SCA flags further investment in LiSTNR & expects digital revenues to grow 100% this year

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) expects its digital revenues to grow by between 75% to 100% this financial year.

This growth would come off the back of the 2021 financial year when the company’s digital audio revenue was $15.4 million, an increase of 40% on the year prior.

Should it increase by 100%, this would take SCA’s digital revenues to $30.8 million for the year ending June 30, 2022.

Chairman Rob Murray noted this growth would be supported by further investment in its digital ecosystem LiSTNR, which is possible due to the organisation’s robust balance sheet and the steps it has taken in recent years to create an efficient organisational structure.

He said the trend towards digital consumption and commercialisation of media content was both a challenge and a significant opportunity.

“The trends towards digital consumption and commercialisation of media content are irreversible and accelerating. The ways in which the majority of our audiences enjoy our content and in which we create value for our advertisers and shareholders will be very different in the foreseeable future,” he told investors at today’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).

CEO Grant Blackley also noted the shift to digital audio, revealing that even though SCA’s broadcast radio output has reduced over recent years, overall it is creating 20% more audio content in 2021 compared to 2016. It is also producing 50-times more minutes of podcast material than it was in 2016.

In the first five months of LiSTNR’s launch, Blackley said listening to podcasts grew 200%, and that from a “zero base”, listening to live radio on the platform had actually exceeded podcast consumption.