I’m In the Ouyen area which technically isn’t covered by Mildura but we can still get the Mildura stations very well there are two things which could happen In Mildura radio when a station has to be sold, ARN could buy one of the stations & potentially re-brand It to Power FM or ACE Radio could even make a move & add another MIXX FM station to the network.
Surprised it wasn’t more. Not surprised the smaller areas in Queensland and Victoria and Western Australia got targeted for divesture.
Most locations have 3 commercial TV services owned by different operators so that’s where media deversity lies but I’m surprised that Griffith wasn’t included or even Mt Gambier
Resonate could buy the Roma station & add that to West FM while ARN could buy one of the Mildura stations & potentially add to the Power FM network, They would already have the Infrstructor there with the sale of one of the SCA stations the investment In new equipment wouldn’t cost much & perhaps moving to a new location where River 1467 & a new station could operate.
If ACE Radio came to Mildura they could create a totally new brand not all their FM stations are MIXX FM down In South West Victoria they have Coast FM & In Gippsland it’s TR-FM If Super Radio Network decided to buy a Mildura station that would be more Interesting, Super Radio Network don’t have a specific brand for their station each one has their own unique identity Gem FM Inverell & Triple G Gunnedah are just two a new Super Radio Network station could link In with Hill FM In Broken Hill & share programming.
Areas outside of the east coast weren’t aggregated in the traditional sense as their populations were deemed too low to support three separate commercial broadcasters. Instead, these areas were granted additional services over time, leading to the joint venture markets with two broadcasters, or the monopoly markets with only one broadcaster.
With the closure of 10 Mildura, and the apparent struggles of the other joint venture markets, their concerns from back then don’t seem too far off.
Nope, that won’t fix it.
By way of background there are 2 different scenarios at play here. Both stem from the minimum of 4 voices.
The first list of markets - Mt Isa, Roma, Mildura and Bunbury - are all markets where there are currently 4 voices, but this will reduce to 3 becuase of the merger. In these areas, the number of voices must return to 4.
The second list of markets - the 13 WA licence areas - are already under the 4 voices, currently only having 3 voices. This has come about because there has never been 4 voices in the market. In these markets, the requirement is for the number of voices to not reduce any further.
Now in Mt Isa and Roma, SCA & SWM have done a number on themselves. Until earlier this year when, there were only 3 voices - being SCA (SCA7 & Hit), Imparja & Resonate (4LM & 4ZR). When SWM bough the TV licence from SCA, the number of voices increased to 4, so now it has to stay at 4. With only 4 licenced outlets in town, this basically means that 2 radio station cannot be owned by the same operator. This is a disaster really, because in these small markets it’s barely viable to run a solo station. Resonate are run on the smell of an oily rag from with no local staff, and Hit relies heavily on the network. The only sell the Hit stations to resonate would be to convince Imparja to sell Ten Central to someone else (probably Ten assuming they can convince Paramount) - but that would also remove the need from them to sell the radio stations. Essentially the rule which requires them to divest a station in those markets is the same rule which prevents them from selling to the other operator already in the market. 9 months ago they could have sold those stations to Resonate no problem.
Likewise, there has to be a new player in Mildura. SCA are hardly likely to split up the stations - so ARN can only get 2 stations if they buy both, which would then require them to sell River 1467. Arguably that would be a good move given the FM’s surely make more money than River, but I can’t see ARN being interested. They have enough problems in their metro markets at the moment and haven’t done anything noticeable with any of the other regional stations. Management in Sydney aren’t going to be interested in the slightest about what’s happening in Mildura. ACE would seem like the most likely buyer for the Mildura stations.
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Thanks for the detailed breakdown of the situation for me.
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Interesting that markets like Mt Isa and Roma have more voices than areas in Western Australia with much bigger populations like Albany, Kalgoorlie or Geraldton.
Why isn’t Mt Gambier under more scrutiny? Wouldn’t they soon have just one voice for TV/radio?
QLD markets did a number years ago when duopoly stations were allowed to break up as part of the Southern Cross Macquarie merger.
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Its only as a product of the SCA TV sale though, its not an necessarily an indication of greater media availability.
It wont change in Mt Gambier - WIN and SCA will remain the voices (WIN operate the Seven service in that licence area)
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Ha sorry I forgot about WIN, in my head i’m thinking about SWM only as they run Spencer Gulf.
Without any local ads lol 
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And thus began the decline of 107.7 and 101.3, shadows of their former selves. A truly sad situation for two once great stations adjoining a large metro market.
There’s more than enough revenue within the market for well resourced stations around the clock.
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You have evidence that Seven increased rates on TNT that local advertising is unviable?
Usually when rates are raised beyond the reach of clients and they ‘sit it out’, the lack of revenue and failure of budget targets result in the rate being restored to close to the previous setting of viability. It won’t be long now.
SCA already had a ridiculous CPT for the solus BKN-GTS markets.
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For a regional market, Hit and Triple M have decent music, preferable to an SRN or Ace market, where only one is music and the other is talk.
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For a chairman of a media company, has a remarkable lack of understanding of how to communicate with the media via a synchronous interview.
This is akin to a sycophantic politician who asks their own questions to give the answers they want.
Won’t be any improved success of his leadership of two flailing media companies.
‘Little Kerry’, proving once again that he’s nowhere near the nous of the sorely missed Big Kerry.
December 22nd will be the final hurdle for the merger to go through If I’m correct something is happening December 22nd, It’s already been approved by the ACCC & ACMA then the fun begins divesting commercial licences In areas where they need to sell.
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Which I can see dragging on, as I can see 7WM putting an impossibly high price on them as an excuse to hold on to them for as long as possible.
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They’ll be banking on the legislation change - and it’s one I daresay they’ll get.
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This is from the ACMA press release approving the merger, “The ACMA has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Southern Cross Media that it will divest commercial radio and/or commercial television broadcasting licences in the affected licence areas. This would return the media diversity points in the affected licence areas to what they were before the transaction occurred”.
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