BotD: The day SCA went audio-only, took Listnr profitable, and lost a drive host; ARN Media back into growth; Hallway creative chief exits
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The day: SCA gets out of TV and declares Listnr victory; ARN finds momentum but warns of more cuts
Triple M loses Marty Sheargold
The radio industry woke up to last night’s news that Southern Cross Austereo had “parted ways” with Triple M’s Sydney and Brisbane drive host Marty Sheargold. The comedian made the triple blunder of making sexist comments about women’s football, cracking a crass joke about endometriosis, and doing it in the same week SCA was due to release its half-year results.
Southern Cross Austereo, now in audio
SCA was finally able to give the market the good news that it was getting out of television. It told the market that it had sold the last of its regional TV licences to Australian Digital Holdings, the Australian home of the hard right-leaning Newsmax. We can reveal that broadcast stalwart Jason Morrison will be ADH’s director of television.
Listnr comes out of the red
SCA told the market that its investment in its digital platform Listnr has finally turned (mildly) profitable in a set of half year numbers that showed the company’s audio operations had grown by 5.3% in revenue and 24.6% in profits.
However, SCA got to the good news by excluding its soon-to-be-discontinued TV operations.
Once they were added back in, SCA’s profits hit a new all-time first-half low of $28m, down from $29m the year before. But revenue was up fractionally from $251m to $254m.
ARN Media delivers profit growth and flags another $40m in cuts
ARN Media, owner of the Kiis and Gold networks, told the market that it had made EBITDA profits across 2024 of $93.1m. The 30% jump was thanks mainly to the strong performance of its Hong Kong outdoor business Cody.
ARN staff will be bracing for more job cuts after the company said it would deliver another $40m in savings over the next three years.
Ooh Media in Parramatta win
Ooh Media retained its Parramatta street furniture contract after a competitive pitch.
Out in the Hallway
One of Australia’s biggest creative agencies The Hallway has parted ways with its long-time chief creative officer Simon Lee. The Hallway founder Jules Hall said in a statement: “The time has come for us to forge new paths.”
Unmade Index dips
Despite delivering results that suggested the audio industry is beginning to turn the corner, both ARN Media and Southern Cross Austereo saw their share prices slip today. ARN lost 2.4% while SCA lost 2.3%.
Meanwhile Ooh Media rose by 2.3% and investment house Vinva revealed that it has taken a 5% stake.
The Unmade Index closed down 0.27% on 569.75 points.
Time to leave you to your evening. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
Have a great night.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella
tim@unmade.media