SCA’s Matthew O’Reilly: “Nathan & Emma want to win. They’ll give it their best shot”

Matthew O'Reilly. Image: SCA

In an industry which finds itself groaning under the weight of PR spin come ratings day, SCA’s Head of Broadcast Content Matthew O’Reilly is refreshingly unpretentious.

No carefully crafted, go-to quotes to fall back on. Just his own honest appraisal of how things sit. For better or worse.

Asked his thoughts on the wash-up from GfK Survey 8, O’Reilly says “It hasn’t panned out too badly from where we sit.”

In his post-survey interview with Radioinfo’s Steve Ahern, O’Reilly points to the silver linings.

“The 25 to 54 picture, which we call The Audience That Matters, is still really healthy. We’re number one or two in each market, with the exception of Sydney.”

In the final book before the sudden departure of Jimmy Smith, 2DayFM Breakfast held steady with a 2.9% share.

O’Reilly is equally forthright when asked about how he thinks the 2DayFM Breakfast team of Nathan Roye and Emma Chow will fare as an on-air duo – now that three has become two.

“That was a move that none of us saw happening.”

Focusing on the first survey of 2026, he says “We’re only two days into Nathan and Emma’s journey. I would like a bit more time to gather my thoughts.”

“But what I will say is that the feedback from the planning sessions they had last week was phenomenal. They’ve got a great plan in place.”

“I’ve said this before, but they really do want to win. A lot of shows say they want to win. Then there are ones that actually want to win. And they definitely are on the latter.”

“So yeah, they’re gonna give it their best shot.”

2DayFM Breakfast continues to pose an ongoing challenge and O’Reilly acknowledges Roye and Chow will have their work cut out.

“No-one’s expecting that to be turned around in the short term.”

Asked whether 2DayFM has tinkered with its music mix across the day, O’Reilly says “It really hasn’t changed since March last year, when we put the new Hits Before They Hit format in.”

“And that’s a really progressive, bold move. Supporting Aussie music and trying to create a younger fan base of the station.”

Central to SCA’s outlook for 2026 is a consistent lineup with highly localised shows.

“At the moment we’re having chats around how we’re leveraging our partnership with our new owners Channel 7 and bringing the best creators in the country together and what that looks like for the road ahead.”

O’Reilly is asked whether the merged entity will see more SCA radio people appearing on Channel 7 shows.

Whilst he thinks that will indeed happen, it’s still early days yet.

“There will be more Seven people on radio and more radio people on Seven, I would say, at a minimum.”

“We’re starting to have those meetings now.”

And he says SCA’s Ashes cricket coverage is being used as a template.

“The cross promotion between Seven and Triple M and LiSTNR across the summer – from the Boxing Day Test onwards – was really impressive.”

Images: SCA