“An absolute opportunity…”: Craig Hutchison on Pacific Star and Croc Media merger talks

Crocmedia CEO Craig Hutchison has spoken publicly about a proposed merger with Pacific Star Network, the owner of Melbourne sports radio station SEN.

Both businesses have agreed to undertake 30 days of due diligence ahead of a shareholder vote, possibly in the New Year.

There’s been a lot of discussion about what this could mean for the on-air staff at SEN should the merger go ahead. And a lot of that speculation has centred of the breakfast duo of Tim Watson and Gary Lyon.

In the podcast, The Sounding Board, Hutchison touched on some of those issues with co-host Damian Barrett.

And he’s made it clear that he’s excited by the prospect of taking on Pacific Star Network and SEN and sees an opportunity for success. 

“I think there’s an absolute opportunity in the marketplace for a fully integrated, full-service solution, sports content business that connects brands to fans everywhere right around the country.

“It would be a place that we think people would want to come and work, wanna be part of the journey. For me, it would be an unbelievable personal challenge.”

As for possible line-up changes, Hutchison insists that it’s far too soon to be going down that path. But as a ‘content guy’, he has a few ideas.

“I think there’s a lot of unbelievable talent across both businesses that would be further enhanced by working together and being distributed more broadly.

“I’m not there to try and re-invent the wheel and tell everyone they haven’t done a good enough job. My job is to amplify and to make everyone better.

“If that came to be, it would be exciting for everybody and talented people generally find a way, don’t they?”

There’s still a lot of work to be done before any deal is finalised, but it’s clear that Hutchison is confident that it ‘will happen’ and has a clear vision how the combined entity will operate.