Seven West Media has revealed that its Free-to-Air (FTA) TV revenue in Q4 FY20 declined by 33%, citing the wider weak advertising environment caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Over the whole financial year, advertising on Seven’s Metro FTA advertising revenue fell by 14.1%. As evidence of it being a tough operating environment, Seven still held 37.4% of revenue share in the market in the financial year.

While the FTA market was still down 15.8% year-on0year in July, Seven West Media reported that the rate had begun to moderate in Q1 FY21.

Overall, the group’s revenue was down 14% in FY20, with an EBITDA of $129.6 million.

Seven made notable progress in Broadcaster Video-on-Demand (BVOD), growing this market by 30.5% to $163 million in FY20. It also recorded digital revenue growth of 39.6%, driven by BVOD.

“Seven has won 10 of the last 11 weeks of ratings. Our seamless Digital strategy with 7plus has also seen us transition from a distant number 2 to a dominant number 1 in the growing BVOD market,” said James Warburton, Managing Director and CEO of Seven West Media.

“We continue to focus on transforming our business. Our objective is to establish a lean, efficient operating cost base to deliver further savings in the 2021 financial year and I am confidence we will deliver our strategy and ambitions for the future.”

Seven West Media’s share price has dived over 18% today following the announcement, standing at $0.127.