Shallow, manipulative snake-oil salesman or “horribly admirable” builder of Australia’s version of ESPN?
Meet Craig Hutchison, the university dropout turned journalist who’s not playing games.
To some he’s just another loudmouth in Melbourne’s vaudevillian sporting tradition – the front-bar pundit who throws the first punch then sits back and watches the fight.
He also seems an unknown quantity, even to some who know him well.
‘Hutchy’, 46, is chief executive and majority shareholder of the Sports Entertainment Network, a company he created 15 years ago as a tiny PR agency named Crocmedia, which later morphed into a prolific creator of syndicated sports radio content and is now a byzantine beast that owns and operates 21 radio stations across Australia, with broadcast rights to the AFL, NRL, soccer, cricket, basketball and more.
With about $70 million in annual revenue, it has turned this country boy and university dropout into a millionaire media mogul.