The parent company behind the Kyle & Jackie O Show has bled advertisers since the duo鈥檚 ill-fated launch in Melbourne, a market which is on track to become the biggest in the country by population.
A year on from the Sydney duo attempting to crack the Victorian capital, figures from Guideline SMI published in The Age show ARN, which syndicates the Kyle & Jackie O Show, has continued to bleed money, with the company 13% down on ad revenue so far this year compared to the same period last year.
The owner of the KIIS and GOLD FM radio networks has fallen from 28% to 24% share of metro ad revenue, losing out to Southern Cross Austereo (owner of Triple M) with 32% and Nova Entertainment with 33%.
ARN has subsequently made enormous cost cuts over the past year, with $40 million in cutbacks, including mass redundancies, announced in February. Among the various on-air cuts have included Zach Mander and Dom Fay鈥檚 late-night show in Brisbane, while between 70 and 100 support roles at the network were confirmed to be on the chopping block, and long-time chief content officer Duncan Campbell was also moved into a consultancy role.
Speaking at an Independent Media Agencies of Australia event last week, ARN CEO Ciaran Davis described the launch in Melbourne as an 鈥渦nmitigated disaster鈥, while Kyle Sandilands directed the blame for the show鈥檚 struggles in Melbourne at Davis and his fellow executives at ARN.
鈥淚 blame you guys, in all honesty. I blame you guys. What we should have done was roll this out nationally from day one. Put our balls in our hand and fucking moved forward,鈥 Sandilands said.
Mediaweek鈥檚 report on the conference appearance also noted that Sandilands agreed that the rollout had been a disaster. The remarks mark an acknowledgement that Sandilands and Jackie Henderson had not resonated with Melbourne listeners and that a change of strategy may be required to capture that market.
ARN did not respond for comment when contacted by Crikey.
The most recent GfK radio ratings survey saw Kyle and Jackie O losing listeners already in Melbourne, dipping to 5.1% of audience share in the city 鈥 down from 5.8% 鈥 lagging behind their predecessors Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips (now at Nova), who lead them with 10.2% of audience share. When Hawkins and Phillips were last on an ARN network back in late 2023, they rallied to finish with 9.1% audience share.
The ratings struggles for Kyle and Jackie O come after a loss of high-profile advertisers following social media campaigns over the content of their programming, described as 鈥渧iolent misogyny鈥 by boycott campaigners.
While Sandilands accused the campaign of 鈥渕aking up stories, getting people to lie, bombarding clients that are advertising with us with fake outrage鈥 last week, the organisers maintain that the accusations have had an impact on the show鈥檚 ad revenue.
One rival national radio host told Crikey: 鈥淚 think their show delegitimises radio and it casts a dark shadow on the industry. It鈥檚 unfunny, lowest-common-denominator content.鈥
Almost half of all complaints about decency standards to the Australian Communications and Media Authority in 2023-24 related to the Kyle & Jackie O Show, with 45% of complaints made about 鈥渕aterial not suitable for broadcast鈥. However, the authority only commenced three investigations into the show between 2019 and 2023, and only one resulted in an enforceable action.