DIGITAL MEDIA

This year, our Digital Media operation began to realise greater potential with a financial, as well as strategic, contribution, achieving double digit revenue growth in a difficult market. Our websites had 20 per cent growth in unique visitors on last year, and the number of video streams viewed online increased by 87 per cent.

The successful digital extensions of our established 'big event' TV franchises, Australian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance Australia and The Biggest Loser achieved impressive traffic and created strong levels of user and advertiser engagement.

In addition, MasterChef Australia not only smashed records in the broadcast sphere, it delivered an outstanding digital experience for its millions of fans. The official website provided a popular way for fans to expand their experience of the show through catch-up TV, celebrity chef interviews, interactive food trivia quizzes, fan forums, a hugely popular recipe archive and exclusive online cooking demonstrations.

Our Digital Media business is now in a position to fully leverage the capabilities developed. We can efficiently launch more online and mobile offerings and greater levels of interactivity based on our expanding exclusive content portfolio. Advertising is changing and, increasingly, we are working with our clients so that they understand the possibilities across multiple platforms.

We are also well placed to assess strategic business development opportunities. We recently announced an investment in Australia's fastest growing online dating site, Oasis Active, which is the number one free site in Australia and has close to one million unique users worldwide. The investment has been built over the past 18 months, from start-up of the business, through a combination of air-time support and cash consideration, to just under 40 per cent of Oasis Active.

Just as much as Network Ten has effectively supported the rapid growth of Oasis Active through on-air and online promotion, our strategic partnership also provides the opportunity for us to engage with Oasis Active's vast, growing and highly active online membership base. Given the success of this exercise, Network Ten will consider applying this investment model to other attractive digital media start-up opportunities.