There is increasing industry speculation that Nine Entertainment is looking to sell its radio assets, Melbourne’s 3AW, Sydney’s 2GB, Brisbane’s 4BC and Perth’s 6PR. Already this year Nine has had an operating model reset with a new Executive Team, and positional changes within the individual radio stations.
Acting CEO Matt Stanton will likely give additional information on February 25 during the organisation’s Half Year 2025 Results Briefing. He already has said, with the announcement of the new executive team:
“Our operating model reset will help accelerate the strategic transformation underway at Nine by improving how the different parts of the business work together. Our new approach will better position the business to manage the challenging external environment and ensure the company is future-fit to sustainably deliver for our consumers, partners, shareholders and people.
“Aligned with the greater accountability that flows from resetting the operating model, I’m pleased to unveil a new and focused Executive Team to lead Nine through its next phase of growth. The appointment of Amanda (Amanda Laing), one of the top media executives in the country, will add extraordinary industry expertise and energy to Nine’s experienced Executive Team in 2025.”
Amanda (pictured above) was appointed Managing Director of the Streaming and Broadcast division, including radio, Stan, 9Now and broadcast television. The Nine Publishing division, headed up by Managing Director Tory Maguire, expanded to include nine.com.au as well as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review. What I didn’t notice at the time was the absence of mention of Nine’s impressive podcast portfolio including the multi award winning Hannah’s Story, The 9News podcast, Neil Mitchell Asks Why, Cars That Made Australia and the Married at First Sight podcast. You can see below the December 2024 podcast statistics. Their podcast webpage does not include catch up ones from their radio arm at all: https://www.nine.com.au/entertainment/podcasts
You can see that if Nine were to sell their radio assets they still would have a significant audio and podcasting platform with which to build upon.
That then leads to the question of who might buy them?
ARN have declared their interest but can’t, with existing media laws not allowing networks to own more than 2 radio stations in a metro market.* An interesting thought might be a similar lease agreement like the one that exists with the ACE Radio Network. ACE currently looks after the classic hits stations 2UE, 4BH and Magic1278 and there is the question of what would happen to them too. In Melbourne ACE owns 3MP as well as leasing Magic.
It could be someone external, like former 2GB owner John Singleton or billionaire Bruce Gordon who looks like he has sold his company WIN‘s northern NSW TV licence to Network 10 allowing him to convert equity swaps held in Nine with Macquarie Group into ordinary shares, significantly increasing his voting power and potentially giving him another seat on the Nine Board.
Or it could be nothing of the sort. It is a Federal election year where talk radio always shines, the NRL and AFL seasons are soon to commence and Nine Radio have said internal job shuffling is to boost the company’s ‘live and local’ approach.
Nine Entertainment’s Half Year 2025 Results Briefing is on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 commencing at 9:30am. Radioinfo will update you with further news and clues then.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.
*ARN also has joint ownership of Nova 93.7 in Perth and their stations in Ipswich (River 94.9) and the Sunshine Coast (91.1 FM MIX FM with Zinc 96.1 also based in Maroochydore) fall under the Brisbane licensing area.
As per article, who will purchase the radio stations and potential "suitors" is indeed speculative.
If sold as a going concern, without adding extra value to its business model such as podcasts, social media and web-based publications, I believe that there may be reductions in operating costs.
As a result, from a listener's perspective, will there be changes in the "narrative" of the talk stations due to changes in ownership? To illustrate, when there was a change in ownership from 2020, 2GB lost the "hard hitting" presenters Alan Jones, Chris Smith, Steve Price and Ross Greenwood.
Then what will happen to the music stations, 2UE, 4BH and Magic 1278?
It is true that 2UE beat 2Day-fm at one time in the ratings. It is also true that 4BH rates highly at 10.3%. But Magic and 2UE have been low rating stations.
That is the danger of a one size fits all assumption for a music format being enjoyed in different markets.
Consequently if cost reductions mean that the assumption that all markets are the same and one content/program manager does the work for all music stations, profitability will be reduced by lower numbers of listeners.
But like the article, it is all speculation on whether the radio stations will be sold and sold to particular buyers.
However if the stations are purchased as a going concern without leveraging with other media, there may well be further cost cutting.
Anthony, Strathfield South, in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation.