Despite all the movements going on in the radio market at SCA and ARN, Nova Entertainment group program director, Paul Jackson remains bullish about the Nova network's position.
He says it doesn't need to make any drastic changes to its line up or strategy because it has nothing to fix, however the network is investing in marketing.
“We've got the best laid out plans of any of the networks,” Jackson told AdNews.
“Honestly we've had consistency through out the whole year, we've got five breakfast shows that are working perfectly for us. Across the country our networks are in a dominant position. You make change when your not in such a dominant position,” he said.
Jackson isn't concerned about the recent news that SCA has lured back successful duo Hamish and Andy in the drive spot and that Mix101.1 is re-branding to KIIS in Melbourne and bringing back another veteran duo Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek for its drive slot, hinting that the movement at at its rivals is a response to under performance.
Neither is ARN. Duncan Campbell, ARN national content director has batted away suggestions that rival investment in the Sydney market will take market share away from its “Sydney duopoly.” However that won't mean the station will lift its marketing spend, with Campbell telling AdNews the 'unprecedented” ad spend in 2014 will continue into the new year.
The network boosted its marketing in 2014 to promote the rebranding of its Sydney stations WSFM and Kiis. While Campbell said ARN's focus in 2015 will be boosting its presence in Melbourne, marketing in Sydney will continue at the same level.
“This year we've marketed our stations at a level which is sort of unprecedented for ARN and that will continue next year as well. Our focus is very much on making sure that awareness levels for our radio stations is high and that our marketing really continues to develop the brands that we have,” he said.
While ARN breakfast presenters, Jonesy and Amanda for WSFM and Kiis' Kyle and Jackie O have dominated the Sydney FM rating this year, additional investment is being made by rivals in the radio landscape, particularly in the drive time slot. SCA signed Hamish and Andy in a deal that makes them the highest paid in radio.
ARN announced yesterday that its drive slot will move to a national format, with former Nova presenters Hughsey and Kate taking the reigns across the country. ARN will also be rebranding its Melbourne Mix station to Kiis, to mirror the success in Sydney.
It means that Adelaide's Mix102.3 drive show Sean Craig Murphy and Brisbane's 97.3 drive presenter Campo will move to make way for the national show. In the latest GhK ratings, both stations came second in the drive slot, with Mix102.3 recording 12.8% audience share and Brisbane with 14.0% audience share.
“The decision takes nothing away from the local talent, they perform exceptionally well, but the commercial pressures have been such that we needed to offer a network offering,” Campbell said.
“We feel that 2015 is the right year to do that with the calibre of talent that we can offer in Hughesy and Kate.”
Campbell added that despite the noise in the market, particularly in the national drive slot, he believes having a brand new station for Melbourne, and “high calibre of talent” will attract attention very quickly for ARN.
“There is no panic button being pushed at ARN. I've been talking bout 2015 for months in terms our plan. We run our own race, our focus is on what our stations do and we don’t' focus too much on the others.”
Nova's Jackson continued that its rivals new talent is not a threat, but that it isnt looking for enw talent, because the network doesn't need it.
“We have huge momentum, we'll just keep doing what we've been doing before but constantly looking to improve it. We're investing more in marketing and content and so on as well. We're very fortunate to be in the position we're in,” he said.
When talking of bringing on new talent Jackson claimed that the Nova network wasn't looking to bring on anyone new citing that there is no room in the network for more talent.
“We're not talking to anyone, we've got five great breakfast shows, Marty in drive, Smallzy in drive, we're not talking to anyone because we haven't got any shows available.”
“We'll continue to do what we do, we'll continue to entertain the listeners, I don't see any problems for us.”
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