Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has posted strong financial results for the first half of FY25, with revenue rising 5.3% to $209.7 million and EBITDA up 24.6% to $24.1 million. Net profit after tax (NPAT), including discontinued operations, reached $3.2 million, reflecting a 5.5% increase year-on-year. The positive momentum was driven by SCA’s continued strength in metro and regional radio, expanding digital audio revenues, and disciplined cost management.
Audio first
SCA is making a decisive shift towards digital and audio, with CEO John Kelly highlighting the company’s continued growth in key revenue areas. With its streaming platform LiSTNR now profitable and digital audio revenues up 48%, SCA is reinforcing its position as Australia’s fastest-growing audio company. The shift comes alongside the company’s exit from television, a move Kelly says will allow SCA to focus entirely on audio while strengthening its hyper-local approach to radio broadcasting.
LiSTNR’s rapid growth fuels digital expansion
SCA’s digital audio business has seen a notable rise, with LiSTNR now boasting 2.2 million users and achieving EBITDA profitability for the first time. Digital revenue surged 42% year-on-year to $22.1 million, and the platform continues to outpace its competitors. “For LiSTNR, which is our digital audio business, the fact of the matter is that on a trailing 12-month basis for the year to date 24, our revenues are $42 million, which is double that of our nearest domestic competitor,” Kelly said.
Unlike other media businesses struggling with audience fragmentation, SCA has managed to grow its metro and regional radio audiences while expanding its digital footprint. “We’ve had great audience success across metro, regional, and digital. We’ve got the number one 25-54 network in metro, the largest audience on scale in regional, and the best-known and addressable audience of 2.2 million on LiSTNR,” Kelly explained. He also emphasised that digital audio and traditional radio are working in tandem, rather than competing against each other. “We’ve been able to grow all different lines of revenue across the half. We’ve been able to grow revenue share and audiences in metro radio while growing our digital audio share and revenues. So there’s no cannibalisation between the two.”
SCA’s Sydney breakfast offering on 2DayFM: Jimmy Smith, Emma Chow & Nathan Roye.
An integrated approach to advertising
With LiSTNR now established as a profitable part of SCA’s business, the company has focused on refining its advertising strategy to maximise opportunities across all platforms. Kelly explained that SCA has developed a multi-tiered approach that allows advertisers to buy into its ecosystem in different ways. “We have a broadcast selling mechanism in relation to the broadcast spots on radio, traditional radio. We have streaming of radio on LiSTNR, which is a separate sell. And then, of course, we have podcasts, music, and sport on LiSTNR, which we sell separately as well,” he said.
Kelly sees significant growth potential in the digital audio market, particularly in competing with dominant international players. “The two things about LiSTNR that are important are the significant available inventory and the fact that it is an emerging part of media and an emerging part of the buying landscape,” he said. He pointed out that while platforms like Spotify have been around for years, there is still substantial untapped potential in the Australian market. “Spotify has almost three times, two times the value of advertising for their free model than the entire of the commercial radio digital players combined. So the opportunity for us is to go after a collective Spotify advertising, which has been programmatic for many years.”
With the increasing attention audio receives from audiences, Kelly believes advertising revenue will continue to shift in that direction. “There’s a huge opportunity for us to grow our share of revenue in the audio market to more appropriately match the attention share that audio gets,” he said.
Kelly says LiSTNR is proving to be something of a jewel in SCA’s crown.
A complete exit from television
SCA’s financial results also mark the company’s full transition away from television, with the sale of its regional TV assets to Australian Digital Holdings (ADH) and Network Ten. Kelly explained that the move was long-planned and aligns with the company’s focus on audio. “We’ve been very clear for 18 months now – we want to be all about audio because the TV assets are regional assets,” he said.
He noted that these assets are better suited for networks with national infrastructure. “The main part of our TV assets were Ten-related services in regional Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. They’re much better placed belonging to the network – being Ten Paramount – because they’ve got all the infrastructure and efficiencies to run not just the metro network, but the regional network as well.”
The sale also addresses challenges in selling regional TV inventory separately from metro campaigns. “From a revenue perspective, as you can imagine, when they go and sell a campaign on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! to Bunnings, and they go to them and say, ‘Do you want to do a campaign on that show?’ they say, ‘Yeah, we’ll give you X.’ If we then go two weeks later to Bunnings and say, ‘We also want you to advertise as a sponsor across regional Australia,’ you’re not going to get the same one plus one equals two.”
The SCA studios in Melbourne
Hyper-local radio as a differentiator
As SCA transitions to a fully audio-focused company, it is doubling down on its commitment to local radio. Kelly emphasised that local content is at the heart of SCA’s strategy. “We’ve decided, unlike some of our competitors, to go hyper-local, particularly in breakfast across Australia,” he said. “We’ve got 88 radio stations across Australia, and all those stations have locally based, locally hosted breakfast shows.”
This approach, he explained, is designed to strengthen community engagement and build closer relationships with advertisers. “We are looking to activate in communities, not only with the listeners, but also with our business partners. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in Bunbury in WA, Hobart in Tasmania, or Cairns in Queensland, you’ll see our announcers out in the community, not only engaging with listeners but activating business partners,” he said.
Kelly believes that this local-first strategy will help SCA stand out in an increasingly globalised media landscape. “As the world conclusively goes global, if we can go increasingly local, then that’s going to be our best opportunity to have the best possible audio radio broadcast model moving forward. So we’re big believers in that.”
The future of SCA: Focused on audio growth
With LiSTNR scaling up, an integrated advertising approach in place, and a complete exit from television, SCA is positioning itself for sustained growth in digital and audio. “We’re on fire with LiSTNR, and we’re excited about the future of LiSTNR in terms of its growth,” Kelly said. By leveraging its dominance in metro and regional radio while growing its digital presence, SCA is betting on audio as the future of its business.