost savings related to programming costs, while the remaining NZD 20 million were spread across most other cost lines, including savings from exiting RugbyPass, reduced marketing, and lower external agency spend. Turning now to EBITDA, which, as I mentioned earlier, came in above the midpoint of guidance on an adjusted basis. I will walk you through the breakdown of the year-on-year movements, noting that I've already covered expenses on the previous slide. Firstly, we've normalized for one-offs in both years, noting that the net NZD 15 million last year mostly related to the gain on sale from our Mount Wellington properties and the release of a provision for Holidays Act compliance. You'll see the first four categories in the bridge show net revenue growth of NZD 23 million across our core business.
As was the case last year, the decline in box revenues, which continues to moderate, was more than made up for by streaming revenue growth. As I pointed out earlier, if you remove the impact of a NZD 6 million net increase in Vodafone TV fees, the underlying stream growth was actually NZD 16 million. As covered in the previous slide, there was NZD 13 million related to the cost of growth, and the NZD 35 million in programming cost increases is the combination of three categories I spoke about. At an EBITDA level, we have net cost management of NZD 27 million, which includes the full year impact of savings implemented last year, as well as new savings, which were implemented this year.
Of the NZD 27 million, there was NZD 13 million related to programming costs, with the remaining NZD 14 million spread across marketing, external agency spend, consultancy costs, and the benefit of exiting RugbyPass, which incurred a loss last year. The NZD 14 million also includes reduced people costs, only a portion of which relates to the organizational changes we made this year, with the remaining benefits still to flow through in FY24. I do note that the NZD 14 million shown here in the EBITDA bridge is a net number, as we've netted off the NZD 5 million reduction in other revenue, most of which relates to the Olympic sub-licensing revenue we had last year, which I talked about earlier.
Lastly, the NZD 8 million costs of change includes redundancies, career transition support provided to Sky leaders, consultancy costs, and establishment costs for Sky's new outsource partners, as well as removing the RugbyPass loss in FY23. Looking at CapEx on slide 23. As we've said in through guidance, and as was evident in half year, CapEx has increased as a result of the investment in our new Sky Box and Sky Pod products, both in software development as well as hardware, with growth CapEx coming in at 61% of the total. FY23 saw CapEx as a percentage of revenue lifting to 10.2%, above the top end of our long-run target of 7%-9%, due to the investments in these new products, as well as building inventory ahead of the rollout to customer homes.
At year-end, we had approximately 35,000 new Sky Boxes in use in customer homes and just over 50,000 in inventory in the warehouse. Our capital investment levels will remain high in FY24 as well as into FY25, as we now look to accelerate the rollout, which will also start to show in high levels of depreciation, given our existing Box fleet is largely depreciated. Quite aside from the improved interface and customer experience, there are a number of operational and financial benefits of getting customers on these new products, including our cost to serve, given a high proportion of self-install for existing Box customers.... and avoided repair and refurbishment costs on the old fleet.
Turning now to cash flow on slide 24, where the theme is again, one of strong cash generation that's enabling our investment for the future, whilst also allowing us to deliver healthy distributions for shareholders. We generated NZD 117 million of cash from operating activities, which was broadly in line with NZD 120 million last year. As I said, this helped fund our increased capital investment this year, which saw cash CapEx of NZD 71 million versus NZD 45 million last year. We saw a NZD 3 million reduction in leasing costs, mostly from the Optus renegotiation in December 2021, albeit this was partly offset by the full year of new leases at our Mount Wellington and Central Auckland sites, where we had 12 months of costs this year, versus only 4 months last year.
Free cash flow available for distribution was NZD 16.5 million, or NZD 24.4 million, once adjusted for one-off items. Combined with our opening cash position of NZD 139 million, this gave the board scope for significant capital management initiatives this year. This saw a total of NZD 96 million of distributions and capital management activity, made up of a NZD 70 million capital return in November, NZD 21 million paid out in dividends, and NZD 4.5 million of capital deployed to date on the share buyback. We finished the year with NZD 56 million of cash on hand, which when combined with an undrawn banking facility of NZD 150 million, leaves us with a strong balance sheet position going into the higher investment phase in FY24 and FY25.
