Media buyers have backed ARN and DMG to pick up radio ad dollars this year, but are not as bullish on SCA.
IPG Mediabrands boss Henry Tajer said the 2014 outlook for radio was "interesting" given that "Australia's biggest talent has switched horse". The defection of Kyle and Jackie O to ARN leaves Austereo "facing a struggle ... they have lost a big-ticket item which they have not yet mitigated". Tajer said the when the market is disrupted, "investment usually follows". With Smooth FM now established, Tajer thought DMG would also have a good year.
OMD boss Peter Horgan agreed with that assessment, although there may be "a bit of a lag" before ARN starts accruing the Kyle dollars.
However, one media analyst suggested that the listeners may not migrate en masse to the new Kiis 1065 station and that "audiences may be stickier than Kyle thinks".
Late last year SCA tried to play down the loss and implied that Kyle and Jackie O had been too risky for some advertisers, and could be resistant to the network's bids to integrate ads with show content.
At the launch of Kiis today ARN boss Ciaran Davis suggested that the company had taken all necessary precautions to protect both advertisers and the network itself from potential fall-out from the often controversial show.
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