Is this coverage they are making or are they taking TalkSport or someone’s coverage?
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I assume it’s TalkSport’s coverage as they tend to be the ones with international distribution rights. I just hope it doesn’t cause the calls to be geoblocked on TalkSport’s website as it’s nice to be able to pick up the call of whichever game I want and not be stuck with the feature match in the timeslot.
I have an Optus Sport subscription but if I’m at work or on the road, the radio call is a better option. And sometimes at home I end up syncing the radio call to Optus’ vision if the TV commentary isn’t appealing.
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You can also get bbc world service on NewsRadio.
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They don’t carry sport though, do they?
Saturday nights our time they have one EPL game
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Really? I never knew! And NewsRadio carries that?
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Yes and one of the SBS digital radio stations is 24/7 world service too
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Which one?
SBS Radio 3 (on DAB/Online) is the World Service simulcast. The BBC’s own apps/site is just as good - just don’t think you’ll get the other games (played on the domestic 5 Live feed) as they do block the games there. But the game on the World Service coverage is totally fair game.
Big presumption it’d be TalkSport’s commentary - as that was what SENZ was taking last season. Although it appears they may be doing a half-hour local preview show (in Australia only, not in NZ) - that is in the schedule before both tonight’s and Sunday night’s coverage, which is as far as their guide goes.
The games covered by SEN and SENZ will probably be slightly different due to time zone differences - SENZ currently has the early time slot (starting about 9.30pm AEST) that can’t be played in Australia due to local footy; SEN Australia has the 2am-ish AEST game that would be apparently too late to play in NZ as they have a 6am rural show. Maybe with the proper AUS rights, you’ll be able to get all three games tonight with both feeds, but I wonder how that will go.
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What they could do is air the earlier games 9:30pm AEST on Saturday evenings and the Tuesday morning games on SEN Fan, available on the app and in Melbourne on DAB+.
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Confirming SEN are taking TalkSport’s coverage. SENZ is taking a straight feed (even getting some of the British commercial breaks) while Australian SEN stations have a local pre-game/post-game/half-time/between-game coverage which I suspect might be a ploy to get more commercials away. There was a break at 1am AEST which seemed to go for ten minutes!
And TalkSport’s coverage remains available via their website.
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Where does Hutch get all this money for all these sports rights?
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Borrowed money and chasing the likes of Ladbrokes.
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It’s a public company. It’s not out of his pocket!
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The way they’re going the debt will be bigger than Australia’s soon. 
Spending lots of money for very few listeners.
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Their debt facility is reported to be $28.7 million. About $70 million in annual revenue currently but barely breaking even with an annual surplus and subsequently a low net profit I believe.
I don’t have a business or commerce degree to really comment on those numbers but it doesn’t look too terrible from the surface.
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Neither do I. My post was partly tongue in cheek but as you probably know I am not a fan of Hutchinson. I remember when SEN began in 2004, I took an extra week annual holiday just to listen for the first week. Was my go to station along with my music go to Classic Rock until Hutchinson ruined it all.
The annual revenue says it all, too many ads to listen to! Too many “I love me” presenters! The station doesn’t even rate what it used to in Melbourne.
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It looks like it’s ticked up a little for the half-year to December 2021, but given the fingers in the pies they have now (the AFL’s Footy Record, a few regional/state-based TV shows for VIC/SA/WA, a sports-concierge like thing, a talent management biz, ownership of the Perth Wildcats plus a WNBL and NZ NBL team)… it’s hard to attribute a number purely to SEN radio.
The closest the half-yearly books give is that roughly 80% of their ~$49m half-year revenue was “media revenue” - as opposed to ~10% which looks like team ownership revenue (sponsorships, memberships etc, primarily for the Wildcats), and 10%-ish for “the rest”.
But how much of that media revenue is their own radio stations [and how much is mainline SEN vs Track] as opposed to podcasts, TV, on-selling rights for regional stations to air AFL/NRL Nation, and especially the Record now (which would drag a lot more in than when they produced a competing magazine), 🤷♂.
That does make it a weird company from… at least a modern radio ownership standpoint, certainly, given so much of their revenue would actually be outside radio. I don’t envy professional financial folk that’d try to put a proper value on its growth prospects in all that!
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I reckon SEN, having just dished out $12m, would not have been in any hurry to let go of 693. I can’t imagine them feeling any sympathy for 4KQ fans in despair. I’m not technical but wouldn’t 693 offer a clearer signal, or at least be less prone to interference, than 1116?
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The 693 signal is superior to the 1116 signal. A big part of that is that the 1116 (originally for 4BC) transmitter site at Nudgee isn’t the best. The 693 one on Wynnum Road is shared with 882. 693 used to be significantly better, though, when it was on St Helena Island giving a massive signal up and down the south east coast, particularly helped by the low frequency travelling across an ocean path.
693 is 10kw daytime while 1116 is 17kw (daytime), the highest powered commercial AM stations in Australia. The next highest are SEN on 693, 4TAB 1008 (day night) plus SEN 1170 Sydney (daytime) and 6PR 882 (day night) that are 10k.
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