@honeysoy Yes absolutely the massive cricket (BBL and Test) VOZ...

@honeysoy Yes absolutely the massive cricket (BBL and Test) VOZ ratings do assist in driving the revenue for FY25.

As mentioned in a number of advertising trade magazines the total tv ad market is trading particularly short at the moment meaning that pre-bookings are only made say 4-6 weeks ahead instead of the more usual 8-14 weeks. This does mean that there is often the ability to load more advertisers into or around the Cricket. When the market is short there is often additional ad buyers who swoop in if the ratings for something are particularly good.

The major benefit is also the halo effect. SWM management spoke about this ‘halo effect’ when the Matildas were on last year. The way the broadcast rights were sold for the FIFA Womens events Seven had to pre-sell the ad slots to the FIFA aligned sponsors at fixed rates but what still happened was a massive uplift to our other programming (ie the Voice, 7news etc) and with that came the opportunity to add new revenue from this.

So with the Cricket ratings being well above what was expected including on 7plus this will have assisted with revenue. It’s important to not expect miracles however because the ad market is still down overall for this period as per the guidance given by both NEC and SWM.