ARN has revealed some bold new plans this week.
At the company’s 2027 Upfronts, held at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion – that sweaty, earthy venue every pop punk-rock kid of the ’90s spent many a night – the new ARN arrived in ten media releases: a five-year Australian Open deal, a travel booking site, video advertising on iHeart, an in-house traffic network written and voiced by AI, a competitor-tracking analytics tool, an expanded data stack, a 25-event iHeartLIVE program, three integrated content platforms, and a 2027 podcast slate.
Read one at a time, they look like a grab bag.
Read together, they make a single, cohesive argument, and the number at the centre of it is one Stephenson put on the table himself.
But first, a little homework. Stepho, indulge me.
ARN holds about 25% of the metro radio audience but just 18.5% of metro ad revenue. Each share point is worth $6 million, Stephenson told investors at the half-year results in August, putting roughly $38 million on the table. A second gap sits underneath it: “45% of our audience is delivered on a digital platform, but it is only 11% of our revenue,” he said.
Every Upfronts announcement is a tool for closing one of those two gaps. Some sell the audience in new formats (video, television, travel bookings). Some sell inventory ARN previously handed to someone else (traffic). Some try to prove to buyers that the audience is worth more than they’re paying (Spotty, iHeart Nation, Westpac DataX). And the rest build tentpoles that brands can buy into for years at a time.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
The part worth noticing is what almost none of them depend on: a Breakfast host or hosts.
Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
The headline act is a five-year sponsorship and broadcast agreement with the Australian Open, starting in January 2027.
ARN’s metro talent will broadcast live from Melbourne Park for the whole tournament: KIIS and GOLD breakfast, then through the workday into drive with Carrie Bickmore, Jonesy and Amanda, and Smallzy, before Eddie McGuire and Abbey Gelmi take over on GOLD Sport. There will be a dedicated AO DAB+ channel in Sydney and Melbourne, live streaming on iHeart, YouTube and social content. ARN’s regional network takes the event beyond the capitals, and the Are Media partnership extends it into ELLE and Gourmet Traveller.
“For three weeks every January, the Australian Open captures the imagination of the whole country, and for the next five years ARN will be right at the centre of it,” said Kerri Elstub, ARN chief content officer. “This is a huge commitment and a major step up from where we’ve been.”
Tennis Australia chief commercial officer Cedric Cornelis said ARN’s “ability to reach millions of Australians every day will help us bring those moments to life in new ways.”
Neither party disclosed the deal’s value.
Last year’s Upfront, held on 29 October 2025 as Ciaran Davis prepared to hand the CEO role to Stephenson after 16 years, focused on iHeart and a two-brand national radio strategy. Kyle & Jackie O, then on a reported $200 million, 10-year deal, would not go national in 2026. Asked when they would, Stephenson said: “When we think the time is right.”
The time did not come. ARN ended the deal after an on-air incident on 20 February 2026, and The Kyle and Jackie O Show aired its final episode on 3 March. The FY25 result showed revenue down 10% to $285 million, underlying EBITDA down 23% to $47.5 million, and dividends suspended “while non-core assets are divested.”
At May’s AGM, ARN disclosed that brand-safety concerns linked to the show had cost $26.4 million in metro and regional revenue in FY25, and 90.1% of votes cast went against the remuneration report, handing the board a first strike. The share price fell from 42 cents at the start of the year to 18 cents on 9 April.
Sandilands settled in June for $12.9 million; Henderson’s claim of at least $82.25 million is ongoing. Half-year revenue fell 14% to $128 million, with metro down 20%.
After a parade of fill-in hosts and a public no from Kris Fade, the new KIIS Sydney breakfast show, Dr Chris Brown, Amy Gerard and Jack Charles, went to air on 9 November, two days before the Upfront.
Melbourne’s Ash London, Isaac Smith and Elliot Garnaut started on 26 October.
All live, all local.
Video advertising is now live across the iHeart Podcast Network: pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll, plus video host reads and product integrations.
ARN says that when a podcast is available in both formats, more than 40% of consumption now comes from video, lifting audiences by more than 10%. These are ARN’s own figures; last year, chief digital and technology officer Ben Campbell cited a stat that 77% of podcast consumers alternate between audio and video.
