Unless of course Nine sells 2UE/Magic/4BH to Ace at some point.
ARN in South Australia about to become as dominant as SCA in Western Australia with the exception of Mt Gambier.
Could Nine sell 4BH to ACE and then buy 4KQ? Their intention would be so 4KQ doesn’t convert into a talk format to counter 4BC.
SEN could be a serious buyer too. Put 4KQ onto DAB+ and convert the AM licence to Sports. See all the listeners flooding to 4BH.
I think the most serious option is Nova taking full control of 4KQ and converting it to Smooth.
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It’s a bit like what happened when ARN & DMG jointly bought the 97.3 licence in 2001, in which the former sold 4BH to the latter to comply with the 2-to-a-market rule.
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I don’t think Nine would be interested in 4KQ as they have moved away from music formats and focusing on talk.
Possibly but I don’t think it would work, being on 10+ share, it would be silly to convert it to a sports station and putting 4KQ only on DAB+
I think the most plausible outcome will be Nova buying 4KQ but leaving the format as it is. Why tinker with it when it rates so highly? Ditto 5AA in Adelaide. They have Smooth on DAB+, no need to have it on AM.
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Correct.
In that scenario I’d be more worried about Ace on selling 4BH. With low ratings 4BH is much better positioned to become a competitor.
Unless of course 9 were to sell 4BH to SEN, and the buy 4KQ to lease to Ace? Seems like a lot of juggling though.
I’d say News Corp would be looking to expand their reach with the Sky News brand and would be very interested in an AM station coming on the market.
They wouldn’t care that it rates high as a music format. They’d rather compete against 4BC (and 3AW, 2GB, 5AA and 6PR).
Would HT&E have been able to keep Bay FM and K Rock if Geelong was a separate licence area and does not overlap with Melbourne licence area?
They’d have to take quite a big cut to their coverage area - there’s a 45% overlap in population, you’d likely need to take all of Werribee out of the license area to keep both.
“ARN will enter into an Operation Arrangement that will see ARN provide some operational support services to these stations.” is interesting wording - I wonder how much “operational support” you can provide until it is ‘control’.
Still - hopefully that sees them use their self interest to move the K-Rock/Bay formats away from their current mess and into something that complements KIIS/Gold. The Edge 95.5 perhaps?
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I assume it includes ARN continuing to pay wages to K Rock and Bay FM staff and presenters?
when does the takeover happen ?? is it from today??
November 30.
With the size and scale of ARN incorporating Grant Broadcasters and SCA now makes Nova entertainment look like a small player in the market.
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Here’s what I think we’re going to eventually see:
smooth693 Brisbane
KIIS97.3 Brisbane
Pure Gold 6iX
And for any clashing markets, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see growth of The Edge branding. I’m sure Melbourne would love to see The Edge in some shape or form on FM.
As for Canberra, they should do a deal whereby ARN get one FM & AM station, and SCA get the other FM & AM station. Which would mean Pure Gold 2CA.
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where does it say that?
So basically, back to how it was between 1988 & 1995, when Austereo owned FM104.7 & 2CA, whilst ARN owned Kix 106/Canberra FM & 2CC.
This is how I see it-
Brisbane SEN 693
ARN will buy out Nova’s 50% share in 97.3, ARN will blow up 97.3 and relaunch it as KQ fm 97.3. No point having three Hot / AC stations in Brisbane.
River 94.9 becomes The Edge 94.9
6IX becomes a KIIS station if it gets the fm conversion. 96.1fm joins the Pure Gold Network.
Maybe Krock becomes the Edge 95.5
Canberra is a tough one, I cannot see ARN / SCA wanting to break up the duopoly as both stations are on fm, they dominate the ratings, and probably bring in the highest revenue of all the Canberra fm stations. ARN would try to sell their Grant 50% share back to Capital Radio.
SCA / ARN probably would probably want to avoid owning one fm and Am station each, and Capital the other AM / fm station. That would certainty shake up the Canberra market.
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I really don’t see the sense in KIIS 97.3. That would make 3 out of 4 FM’s in Brisbane Hot AC/CHR. That would be crazy.
I’m hoping it’s Pure Gold 97.3 and KIIS 94.9 (and DAB+) in Brisbane.
I also think Smooth 693 is very unlikely.
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Completely agree about 97.3 joining the Pure Gold Network they will want to tap into the success of 4KQ, Brisbane will then have 2 Hot AC / CHR stations and 2 stations that fit into adult Gold / Rock. Perfect for the Brisbane market.
The Fringe stations boarder on Capital Cities such as River and Krock become The Edge.
Maybe Hot tomato joins the KIIS network but retains the Hot Tomato heritage branding.
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