Radio Assets for Sale - Phantom? IRadio?

RadioAnalyst · 02-12-2012 3:05pm #1

A rare visit between JNLR reports from RadioAnalyst.

A few people in the media business have been approached informally in the past couple of weeks testing the waters for what is described as the possible sale of some Irish radio assets.

No names have been mentioned but it is believed that the assets concerned are either Phantom in Dublin or the iRadio stations.

Something that might warm the temperature of the water slightly for a possible sale is the fact that several stations have been granted a 50% derogation on their News and Current Affairs quota by the BAI which is a major cost issue for many stations, particularly the youth targeted ones.

Interesting too, and I'm sure not coincidental are the latest job cuts at Phantom where the most recent victims have been Alison Curtis and Orlagh Donnelly, the presenter and producer respectively of Phantoms mid-afternoon talk-show who got their marching orders this week. Doubtless similar moves will take place at other stations who have received the derogation.

Anyone else heard word of these potential sales?

marno21 · 03-12-2012 5:34pm

RadioAnalyst wrote: »

A rare visit between JNLR reports from RadioAnalyst.

A few people in the media business have been approached informally in the past couple of weeks testing the waters for what is described as the possible sale of some Irish radio assets.

No names have been mentioned but it is believed that the assets concerned are either Phantom in Dublin or the iRadio stations.

Something that might warm the temperature of the water slightly for a possible sale is the fact that several stations have been granted a 50% derogation on their News and Current Affairs quota by the BAI which is a major cost issue for many stations, particularly the youth targeted ones.

Interesting too, and I'm sure not coincidental are the latest job cuts at Phantom where the most recent victims have been Alison Curtis and Orlagh Donnelly, the presenter and producer respectively of Phantoms mid-afternoon talk-show who got their marching orders this week. Doubtless similar moves will take place at other stations who have received the derogation.

Anyone else heard word of these potential sales?

Does this apply to Beat 102 103? I've noticed that the programming layout of Beat Drive this evening has changed, there was no news at 5:30, which I've never seen happening before.

gavindowd · 03-12-2012 6:02pm

I'd love to see Global radio in the UK take over Phantom and turn it into XFM, Eoghan Mc Dermot could be back on the Irish radio scene!

end of the road · 03-12-2012 6:59pm

gavindowd wrote: »

I'd love to see Global radio in the UK take over Phantom

oh sweet jesus no.

heybaby · 03-12-2012 8:27pm

gavindowd wrote: »

I'd love to see Global radio in the UK take over Phantom and turn it into XFM, Eoghan Mc Dermot could be back on the Irish radio scene!

where was mcdermot before ?

Cookie Policy · 03-12-2012 10:01pm

heybaby wrote: »

where was mcdermot before ?

SPIN 1038, Sunday Service & Pop Raidio.

He is a brilliant presenter, he covered Dara Quilty on The Lock In a few times and I recall him ringing his dad to ask him the meanings of certain words & it became the word of the night. Sounds like ****e radio but it was brilliant, he always worded things really complicated and then dumbed it down in the second sentence loved that!

gavindowd · 04-12-2012 4:54pm

end of the road wrote: »

oh sweet jesus no.

I suppose you think the circumstances would be like your usernname

RadioAnalyst · 04-12-2012 8:29pm

To answer Marnos question above, yes, I do think that the derogation applies to Beat 102/103. Perhaps one of the other posters can confirm this. I suspect that a blanket derogation has been given to a number of stations in the youth/specialist category who now just need to fill 10% of their output with news and current affairs rather than the current 20%.

As for Global buying Phantom, I can't see that happening. XFM, remarkably, performs as poorly in London as Phantom does in Dublin so if anything I think we could see X being sold off by Global to allow them to acquire other stations and groups, a situation currently being studied by Ofcom and the UK Competition authority.

I think any potential buyer from Phantom would come from much closer to home, much closer to Phantoms old HQ in the Docklands I would wager.

If it is iRadio that is currently being touted then I would think that one of the local groups in the extended franchise area might be interested. I can't see either UTV or Communicorp dipping their toes in that particular pond.

