On Wednesday it will be four weeks since ARN Media launched an ambitious plan to acquire radio and TV broadcaster SCA. In the time since there has been little public activity about that proposal to offer cash and shares to SCA shareholders.
ARN Media has not spoken publicly about the offer, nor has SCA apart from advice that its board continues to evaluate the proposal.
There has also been no clarity about the role ARN Media’s consortium partner, Anchorage Capital, will play in the deal. While Anchorage was being used to house the parts of SCA that ARN didn’t want – Hit Network and a collection of regional licences – there has been no explanation of how Anchorage would manage those assets.
Since the takeover was pitched by ARN Media two other players have identified an interest.
Australia’s largest independent publisher – the Anthony Catalano-controlled ACM – has proposed that it could fold its major regional newspaper assets into SCA in return for shares in the company. That could give ACM a significant stake in SCA.
Seven West Media is now the latest player to enter the fray with news it has acquired a 19.9% stake in ARN Media via an off-market transaction. A major investment in radio and/or digital audio on demand (podcasting) is something Seven has so far resisted.
Seven spends a lot of money every year promoting its major TV franchises on breakfast radio around Australia. Having control of that content and that radio talent makes a lot of sense.
Just how much of an appetite it has to progress with that investment remains to be seen.
See also: Radio goes boom! ARN wants Triple M Network…will the SCA board play ball?
Could Nine figure in FM radio carve up?
When asked last week about the manoeuvring in the FM radio space, Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby indicated the company was watching the jostling. He added that if they had any further thoughts they would not be telegraphing it at this stage.
As Mediaweek has previously noted, Nine could play a part in a realignment of radio assets. The most likely scenario could be if Nova Entertainment took the opportunity to add FM licences to expand the smooth network. If that happened in Adelaide, Nova Entertainment could offload the licence for Fiveaa. It would make a lot of sense for Nine to pick up Fiveaa to complete its AM metro network that is currently home to 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR.
Calculating the value of Fiveaa would be a challenge. It’s obviously a jewel in the Adelaide radio crown, but as an AM asset in Australia’s smallest metro radio market it has much less significance nationally.
See also: Why ARN wants to acquire SCA and its plans for Hit and Triple M networks
News Corp and Lachlan Murdoch
Another major media player yet to join the fray in the current radio musical chairs is News Corp. It is already a shareholder in ARN Media. However on Wednesday this week Lachlan Murdoch takes over as the sole chairman of News Corp and continues as executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation. The sole chair has more of an appetite for the radio sector than the previous o-chair, Lachlan’s father Rupert Murdoch.
Lachlan also of course is the owner of Nova Entertainment. The company runs five metro Nova stations, two metro smoothfm stations (and additional DAB+ smoothfm brands) in addition to holdings in regional radio, digital radio and the Nova Entertainment Podcast Network.
Nova shares control of Nova Perth and KIIS 97.3 in Brisbane with ARN Media. In any radio shakeout, there could be deals to be done for both partners.
At the moment radio remains the hottest ticket in town.