Yeah I’m very surprised Nova haven’t tried to pick up those 3 stations from SCA.
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Interesting, but how does it work in Melbourne where ARN’s “Select talent” in Melbourne includes Christian, Marty and K&J? Unless someone is moving to drivetime.
Guess it’s just a fun academic experiment now, the Hail Mary has been rejected
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It’s all over. Mods prepare to close this thread within 48-72 hours.
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The alternative offer is dead as expected.
Will ARN have another crack at a later date?
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Nope, I predict this will be the rise of SCA.
This.
I’m predicting a fully Australian owned consortium will financially back SCA to merge with Network Ten. Paramount/CBS don’t want Ten anymore anyway. Arguably SCA don’t want to be in regional TV anymore but if they fully owned metro Ten they might be swayed to stay in the game.
The only hurdle will probably be antiquated reach laws that prohibit that transaction from potentially happening.
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Any future with SCA in television is a future with nothing. The sooner that wrecking ball is gone the better.
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I agree I think SCA wants out of TV altogether, that is what seems to be causing most of their financial issues. I think they will be quite happy with just Hit / Triple M and LSTNR.
I believe their Networks could be far better programmed but that is for another thread.
The question is with the takeover of Paramount who is going to save 10 if they are discarded???
Hasn’t that already been removed… eg with 7 owning all of the mainland stations except Remote Central/East, GTS/BKN and WIN SA?
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I’ll say it again:
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Reach rules were repealed years back, that allowed the Prime + Seven transaction to complete. SCA would be able to buy Ten’s metro TV assets without issue from the voices test or 2 TV station rules that do exist.
I would assume that for the same reason Seven is sniffing around ARN, there’d be synergies for sales for truly national TV + radio. You’d be able to make a lot of efficiencies at Ten by reusing SCA talent for shows. If SCA can’t get out of TV, fully getting in to TV would be the other path.
I’d expect ARN to try again - but I suppose they should consider other paths to achieve their goals - if they genuinely want “Triple M” - then surely that means they have work to do with their Pure Gold network, and doing stuff like gaining sports rights.
Otherwise, I do wonder if you’d see some of the stuff they could just decide to do anyway - why not operate a joint venture for Listnr? Why not flip Canberra to be KIIS + Triple M? If the terms of the old deal which included things like that make sense to SCA’s board, you could just do those parts.
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Would SCA have deep enough pockets to own the TEN network and to take much bigger losses???
According to the afr the last time TEN made a profit was in the 12 months to Aug 2018 when they made $66.6m
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They would given Network Ten is significantly devalued now and Paramount may just offer it at a fire sale price. A suitable financial backer may provide enough capital to get it over the line.
I think the synergies of a combined radio and TV business is the only way forward for any media company right now. SCA and Network Ten would both be saving themselves if they can somehow merge.
Nine have already proved there is plenty to be gained with their portfolio of newspapers, digital, radio and TV.
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I wonder if the current ARN / SCA JV in Canberra would allow them to rebrand both stations to KIIS and Triple M?
Probably not considering ARN does sales and marketing and SCA is responsible for programming.
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Surely Nine would consider a bid for SCA now, although a Triple M/Hit/Nine Radio combination may be difficult.
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They would then have to decide what to do with the broadcast television assets as they already have their arrangement with WIN.
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Given that the relationship between WIN and Nine has been anything but smooth sailing over the years I could see them keen to take ownership of the regional affiliates for themselves as Seven have done.
WIN’s minority stake in Nine didn’t stop the 2016 and 2021 affiliation swaps from taking place, after all.
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Nine buying the ACP side of that ARN deal would have been a pretty good fit. Nine’s talk network plus the Hit network in capital cities would give them a huge position in the market - and only would leave a handful of stations to sell on.
Obviously Nine hasn’t been too interested in a music network - but a chance to nab the top station in a number of markets would be a hard opportunity to pass up.
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I don’t think they’ll necessarily give up now, let alone trying again at a later date.