Latest / Best of Business / Sophie Moloney: Sky TV chief executive on the 'challenging' market factors impacting their results

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Sophie Moloney: Sky TV chief executive on the 'challenging' market factors impacting their results · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
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  Speaker 2: SkyTV has posted a nineteen point three million dollar after
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  Speaker 2: tax profit, but it says economic conditions remain challenging. Its
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  Speaker 2: revenue is boosted by buying three for one dollar. The
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  Speaker 2: chief executive is Sophie Maloney.
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  Speaker 3: High Sophie, Hi that how are you doing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm well, thank you. You've got to be happy with
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  Speaker 2: how this has been received. I see your shares have
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  Speaker 2: bumped up today.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, lot, we are. It's been a lot of hard work,
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  Speaker 3: but I'm really happy to be sharing the strong results
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  Speaker 3: and in particular for our shareholders, you know, uplifting our
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  Speaker 3: half year dividend to the fifteen cents. So yeah, a
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  Speaker 3: lot of work still to come, but but yeah, really
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  Speaker 3: happy with the result.
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  Speaker 2: What are you worrying about? What is the warning in
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  Speaker 2: the economy?
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  Speaker 3: Look on the revenue side, the linear TV you know
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  Speaker 3: isn't is a lot softer than we thought it was
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  Speaker 3: going to be. And also you know, we know that
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  Speaker 3: key we are still struggling with cost of living and
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  Speaker 3: so we're really mindful of that. We have a team
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  Speaker 3: who are who are all here trying to deliver the
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  Speaker 3: best value. But I am you know, it's the concerns
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  Speaker 3: that we always thought there might be some green shoots,
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  Speaker 3: but now we're looking at an election year and the
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  Speaker 3: uncertainty that that brings. So we've guided, you know, our
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  Speaker 3: full year guidance on the revenue side takes that into account.
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  Speaker 2: What is up with the linear advertising? What's going on there?
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  Speaker 3: Look, it's a good it's a good question. I think
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  Speaker 3: that there's you know, we obviously bought TV three and
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  Speaker 3: three now and we're going through that integration process, so
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  Speaker 3: we're bringing the teams together. We're really excited about the
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  Speaker 3: advertiser upfront that we hosted here in the week. The
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  Speaker 3: feedback's been really positive, so I know the team will
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  Speaker 3: be getting out there now to talk about the combined offer.
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  Speaker 3: But so from our side, I think there's more to come,
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  Speaker 3: and we need to make sure we're communicating the benefits
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  Speaker 3: of of TV advertising, particularly to build the power brands.
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  Speaker 3: But my team are going to be working hard, particularly
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  Speaker 3: in Q Forarder, to see what we can do about
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  Speaker 3: that trend.
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  Speaker 2: Is it an advertising problem across all forms of advertising
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  Speaker 2: or specifically TV advertising.
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  Speaker 3: Look, my view of what we're seeing is that we've
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  Speaker 3: seen that radio is performing well, so that's good, but yeah,
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  Speaker 3: the TV side does seem to be suffering a bit
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  Speaker 3: more than others. So I do think it's incumbent on
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  Speaker 3: us to make sure that we're talking about that value
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  Speaker 3: and allowing clients to see the benefits because we're now
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  Speaker 3: actually switching on the data that's fueled our content deal
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  Speaker 3: making to unleash that for advertising clients. So that means
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  Speaker 3: we can be much more targeted and effective in what
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  Speaker 3: we're delivering for clients right across the network.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, that is a significant drop off in the number
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  Speaker 2: of Neon customers. What's going on there?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, I think that, as we talked about a
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  Speaker 3: week or so ago, Yeah, those Neon numbers are not
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  Speaker 3: where we want them to be. The content that we've
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  Speaker 3: had isn't driving the right level of acquisition and tension,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, hence we're in a place of looking
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  Speaker 3: to some new studio deals to fuel that pipeline and
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  Speaker 3: have a steady drum beat of titles that are that
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  Speaker 3: are broader appealing. So and there's also just the process
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  Speaker 3: of making sure that Neon has a new glow and
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  Speaker 3: so that's what you're going to see from us in
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  Speaker 3: the in the coming months and for the rest of
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  Speaker 3: the year, and so certainly I'm hoping that we're going
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  Speaker 3: to see that improve. It's certainly the lowest it's been
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  Speaker 3: since December twenty twenty, so definitely definitely a place where
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  Speaker 3: we needed to take some action, and we are.
