Southern Cross Austereo (Company)

[Ant5476]

@TelevisionAU

i doubt Paramount/10 would be interested in buying unless it’s going to be dirt cheap. And who else would be a potential buyer?

With the way regional television is going Seven buying Prime, and most likely Nine buying WIN when Bruce puts it onto the market. The only buyer for SCA tv is Paramount 10, basically they would have to almost give it away to them dirt cheap.

[dutymainttech]

@RabbitEars

Btw. I was let go from SCA today.

Hope you find something else soon - SCA(or its future owners) is going to rue the day it handed all its transmission assets to BAI. No doubt the BAI contract is a long one and the SCA exec’s that managed the whole thing will be long gone with their bonus’ when it comes up for renewal. Look at what happened to 10 at TxA.

Unfortunately with things like AoIP and ST2110 video, there is only going to be less studio work around in the future not more.

[FineTuned]

Interesting, with SCA and ARN running a JV in Canberra, they’d essentially own the whole operation.

[Radiohead]

I can see a scenario whereby KIIS replaces the Hit brand in regional areas and on ARN regionals like Power FM and 2Day’s format in Sydney further shifts as to not compete with KIIS 106.5.

107.1 Adelaide and 94.5 Perth to take the KIIS brand. Harder to tell what will happen in Melbourne and Brisbane where there is an existing KIIS brand that isn’t as dominant as in Sydney.

And whether ARN heritage regionals like 2ST and 3BA start to shift towards Triple M programming and branding?

[TVHead]

ARN owning 2day and Triple M Sydney? Why? They’d just sell them off as their stations are better positioned.
Surely they’d keep FOX in Melbourne as it’s way stronger.

[Radiohead]

@TVHead

They’d just sell them off as their stations are better positioned.

They’ll probably keep them in a separate entity (of sorts) to get around ownership rules so another buyer can’t come in and launch competing formats.

[TVHead]

Well that clearly shouldn’t be allowed.

[Radiohead]

Yes and no, but it would mean more diverse formats, unlike now where KIIS and 2Day/Fox sound a bit the same.

[tonks8526]

@Radiohead

I can see a scenario whereby KIIS replaces the Hit brand in regional areas

The SCA Hit regional stations have had enough rebranding damage done to them though. Keep the ‘Hit’ name but change the logo to align with KIIS.

It all becomes a bit of a mess though in areas that already have an ARN Regional station and an SCA ‘Hit’ station - Do they run KIIS and Hit in the same market or introduce a Pure Gold branded station? Or even a Triple M if there is not one there already.

[bacco007]

AFR is reporting this morning that the ARN deal has a “solution” pre-baked for the licence restrictions

Expected to be announced later today
EDIT: announcement has gone up on the ASX list

[RFBurns]

@dutymainttech

Hope you find something else soon - SCA(or its future owners) is going to rue the day it handed all its transmission assets to BAI. No doubt the BAI contract is a long one and the SCA exec’s that managed the whole thing will be long gone with their bonus’ when it comes up for renewal. Look at what happened to 10 at TxA.

I think SCA are already sorry they sold all their transmission assets to BAI, the contract was 10 or 15 years, normal contract lengths, but I’ve heard that the money SCA got for all of it will have all been spent by the 5 year mark (which is very close to now), so they won’t have any more capital money & don’t have any assets.

The 10 thing was a shambles, 10 never really left TXA as the contract was being contested in a number of court cases, it ended up BAI misquoted on the contract & TXA & 10 wouldn’t give BAI any leeway or hand up, so therefore BAI couldn’t supply the service agreed/contracted to do, so 10 came back to TXA as a fully managed service customer.

[bacco007]

02726592.pdf (596.1 KB)

Looks like the split is

• KIIS and Triple M metro
• The rest

[bacco007]

Acquisition discussion: ARN acquisition of Southern Cross Austereo (pending approval)

[Brianc68]

@TVHead

Well that clearly shouldn’t be allowed.

I disagree. I don’t think the 2 station rule serves the listener at all. Controlling 4 stations will mean more defined and better variety of formats as they differentiate them from each other. That’s what happens in NZ and North America.

I can’t think of another western country that has a 2 station rule. It’s past its usefulness. Good on them for trying to find a way around it.

[bacco007]

@Brianc68

I can’t think of another western country that has a 2 station rule. It’s past its usefulness. Good on them for trying to find a way around it.

I’d love to see the protection racket go, but they need to open up the number of approved licences in each market as well

[crankymedia]

@RabbitEars

Btw. I was let go from SCA today.

Their loss. Better times ahead for you @RabbitEars

[crankymedia]

@gordo92

have known and seen a lot of great knowledgeable staff let go over the past few years and when this began I knew SCA would hit the shitter and this was not wrong by any stretch of the imagination, SCA ain’t the place it once was

Imagine letting go of your clear #1 in Toowoomba, Hamish Carter. Typical SCA thinking, Townsville show despite its share doesn’t write near the revenue.

[dutymainttech]

@bacco007

I’d love to see the protection racket go, but they need to open up the number of approved licences in each market as well

Fully agree - our licensing system has allowed under-performing radio and TV stations to stay in business and be protected from competition which would have driven their owners out of business years ago in any other industry.

Those poorly run businesses have wide impacts on listeners/viewers, advertisers, employees and shareholders.

[nimeton]

@Radiohead

107.1 Adelaide and 94.5 Perth to take the KIIS brand

Whomever owns SA-FM would be crazy to mess with that brand again. Its a well known and liked legacy brand and it lasted all of about a year or two when SCA tried to change it to Hit107.

[TheHomeOfMusic]

@Ant5476

@TelevisionAU

i doubt Paramount/10 would be interested in buying unless it’s going to be dirt cheap. And who else would be a potential buyer?

With the way regional television is going Seven buying Prime, and most likely Nine buying WIN when Bruce puts it onto the market. The only buyer for SCA tv is Paramount 10, basically they would have to almost give it away to them dirt cheap.

I’m sure NewsCorp would be keen, they already have Sky News Regional, they can use the SCA 10/7 stations as a “shop window” to plug Foxtel.