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Financial performance: Profit margins

Broadcast profit margin before tax of Australian commercial television stations, 1957/58–2005/06

Next update to be advised

The many ownership changes that occurred in the commercial television sector between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s caused abnormal losses during the period. However, the sector had returned to healthy levels of profitability by the end of that decade.

During the first half of the current decade, profit margins have fluctuated, largely in response to volatility in advertising expenditure.

Graph: Broadcast profit margin before tax. The table following provides the data.

	1957/58	1958/59	1959/60	1960/61	1961/62	1962/63	1963/64	1964/65
Profit (loss) margin	(1.7%)	13.4%	15.0%	19.5%	16.3%	16.0%	13.6%	11.3%

	1965/66	1966/67	1967/68	1968/69	1969/70	1970/71	1971/72	1972/73
Profit (loss) margin	6.1%	14.5%	19.8%	18.6%	18.2%	18.4%	17.1%	18.5%

	1973/74	1974/75	1975/76	1976/77	1977/78	1978/79	1979/80	1980/81
Profit (loss) margin	18.1%	14.3%	20.8%	20.3%	17.5%	17.7%	15.3%	18.1%

	1981/82	1982/83	1983/84	1984/85	1985/86	1986/87	1987/88	1988/89
Profit (loss) margin	14.8%	9.7%	12.1%	9.9%	9.9%	4.1%	10.7%	(0.2%)

	1989/90	1990/91	1991/92	1992/93	1993/94	1994/95	1995/96	1996/97
Profit (loss) margin	(4.6%)	(14.0%)	9.2%	5.5%	16.0%	17.2%	17.9%	19.0%

	1997/98	1998/99	1999/00	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
Profit (loss) margin	18.9%	12.7%	24.6%	12.3%	12.7%	14.7%	15.9%	14.0%

	2005/06
Profit (loss) margin	9.2%

Source: Australian Communications and Media Authority Authority (ACMA, formerly the Australian Broadcasting Authority) and Global Media Analysis.

Notes:
Broadcast profit is earnings before tax but after deducting interest paid.