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  Speaker 2: The reduction in the number of Skybox customers is that
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  Speaker 2: just the usual thing that happens when we have an
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  Speaker 2: economic downturn, people start to cut the costs.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think there's a yeah, that that definitely has
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  Speaker 3: an impact. I think there are you know, customers are
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  Speaker 3: looking at different choices. So we see skysport now has
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  Speaker 3: got great growth. There will be some of that that's
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  Speaker 3: coming from the box side of the business. And look,
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  Speaker 3: we've had a pretty you know, had a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a tricky last year or so when we had Project
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  Speaker 3: Mike Great that disrupted our Skybox business quite significantly. We've
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  Speaker 3: come through that and I'm so I'm I'm looking forward
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  Speaker 3: to there being a slowing of that decline. To be honest,
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  Speaker 3: I think we can you know, nurture customers through but
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  Speaker 3: but yes, the economy certainly does have an impact where
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  Speaker 3: as customers make tough choices.
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  Speaker 2: Are you going to be affected in any way by
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  Speaker 2: the Paramount Netflix Warner Brothers.
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  Speaker 3: Deal, Well, not in the not in the near term,
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  Speaker 3: I mean whichever way it goes. Actually, even in the
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  Speaker 3: longer run, No, because there's a plethora of studios that
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  Speaker 3: we can work with. The great thing about our new
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  Speaker 3: entertainment strategy is that we've got the financial flexibility to
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  Speaker 3: go after individual titles with the backbone of the paramount deal.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, there are other big studios out there
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  Speaker 3: that we have relationships with, and including Sony, NBC Universal.
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  Speaker 3: So no, in the longer run, we'll wait to see
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  Speaker 3: with interest. I think it's going to be, you know,
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  Speaker 3: a long time before there's clarity on that. And New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand is at the bottom of the world, Heather, and
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  Speaker 3: those studio deals, they're made and made up in the
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  Speaker 3: North America and it takes a little while to trickle
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  Speaker 3: down to this part of the world.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I've got a suggestion for your viewing suggestion, but
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  Speaker 2: having given your position in the company, I think you
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  Speaker 2: might have already watched it. And my disclaimer is Sophie
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  Speaker 2: that I haven't watched this, but everybody else has have
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  Speaker 2: you watched Heated Rivalry?
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  Speaker 3: I have watched the first episode, and.
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  Speaker 2: Why did you bail out? Is it because the acting
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  Speaker 2: is that bad?
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  Speaker 3: No? I just to be honest, I hadn't been able
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  Speaker 3: to watch anything of late because it's been incredibly busy
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  Speaker 3: and sport is back and so you know, I do
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  Speaker 3: have to say four KUHC with Super Rugby has been
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  Speaker 3: pretty fabulous. But of course you got a worry is
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  Speaker 3: coming back. So I had one recommendation for you, Heather,
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  Speaker 3: thank you for the Heated Rivalry one. It's called The Lady.
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  Speaker 2: Do you know what? Actually, Sophie, I was looking at
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  Speaker 2: that and I was going to ask you if that's
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  Speaker 2: any good? But I thought, this is not the kind
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  Speaker 2: of crap that Sophie watches stuff about we do do
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  Speaker 2: royals hair?
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  Speaker 3: No, she's well, she's the yeah royal dresser, Sarah Ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: So apparently it's bad. So I'm gonna I'm going to
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  Speaker 3: recommend it and maybe try and watch the first episode
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  Speaker 3: of that this weekend too.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Sophie, thank you for the tip. Appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Sophie MALONEY'SKY TV chief executive.
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