Austereo Loses Major Advertisers
Uh-oh. Even though The Kyle & Jackie O Show is off the air (admittedly, this was the choice of host Kyle Sandilands but whatever), Austereo is still suffering in the wake of the lie detector scandal with major advertisers no longer wanting to be associated with the Austereo brand.
Austereo sales staff were in crisis yesterday, as American Express and Optus joined Qantas and Channel 10 in pulling advertising dollars from the show. Optus is understood to have cancelled its sponsorship after customer threats of a boycott.
An American Express spokeswoman said community outrage forced a review.
“American Express has taken the decision to remove advertising from the 2DayFM website, as recent past and current content on the site do not reflect our brand values,” the spokeswoman said.
A Ten spokeswoman said advertising dollars for Idol would be redirected.
Hmmm. Had they never listened to the show before last week?
I am pleased this has happened, mostly because community outrage and negative headlines were never going to be enough to make Austereo rethink its approach to broadcasting, but losing big bucks from advertisers? Yeah, that ought to do it.
You may not believe it, but I actually feel a little bad for Kyle Sandilands. Sure, I don’t agree with how he conducts himself on air, but I genuinely think he’d be feeling incredibly confused right now as to why the very behaviour that made him a golden boy at Austereo for so long has suddenly resulted in him becoming a pariah.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want him back on the airwaves. And I do hope the realisation that advertisers are no longer willing to put up the money for the kind of radio Kyle and Jackie O produced forces Austereo to pull its head in and change its approach to broadcasting. But right now, I’m sure Kyle Sandilands is devastated he’s become the poster boy for everything that’s wrong with the Australian media, and confused by the fact he was celebrated (at least by the people who paid him) for years for behaving precisely as he did last week. He hasn’t changed, but the public has – and it must be rather bewildering for him.
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Comments
We became an economy and ceased being a community a long time ago, and the only language economies speak is income. Remove that from the balance sheet and all of a sudden the collective wax is stripped from the ears of media executives.
I can’t agree with you on the sympathy front for Kyle. As humans we have a conscience that separates us from others in the animal kingdom, and despite getting green lights from pissweak exec’s he would have known that the majority of his views and antics were not deemed by those with functioning grey matter as acceptable behaviour. Well the chickens have come home to roost now, and its the sum of the parts that has sunk this guy, not just an isolated incident. It’s time to go – Kyle. Suck it up fat boy.
Kyle Sandilands is so pre-global financial meltdown. He was a poster boy for the rise of the untalented, uninteresting, self-obsessed class of public figures in Australia. At his base he’s just a narrow-minded bore from Brisbane with nothing to offer beside snide comments, conceit, and contempt for his audience and the general public. The dude deserves to go down.
Go screw yourself Pious. Where did all you wowser prats come from?
Bit by bit, day by day our freedoms get eroded and you idiots cheer it along
wake up and smell the coffee Sly ,”our freedoms get eroded” by this you couldnt possibly mean the interrogation of a 14yr old gir on a lie detector regarding her sex life, for what you would call “entertainment” if this is my freedom paint me red and call me a commie cause I dont want that kind of freedom
Shut up Sly ya big sook. “Freedoms” wah-wah-wah. I think we all know who the wowser twat is. I just don’t like the guy. If you want to spruik for a fat Brisso bore that’s your business, as it is mine to rejoice in his undoing.
Kyle is just another form of tall poppy syndrome.
Aussie’s love to see the almighty fall and its all the better when that tall poppy is such a dislikable character like Sandilands. Everyone was just waiting for it happen. Makes everyone believe in the concept of Karma
Optus PR people must be toasting each other with champagne over all these reports that Optus dumped its advertising with K&JO show.
Eight hours ago (3.30am 5 August) there was an Optus Broadband advertisement in rotation on the main banner on the Kyle and Jackie O site. It’s since been replaced by others but the most you can accurately say about Optus’s advertising is that it’s been reduced.
Am I the only one who thinks the problem here might be a little bit bigger than Kyle Sandilands? The guy is, to be sure, a monumental douchebag, but are we honestly going to pretend that the only problem with that segment was what Kyle said, rather than the whole repugnant set-up? Why aren’t the producers of the show & Jackie O being raked over the coals as well?
Because they’ve got an extremely convincing scapegoat in Sandilands, who everyone hates anyway, and this way nothing has to actually change at Austereo or on commerical radio in general.
I used to love Kyle & Jackie. But then after a while it seemed that the more popular they got the more smug/stubborn/childish he got, making his own rules. As far as he ws concerned it was HIS show & he’ll do what HE wants. It’s NOT HIS show it’s OUR (the public)show.
They do so many good things for the charity not only on the air but behind the scenes.
Sadly, now he knows what it’s like to be exposed in public. All because HE called the shots & THE STATION LET HIM, (re; 7 second delay).
The girls mother/step mother needs to take a massive accountablity, knowing what sort of questions where going to be asked and not informing them. Let alone the fact that it happened 2yrs ago and she didn’t take the child for counselling – shame, shame, shame.
i along with many people that i know are boycotting any austereo product until the show is permanently removed from the airways. i hope others do the same. i’ve never heard their show before but based on mediawatch, their vile and disgusting stunts have been occurring for years.
Well maybe you should listen to the show and make up your own mine, in stead of listening to a bias program. But that would be to hard for a self deluded person such as your self.
No matter what you think of Kyle you can hardly comment on the show unless you have listened to it.
Why has no-one compared this prize boofhead with Tony Martin and the Get This program? A massive ratings hit on Austereo – using old fashioned techniques of “funny”, “excellent writing” and “amusing sound FX”. Axed…
Too simple to call it ‘Sydney vs Melbourne’ – but I yearn to see some pics of the mulletheaded geniuses of Austereo who are behind these decisions. And as for compassion for Kyle?
Sandilands – now YOU are the joke person all the high priced announcers are mocking today. Remember this when you try to restart your career in London, Thailand, Zew Zealand… Christmas Island?
Every change in public values needs a figurehead or a scapegoat, and it’s just brilliant that Sandilands happens to be this one’s!
Whilst I think the producers and wider Austereo culture are culpable, too, at the very least the skewing of Kyle and Jackie O sends a powerful symbolic message to all in commercial radio.