Looking ahead now, I'll take you through dividends and capital management before handing back to Sophie. On slide 26, as we settled in our guidance and when announcing the organizational change, the board has adjusted for one-offs when determining free cash flow available for dividends. After adjusting for the cost of the organizational change and to remove the cash loss of RugbyPass this year, this results in NZD 24.4 million of free cash flow available for distribution. On this basis, the board has declared a final dividend of NZD 0.09 per share, bringing the total for the year to NZD 0.15 per share, or NZD 21.7 million, which is above the midpoint of our original guidance of NZD 17 million-NZD 23 million, and in line with our updated guidance at half year of NZD 20 million-NZD 23 million.
This NZD 0.15 per share equates to a payout of 89% of adjusted free cash flow, and at the top of the updated 60%-90% policy range announced in November. Going into FY24, a year where free cash flow will be impacted by the investment needed to roll out the new Sky Box and pass, the board intends to exclude one-off CapEx associated with satellite mitigation, which I'll cover off shortly, as well as the accelerated portion of investment in the rollout, in determining adjusted free cash flow available for FY24 dividends. This decision reflects the board's ongoing confidence in Sky's cash generation, as well as the strength of the balance sheet, which is the capacity to fund both the capital investment program whilst also maintaining dividends for shareholders.
On satellite mitigation, you'll see from our separate announcement today, that we've agreed a variation with Optus that provides security of supply of satellite capacity out to 2031. This will require us to incur some satellite mitigation CapEx in FY24 and FY25, in order to ensure a seamless transition across various satellites. The agreement with Optus includes financial support to help us cover that cost, albeit the timing means the cash benefit of that support will largely fall into FY25 and FY26, and will come through as a reduction in our lease payments, rather than an offset to CapEx. On the share buyback, we completed NZD 4.5 million of the target of NZD 15 million by year-end, with the potential for a further NZD 10.5 million of shares to be acquired by the end of March next year.
Now, with that, I'll hand back to Sophie.
Thanks, Andrew. Great job! Looking ahead to FY24, we expect the positive growth trends in customer relationships, revenue, and ARPU to continue. We'll also start to see the impact of the growth opportunities we're going after in advertising. Our FY24 revenue guidance suggests growth of 3.6% at the midpoint, as Andrew alluded to, FY24 will see the last of the locked-in step-up rights costs, including a full 12 months of the NRL and Formula One, and the first year of World Rugby, which will be partly offset by savings from non-renewals, as well as recent renewals on more favorable terms, as well as the benefit of permanent cost savings delivered in prior years. FY24 EBITDA guidance suggests NZD 157.5 million at the midpoint, compared to NZD 156 million adjusted result in FY23.
Overall, we see FY24 as the next installment of our transformation journey, with revenue growth and cost management offsetting the net step up in rights and the cost of continued growth. CapEx guidance takes into account the accelerated rollout of our new Sky experience, but excludes satellite mitigation steps. The accelerated rollout will result in a steeper but shorter period of elevated CapEx in the next 2 financial years, before returning to normal run rate levels. In FY24, the increased capital investment, together with the timing of the satellite mitigation spend, versus the cash benefit of the Optus support coming through in FY25, may see us use our debt facility at times during the year.
Finally, on this slide, you will see that we're guiding to an FY24 dividend of at least NZD 0.15 per share on the adjusted free cash flow basis that Andrew covered off earlier. With that guidance in mind, we've set out 3 clear priorities in FY24. Employee engagement is always a key focus for us, and more so in FY24, following a year of significant internal change. Of course, rolling out the new Sky experience to existing and new customers is a significant priority. At the same time, we'll continue to build out our new revenue streams with our refreshed Sky sales leadership team now in place. Acknowledging that FY24 is another year of consolidation on our transformation path, and to assure of the board's and management's confidence in Sky's strategic plans, we've provided 3-year targets out to FY26.
