2004–05: RG Capital & DMG Regional Radio acquisitions RG Capital was an Australian radio company, formed in 1995 by
Reg Grundy with the acquisition of
Sea FM Gold Coast. Between 1996 and 2000, the group grew to 28 stations across regional centres, and was subsequently floated on the
Australian Securities Exchange. On 3 June 2004, Macquarie Bank announced it would acquire RG Capital for $173 million, gaining control of 36 radio stations in
New South Wales,
Queensland,
Victoria and
Tasmania. The
Federal Court of Australia approved the acquisition in August 2004, with the stations to be operated through the company's Regional Media Limited subsidiary, trading as
Macquarie Regional RadioWorks. The acquisition was finalised on 1 September 2004. On 3 September 2004, Macquarie Bank announced its acquisition of
DMG Radio Australia's regional radio assets. The $193.5 million deal included 57 regional stations, with DMG retaining Hot 91.1 Sunshine Coast and
Star 104.5 Gosford alongside its metropolitan assets. This increased Regional Media's reach into
South Australia and
Western Australia, initially controlling 93 radio stations and becoming the largest commercial radio network in Australia. However, as the
Broadcasting Services Act 1992 prevents companies from controlling more than two commercial radio stations in a regional market, Regional Media was required to divest radio stations in
Albury,
Cairns,
Mackay,
Rockhampton/
Gladstone and
Townsville. On 1 September 2005,
2AY Albury was acquired by
Ace Radio, while six stations in the remaining five markets were sold to
Prime Television. On 17 November 2005 the company was restructured into a
triple-stapled structure consisting of an Australian-based
private company and
trust, and an additional private company based in
Bermuda. Macquarie Media Group was in turn
publicly listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange, but with majority control retained by Macquarie Bank. In December, Macquarie Bank announced an
AU$1.19 billion deal to acquire a 40% stake in Taiwanese
cable television provider Taiwan Broadband Communications from equity firm the
Carlyle Group, 60% of which would be financed by Macquarie Media Group. In March 2008, the company divested its stake to the Macquarie Korea Opportunities Fund in a $400 million deal.
2006–08: American Consolidated Media & Southern Cross acquisitions By 2006, Macquarie Regional RadioWorks was increasingly networking news and programming on its 86 radio stations from a series of hubs in
Bendigo,
Bunbury, the
Gold Coast and
Townsville. This was criticised by a number of politicians, including
Nationals MPs
Paul Neville and
Barnaby Joyce. In response, the
Minister for Communications Helen Coonan introduced the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Act 2006, including requiring each commercial radio licence to produce 4.5 hours of 'locally significant' content each business day commencing from 1 January 2008. This was later relaxed to 3 hours for most stations, with exemptions for smaller stations. In November 2006, Macquarie Media Group purchased a 13.8% stake in
Southern Cross Broadcasting, acquiring 10 million shares for AU$195 million. On 25 January 2007, the company's interests expanded into the United States, with the acquisition of newspaper publisher
American Consolidated Media for
US$80 million (AU$102 million). On 3 July 2007, Macquarie Media Group announced a takeover bid of
Southern Cross Broadcasting, offering AU$17.41 per share for a total value of $1.35 billion. Under the deal, Macquarie would assume Southern Cross Broadcasting's regional television assets –
Southern Cross Television, affiliated with the
Seven Network;
Southern Cross Ten, affiliated with
Network Ten; and
Tasmanian Digital Television, a joint-venture with
WIN Corporation. Its remaining assets, including metropolitan radio stations, Satellite Music Australia and
Southern Star Group, were to be onsold to
Fairfax Media for AU$520 million. The
Australian Communications & Media Authority gave prior approval to the deal, with the caveat that 12 radio stations currently controlled by Macquarie would be sold pursuant to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. On 17 October, the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission approved the deal, but ruled that the deal for Fairfax to sell nine radio stations to Macquarie would result in a "substantial lessening of competition". On 5 November, Macquarie Media Group acquired Southern Cross Broadcasting, selling its non-television assets to Fairfax Media the following day. On 12 December, both parties abandoned negotiations for the South Australian and Queensland radio stations. On 14 March 2008, Macquarie divested 18 radio stations for AU$34.5 million. Nine Tasmanian stations were sold to
Grant Broadcasters, with four Queensland stations sold to Smart Radio. While only one of Macquarie's two stations in
Young, New South Wales were required to be sold, both
2LF and
Star FM were sold to
Broadcast Operations Group.
