MACQUARIE Media says revenue at its Australian and US operations has declined at the start of the 2010 financial year.
The regional television and radio owner says total revenue at its Australian operation, Macquarie Southern Cross Media, was 3.2 per cent lower in the first five months to November, compared with the previous corresponding period.
Advertising revenues had fallen 2.8 per cent. Television revenue from advertising slipped 0.3 per cent, and radio advertising revenue fell 7.2 per cent.
But the Macquarie Media chairman, Max Moore-Wilton, said Macquarie Southern Cross Media had recorded ''positive revenue performance'' for November and the first two weeks of December, compared with the previous corresponding period.
Mr Moore-Wilton's comments were contained in a slide presentation lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange and delivered to security holders at its extraordinary general meeting yesterday.
The chairman said total revenue at Macquarie Media's US community newspaper company, American Consolidated Media, had declined 16.1 per cent in the first five months of the financial year.
Mr Moore-Wilton said the American business had been ''adversely impacted by client budget constraints and high levels of caution for discretionary expenditure amongst ACM's advertising clients in the US retail sector''.
Macquarie Media security holders voted at yesterday's meeting to adopt the company's plans to internalise its management and simplify its corporate structure.
Macquarie Media wants to take back its management rights from the parent company, Macquarie Group, for a payment of $40.5 million.
The new corporate structure, if approved, would turn Macquarie Media into a single holding company, from a triple-stapled structure.
AAP