These include: a revenue CAGR of between 3% and 4%, an EBITDA margin of 21%-23% as we see the leverage effect of revenue growth and cost control coming through to the bottom line. Contributing to this, we expect programming costs as a percentage of revenue, to fall within 47%-49%. As we mentioned, CapEx will return to our long run average once we get through this accelerated period of investment. We're also targeting a significant lift in both employee and customer NPS. All of which sees us confidently forecasting a doubling of the FY23 dividend by FY26. As these targets indicate, and I hope is now evident from the track record of delivery to date, my leadership team and I have no shortage of ambition for Sky.
Understanding the unique role we play in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and with a clear execution plan to deliver on our growth strategy ahead. With that, I'll now hand over to the operator to open the line for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Arie Dekker with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, and thanks for the presentation and ongoing good disclosure. Just firstly on the Sky Boxes. I mean, obviously, relatively low penetration of those new boxes at the year end, given the delays. Can you just say how much boxes you had in inventory at FY23 of each type?
Yeah, we had, in the warehouse, we had around 50,000 boxes in the warehouse at the end of June, Arie.
Pods?
Pods is around 15,000.
Yeah.
Perfect. Just on the guidance and just exploring, you know, some of the approach you're sort of taking, I guess, to the revenue part of it. So in terms of price changes, you've obviously directed price changes in the last year or so, or a bit more to your premium content, which makes sense. Is your revenue guidance of 3%-4% to FY26 premised on regular price increases in that key, in the key, premium content packages over the next couple of years?
Price increases, are something we always look at, understanding, you know, all of the input costs, and you're absolutely right, it is a, it is a super premium offering. We're obviously looking to, to strike that balance, though, Arie, understanding that for some New Zealanders, they're not able to, to, to fund that. Hence, you know, Sky Open launching and that focus on what we can do from an advertising perspective as well. Also-
Sure.
as we look at our Sky Business lines, as well, to kind of drive into that, into that overall revenue growth.
Sure. Then, I guess if I look at the approach on, on customers, I mean, if I strip out broadband customers, your customer relationships, you know, at 2023 are, you know, pretty much in line with where they sat at 2020. You know, albeit with, with, with mixed composition shifts to, to streaming. in the, the plans, you know, is the... Are you looking at customer growth? Then I guess perhaps, you know, as part of that question, are there changes in approach to pricing on the Sky Box coming in the future to aid with that?
I guess what I'm specifically asking is, at FY26, would you still expect to be requiring Sky Box customers to be paying, you know, NZD 25 for the starter pack and then charges to, you know, have, have the box and for things like recording capability?
Look, I think, customer growth for sure, across, across each of the, each of the lines. I think that in particular, when we think about the new Sky experience, Arie, the Sky Pod is a really important feature there, so that's effectively Sky without a dish. If you couple that with Sky Broadband, it becomes pretty interesting. We're obviously, we've done some changes on our entertainment pack to reflect some simplification for customers, and we're continuing to look at how we drive the right value, across the Sky Box and obviously into the apps. Do I think by FY26 there'll be a different shape of some of the, some of the packages?
Yes, potentially, but overall, we're, you know, the ARPU on Box side is super encouraging, and ultimately, Arie, it's not so much the numbers, but it's the margin that we're really interested in. You know, as you say, on the broadband side, it's a much lower margin product. Our interest and focus is on, is on those, you know, the content-driving margin that we have in this business.
Sure. Then just last one from me, for, for, for now, just, just normalizations. You know, there's been a decent chunk of those over recent years. Are we sort of at the end of that phase, or, or do you expect there's gonna be further costs you need to normalize out in, in FY 24?
I think that when I look at it, we're at, you know, I think we're coming through most of those. It's been, you know, it has been a busy period. That said, if there's an opportunity to ensure that we've got the right efficiencies in this business, which means there are some one-off costs, of course, we won't shy away from that. This is all about, you know, investing for the next phase of growth for this company.
Bear in mind, the normalization-
Thank you very much.
Sorry, I should say, bear in mind, the normalizations last year were largely the result of the sale of the property, less so-
Yeah, no, I was looking through the last 4 or 5 years.
Right.
More. Yeah.
Fair enough.
Thanks, Harry.
