CEO Michael Stephenson tells shareholders that ‘consumer and advertiser expectations have changed’
The radio station company involved in a high-profile legal battle with two of its former stars lost millions of dollars in revenue as companies pulled ads over its raunchy content.
ARN Media’s chief executive, Michael Stephenson, told the company’s annual general meeting the advertising drop-off, while the Kyle and Jackie O Show was on air, contributed to a $26.4m loss in revenue in 2025/26. Stephenson told the meeting ARN’s metro radio revenue fell by $28.3m to $147.3m in 2025/26, and most of that decline – $22m – was related to clients “who had chosen not to advertise with ARN because of issues relating to brand safety”.
“What has been obvious in recent times is that both consumer and advertiser expectations have changed,” he told shareholders on Thursday. “Over the period, there were a number of advertisers who had concerns about the safety, or the brand safety, of some of our content, and as a result, it impacted our revenues through the period. ”, which had drawn calls to boycott the show from a grassroots activist group that accused it of normalising “violent misogyny”.
ARN Media sensationally terminated the contracts of Jacqueline “Jackie O” Henderson and Kyle Sandilands after anbetween the pair in February, during which he told her she was “off with the fairies” and “almost unworkable” because of her interest in astrology. Read more The issue also hit regional advertising, which was down $5.3m to $110.5m, with $4.4m of that drop coming from national advertisers who pulled their spots because of brand safety concerns.
ARN hopes many of the advertisers who left would eventually return as clients, although Stephenson said he was realistic about the time it would take for that to happen. Hamish McLennan, ARN Media’s chair, told shareholders after the 20 February stoush that Henderson had taken a leave of absence and advised on 26 February she could no longer work with her on-air partner of more than 25 years.
“The company considered this a repudiation of her contract, on the basis that it was not possible for her to perform her core contractual requirement to deliver the Kyle and Jackie O Show and, as a result, her contract was terminated,” McLennan said. ARN engaged with Henderson about the possibility of an alternative show but failed to reach an agreement, he said.
It also took the view that Sandilands’ conduct on 20 February amounted to “serious misconduct” and terminated his contract two weeks later after he failed to remedy it, McLennan said, without going into details. Both Henderson and Sandilands, whose morning program was being broadcast in Sydney and Melbourne, are separately suing an ARN subsidiary for more than $160m.
Sandilands has contended there was no serious misconduct, the Kiis radio network had promoted clips of their on-air blow-ups and ARN was using the incident to back out of a contract it regretted. The pair reigned as Sydney’s top-rated morning drive program for many years, attracting an audience of more than 600,000 listeners, but the launch into Melbourne in 2024 did not go well.
The former Network 10 chief executive expressed confidence in ARN despite its struggling share price – which is down by half over the past 12 months – and said he would invest $500,000 buying company shares.
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