Latest / Best of Business / Sophie Moloney: chief executive on Sky TV's 3.7 percent drop in net after-tax profit

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Sophie Moloney: chief executive on Sky TV's 3.7 percent drop in net after-tax profit · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalks'b follow this and
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  Speaker 1: our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio now SkyTV.
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  Speaker 2: The customer base has fallen now to its lowest level
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  Speaker 2: in five years. They've posted a net after tax profit
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  Speaker 2: of forty nine million dollars for the year to June.
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  Speaker 2: This is a nearly four percent decrease from the year before.
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  Speaker 2: Sophie maloneous sky TV's chief executive he.
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  Speaker 3: Sophie sure to hear that how you doing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you listen coming back four percent.
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  Speaker 2: Given the economic situation facing the country is not bad,
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  Speaker 2: is it.
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  Speaker 3: It's not too bad, particularly if you think about that.
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  Speaker 3: It's got to increase depreation depreciation costs in it. So
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  Speaker 3: I think the bigger one for us is free cash
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  Speaker 3: flow generation is up forty three percent year on year,
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  Speaker 3: and that has allowed us to pay a dividend of
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  Speaker 3: nineteen cents per share. So that's the twenty six point
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  Speaker 3: seven percent uplift for our for our shareholder.
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  Speaker 2: Love a dividend. However, you have lost about seventy six
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  Speaker 2: thousand subscribers in the last year. Now that feels like
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  Speaker 2: a lot, is it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look like that was disappointing for us and the team.
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  Speaker 3: And I could say on the call earlier that if
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  Speaker 3: I could have moved the balance date to thirty one July,
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  Speaker 3: you would have seen our customer numbers would back up
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  Speaker 3: over a million. So you know, that's the nature of
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  Speaker 3: being a streaming business provider as well as having our
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  Speaker 3: Skybox base. But yeah, it was a bit disappointing in
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  Speaker 3: the year because I want New Zealanders to keep enjoying
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  Speaker 3: their Sky Sport and Sky Entertainment content. But so where
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  Speaker 3: we're working hard to getting back.
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  Speaker 2: But so is it quite volatile because I mean what
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  Speaker 2: you were talking about is the difference between the end
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  Speaker 2: of June and the end of July just being a month.
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  Speaker 2: Is that you've seen you've gained more than seventy thousand
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  Speaker 2: view its.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is. I mean streaming is very volatile.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, that's the two performers that we weren't
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  Speaker 3: happy about in the year, with Skybox and Neon in particular.
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  Speaker 3: So that's the nature of the streaming business that you'll
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  Speaker 3: see your numbers move around quite a lot. And obviously
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  Speaker 3: it was a very impressive July of Sport.
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  Speaker 2: What's the problem with Neon?
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  Speaker 3: We have suffered from having you know, the US writers
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  Speaker 3: and actors strikes didn't mean that we actually didn't get
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  Speaker 3: the content that we had hope through our our key partners.
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  Speaker 4: How the Dragon came in from HBO just at the
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  Speaker 4: end of June.
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  Speaker 3: But looking ahead, you know, we do have Yellowstone coming back,
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  Speaker 3: We've got The Penguin, We've got White Lotus, so there
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  Speaker 3: are some big titles coming back this year and May's
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  Speaker 3: tail as well, so again we should see we hope
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  Speaker 3: to see Neon recover from you know, from where it's
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  Speaker 3: been this year.
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  Speaker 2: Are you Are you seeing this thing where the minute
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  Speaker 2: that you don't have enough content to satisfy people's insatiable
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  Speaker 2: desire to watch things, they switch off and go they cancel,
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  Speaker 2: shift to Netflix for a month, cancel Apple and just
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  Speaker 2: do like a rotation like that.
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  Speaker 3: That is exactly what's happening in the entertainment entertainment SPoD market, Heather.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the you know, it's a challenge, right because
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  Speaker 3: it's quite difficult to manage your reap, you which is
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  Speaker 3: why we do love.
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  Speaker 4: Our always on.
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  Speaker 3: Sport and always on entertainment on the skybox side.
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  Speaker 2: How do you get around that because it seems to
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  Speaker 2: me the only way you can do it is by
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  Speaker 2: locking people are basically for a year with such an
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  Speaker 2: awesome deal over a year that they think it's worth
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  Speaker 2: it and then never cancel.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's one way to do it, but it's also
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  Speaker 3: just understanding the content that people enjoy coming back to
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  Speaker 3: and you know, making sure that you've got a really
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  Speaker 3: free content set to be delivered. So the team are
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  Speaker 3: going to be you know, we've learned a lot with Neon.
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  Speaker 3: We were kind of waiting for these big titles and
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  Speaker 3: we realize that doesn't that doesn't really work, and what
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  Speaker 3: you want is just to have a steady diet of
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  Speaker 3: fresh content.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, what's going on with the rugby? By the way,
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  Speaker 2: when do you start the negotiations?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're in discussions at the moment, so and they're
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  Speaker 3: being constructive and I would expect that, you know, by
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  Speaker 3: the end of this calendar year, we both want to
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  Speaker 3: know where we are with the deal because the new
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  Speaker 3: one starts in one January twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 2: Are you up against anybody who's bidding against you? Is
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  Speaker 2: it TV and Z.
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  Speaker 3: Look, that's that's obviously not a question for me to answer.
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  Speaker 3: That I'm you know where we're very clear hither about
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  Speaker 3: you know, the parts of the rugby deal that are
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  Speaker 3: very valuable for Sky customers and and the stuff that
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  Speaker 3: they're maybe not watching as much of, and that all
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  Speaker 3: goes into the maximum.
