The much awaited auction dates for the new Sydney and Brisbane FM licences have been revealed.
The Sydney auction is set down for Thursday 15 April, while Brisbane will take place a week later on Thursday 22 April.
There are six bidders confirmed for the new Sydney frequency of 95.3 FM. They are listed by application bid names, but actual stations/networks are in brackets:
* Daily Mail (UK Radio 1) Pty Ltd [Nova]
* Harbour View Radio Pty Ltd [RG Capital Sea FM stations]
* Sydney Radio Company Pty Ltd
* GTShelfCo 1 Pty Limited [Macquarie Network]
* Southern Cross Communications Limited [2UE]
* HR Broadcast Investments 2004 Pty Ltd.
There are eight bidders for the new Brisbane frequency of 106.9 FM (Actual stations/networks are in brackets):
* Daily Mail (UK Radio 2) Pty Ltd [Nova]
* River View Radio Pty Ltd [RG Capital Sea FM stations]
* Brisbane Radio Company Pty Ltd
* Star Broadcasting Network Pty Ltd [River 94.9 FM Ipswich]
* ARN Brisbane Pty Ltd [Mix 97.3 FM & 4KQ]
* Hot Tomato Australia Pty Ltd [102.9 FM Gold Coast]
* GTShelfCo 3 Pty Limited [Macquarie Network]
* HR Broadcast Investments 2004 Pty Ltd.
There is a mystery bidder for both the Sydney and Brisbane auctions. HR Broadcast Investments 2004 has used its law firm, Holding Redlich, as a registered address to keep its identity secret. The legal firm has worked extensively in media.
The reserve price for the Brisbane and Sydney licences is $1m each, but industry experts feel the Sydney price will range somewhere from $100m-$155m, the price paid by DMG for Nova 96.9.
Hot Tomato CEO, Jaan Torv, says they have been considering bidding for Brisbane for some time: “Brisbane is a city of a million and a half people, the economy is very strong in Brisbane, it’s expanding, I think the government’s progressive – Brisbane’s no longer the northern sleepy backwater. I think it’s becoming Australia’s premier city after Sydney.”
Torv will not reveal a price tag on Hot Tomato’s bid, but says the licence will “go for a lot” and he does not want to telegraph his budget.
He says Hot Tomato did not bid for the Sydney licence: “We’re focused within comfortable travel distances of where we are and we think Brisbane offers a multiple of opportunities, it’s expanding enormously, it’s close to home.”
Elsewhere, a new FM licence will also be up for grabs from August in Melbourne.