Cool. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Aaron Ibbotson with Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi there. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I had a few minor questions, if that's okay, but I'd like to start off with Neon streaming customers, if that's okay. If I understood it correctly, you know, reading your numbers, there was sort of flat customer numbers versus the full year. That was maybe a touch light of versus what I had anticipated. So I'm just curious to first hear if that's correct. Secondly, if you, Sophie, could talk to a little bit what your ambition is with regards to Neon customers, over the next sort of 12 months or so. Thank you.
Morning, Aaron. Yeah, you're right. There was it was, it was flat, and we did see some, you know, softness in the second half, particularly looking at the impacts of the writers and actors strike for United States. What does that mean? It means those sort of high acquisition driving titles not coming through as, as anticipated. What I'm excited about with our Neon team and the leadership in there, is that we have an incredible breadth of content. They're now resurfacing, the likes of the deep library that we have, like Breaking Bad or Succession, for those who like those types of premium drama. We're gonna be really interested to see, Aaron, what that does. You know, we're really pleased with the tenure that we're seeing in Neon.
Overall, from our perspective, there'll be a bit of test and learn this year because of this, you know, the ongoing impacts of the strike. Ultimately, from my perspective, it's about the overall shape of our business, and Neon is obviously one component in that. I hope that gives you a sense. I'm not gonna give you the numbers for the, the next 12 months in terms of that breakout, we're, you know, yeah, we are acknowledging that there, you know, there was an impact in the last couple of months, we're, we're anticipating that continuing. The team are working really hard to, to retain those customers that love the Neon content.
Thank you. Secondly, slightly more boring question, but just on, on Depreciation and Amortization-
That's for Andrew.
Do I read your... Yeah, exactly. Well, do I, do I understand your guidance correctly, that you're expecting D&A in the sort of roughly around NZD 90 million or so? If you could just help me understand your 3-year target. You know, is, is that sort of a level you're, you're expecting to be maintained, or is it trending up or down, depending on how you treat your-
I think-
new book depreciation, et c?
Yeah. Look, obviously, as I think I mentioned in the, in the guidance number, that's pretty spot on, I think, in terms of where it'll be next year. The reason it's up, obviously, is for the first time we're effectively depreciating the new fleet. Our, our, our existing box fleet's largely fully depreciated, so that's why stepping into 2024, we'll get a lift because the boxes that are there and the new ones will come on.
presumably that will then drift up a little bit. Is that fair to say, over 2025, 2026, as you're rolling out the Sky Box, or?
I would say it would be stable at that level. I wouldn't have think of... You'll get the lift in 2024 because it's the first time we've got the new fleet on. At that point, it'll stabilize, it'll be You know, you might get smaller lifts, but not the sort of size you'll get in between 2023 and 2024.
Okay. Thank you. Secondly, just another little detail. You know, the New Zealand dollar is sort of misbehaving a little bit. I'm just curious to understand some of your larger content deals, to what degree we need to pay attention to the US dollar, New Zealand cross, if that could catch you off guard to any significant event, effect?
Yes, I think, Aaron, we do have a, you know, a considered hedging policy which is in place, particularly for studio deals. You know, our most impressive cost is in New Zealand dollars in terms of the SANZAAR deal through New Zealand Rugby. Andrew, anything you want to build on that?
Yeah, I, I, just gonna think, certainly the short term, next 12 months or so, we're almost 100% hedged. I think from that perspective, our P&L is pretty stable for the forward year anyway. Obviously our hedging policy has a sort of 3-year look at it, but the next 12 months or so are pretty well hedged.
Okay, thank you. final quick ones. broadband profitability. If I look at your EBITDA bridge, it looks like revenues and costs broadly going up in tandem. you know, you're sort of a couple of years, I guess, into your broadband effort now. Is it going according to plan? You know, do you see it becoming, sort of genuine EBITDA, even NPAT contributor, in, in the near-ish future, or can, can we have more around the broadband?
It makes a contribution. It's not a large one. We don't see it as a large contributor to our EBITDA, but it does, it does wash its face, Aaron, now that it's, I guess, through its startup phase, it's now actually making a contribution to the bottom line.
The other thing, Aaron, is it has won, you know, an impressive customer award because of, because of the great value on the tech in the home.
Oh, important.
Yeah, it is super, you know, that is just a customer-voted one, by the way. In the longer run, I think we're gonna have some really interesting opportunities, particularly as we deploy the Sky Pod, and think about how we bundle that, and, you know, deliver great value for New Zealanders.
Okay, fantastic. Final question, sorry, from me, just on the Vodafone TV, and, and this is for you, Sophie, and, I don't mean to be like, be pointed with my question-
Go on. I know you want to be, Aaron. Go for it.
No. No, but I'm just, I'm just thinking about the original sort of 100K or so Vodafone TV, of which you had a relation- or 40 of them, roughly had a relationship with Sky one way or another, and now you're left with 17. To me, that was a little bit of a disappointing outcome, but I'm just curious, you know, do you feel like it was in line with your expectation? Do you think that some of those other 20, 25 would come in through sort of the back door, into Sky Box? What happened to the sort of 60K Vodafone TV that weren't Sky, you know, did you manage to, you know, convert any of those, you think?
Well, I, I think the first-
That's basically my question.
Yeah. Yeah, look, I think the 100 K, I wouldn't be able to say that. That wasn't data that we had. They were obviously enjoying an IP service, which gives us confidence around some confidence around the Sky Pod. Yeah, you're right, there has been a steady decline on the Vodafone TV base. You know, they kept the platform open. We're developing products. There wasn't a perfect confluence of, you know, customer outcomes there. That said, you know, the 60% we did secure, you know, is, is definitely, was definitely the right thing to do. Would I have liked it to have been a higher percentage, just like in my exams, Aaron? Yes, I would've. Ultimately, you know, these are important customers to us.
They've delivered a positive contribution throughout, and from a customer lifetime value basis, no question that this was the right thing to do. We have seen some of those customers that we could track come on to Sky Sport Now and Neon, and I do think there's gonna be a cool opportunity, particularly at Christmas time, to welcome back some of those, or to invite, sorry, some of that larger cohort of customers who obviously enjoyed IP delivery of content with our new service.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Phil Campbell with UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, Sophie and Andrew. Just a few questions from me. I'm wondering, Andrew, if you could just give us a bit of a background on the Optus satellite migration. Just seems a bit bizarre that, you know, it was Optus' kind of issue with the migration of the satellite, then you seem to be wearing the cost in the short term, and they're only reimbursing you kind of later on. I'm just interested on the, on the commercial timing of that, of that decision. That'd be good. That's my first question.
Well, I, I don't see it as a negative per se. I think ultimately the fact that they've provided financial support reflects the fact that they understand the reason we're spending the money is 'cause of the delay and the need to cover migration. From our perspective, yes, there's a timing difference, but ultimately the costs are covered. You know, and it's a, it's a, it's not an individual single year thing, so that we. You know, the money's gonna be spent over a couple of years, and there's support over a couple of years. It just starts a bit later. It is starting in FY24, but not till the back end of it, you know, but the bulk of the cash flows are in 24 and 25, but, but covered from our perspective.
Okay, awesome. Then Sophie...
We're not spending. You know, it's not huge amounts of money, but it is important that we make sure that all of our customers are available, are ready, sorry, and available for the migration when eventually it happens, which is what the spend's about.
I was just gonna add that. That's a super important factor here, is to note that notwithstanding any further delays, from Optus or its manufacturers in terms of their new satellite fleet, we have guaranteed coverage for this country, out to 2031.
What, and what's kind of involved in, in the spend? Is it something to do with the Sky Box, is it, or?
No, it's not, it's not around the box. It's really around, the receiving equipment and making sure that, particularly on the Sky Business side, we've got the right receiving equipment, because one of the mitigation features is, pointing to different orbital slots. It's more about the receiving equipment on the outside, nothing to do with the box or the hardware, in the home or the commercial premises.
Okay, awesome. Just, I had a question on NZR+. Obviously, there's been a bit of press around that. I'd just be, I'd be interested in getting your kind of take on, on what your, what your thoughts on that are, Sophie?
Yeah. Thanks, Phil. We had a presentation, or I attended one a couple of weeks ago, New Zealand Rugby and Sky are aligned in trying to grow the fandom of rugby particularly in New Zealand. I think the real focus for NZR+ is about monetizing these All Blacks fans abroad. There's some big numbers that are being talked about, who are fans and want to invest. I well understand New Zealand Rugby's desire to connect with them direct to get data in respect to those customers. There's some pretty cool content besides behind-the-scenes content, and the great thing, Phil, is our new Sky Box and Pod.