The distribution deals are the bigger swing. Australian True Crime with Meshel Laurie now airs weekly on Monday nights on 10 and streams on 10.com.au. iHeart launches on Fetch TV in 2027, reaching more than 600,000 households. In 2027, the new KIIS breakfast shows will also appear on free-to-air television and YouTube. Which free-to-air network? They’re staying mum.
“Audio becomes video, podcasts become television, and a successful show becomes a multi-platform entertainment franchise,” Campbell said.
That sentence is the strategy, and it also explains the Breakfast hiring. Melbourne’s Garnaut and Smith front No Utes In The Valet, which joins iHeart in 2027. Their newsreader, Georgia Love (a criminally underutilised talent), brings Everyone Has An Ex. Sydney’s Amy Gerard brings Beyond The Chaos. These aren’t only breakfast hosts. They’re inventory in four formats.
KIIS is now a travel agent, more or less. KIIStravel.com.au, powered by TripADeal, sells tours, holidays and cruises, with Qantas Points earned on every booking. It’s anchored by the KIIS Travel Show, a two-hour Sunday program hosted by Sami Lukis from 7 am to 9 am, premiering 22 November across KIIS metro stations, iHeart and YouTube. The release says the site launches “this month” and, a page later, “in the coming weeks”. Pack accordingly.
“We know our listeners love to travel, with 80% of ARN’s audience planning a trip in the next 12 months,” Elstub said. “KIIS Travel brings together content and commerce all in one place.”
The three new integrated platforms follow a similar formula: start on radio, build out to video, social and live events, and sell the lot:
- Save Our Club, led by Christian O’Connell on GOLD, follows 2026’s Save Our Pub. Four grassroots sports clubs each receive a $5,000 grant, and one gets a full makeover with a live grand reopening broadcast.
- KIIS & Catch Up, led by KIIS Drive, reunites listeners with family and friends over four weeks.
- You Are GOLD!, led by Jonesy and Amanda, spends five weeks finding local heroes, ending with a crowned Gold Hero and “a game-changing surprise to be revealed in 2027.”
“For brands, these are more than campaigns,” said Jenni Lees, director of Integrate by ARN.
iHeartLIVE grows from more than 20 events in 2026, featuring Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, OneRepublic and Delta Goodrem, to 25 in 2027. One presenting partner has naming rights across the program, along with five category partnerships. “This is a money can’t buy opportunity for brands,” Elstub said.
Brands, presumably, will still be paying.
iHeart’s 2027 slate calls itself one of the network’s largest content acquisitions to date. Will Gibb and Pat Clifton’s You Wouldn’t, Olivia Molly Rogers’ Tell Me More, and Oi, Let’s Talk are joining the network. Dr Nick Coatsworth launches iHeart Original Worth Asking on 23 November. Eddie McGuire and James Hird team up three times a week on The Eddie & Hirdy Show.
A Sport Australia Hall of Fame partnership delivers The Hall, and She’s On The Money has signed a new multi-year deal. iHeart Ruby Australia, the branded studio promised last year, has produced Pandora’s Charmed.
“2027 is going to be huge,” said Corey Layton, head of iHeart strategic partnerships and product.
From 1 January, the ARN Traffic Network uses connected-car data and AI to write and voice more than 3,000 bulletins a week across 33 markets, with journalists approving each one. ARN now sells that inventory itself. Spotty, powered by Spotwise, shows agencies where advertisers’ spots run across the radio market, rivals included.
The data release marks its own homework: “Twelve months on, ARN has delivered that vision.” Mostly fair. There’s Databricks’ CustomerLake, iHeart Nation built on five million registered users (up from three million), and Westpac DataX sales-uplift reporting extended to linear radio. Revenue share is the buyer’s verdict on an audience. These are ARN’s ways of appealing to it.
None of this closes $38 million on its own, and much of it doesn’t start until 2027. A second strike at next year’s AGM remains the scoreboard that counts.
But last year’s Upfront was built around a breakfast show that wasn’t going national yet. This year’s was built so that nothing has to.
The new KIIS Sydney breakfast show had been on air for three mornings. Nobody at the Hordern Pavilion needed it to be a hit. That, presumably, is the point.
From Mediaweek