The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) has strict rules regarding the way in which announcements that could affect the share price of listed companies are made public.

In brief, any such announcement that is made by a publicly traded entity such as ARN Media must first be provided to the ASX and must not be disseminated to the media – even as an embargoed news release – and the ASX has confirmed that it has published the information through its channels

On 24 November 2023, the ASX sent ARN a “please explain” letter regarding an article which first appeared in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) two days earlier and before the ASX had published it themselves.

The article was about multi-million dollar contract extensions for Kyle and Jackie O as well as for Christian O’Connell. Part of the new deals, it was stated in the AFR, was: “$7 million worth of shares in ARN Media (equivalent to approximately 7.5m shares at yesterday’s closing share price), will be issued to Kyle Sandilands, Jackie Henderson and Christian O’Connell and will vest at the end of the contract term.

 “Additional marketing investment of around $2 million per annum is anticipated over the next 2-3 years to launch the Kyle & Jackie O Show in the Melbourne market.”

In its reply to the ASX, ARN admitted that it inadvertently got the timing wrong: “We have discussed and reflected on this breach internally with team members involved in the planning and execution of the Extension Announcement and the publicising of it. We are confident that this error, which we consider to be a one-off, will not be repeated.”