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  Speaker 4: Conversation what are we not watching?
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  Speaker 3: I mean some of the some of the content when
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  Speaker 3: you've got lots of other things to watch.
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  Speaker 4: It's quite a.
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  Speaker 3: Competitive landscape over you know, particularly during July and August
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  Speaker 3: there's and this this year in particular with the Olympics,
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  Speaker 3: there are a lot of New Zealanders watching that, that's
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  Speaker 3: for sure.
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  Speaker 2: So the stuff that we're not watching would be like
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  Speaker 2: what the NPC.
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  Speaker 4: Through the year.
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  Speaker 3: The NPC is one of the is one of the
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  Speaker 3: conversations with New Zealand Rugby just to see how they're
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  Speaker 3: scheduling the content and making sure that they're that we're
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  Speaker 3: both marketing it as well as we can to ensure
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  Speaker 3: that New Zealanders know that those games are on and
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of them, right Yeah, there's normally over
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  Speaker 3: seventy games a season, so it's a lot of rugby content.
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  Speaker 2: You're not going to pay as much as you did
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  Speaker 2: last time, though, are you.
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  Speaker 3: Look on it last time in twenty nineteen, we were
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  Speaker 3: in a very different position where basically we needed to
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  Speaker 3: take all of the rugby because Sparksport was there and
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  Speaker 3: we didn't have any choice. Plus we didn't have the
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  Speaker 3: data that we now do to really help inform what
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  Speaker 3: understanding what our customers value. So we're in a much
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  Speaker 3: better place now, and of course we welcome back things
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  Speaker 3: like the Premier League and Formula One which make a
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  Speaker 3: big difference. And the Warriors we're performing really well. How
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  Speaker 3: good obviously they have been amazing, and it'll be awesome
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  Speaker 3: to celebrate Shawn Johnson, who's been a legend this Friday
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  Speaker 3: at Mon's Smart But yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Us at Sean Johnson Stadium.
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  Speaker 4: Exactly right, Heather, Are you going to go along?
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  Speaker 2: No, I haven't actually been invited by anybody. And then
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  Speaker 2: and then I just I just didn't buy my own
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  Speaker 2: tickets because I'm tight.
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  Speaker 4: So okay, well there you go. Maybe maybe someone might
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  Speaker 4: invite you, you never know.
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  Speaker 2: Oh look, and now I've got plans to sit at
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  Speaker 2: home on the couch and watch it. But how good
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  Speaker 2: is that? I know that Sky obviously.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously on Sky or Sky Sport now as you wish,
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  Speaker 3: So the.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think TVNZ is serious about this play for sport?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, are you are you going to have to
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  Speaker 2: go up against them and start shelling out money to
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  Speaker 2: keep your sport content.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's you. Obviously have had some good conversations.
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  Speaker 3: I thought you had a great conversation with Duncan Greeve
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  Speaker 3: conversation for TVNZ. I understand why they want to look
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  Speaker 3: at divestifying their revenue, and I understand obviously Sky understands
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  Speaker 3: the value of sport. I mean, I think Spark Sport
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  Speaker 3: is a pretty salient example of how hard it is
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  Speaker 3: in a market the size of New Zealand's market. So
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  Speaker 3: my thought about TVNZ is that they're a phenomenal freeware player.
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  Speaker 3: They have the biggest free to weare reach in the country.
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  Speaker 3: That's why we partner with them on netball, and we
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  Speaker 3: partner with them with some grassroots rugby with New Zealand Rugby,
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  Speaker 3: so that is their superpower.
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  Speaker 4: But equally, I.
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  Speaker 3: Understand if they want to have a look at the
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  Speaker 3: PTV landscape. I understand why, but that's obviously a conversation
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  Speaker 3: for them direct Heather, yeah, rather than me.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, now, Sophie, have you watched Feud with Tom Hollander
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  Speaker 2: as Truman Capoti.
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  Speaker 3: Nothing but I have not mate, should I?
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  Speaker 2: That is some of the best content you've got on
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  Speaker 2: Meon is so good. Let me just take okay, just
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  Speaker 2: listen to this. Tom Hollander as Truman Capoti. He's the
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  Speaker 2: guy from White Lotus by the way, the one who's
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  Speaker 2: the gay uncle, who's not actually the gay uncle. Naomi Watts,
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  Speaker 2: Demi Moore and Diane Lane. What a cast.
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  Speaker 3: What a cast? Well, I've got three more for you
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  Speaker 3: on me On. Are you ready?
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  Speaker 2: Yep, I'm ready.
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  Speaker 3: So from the BBC The Jesse Awesome. That's crime drama,
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: very good, girls on the bus, it's super fun set
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: in the context of the US election. Three different journalists.
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  Speaker 3: I think you all love it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I like that.
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  Speaker 3: And the other one is Modern Love, which is these
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  Speaker 3: lovely stories that little have been yet, little thirty minute
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  Speaker 3: episodes which I highly highly recommend.
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  Speaker 2: What's that about.
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  Speaker 3: It's just a little stories have been written into the
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  Speaker 3: New York Times and then turned them into these many
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  Speaker 3: drivers the stars and one super good.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that doesn't really good hate Sophie, Thank you very much,
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  Speaker 2: always appreciate it. Now now you've got my viewing sorted.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to have to talk to anybody for ages.
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  Speaker 2: Sophie Maloney, sky TV's chief executive.
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