Sports network SEN has had a disastrous result in Sydneyâs latest radio ratings.
All shifts from Andrew Voss and Greg Alexander (1.2%) at breakfast through to Joel Caine and Bryan Fletcher (1.2%) on drive fell substantially.
The Big Sports Breakfast on Sky Sports Radio also suffered a ratings fall that could be put down to the absence of Laurie Daley, who was off air while coaching the Blues State of Origin team.
SEN also performed poorly on weekends, dropping to just 0.3 for Sunday NRL.
In Sunday league ratings, the 2GB Continuous Call team fell from 9.9% to 7.5%.
The big improver was Triple M which jumped from 5% to 6.2%, more than double the audience of the ABC.
Outside of 1116AM, when has SEN ever not struggled?
Iâve said it before. SEN is not a radio company. Theyâre a broadcasting & digital company. Their radio assets are just one of multiple platforms (and are unfortunately collateral damage in SEN trying to achieve strong digital downloads).
I feel SEN could still succeed just as much by surrendering all their AM licenses and returning heritage brands including 2CH and 4KQ.
Itâs only a matter of time for SEN to either lease or sell the 693 AM license in Brisbane, with a clause to lease back DAB spectrum to keep SEN and SEN track on DAB.
ACE would be the logical buyer of 693, convert it to music, and see it ratings climb from an asterisk to a 5 or more.
Imagine if ACE actually did buy 693AM. Iâd switch it to Classic Hits 4KQ and Easy Music 4BH.
They canât call it 4KQ as ARN still own the trademark AFAIK. They could call it Magic and network it from Melbourne on 693 and change 4BH back to an easy listening format, with the 3MP playlist.
I doubt very much ARN would own the 4KQ trademark or name, particularly as they sold the broadcasting licence which is still officially callsigned 4KQ to SEN. So if anyone has a claim to use it, it would be SEN.
I also doubt ARN are smart enough to even try to retain some rights to the 4KQ name. They havenât even put Gold on DAB in Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth as a placeholder, after announcing a national rollout!
Agree ACE could in theory put Magic on DAB in Brisbane to complement 4BH. But I donât think theyâd want to dilute the 4BH audience
From memory, only the 693 license and DAB allocation was sold to SEN, not the 4KQ trademark. Thatâs why SEN changed formats on day dot after the takeover, unlike when they bought 2CH, they did retain the format for about 3 months after the purchase.
The trademarks did transfer to SEN, however they have not been renewed since then.
I think the reason they changed format on day dot was because SEN had no interest in trying to do another â2CHâ experiment, nothing to do with trade marks.