You can bring that app into the ecosystem, I think that's one of the opportunities going forward, is to see how we work more closely with New Zealand Rugby and its commercial arm to see about those content tie-ups, 'cause we're, you know, we've both got the same aim in mind of, of growing the love of the game.
Great. Just on the, you talked a little bit about the possibility of having, like, an ad tier for some of the streaming platforms.
Yeah.
Is that money for Neon, or will you also have that for Sky Sport Now? I suppose just interested in the, in the decision there, is that kind of a, you know, partly to do with the fact that, you know, maybe it-- you can have a lower price point, obviously, it's good in a tough recurring environment, but also we've got, you know, Netflix has obviously launched its ad tier in Australia, although it's, you know, probably not going as well as the U.S. one. Yeah, just be interested in your kind of thoughts, you know, the decisions around that. Be quite good.
Yeah, it's... You're spot on. It's about being able to deliver great service at, at the right price, price points, and the advertising side is about maximizing that investment, that we've got in content. Initially, we're looking at Neon, but we also think there is a really great opportunity on Sky Sport Now. You know, we, we saw that Spark Sport, when it was around, you know, had some interesting advertising showing up there, and we kind of look across the ditch at Kayo and what they've done with different services. Again, an ability to invite customers to explore the content through our apps and, of course, through our new free-to-air channel, Sky Open, for us is all about trying to meet Kiwis where they are. Advertising is one way to, to help with some of those upfront costs.
Great. Then maybe the last one for me, just on the, on the kind of targets for 2026. Obviously, you've got the programming expenses, you know, 47%-49%. You know, is there, is there, like, an assumption within that of what the rugby rights are gonna renew at?
Yes. Yes, there is.
Yeah, I mean, there's an assumption across all of our programming rights cost line, which is, which is right, Phil, but also involves our production costs as well. The key thing is we value what our customers value. We know this from what they watch, and those, you know, new customers that we've invited in with the likes of our strategic investment in the Formula One. That's what gives us confidence going forward, because now that the landscape has changed in New Zealand, we don't necessarily have to take everything, and we're gonna be very clear about what we allocate our customers' money to in terms of a strategic premium, and what we're happy to hold or let go, to be honest. There's a number of features that do go into that.
Of course, New Zealand Rugby, we've got all of the games live for New Zealand until the end of 2025. Beyond that juncture, yeah, I'm sure it's gonna be, as always, a robust discussion with them. Yeah, there are a number of features that go into that. I hope that helps.
I think the other thing I'd say is the fact that, you know, the reason we can confidently point to those sort of targets and the margin expansion that comes with them, is other than rugby, we have effectively got, you know, we've got no other big deals to do, right? You know, we, we just don't feel we're exposed to the renewal, you know, inflation that we've seen in the past. With what we're calling out, you know, reasonably steady revenue growth over the next few years with essentially programming rights kind of controlled, we feel quite confident around, you know, hitting those targets in three years.
Without kind of giving us the numbers, 'cause I don't get the Nielsen data, can you give us a flavor of what, you know, what is the rugby viewership like? I'm assuming that the test matches are pretty high, you see that from some of the Nielsen data. You know, Super 15, what is the kind of viewership been like on that product?
Yeah. Look, we can definitely share that with you afterwards in terms of some of the numbers that we've shared publicly. I can tell you that, yeah, the All Blacks have an amazing rating power, which is why we did our deal with World Rugby. Of late, to be honest, the Warriors are the ones which are sort of top of the charts, particularly at the moment. You were talking about Super Rugby Pacific. We saw some great, you know, good growth this year with that, with that 12-team comp. Yeah, we look across. The joy of what we have is being able to look across, you know, our portfolio of sports, and looking to drive, you know, the best viewing experience for New Zealanders across whatever sport they're interested in.
