I reckon that current contracts will be allowed to run their course, but come re-negotiation time the company would want all their personalities to be 100% on “Team Nine” or go somewhere else.
Still odd that Nine are buying the Macquarie Radio Network. Unless there’s something I’m missing, one would’ve thought that SCA (despite their woes in Sydney) was a better long term prospect for the company with their predominately FM stations and regional TV affiliates.
When you own 100% of Macquarie you can do what you like (ie: sell them off to Lachlan Murdoch in return for Nova and Smooth)
That’s true.
If the Macquarie Radio Stations are indeed part of Nine’s long term future, you’d think 2GB and MSR 954 (hopefully they do something about this station, but that’s for another thread) moving to North Sydney would be part of the plan?
I’m guessing Nine may have to lease another floor in the new building, if that was going to happen?
Indeed. Metro radio stations can be accommodated for around 500 - 900 m2 depending on configuration and what you classify within the radio business or Nine generally.
Talent access from the CBD or elsewhere should be easier into North Sydney than Pyrmont.
It was announced last week that Nine had increase their lease by 6500sqm. I’d have thought that would include space for radio. They haven’t come up with this plan in the last 6 days.
According to a couple of news stories last week, Macquarie radio isn’t (wasn’t?) moving.
Radio is clearly something Nine want to be a player in - be it the Macquarie station’s or others, as evidenced by today’s play to buy the rest of Macquarie. Even if they have no plans to move to North Sydney now, they’d be stupid to not secure enough space so that it can happen in the future. A 100% owned and operated radio network has to be co-located with the rest of their operations to get maximum efficiency.
I agree!
Although one does have to wonder whether or not Nine decides to move 2GB & MSR to North Sydney could be a sign of what they’ll eventually do with the Macquarie Radio Network. If the decision is made for 2GB/MSR to stay at Pyrmont, somehow I wouldn’t be overly surprised if Nine throw a few token investments at the stations and sell them within 6-12 months in favour of one of the big three FM broadcasters, which I reckon would be a more lucrative (or at least more viable) prospect for the company in the long run.
Interesting thought.
In a world of streaming music, Spotify, Youtube, smart phones, etc - do you really think that an FM music network is going to be a better long term investment than an AM Talkback/Sport network?
Or do you think that an FM network would create better synergies with Nine’s existing programming and audiences?
As you said - I think having an FM network would create better synergies with Nine’s existing programming/audience (while not massively young, I’d suspect that the average age of a Nine viewer isn’t quite as old as the typical listener to the 2GBs and 3AWs of this world).
AM radio is far from dead yet but I think there’s also a certain stigma attached to it (seen as “uncool” and “out of touch” because their parents/grandparents listen to it, etc.) which makes listening to an AM station not particularly attractive for people under the age of 40 - a demographic that Nine like all media organisations needs to cater for if they’re to not only survive, but thrive in the long run.
What would this all mean for NRL calls & commitments? A simulcast?
Not a chance. Radio commentary is a different product and needs to describe the game for listeners who can’t see the pictures.
Although it does happen, it’s never been normal convention any where in the world to simulcast a TV sport commentary on radio despite broadcasters being under the same ownership. In the US ESPN Radio and ESPN TV have their own calls of NBA games for example.
Nine has owned radio stations before: for example GTV9 and 3AK were co-owned and co-located in Bendigo Street, Richmond for many years.
Are the synergies they can create with FM what they want? Maybe, but I’m skeptical. AM might be “uncool” but 2GB and 3AW to a lesser degree are incredibly influential in politics. Plus being more news focused, the MML stations can create significant synergies with the news departments of Nine. They quite possibly could be a better fit for a company that runs newspapers and produces significant TV news content than a boppy music station - and have very little competition.
Nine also did and “didn’t” own 2UE in the 1980s.
I wonder if Nine will go with Karl as Jones’ replacement rather than Hadley.
We talk about 2GB for 90% of this thread, but I wonder the impact and potential changes for MRN’s other stations 3AW, 4BC, 6PR and 5AA and regionals such as the ACE network across Vic? (I realise some of these are not O&O but content carriers, but still).
Some definite non-Nine talent, some long serving:
-Nick McCallum (long running, top rating and popular Sunday Morning co-announcer* and fills-in on other programs). Seven News.
-Basil Zempilas (co-host 6pr brekky). Seven Network.
-Tim Lane (chief caller AW footy). Seven Sport.
But there’s also a lot of Nine talent, as well as regular fill-ins for years now (long before Nine bought), so that helps.
5AA only shares news and AFL with Macquarie don’t they?, and currently has that midday Nine News on radio (still?). Unless Lachlan Murdoch is enticed to sell 5AA to Nine I don’t think anything will change there.
Here’s what I think might happen eventually.
Murdoch will sell 5AA and the whole Nova network to Nine. Nine would then have a 5 capital talk and FM network.
Smooth 95.3 and 91.5 might be retained or sold. Nine would then sell MSR maybe to the same people as Smooth. They could then launch Smooth 882/DAB in Brisbane and the former MSR stations in Sydney and Melbourne could be relaunched as something else entirely.