Cookie Policy · 04-12-2012 8:50pm

RadioAnalyst wrote: »

To answer Marnos question above, yes, I do think that the derogation applies to Beat 102/103. Perhaps one of the other posters can confirm this. I suspect that a blanket derogation has been given to a number of stations in the youth/specialist category who now just need to fill 10% of their output with news and current affairs rather than the current 20%.

As for Global buying Phantom, I can't see that happening. XFM, remarkably, performs as poorly in London as Phantom does in Dublin so if anything I think we could see X being sold off by Global to allow them to acquire other stations and groups, a situation currently being studied by Ofcom and the UK Competition authority.

I think any potential buyer from Phantom would come from much closer to home, much closer to Phantoms old HQ in the Docklands I would wager.

If it is iRadio that is currently being touted then I would think that one of the local groups in the extended franchise area might be interested. I can't see either UTV or Communicorp dipping their toes in that particular pond.

I think it may apply to Communicorp also, they've been doing a lot of cutting news wise lately, since they moved all their news teams to Marconi House & SPIN South West's news coming from Dublin also, and the fact that 98FM news readers are reading for SPIN now too.

marno21 · 04-12-2012 9:11pm

Here's a comparison on Beat Drive (the only show I really get the chance to listen to)

Before Monday:

~ 5 minutes of news/sport/weather/traffic at 15:50, 16:20, 16:50, 17:20, and 17:50 - 25 minutes
1x traffic and travel at 18:20 - 1 minute
Beat News Roundup at 18:30 - 30 minutes
Total - Roughly an hour of news/sport etc

Now:
5 minutes of news/sport/weather at 15:50, 16:50 and 17:50 - 15 minutes
Traffic and travel at 15:50, 16:20, 16:50, 17:20, 17:50, 18:20 and 18:50 - total of 5 minutes
Beat News Roundup at 18:30 - 20 minutes
Now - 40 minutes

Now it's down to around 40 minutes. There's clearly been a large cut in the current affairs broadcasts. It's strange that there has though, it probably wouldn't cost Beat extra as they have newsreaders doing the news on the hour anyway and they have no talk show. The move is likely to increase the amount of music played

Cookie Policy · 04-12-2012 9:27pm

marno21 wrote: »

Here's a comparison on Beat Drive (the only show I really get the chance to listen to)

Before Monday:

~ 5 minutes of news/sport/weather/traffic at 15:50, 16:20, 16:50, 17:20, and 17:50 - 25 minutes
1x traffic and travel at 18:20 - 1 minute
Beat News Roundup at 18:30 - 30 minutes
Total - Roughly an hour of news/sport etc

Now:
5 minutes of news/sport/weather at 15:50, 16:50 and 17:50 - 15 minutes
Traffic and travel at 15:50, 16:20, 16:50, 17:20, 17:50, 18:20 and 18:50 - total of 5 minutes
Beat News Roundup at 18:30 - 20 minutes
Now - 40 minutes

Now it's down to around 40 minutes. There's clearly been a large cut in the current affairs broadcasts. It's strange that there has though, it probably wouldn't cost Beat extra as they have newsreaders doing the news on the hour anyway and they have no talk show. The move is likely to increase the amount of music played

OR dare I say money....I guess every penny counts now!

soc160 · 05-12-2012 1:34am

RadioAnalyst wrote: »

A rare visit between JNLR reports from RadioAnalyst.

A few people in the media business have been approached informally in the past couple of weeks testing the waters for what is described as the possible sale of some Irish radio assets.

No names have been mentioned but it is believed that the assets concerned are either Phantom in Dublin or the iRadio stations.

Something that might warm the temperature of the water slightly for a possible sale is the fact that several stations have been granted a 50% derogation on their News and Current Affairs quota by the BAI which is a major cost issue for many stations, particularly the youth targeted ones.

Interesting too, and I'm sure not coincidental are the latest job cuts at Phantom where the most recent victims have been Alison Curtis and Orlagh Donnelly, the presenter and producer respectively of Phantoms mid-afternoon talk-show who got their marching orders this week. Doubtless similar moves will take place at other stations who have received the derogation.