2009–10: Restructure In August 2009, Macquarie Media Group posted a loss of $84.6 million in 2008-09, compared with a $273 million profit in the previous financial year. Despite lower revenue, the Group's Australian assets delivered a profit of $123.4 million, but ACM significant losses In December 2009, MMG security holders voted in favour of a conversion from a triple-stapled structure to a single ASX-listed company. MMG was renamed Southern Cross Media Group with former RG Capital Radio CEO Rhys Holleran as the Chief Executive Officer.
Austereo The company was founded by
Paul Thompson, and when commercial
FM broadcasting was introduced into Australia it acquired the licence for metropolitan
Adelaide,
South Australia;
SAFM commenced transmission in September 1980. The next station to join the network was
Fox FM in
Melbourne,
Victoria in 1986, eventually to be followed by
2Day FM in
Sydney,
New South Wales and
4BK in
Brisbane,
Queensland for which the company was successful in converting to the FM band in 1990. Austereo also purchased
AM radio station
6IX in
Perth, Western Australia with the intention of converting the station to FM. 6IX, which had been re-launched by Austereo as
The Eagle 1080 AM, was consequently sold off after being outbid for either of the two new FM licences by rivals
6KY and
6PM, which Austereo now own. 1995 saw a monopolistic arrangement take place whereby
Village Roadshow purchased the
Hoyts owned
Triple M network, and Triple M in turn merged with Austereo to form a single umbrella company. The merger was part of a single deal that was unpopular due to the fierce rivalry between the two radio networks, and the fact that
Village Roadshow and
Hoyts were also direct competitors in the
film industry.
Merger In March 2011, Southern Cross Media launched an A$714 million takeover bid of national radio broadcaster, the
Austereo Group. On 6 April 2011 shareholders of the
Austereo Group accepted the takeover bid, giving SCM a more than 90% share in the company. Southern Cross Media and Austereo merged in July 2011 to form Southern Cross Austereo.
Post-merger 2010s Starting from 7 November 2011, Southern Cross Austereo slowly rolled out
9Gem,
9Go!,
7two,
7mate and
One as digital channels across the GTS/BKN areas. On 23 August 2012, Guy Dobson (director of metro radio) was announced as Chief Officer of Content for the Southern Cross Austereo network, working across radio and television. Southern Cross began broadcasting the shopping channel
TVSN, already carried by
Network 10, in December 2012 on LCN 54 in Southern Cross Ten markets, on LCN 64 in Tasmania and on LCN 74 in Darwin. Southern Cross began broadcasting its own datacast channel,
Aspire TV on 21 May 2013 on LCN 56 in Southern Cross Ten markets, on LCN 66 in Tasmania and on LCN 76 in Darwin. On 7 December 2013, the company switched GDS/BDN to a feed of
NWS Adelaide. In October 2014, the company announced it would relaunch SAFM in Adelaide as
Hit 107, with a staggered
Hit Network-wide relaunch announced in December. On 14 January 2015, the network was relaunched as '''Today's Hit Network
, with the relaunch extending to Canberra in January 2016. Sea FM Hobart was relaunched as Hit100.9 in February, with the remaining network stations adopting the Hit Network''' branding as part of a national brand consolidation in December. Southern Cross began broadcasting
Racing.com on 29 August 2015, the same day the channel was officially launched, in Seven-affiliated markets on LCN 68 in Tasmania, Broken Hill and the Spencer Gulf and on LCN 78 in Darwin. In March 2016, gaming news publisher Press Start was acquired by Southern Cross Austereo, which resulted in its founder and owner Shannon Grixti being appointed as managing director of Press Start starting on 27 March 2016. Grixti launched Press Start in early 2014 and the acquisition was completed on 8 June 2016. On 29 April 2016, Southern Cross Austereo announced that it had signed a five-year affiliation deal with
Nine Entertainment Co., owner of the Nine Network, for almost $500 million, taking the place of
WIN Television as the primary regional Nine affiliate. On 1 July 2016, Southern Cross switched its primary affiliation from Network Ten to the Nine Network and Nine's metropolitan branding was introduced across Southern Cross' television assets in Queensland, Southern NSW and Victoria, joining its existing Nine affiliate station in Spencer Gulf, SA and Broken Hill, NSW. Southern Cross' Northern NSW station,
NRN, was not part of the deal as the Nine-owned
NBN Television already operated in the region.