You know, part of the-- I've been asked earlier this morning about what do I think about TVNZ, and I'm... You know, from our perspective and for our customers who like cricket, I'm really excited now that, you know, TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2, and Duke, which are from the Sky Box, delivered by satellite, are now available to our customers, and they can record the Black Caps again to their heart's content. Of course, we've got the ICC Cricket World Cup coming up later this year.
Great. Then maybe just following on from Aaron's question on Neon, you know, obviously, we've got the writers' strike, but, you know, obviously Yellowstone is quite a big part of Neon, obviously, I think Yellowstone wasn't necessarily a writers' strike. It was more to do with the actors. Have you got any color on when Yellowstone might be coming back?
You're, you're not-
That's my favorite.
Yeah, you're not the only one who's asking, 'cause they're sort of halfway through. Yeah, I think there's a little bit of actor interference maybe there. I don't have the latest on that, but our, our Neon team are very, very alive to it. You're absolutely right. It's a great watch, and we've got all the seasons there. My suggestion for those New Zealanders who haven't managed to engage is: catch up now, and hopefully the rest of Season 5, which I think it is, will be with us, before we know it.
Great. Awesome. That's all the questions from me.
Thanks, Phil.
Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your next question comes from Brian Han with Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Just a follow-up on that, 3-year target for programming cost to revenue. Do you expect the trajectory to that 47%-49% target to begin in FY24?
Well, I guess our yes is the answer, but we won't hit that sort of range until FY26. The key thing, obviously, is getting it under 50%. We were higher than that in FY23. We, we've got another, I guess, a step up in FY24 as we've got the first year of World Rugby-
The tail events of Formula One and EPL. The real benefits are falling out even more in 2025 and 2026.
Okay. Andrew, you may have mentioned this, I might have missed this, on the one-off CapEx for satellite migration this year, can you give us a sense of how much that could be?
It's not huge numbers. It's sort of less than NZD 10 million a year over 2 years. Yeah, it's obviously commercially sensitive to deal with Optus, so I can't go into any detail, but we're not talking massive amounts. Equally, from our perspective, I, I wouldn't want to say nothing to see here, but ultimately, over time, we'll have that money effectively paid back to us through the leasing benefits and the financial support from Optus. Less than NZD 10 million in 2024, similar in 2025, but by the time we get to the end of 2026, we'll have that money back in the door through our leasing benefit.
Fantastic. Can you please talk about the outlook for broadcasting and satellite infrastructure cost in light of everything that you're doing?
Sorry, what? Can you repeat the question, Brian? Sorry.
The cost line, the broadcasting and satellite infrastructure cost line, what the outlook might be.
Oh, okay. You're not talking about broadband line, you're talking about our, our D&A?
No, the, the actual group cost line, broadcasting and satellite infrastructure.
Sorry, I'm just looking at the team here for a minute.
Variable cost.
Yeah. Oh, the broadband piece. Sorry, are you talking about the broadband costs for our broadband business? I don't think-
No, no, the broadcasting.
Yes, yes.
satellite infrastructure cost.
Yes. Yes.
Maybe it's my accent, sorry.
Yeah, I think that what we're just saying is that the. If you're asking about why what's the what's causing some uplift, that's obviously where the broadband costs do sit. That's why there's a, you know, an uplift in that line, if that's what your query is about. We're happy to answer it offline as well, if there's not enough detail from you, from the team.
Okay. My last question is, Sophie, on streaming, how much of the streaming ARPU decline do you think was due to the introduction of that second basic tier for Neon?
Yeah, well, look, anytime you introduce a lower price point, it will have an impact on the blended, on the blended rate. In terms of the Neon, it's around 12% of the Neon base that is sitting on that, sitting on the NZD 12.99 lower spec product. You know, that's all part of the overall plan, Brian, is obviously to look at the overall story. And if that's the right place to keep customers with us, and they're happy to go with the lower spec, then obviously we want to do that, and we accept that there might be certain, you know, the, the ARPU, slight ARPU degradation in that, in that mix going forward.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Brian.
Thank you, Brian.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Ms. Moloney for closing remarks.
Thank you very much, Ashley. As I think you'll have heard, it's been a big year, and we've got a big year of continued delivery ahead of us, and I really do look forward to updating you all on our progress. Just from me to say thank you all for joining the call, and we look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible over the coming days. Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.