MEDIA REPORTS, page-18

Yesterday 12.06pm

UBS reassess media companiesBy David Scutt

While it admits the scale and duration of coronavirus outbreak isdifficult to predict, UBS believes there’s now sufficient evidence todeclare there’ll be a sizeable economic hit for Australia’s listed mediacompanies.“We believe there is already enough evidence to cut top-down mediaforecasts,” the investment bank wrote. “We now assume a 10 per centyear-on-year 2H FY20 decline in both the metro free to air TV andradio markets.”Given the weak ad market environment, UBS said it prefers nameswith a “strong balance sheet, scope to reduce costs, and with someearnings downside already baked into expectations”.“Our preferences in traditional media are now NEC and NWS,” it said,retaining buy ratings on both stocks. “However, we now downgradeSWM to neutral given heightened refinancing risks.