GDS/BDN Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill remained unchanged with Nine on channel 8, 9Gem on channel 80 and 9Go! on channel 88. As a result TVSN stopped broadcasting in the Nine-affiliated markets and was replaced with a
To Be Advised slide until being replaced with
Yesshop on 1 August 2016. Due to the need to import and install the required equipment, Southern Cross originally stated that it would not immediately offer Nine's digital services
9HD and
9Life upon the transition; the broadcaster stated that they planned to begin transmitting them by mid-August—a delay which would have caused the third match of the
2016 State of Origin series on 13 July to not be transmitted in high definition in the affected regions—which includes parts of the New South Wales and Queensland regions who play the series. However, on 24 June 2016, Southern Cross Austereo announced that it had been "working tirelessly to get HD to air as quickly as possible", and 9HD became available from launch day on channel 50. The same approach also prompted 9Life to return early on 17 July 2016. Southern Cross announced on 25 July 2016 that it would broadcast the New Zealand-based home shopping channel
Yesshop as a
datacast service, on the company's stations. The channel became available on 1 August 2016 in Queensland, Southern NSW, ACT and Victoria on LCN 55; Northern NSW, Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill on LCN 54; Tasmania on LCN 64 and Darwin on LCN 74. However, Yesshop's owner (Yes Retail) made the decision to cease trading on 29 September 2016 citing lack of funds to pay wages and the company's current losses of approximately 20 million dollars. Employees were terminated the same day, and the channels were removed on Freeview later that day. In November 2016, Southern Cross Austereo signed a long-term contract with
PodcastOne to launch a localised version of the online podcast service, rebranded as PodcastOne Australia. The service launched sometime in early 2017. In December 2016, the company lodged a planning application with the ACT Government to demolish the CTC studios, administration and playout facility at
Watson to make way for a residential development. The proposed studio campus demolition comes just over a year after
WIN Television closed its Canberra studios at Kingston, moving its offices to the industrial suburb of
Fyshwick. The trend of vast television estates making way for residential developments has been seen in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. In 2009 however, a planned redevelopment of the original ATV studios at
Nunawading in Melbourne was cancelled due to a slump in property prices. In March 2017, Southern Cross Austereo announced that it would be launching a high definition simulcast of its main Seven-affiliated channel,
Southern Cross HD in Tasmania on digital channel 60, in time for the first match of the
2017 AFL season later that month. Although SCHD launched in Tasmania on 22 March 2017 (whilst downgrading 7mate to standard definition on digital channel 63), it only began broadcasting Channel 7 programming in native high definition from 19 June 2018. Following months of negotiations, Southern Cross Austereo finalised an agreement on 28 March 2017 to sell their Ten-affiliated Northern NSW station, NRN, to WIN Television for a total of $55 million, with the sale taking effect on 31 May 2017. Due to operational logistics, WIN did not commence broadcasting their identity to the NRN market until 1 September 2017. This sale relieved Southern Cross of their only sole Ten-affiliated station, with their remaining Ten affiliate,
SGS/SCN operating in the Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill region where Southern Cross holds monopoly ownership of all three network affiliates. On 17 July 2017, Southern Cross Austereo launched American religious channel SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN), owned by
evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, as a datacast service. The channel is broadcast in regional Queensland, Southern NSW & ACT, and regional Victoria on channel 55 as well as Spencer Gulf in South Australia, and Broken Hill in New South Wales on channel 54. Despite this, SBN never launched in Northern NSW, because NRN was already owned by WIN at the time. The above list is via Southern Cross' 10-affiliated and then Nine-affiliated stations, and in Tasmania on channel 64 and Darwin on channel 74 via Southern Cross' Seven affiliate stations. From 1 July 2018, all local branding was phased out on all of Southern Cross Austereo's Seven-affiliated stations in favour of a generic Seven Network branding. Though news services offered by Southern Cross were also scheduled to be rebranded as
Seven News on this date, the rebrand was delayed until further notice, citing concerns from Seven about using their news brand but not under their editorial control. In September 2018, Southern Cross Austereo announced it would transfer its Canberra-based broadcast playout to NPC Media, a joint venture between the Nine and Seven Networks. CTC, via Southern Cross Austereo, would move remaining employees to a leased office facility in Canberra. The changes were expected to be completed by 30 June 2020. On 30 September 2018, Southern Cross Austereo launched
9Life, in Tasmania, via
TDT, and in the Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill regions, via
GDS/BDN. Southern Cross Austereo launched
7HD in Darwin on 26 November 2018. On 3 December 2018, the
Tasmanian station's news bulletin changed its title to
Nightly News, followed on 14 January 2019 by
GTS/BKN's bulletin. Around the same time, studio production for the Spencer Gulf edition of
Nightly News was relocated from Southern Cross' Canberra headquarters to TNT's
Hobart studio. Southern Cross Austereo launched a refreshed logo on 1 July 2019.
