Nine’s directors have received a strike against their executive pay packets as the company deals with the fallout from bullying and harassment allegations.
At the company’s annual general meeting held in Sydney on Thursday, 37 per cent of investors voted against the company’s remuneration report.
New chair Catherine West, who was re-elected to the board after eight years as a director, fielded questions about a damning report into the company’s culture released in October.
The Intersection report revealed Nine had systemic issues with abuse of power, bullying, discrimination and harassment, including sexual harassment.
Nine owns some of Australia’s biggest media platforms including Channel Nine, streaming service Stan, talkback radio stations 2GB and 3AW, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review.
Ms West told investors the board was horrified by the findings, and said the directors had not previously understood how severe power imbalances affected people’s ability to report problems.
“I wish I had known, and we really did look for it,” she told the meeting.
She asked investors to trust her as the board worked to remove risk factors within the company, while acting chief executive Matt Stanton also promised that individuals responsible for poor behaviour would be held to account.
In a trading update released to the share market, Nine also revealed its total television revenues grew by about 15 per cent during the September quarter, accounting for the Olympics and Paralympics broadcasts.
However, the underlying total television advertising market has declined by about ten per cent compared to the same period in 2023, with no tangible signs of improvement.
At the meeting, Mr Stanton again flagged another $50 million in cost cuts expected in the 2025 financial year, making for a cost reduction of about $100 million over two years.
Nine has already cut costs by $65 million during 2023/24 and in June said it would eliminate 200 jobs or about four per cent of its almost 5000 staff.
The company’s full-year results released in August showed statutory net profits had dropped almost a third to $134.9 million for the 2023/24 full year, with revenue at $2.6 billion, down three per cent.
It’s been a turbulent year for the company, with long-time chair Peter Costello departing in June following an altercation with a journalist at Canberra airport, chief executive Mike Sneesby leaving in September, and former news director Darren Wick leaving in March, after allegations regarding his treatment of women in the workplace.
The chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, Tim Costello, was also at Thursday’s meeting, and called on the company to stop lobbying for the government to water down gambling harm reduction measures.
Outside the meeting, reformed gambling addict Mark Kempster said Nine should stop showing gambling ads.
Mr Kempster lost about $100,000 to sports betting over a decade, and said despite being a footy fan he can no longer watch sport on commercial channels including Nine.
“I don’t want to risk my mental health, seeing something that can quite easily make me relapse,” he told AAP.
“Every ad they show on TV is having an immense effect on people when they see it, they can cause an addiction,” he said.
