Seven West Media reported a 90.8% profit drop in July to December 2016 primarily driven by $83.3 million of impairments including the closure of Presto and a decline in value of Yahoo7.

Other one-off impairments during the period also pushed profit down, including the sale of its share in Sky News and the Australia Channel to Foxtel, and the sale of youth magazine titles by Pacific Magazines.

Profit fell to $12.4 million in the first half of the financial year, compared to $135.2 million in the same period a year earlier. Excluding significant items, net profit fell by 31.8% to $95.7 million.

Seven West Media’s investment in Yahoo7 was significantly affected by an increased shift to programmatic advertising and the loss of a service contract. The company assured investors that “management is undertaking measures to improve profitability.”

“We are delivering on a successful strategy that provides us with a clear, continuous and sustainable plan for growth to 2020 and beyond,” said Tim Worner, Seven West Media CEO and Managing Director.

“We will continue to build our businesses, manage our costs, grow out content production capacity, and deliver that content wherever the audience wants to consume it and wherever we can monetise it,” Mr Worner said.

Shares in Seven West Media fell about 7% after the announcement.