'Live and free': ARN boss takes swipe at Kyle as revenue falls 14%

When The Kyle and Jackie O Show was still on ARN, a list of advertisers didn't want their brands anywhere near it.

Some wouldn't advertise in the show. Others stayed away from KIIS altogether. And some stopped spending with ARN.

Now, CEO Michael Stephenson says that list is empty.

“You've got to remember, we had a long list of clients when the show was on air that had asked not to advertise in the show,” Stephenson told Mediaweek following this morning's HY26 earnings call.

“Because they didn't advertise in the show, some of those clients also didn't advertise on KIIS, and some of those advertisers chose not to advertise with ARN at all.

“Of course, the day that the show was no longer on air, there were zero clients on that list, and there are no clients on that list today.

“We've lost them, and it takes a little while for me to recover.”

ARN's half-year numbers show there is still some recovering to do.

Total revenue fell 14% to $127.9 million during the first half of 2026, or 10% on a normalised basis. Underlying EBITDA dropped 27% to $18.2 million.

Metro radio took the biggest hit, with revenue falling 24% to $60 million, or 20% on a like-for-like basis. ARN attributed $10.2 million of the year-on-year revenue decline to the lingering impact of brand safety issues.

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The $38 million gap

ARN held a 24.9% metro audience share among people aged 25 to 54 in the first half, but its metro radio revenue share was 18.5%.

That's a 6.4-point gap. ARN calculates every point is worth roughly $6 million annually, putting the difference at about $38.4 million.

Stephenson traces much of that shortfall back to the brand safety fallout.

“If every share point is worth $6 million, roughly, because the market is worth about $600 million, so every share point is worth about $6 million,” he said.

“We've lost 6.4 share points. That equates to about $38 million of lost revenue.

“Then you go back to our full-year results, where we said that because of the issues with brand safety, we estimated it cost us $26 million in lost revenue.

“That's the $10 million that I've said in the first half of this year. That's $36 million.”

ARN now needs to convince those advertisers to come back.

“What do we need to do to get it back? Well, we need to have conversations with advertisers about the environment in which they're going to advertise,” Stephenson said.

“We don't have brand safety issues anymore, of course. So, the only thing standing between us and regaining that share is time.”

ARN expects its metro revenue share to improve in the second half of 2026.

New shows coming this year

There is also the small matter of what ARN puts in place of Kyle and Jackie O.

The company launched seven new metro shows during the first half and is preparing new shows for Sydney and Melbourne.

“We're really close to finalising all of our agreements with New Talent, New Stars,” Stephenson said.

“The show in Sydney and in Melbourne, there are two of them obviously, will launch this year.”

The names remain under wraps.

But Stephenson gave investors one detail during ARN's earnings call, describing both shows as “live and free”.

“I'm pleased to say that we're close to finalising talent agreements for our new shows in both Sydney and Melbourne. And I can announce today that both shows will launch this year, and both will be live and free,” he said.

It was a pointed choice of words given Sandilands' next venture is built around a subscription offering.

Asked by Mediaweek about the comparison, Stephenson said ARN and Sandilands are playing in different markets.

‘We’re not competing with Kyle’

“Subscriptions are not new. So this is not like it's changing the face of media. People have been consuming free content and subscription content together forever,” Stephenson said.

“There is absolutely no doubt that Kyle has got loyal fans. There's no doubt about it. He's been a great broadcaster for a long time.

“And those loyalists, I would assume, have subscribed, and of course they would and they should.”

But Stephenson said ARN's model is fundamentally different.

“But our model is very, very different to that model- that a subscription model, we're an advertising model, we're about mass reach, and a subscription business is usually niche and small. We're not competing with Kyle.”

Costs come down

While ARN waits for advertising revenue to recover, it has been cutting costs.

Operating expenditure fell 13% to $84.5 million during the half, delivering $11.8 million in savings.

ARN has now removed $42.5 million from its cost base since 2024 and is targeting about $55 million in cumulative savings by 2027.

Net debt fell to $49.4 million, down $28.1 million compared with the first half of 2025.

Digital accounted for 11% of revenue during the half, up from 9% a year earlier, while digital EBITDA increased 55% to $2.1 million.

But traditional radio remains the main game, accounting for 89% of ARN's revenue.

For now, ARN's challenge is a fairly simple one to describe, even if it's harder to execute: get the advertisers back.

Stephenson says the list of brands unwilling to advertise with ARN because of Kyle and Jackie O has disappeared.

Now ARN has to turn that empty list into revenue.