I’m going to claim I predicted something somewhat right, talking about why SCA might have a reason to hang on -
So an interesting part of the agreement was,
SCA will also be entitled to a share of any “digital dividend” received by Network 10 if Network 10 surrenders its spectrum in the 3-Agg Markets to the Government during the Participation Period. On 1 November 2024, the Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, announced the Government’s intention to “explore pathways for the future of television, shaped by the possibility of realising a digital dividend” while also stating that the Government had not “identified, or decided to yield, a digital dividend.” There is accordingly no current proposal for the Government to pay a digital dividend to Network 10 or any other television broadcaster at any time
So good foresight to be considering the indirect value of the spectrum in this sale - as it could possibly be worth more than the direct revenue from the continued operation of regional television.
In general this seems to be a good deal for SCA - they’ve almost inverted the affiliation agreement - Ten paying them a share of advertising for a while after the sale to make up for the low initial sale price. It’s only for five years, but I wonder if that will be more profitable for SCA than they’d make directly operating the services.
I’d hope Ten can pick up TDT to complete the East Coast set - I have to assume the complexity with the half WIN owns to be the only reason that hasn’t happened with this transaction.
As for noodle updates - I think it would make sense for SCA to spin that off and offer it as a general service, perhaps for both radio and TV. Produce news/weather for each market and then sell it to the other networks, paying for it both directly and with sponsor integrations . Either way would think it would make sense for Ten to seek to have SCA continue to produce them in the medium term, rather than the costs of scaling up their own operation.