Foxtel’s part owners and James Packer’s controlled CMH has just seen its profit jump on the back of Pay TV interests.
Consolidated Media Holdings has just announced a net profit after tax (NPAT) result of $97.9m for the twelve months period to 30 June 2012 (FY12).
Still, this marked an improvement for the media holdings company of $2.3 million FY11 and was mainly due to the contribution from its 25% stake in Foxtel and its 50% stake in Fox Sports along with News Ltd.
The total combined equity contribution from Foxtel and Fox Sports – excluding the Austar acquisition approved in May – and FOX Sports or FY12 was $91.4m, CMH said in a statement.
Subscriber growth at Foxtel was “subdued again” this year and the Pay TV giant finished the year with 1.68 million subscribers, up from 1.65 million last year.
Fox Sports had a more challenging year, with softer subscriber numbers.
Foxtel (excluding AUSTAR) contributed $42 m to CMH’s result, up $4.4 million on FY11. Fox Sports contributed $49.4 million to CMH’s result, down $2.1 m.
The Executive Chairman of CMH, Mr John Alexander, said he was “pleased to report that CMH’s Operating NPAT result has improved again this year to $97.9million, a good result given the modest subscriber growth seen at Foxtel this year, which impactsthe equity contributions from both our subscription television investments.”
Foxtel released its FY12 earnings earlier this month, which showed an 8.5 per cent jump on FY11 or $47.1 million to $597.7m.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited has made a bid for CMH but the holdings giant said there are still “a number of the pre-conditions to the Indicative Proposal remain outstanding.”
Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group is also looking to make a rival bid for CMH.
The directors have announced a final dividend for the 2012 financial year of 6 cents per share, fully franked, to be paid on Friday 5 October.
