Talk speculation

Back in August, RadioToday’s Brad March talked about the future of radio companies like Southern Cross Media, Australian Radio Network and Nova Entertainment. That they are now in the hands of larger media owners, all centred around the proposed media law changes that the Abbot Government is slowly navigating. Those changes, if they get through, have the potential to change radio ownership in Australia significantly.

Over the weekend, the Telegraph has thrown in some speculation that a couple of key Television bosses are now casting their eyes over radio assets.

But who?

The main one of interest that the Telegraph highlighted was:

“TV bosses David Gyngell and Tim Worner are furiously running their eyes over radio assets, weighing up whether to strike sooner rather than later.”

“Nine’s Gyngell has told close associates he can imagine a scenario where Nine invests in John Singleton’s Macquarie Radio Network, as well as buying Fairfax’s underperforming radio assets to build a formidable national talk platform.”

It’s no surprise Nine and Seven are looking at Fairfax and Macquarie radio stations. Both TV networks target a broad audience and rely on doing well in older demos' which stations like 2GB and 3AW deliver.

With the networks looking to increase their earnings.  Combining key radio, television and digital assets would be a good fit and be an attractive option for advertisers.

If Nine were to acquire both Macquarie and Fairfax, the sale of Fairfax's 2UE would be interesting given they are understood to be still not making any profit.

If a move was made on the talk assets, that would put an end to Southern Cross Austereo's earlier ambitions to merge with the Nine Network.