COVID-19: Impact on Radio Industry

Discussion of the impact of Coronavirus on Radio

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Unless mods wish to move discussions into this thread: a summary of stories so far

  • March 18—Pacific Star Network, owners of SEN, request a trading halt.

  • March 20—Pacific Star Network shares are suspended until April 3.

  • March 23—Southern Cross Austereo (Company) is placed into a trading halt.

  • March 24—SCA announces cuts to staff pay and incentives.
    ARN Melbourne is locked down after a staffer tests positive to COVID-19.

  • March 25—SCA shares are suspended until April 3.

  • April 1—Grant Broadcasters make an undisclosed number of redundancies, executives to take pay cuts. Departures include 3BA PD Garrath Cockerell

  • April 2—Shows on the Triple M and Hit Network cancel their Easter survey break.

  • April 3—Commercial Radio Australia announce a suspension of the 2020 GfK radio ratings survey. Metro surveys will be suspended after Survey 2, out April 16. Newcastle, Canberra and Gold Coast surveys will be suspended after Survey 1.
    SCA share suspension is extended until April 8.
    Pacific Star share suspension is extended until April 17.
    Nova Network suspend Easter survey break.

  • April 6—Despite parent company HT&E holding $111m in net cash reserves, ARN cuts staff hours and pay. CEO and management taking a 20% pay cut.
    SCA secure equity of $170m.

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I think that’s a decent place to start

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dont forget the 3ba news annoucer : Gabrielle Hodson

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From Radioinfo:

The commercial radio industry has urged the Federal Government to put in place a crisis relief package to support broadcasters struggling with falling ad revenues.

Commercial Radio Australia canvassed a range of financial and regulatory measures with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher some weeks ago to ease the pressure on radio operators resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more here.

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From Radioinfo:

CBF provides emergency funding for community broadcasters: COVID19

The Community Broadcasting Fund is making emergency COVID-19 funding available to community broadcasters who are struggling in the current pandemic.

Read more here.

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“Community Broadcasting Fund”. Radioinfo should know better than that. It is the Community Broadcasting Foundation.

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Apparently Clive Palmer is single-handedly funding commercial radio in Perth with his attack ads on the state government. Apparently the stations cannot reject the advertising because he’s labelled them as political ads.

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Staff are absolutely fuming from what I’m hearing. The only potential upside is that Palmer’s shot himself in the foot politically in WA.

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SCA’s full year results have been released today. Of note, the company received $16m through the federal government’s JobKeeper program, with Q4 revenue reduced by approximately $35m due to COVID-19.

HT&E’s half year results have also been released today, with the below snapshot for ARN.