2020s In March 2020, Southern Cross Austereo launched
7HD,
9HD and
10 HD, in the Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill areas, via the stations
GTS/BKN, GDS/BDN, and
SGS/SCN, as well as making
7mate,
9Gem, and
10 Bold all SD channels, to accommodate the aforementioned HD channels. This is the list of the changes that happened on 19 March 2020: 7HD launched on LCN 60,
7mate moved to LCN 63 from LCN 60 and became a SD channel, the main
Seven channel became available on both LCN 6 and 61,
10 HD became available on LCN 50,
10 Peach moved to LCN 53 from LCN 55,
10 Bold moved to LCN 52 from LCN 50 and became a SD channel, and the main
10 channel became available on both LCN 5 and 51. Southern Cross Austereo's Nine channel changes occurred sometime in late March 2020, here is the list of changes that happened to GDS/BDN in March 2020:
9HD became available on LCN 80, the main
Nine channel became available on both LCNs 8 and 81,
9Go! moved to LCN 83 from LCN 88, and
9Gem moved to LCN 82 from LCN 80 and it became a SD channel. In March and April 2020, Southern Cross Austereo outsourced their television play out to NPC Media. On 27 July 2020, Southern Cross Austereo relaunched the
Hit Network, adopting a new logo and "pop-based" music format in an attempt to target a 30–54 year old audience. In addition,
Hit 105 Brisbane and
Hit 107 Adelaide reverted to their heritage brands B105 and SAFM respectively. On 20 August 2020, Southern Cross Austereo announced the network would introduce statewide networked breakfast programs in
New South Wales,
Queensland and
Victoria, replacing 19 local shows. In August 2020, demolition of the entire CTC and Southern Cross Austereo studio site at Watson was completed to make way for a housing development. The demolition marked the end of 46 years as Canberra's home of television and Australia's first colour television station. On 1 December 2020, Southern Cross Austereo switched the affiliation of
Mix 94.5 in Perth from the
Triple M network to the Hit Network, with Hit92.9 relaunching as
92.9 Triple M. On 18 February 2021, SCA launched LiSTNR, which would incorporate the rebranded PodcastOne Australia, as well as their existing digital audio content in live streaming radio. SCA continued its partnership with the American PodcastOne with both companies sharing their content. On 12 March 2021, Nine announced that it would return to
WIN Television as its regional affiliate in most markets beginning on 1 July 2021, in a deal that would last at least seven years. This has ended SCA's five-year agreement with the
Nine Network. On 25 June 2021, SCA and Network 10 announced a two-year affiliation deal in regional Queensland, Southern NSW and regional Victoria, which introduced
10 Shake into regional areas for the very first time and it broadcasts on Channel 54, as well as
Sky News Regional which launched on 1 August 2021 and it broadcasts on Channel 56. SCA extended the affiliation deal with 10 to 31 December 2023, on 27 June 2023. SCA began broadcasting 10's datacast channel, Gecko, on 1 July 2023, on LCN 57, in Southern NSW, the ACT, Regional Victoria, Regional Queensland, Broken Hill, and Spencer Gulf, and on LCN 67 in Tasmania.
Proposed acquisition by ARN Media In October 2023,
ARN Media alongside private equity firm
Anchorage Capital Partners made a non-binding indicative offer to acquire 100% of the fully diluted share capital of the company. This comes after ARN acquired a 14.8% stake in SCA in June. Under the proposed sale, the
KIIS Network would have remained with ARN, while the
Triple M network would have joined ARN. The
Hit and
Pure Gold networks, SCA's TV stations and LiSTNR would have been purchased by Anchorage. The deal collapsed after Anchorage withdrew.
Exit from television On 17 December 2024, Southern Cross Austereo announced the sale of their regional television licenses in Regional Queensland, Southern NSW/ACT and Regional Victoria to
Network 10. As part of the sale, SCA will receive a share of profits from the stations for the first 5 years post-completion. The sale was completed on 1 March 2025. On 27 February 2025, Southern Cross Austereo announced the sale of their remaining regional television licenses to
Australian Digital Holdings. By that May, the deal had fallen through and it was announced that
Seven West Media would instead acquire the remaining television stations from SCA for $3.75 Million. The sale of these stations to
Seven West Media was finalised on 1 July 2025, marking SCA’s exit from television.
Merger with Seven West Media Following Seven West Media’s acquisition of SCA’s remaining television assets in July 2025 and SCA’s exit from television, Seven and parent company
Southern Cross Media announced their intention to merge by early 2026. The merger was completed on 7 January 2026. Seven West Media’s CEO Jeff Howard is to lead the merged companies as CEO and Manager Director. ==Brands==