Radio has found its route to a single streaming player; can free-to-air TV do the same?
Radio has found its route to a single streaming player; can free-to-air TV do the same?
Welcome to a Tuesday update from Unmade.
Today, we ask whether there is a path to a single, successful free to air TV network. And on the Unmade Index, Seven West Media now appears to be days away from being overtaken for the first time by ARN Media for size.
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The audio industry is en route a single major streaming player; could the free TV networks do the same?
One of the most elegant aspects of ARN Media’s takeover bid for Southern Cross Austereo is that it offers a means of creating a single major audio streaming player locally, without breaking the existing media ownership regulations.
The focus has been on the immediate spoils of the deal: a new, stronger ARN Media with two five-city metro networks Kiis and Triple M; a second radio company made up of the remains of Gold plus the Hit Network; and the unloved regional TV licences held by SCA as an orphan asset.
But the most underestimated aspect is the single, jointly owned company that will stream all of that audio content from both companies.
One day - maybe in five years but more likely ten or even 20 - this will become the commercial audio industry’s main local player. There will be a point when the transmitters are finally switched off.
That thinking around the deal is elegant because it manages the short term challenge of any radio company being limited by law to two radio licences in any broadcast area. But it creates a route to consolidating all that audio content over time when it is no longer regulated by the broadcast licences.
The biggest hurdle has been balancing the interests of two sets of shareholders. They appears to be almost there.
The model presents a much bigger question: Could the same be done for the local television market?