Anyone else heard word of these potential sales?

Phantom or iRadio? I don't mean to just come in here and question your work, im sure you have some idea of what your talking about but this seems a bit odd, the two stations are very different, the primary difference being that one is Dublin the other covers the a larger space of the Midlands, if someone or some group was thinking of buying a station would they not have a more definitive idea of what they want to buy? Surely you have more information than what you have told us?

Trick of the Tail · 05-12-2012 1:10pm

As far as I know the speech derogation has only been granted to Nova and Phantom so far. Its not a blanket thing, the stations have to apply for it and make their case.

Perhaps Beat have, but the news article at the weekend only mentioned those two.

A

gavindowd · 05-12-2012 2:52pm

In the UK its a different story, the bulletins are networked after 7 from Sky/IRN and they are only 90 seconds through the day... most of the stuff isn't local too, with Global Radio controlling the industry

gavindowd · 05-12-2012 2:55pm

RadioAnalyst wrote: »

To answer Marnos question above, yes, I do think that the derogation applies to Beat 102/103. Perhaps one of the other posters can confirm this. I suspect that a blanket derogation has been given to a number of stations in the youth/specialist category who now just need to fill 10% of their output with news and current affairs rather than the current 20%.

As for Global buying Phantom, I can't see that happening. XFM, remarkably, performs as poorly in London as Phantom does in Dublin so if anything I think we could see X being sold off by Global to allow them to acquire other stations and groups, a situation currently being studied by Ofcom and the UK Competition authority.

I think any potential buyer from Phantom would come from much closer to home, much closer to Phantoms old HQ in the Docklands I would wager.

If it is iRadio that is currently being touted then I would think that one of the local groups in the extended franchise area might be interested. I can't see either UTV or Communicorp dipping their toes in that particular pond.

So you think Sunshine 1068/Star broadcasting will purchase Phantom... or maybe 4fm or UTV.

Remember that SPIN were the ones going for iRadio originally, so I dont think they'd be allowed buy them for competition reasons... there has to be a reason why they didnt give them to SPIN in the first place...

KingOfFairview · 05-12-2012 8:13pm

So for someone with no knowledge of the industry, what would this likely mean for Phantom?

rolo23 · 06-12-2012 11:22am

More likely Bay Boadcasting Ltd...of 4fm, Sunshine 106.8 and Radio Nova fame.

More Music · 06-12-2012 1:34pm

alinton wrote: »

.....Perhaps Beat have, but the news article at the weekend only mentioned those two.
A

Where was this article? I can't find anything on the BAI press releases section.

heybaby · 06-12-2012 2:10pm

rolo23 wrote: »

More likely Bay Boadcasting Ltd...of 4fm, Sunshine 106.8 and Radio Nova fame.

I would think it very unlikely, all three stations are loss making , it would be pointless nay foolhardy to add two more loss making stations to their portfolio. Phantom will most likely go to the wall.

Trick of the Tail · 06-12-2012 9:31pm

Last Sunday Times.

A.

ghostdancer · 07-12-2012 11:54am

gavindowd wrote: »

I'd love to see Global radio in the UK take over Phantom and turn it into XFM, Eoghan Mc Dermot could be back on the Irish radio scene!

XFM does pretty awful ratings-wise in the UK, does it not?

just had a look through their playlist, same safe bland indie-pop as the Phantom playlist.
some of the specialist shows look pretty good though.
Mary-Anne Hobb's recently finished show was great, lots of variety and what a proper alternative radio station should be playing, something sadly lacking from Phantom bar 2 or maybe 3 shows at off-peak time slots.

gavindowd · 07-12-2012 6:00pm

ghostdancer wrote: »

lots of variety and what a proper alternative radio station should be playing, something sadly lacking from Phantom bar 2 or maybe 3 shows at off-peak time slots.

But the playlist is crucial as no-one will listen otherwise :rolleyes:

Radio Assets for Sale - Phantom? IRadio?

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