Australia’s talkback radio landscape has been reshaped after Nine sold off its conservative stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR, got out of regional television and spent close to $1 billion on an outdoor media company.
On-air talent at the radio stations welcomed Nine’s sale to the billionaire pubs and pokies Laundy family for $56 million, but the stockmarket paid more attention to chief executive Matt Stanton’s decision to buy outdoor advertising firm QMS for $850 million.
Nine’s shares ended the day up 5 per cent on the news of the deal, which gives the company a buffer of revenue from physical billboards to cushion it against the social media and AI disruption roiling the sector.
In a message to Nine Radio staff on Friday morning, Arthur Laundy and son Craig Laundy, a former Liberal MP, described themselves as “long-time listeners, first time owners”, and said the stations would be a natural fit with the family’s pub empire.
“We see strong similarities between hotels and talkback radio. In public bars, we chat with our customers about the issues of the day. A lot of the time, the thoughts in the minds of our
customers are shaped by the work you do in radio … and vice versa,” the Laundys said.
“Many of our patrons call the open line using the talkback catch-cry ‘long time listener, first time caller’. They’re also the best arbiters of what passes ‘the pub test’.”
Nine’s chief executive, Matt Stanton, said the deals – which also include a $15 million deal to transfer the northern NSW television station NBN to its partner WIN Network – would let Nine promote its media assets on QMS billboards and offer customers more places to advertise.
“QMS is a highly complementary media platform, offering Nine the opportunity to drive significant value by leveraging our premium content on QMS screens and creating an unparalleled advertising proposition that spans from ‘sofa to street’,” Stanton said.
Morningstar analyst Brian Han said the combined deals got Nine out of the declining radio and regional TV sectors, in exchange for outdoor media, a sector resistant to digital disruption.
But Han queried the price Nine, which is the owner of this masthead, paid for QMS, as well as the wider strategy of gaining “synergies” by combining different media platforms.
“They basically paid the same amount as they would have had to pay if they just bought oOh!media,” Han said. Ooh is QMS’ publicly listed competitor and the market’s largest outdoor media company.
“So on the one hand, you’re paying that much money for [QMS] a company that’s been under private equity ownership,” Han said. “You read into that what you will, but you’ve got to say they have opaque financials, track record and management as far as me as a public analyst can see.”
Nine said QMS was expected to report earnings, before a range of deductions, of $105 million in 2026, marking double-digit growth on the previous year. It positioned QMS as a leader in a sector that was growing quickly, and said the combined business would be able to pull out $20 million in synergies over three years.
Top 2GB host Ben Fordham welcomed the sale on his Breakfast Show on Friday morning, saying the Laundys had been longtime advertisers, before joining Arthur Laundy for a beer at Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel later that day.
“So they’ve obviously doubled down and thought, righto, we really want to invest in this – and they’ve purchased the whole lot,” Fordham said. “I’ve known the family for a long time. They’re just good, decent, hardworking, knockabout people. To the Laundy family, welcome.”
Nine’s directors met on Thursday for their annual board meeting in Melbourne and approved the sale of the stations that once wielded unrivalled influence over politicians and the business industry.
The talkback stations had been a major part of Nine’s strategy to offer advertisers a full suite of media channels to reach their customers, but ultimately did not align with the rest of the business, multiple sources with knowledge of the sales processes said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Arthur Laundy, worth $1.75 billion according to the AFR Rich List, made his wealth through an extensive network of pubs in NSW. Nine said the Laundy family would remain a partner of the company with increased advertising investment, continued use of Nine News journalists on the talkback networks, and showcasing Stan Sport in their network of venues.
2GB and 3AW’s Breakfast and Morning shows in both Melbourne and Sydney, fronted by the likes of Ben Fordham, Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson, Tom Elliott and Mark Levy, still command hundreds of thousands of listeners each week.
Though they are top ratings stations, advertising dollars for the conservative-leaning talkback sector has dwindled, and revenue and earnings has suffered as a result.
All of the transactions are subject to ACCC approval and are expected to be completed by June 30. Nine said the structure of the deal and the total outlay of around $780 million in cash would help offset the $254 million in tax it has to pay from selling Domain.
The ultimate sale price of $56 million Nine received for its radio stations is well short of the $113.9 million it paid for the remaining 45.5 per cent of the stations it did not already own in 2019. The takeover of what was then Macquarie Media, which was home to Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, valued the radio network at $275.4 million.
The division made up just 2 per cent of Nine’s EBITDA in 2025, while revenues also declined 2 per cent to $101 million.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.
Kishor Napier-Raman is a senior business writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a CBD columnist and reporter in the federal parliamentary press gallery.Connect via X or email.