Nine Entertainment shares have fallen nearly 30 per cent after the broadcaster said its third quarter television revenues had declined sharply and warned of a smaller full-year free-to-air advertising market.
The company mainly blamed the decline on poor ratings for its cricket broadcast over the summer, but several poor program launches in 2016 have also contributed.
"Nine's ratings during the period were softer than anticipated, which has impacted free-to-air revenue share," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
"In particular, Nine's Summer of Cricket was adversely impacted both by the weather and the standard of the competition," it said.
Shares in the broadcaster slumped as much as 29 per cent in early trade, before stabilising. At 1520 AEST, the stock was trading at $1.16, down 36 cents or 23.7 per cent.
By comparison, shares in free-to-air rivals Ten Network and Seven West Media were down two per cent and 11 per cent respectively, in a weak market.
Nine's third-quarter TV revenues declined about 11 per cent compared to the prior corresponding period, when the Cricket World Cup was on, after about 30 per cent of scheduled play days were lost to the weather.
The broadcaster has also suffered poor ratings for new reality shows Reno Rumble and Australia's Got Talent.
Nine said the free-to-air advertising market was expected to post a full-year decline in the low single digits compared to its previous guidance of flat to marginally down.
It now expects its share of that reduced revenue to be about 37 per cent, reflecting its disappointing ratings start to 2016, compared to its previous guidance of 38 per cent share.
In February, Nine posted a 6.1 per cent decline in its underlying first half profit.
On Tuesday, it said it had continued to focus on costs and now expects reported television costs to be at least four per cent lower across the full year.
Nine will report full-year results in August.
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