In this week’s On Background, 2GB and 3AW are to be sold, the ever-changing face of The Australian Weekend Magazine, a shake-up on Nova and the latest sports broadcast deal inches closer.
Talkback walkback: Nine to sell 2GB and 3AW
Australia’s top-rating talkback stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR are about to have a new owner.
Nine’s directors met on Thursday for their annual board meeting in Melbourne and approved the sale of the stations that have made prime ministers and business titans quake but have also been losing steam for years.
While the company remained tight-lipped following the conclusion of the meeting, the deal is set to be announced on the ASX on Friday morning. That will mean stars including Ben Fordham, Ros Stevenson and Russel Howcroft will have a new ultimate employer.
There have been more potential buyers floated for the networks than we could shake a stick at. But around five offers were considered, including the well-publicised bid from the Craig Hutchison-led Sports Entertainment Group. Still, the winner is set to cause some surprise, a senior source at Nine said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Both Fordham, and his brother, talent manager Nick Fordham, denied this week that they were involved in a consortium bidding for the stations that also included the publican Laundy family. But many in the industry see the Laundys, who did not return calls, as still being a potential purchaser.
Though the sale price is unknown, there have been rumours Nine was seeking around $50 million. Either way, it would be remarkable if it went close to the $113.9 million Nine 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 valued the radio network that was home to Alan Jones (and an advertiser boycott) and Ray Hadley at $275.4 million.
Those men – especially Jones – brought ratings and power but also plenty of headaches over the years. We can’t imagine Nine will be crushed at the thought of no longer have to manage their crises.
Having already sold Domain Group to American digital real estate listings firm CoStar in August, Nine will be a significantly smaller business in 2026. But it’ll be a cleaner business, with its publishing assets (including this masthead), a free-to-air network, online broadcast platform 9Now and premium streaming service Stan.
Nine officially launched its sale process for the radio networks in the back end of 2025, having made the radio division a standalone business earlier in the year.
While 2GB and 3AW are regularly the top-rating stations in the two biggest radio markets in Australia, advertising dollars for the conservative-leaning talkback stations have dwindled and revenue and earnings for the audio division suffered as a result.
The division made up just two per cent of Nine’s EBITDA in 2025, while revenues also declined two per cent to $101 million.
Ideas, contested?
The Australian’s front page sells the newspaper as the scene of the country’s “contest of ideas”. That concept was trimmed back somewhat when Phillip Adams was given the boot earlier this month, according to the 86-year-old veteran broadcaster himself.
A self-styled “lefty”, Adams lamented the dwindling diversity of voices published in the paper and its flagship Weekend Australian Magazine in an interview with this masthead last week, though he credited the place for giving him so much freedom for so long.
Adams cited columnists Bernard Salt and Nikki Gemmell as the last remaining “moderates” on the magazine during the exit interview with this masthead.
Salt is more famous for his takes on “smashed avo”, while Gemmell, an award-winning author, won a Walkley for her columns in the mag in 2022.
But the Weekend Australian Magazine continues to ring the changes, with Gemmell’s weekly column now dumped as well. We are told author and cook Charlotte Ree has been enlisted as replacement.
When On Background called Gemmell last week to confirm this, her response was: “I’m staying, and I’ve been promoted!”
That’s quite the turnaround, and it turns out she is staying, as chief film critic. But doesn’t The Australian already have a well-known film critic in Stephen Romei, you might ask? Indeed they do.
They must really love heading to the pictures over there at Holt Street! Melania, anyone?
Gemmell is yet another departure from the weekend magazine’s roster, which has become a bit of a ghost town since former editor Christine Middap rejoined the main paper in 2023 after an 11-year stint, to be replaced by Elizabeth Colman.
Until recently home to multiple award-winning writers such as Matthew Condon, Greg Bearup, Fiona Harari, Trent Dalton, Cameron Stewart and Megan Lehmann, it has cleared its decks over the past two years.
The magazine is now the domain of a gaggle of regular columnists, its features filed by contracted contributors and journalists from the broadsheet moonlighting on its august pages.
“The joint has been gutted,” one departed staffer said, not wanting to put their name to the comment for obvious reasons.
A spokesperson for The Australian declined to comment.
Going National
Nova’s Sydney breakfast show Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie will have a new home in 2026, making the move to the drive slot, On Background can reveal. Moving away from the early starts will give Wippa, real name Michael Wipfli, more time for policy work, having recently led the campaign for Australia’s world-first teen social media ban.
It is part of a shake-up that takes the trio’s show national in the 4-6pm slot, in place of Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel, who will be swapping into the Sydney breakfast slot without Joel Creasey.
While Creasey will continue guest hosting on Nova Perth, we don’t really know what he’s up to next. Nova was contacted for comment.
Paramount in the A-Leagues
Good news for Australia’s round-ball game. A deal is close between Paramount and the A-Leagues to extend their broadcast rights deal by two more years.
The five-year deal signed in 2021 expires at the end of the current 2025/26 season. A two-year extension would bring the rights into alignment with the current broadcast rights deal the Football Federation of Australia has with Paramount, expiring in 2028. This would present an opportunity for the A-Leagues, Socceroos, Matildas and English Premier League rights to be sold as one package if they wanted, with all expiring at the same time.
On the face of it, it would appear to be a good outcome for all involved, as viewership numbers have risen 48 per cent on the Paramount+ streaming service for the men’s league in 2025-26, according to Paramount.
Of course, it’ll all come down to price. We’ve seen plenty of deals for sports rights look dreadful in hindsight as bill shock sets in.
With former Stan boss Martin Kugeler recently appointed CEO of Football Australia, the ex-broadcasting boss will be well-equipped to make the most of the sport’s broadcasting rights in two years.
Australian Professional Leagues chief executive Steve Rosich declined to comment due to the “live commercial negotiations”. Paramount was contacted for comment.
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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.