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Falling earnings at eTV’s parent company may have contributed to its decision to cut half the workforce at the television broadcaster, as advertising income across the media industry continues to dwindle.Unlike its rivals and other legacy media operations, the group continues to report positive earnings and says it has made efforts to reorganise its business before mounting costs, particularly for staff, lead to losses.Earlier this month, eNCA, run by JSE-listed eMedia, joined the growing list of local media operators that have announced job cuts in recent years, with 171 of 309 of the broadcaster’s employees at risk of losing their jobs.The proposed cuts will hit the news, technical and broadcasting departments as the 24-hour channel moves to replace its traditional newsroom structure with a smaller, digital-first operation.The group’s latest financial performance shows a business under strain, underscoring the pressure felt by South Africa’s established media houses.eMedia, which owns eNCA, eTV, OpenView and eVOD, has lamented the decline in advertising revenue across its platforms in recent years, but the group still reported a resilient performance for the year ended March 31. Though the television advertising market fell 8.7%, eMedia’s profit decreased by only 2%, with group revenue slipping to R3.011bn from R3.134bn a year earlier. Advertising, the group’s main income driver, fell 7.4% in the period.Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) amounted to R513m compared with the prior financial year’s R553.9m, and profit from continuing operations came in at R299.5m compared with R305.5m previously.Opportune Investments’ Chris Logan said, “since Remgro unbundled their eMedia stake in September 2025, [the group] has attracted more investor attention. What stands out is that media and broadcasting revenue topped out in financial year 2022 and appears on a declining trend, whereas costs keep rising, squeezing profitability”. In 2022, the group reported revenue of R3.2bn, the highest on record, while ebitda came in at R677.9m and net profit at R420.8m.“In particular, employee costs have risen sharply, making it unsurprising that deep staff cuts are planned within the eNCA division,” said Logan. This is in stark contrast to Media24, whose losses widened 60% to $16m in the same period. Media24 recently announced it was cutting 400 jobs while closing down publications like City Press.eMedia’s biggest competitor, public broadcaster SABC, is projecting a R47m loss for this financial year. DSTv owner MultiChoice has lost a third of its satellite customers while shutting down the unprofitable Showmax video on demand service in April. While still profitable, eMedia believes now is the time to reorganise its operating model before the red ink appears on the bottom line. The group points to shifting audience consumption habits and the sustained decline in traditional television viewership as the drivers behind the overhaul. The company wants to cut duplication, streamline workflows, merge operations and deploy staff and technical resources more efficiently across platforms.The bitter pill for staff is that eMedia boss Khalik Sherrif was the group’s highest earner in the financial year, receiving R19m, including a R10.3m bonus. The lowest-paid employee received R98,000.In September 2025, eMedia finalised its move to take full control of the entity that holds its stake in e.tv, having struck a deal with Remgro’s technology investment unit, Venfin.Before this deal, EMH held about 67.69% of eMedia Investments (EMI), while Venfin held the balance.“The eMedia share, despite the higher liquidity since the Remgro unbundling, is performing poorly, reflecting the squeeze it’s under,” Logan said.Since the start of the year, eMedia N-shares are just over 23% weaker, with the group now valued at about R969m. Business Day
