FINANCIAL DATA

Commercial free-to-air television services received income of $3,810.6m in 2002-03. Almost three-quarters ($2,817.8m) of this income was from the sale of airtime. Commercial free-to-air broadcasters reported an operating profit before tax of $658.9m or an operating profit margin of 17.7% in 2002-03.

Subscription television broadcasters, with a total income of $1,348.2m, earned over four-fifths ($1,158.7m) from subscriptions and membership fees. This income was still not enough for these businesses to record a profit in 2002-03. The operating deficit before tax was $451.5m which meant an operating profit margin of -33.6%.

17.1 INCOME AND EXPENSES OF TELEVISION BROADCASTERS - 2002-03
		Commercial free-to-air	Subscription
		$m	$m
Income
	Gross income from the sale of airtime	2 817.8	na
	Subscription and membership fees	. .	1 158.7
	Other(a)	992.8	189.5
Total income		3 810.6	1 348.2
Expenses
	Labour costs	587.4	168.0
	Program rights used/payments to channel providers	494.8	784.5
	Depreciation and amortisation	387.2	278.6
	Other	1 684.5	606.2
Total expenses		3 154.0	1 837.3
. . not applicable
na not available
(a) For subscription broadcasters, other income included gross income from the sale of airtime.
Source: ABS, Television, Film and Video Production, 2002-03 (cat. no. 8679.0).

The 2002-03 Television, Film and Video Production Survey did not collect data from public broadcasters, however financial data on the activities of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) can be obtained from their Annual Reports.

Whilst Radio and television broadcasting costs are not detailed separately, the ABC 2006-07 Annual Report recorded that income totalled $994.7m and expenses $972.5m. The SBS 2006-07 Annual Report showed that its income totalled $240.5m and its expenses $240.4m.

Information for commercial radio stations is available from the Australian Communications and Media Authority which reported that in 2006-07 274 commercial radio licenses generated revenue of $21.3m (www.acma.gov.au).

According to the ABS survey of Cultural Funding by Government in 2005-06 the Australian Government provided $1,878.4m for cultural activity, 53% ($1,000.6m) of which was for radio and television services - primarily the ABC and SBS.

Previous Page

Next Page