Double-digit growth for Africa Media Entertainment

Radio broadcasting group African Media Entertainment (AME) has reported double-digit growth in earnings, despite operating in a tough economic environment for traditional media players.

This comes as several local media houses have announced retrenchments to cope with the loss of advertising revenue and troubles replacing print circulation revenue, particularly for legacy businesses, in recent years.

South Africa’s broadcasters have had mixed fortunes.

Entertainment group eMedia — which has interests in both television and radio businesses that include eNCA, OpenView and Yfm — recently reported that television advertising in South Africa was down 10% over the past year.

Pay-TV business MultiChoice became easy pickings for Canal+ after losing about a third of its customers, with the French broadcaster taking over the Randburg-based business in September 2025.

The SABC — which has the largest portfolio of radio stations in the country — has abandoned its goal of making a R1bn profit in the 2026/27 financial year. Instead of reporting a profit for the first time in more than five years as projected last year, the National Treasury revised this expectation to a R41.3m loss for the public broadcaster, which is saddled with higher labour and content costs.

Against this backdrop, AME — the operator of Moneyweb and Algoa FM — said revenue for the year ending in March grew 14% to R359.7m compared with R314.9m previously.

The group, which is valued at R339.55m, said the “varied performances” of its various business units are “a reflection of the successes and challenges in the different economic segments”.

Said AME: “Moneyweb has turned the corner, delivering strong results for the period, despite ongoing economic pressure and shifts in the advertising market. Revenue grew across both radio and digital, with the business returning to profitability after a previously challenging period.”

The group also noted a strong performance from Algoa FM’s events business, while advertising unit Central Media Group’s results were “resilient”.

Across the group, headline earnings — which take out the effects of one-off financial events — increased 17.8% from 753.7c in 2025 to 887.7c. During the period, AME took control of Mokgosi Holdings, the company through which it has a 29.92% stake in the radio unit Kaya FM.

AME has declared a final dividend of 380c per share. An interim dividend of 120c had been declared at the half-year point.

The group ended the period with a cash balance of R86.5m, up from R84.2m in the previous year.

Looking ahead, the group said it was carefully monitoring the impact of the ongoing Middle East war on inflation and other factors that may affect consumer spending.

A little-traded stock, AME shares are 8.89% weaker so far in 2026, closing on Friday unchanged at R49.