Southern Cross Austereo to donate 19 days profits from Sydney station 2Day FM to dead nurse’s family as ads resume
Southern Cross Austereo is to resume carrying ads on 2Day FM on Thursday, the company has announced.
It said that it would donate “profits” from advertising on 2Day FM until the end of the the year to the family of nurse Jacintha Saldanha who appeared to have taken her own life after being involved in a prank call from the Today Network’s Hot 30.
Tonight’s carefully worded announcement from Southern Cross Austereo did not commit all advertising revenue on the station during the period, only profits. At the time of posting, SCA had not returned Mumbrella’s call to ask it to define what it meant by “profits”.
Typically a media company might hope to make a profit of 10-20% on revenues, meaning that 80-90% of the advertising revenue would be likely to remain with the station. With radio stations facing a tough media market, the profit percentage could potentially be lower than that.
The offer covers only Sydney station 2Day FM, although the prank call was broadcast nationally on the Today Network.
When the advertising returns to the air, there will be 19 days until the end of the year.
The company said it would donate a minimum of $500,000 to the family.
According to the company’s annual report, last year it earned revenues of $687m and profits of $225.8m
The announcement:
“Following the company’s statement on 10th December, Southern Cross Media (SCA) today advises that after careful consideration it has resolved to resume advertising on 2Day FM effective Thursday 13 December, 2012.
“All profits from advertising on 2Day FM until the end of the year will be donated to an appropriate fund that will directly benefit the family of Jacintha Saldanha. A minimum contribution of AUD$500,000 will be made. SCA today reiterates its deep regret for what has taken place in these tragic and unforeseen circumstances and offers its condolences to the family of Jacintha Saldanha.
“SCA Chief Executive Officer Rhys Holleran said, “We are very sorry for what has happened. It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family. We hope that by contributing to a memorial fund we can help to provide the Saldanha family with the support they need at this very difficult time. The Company today reiterates that it is deeply saddened by this tragic and unforseen event and offers its condolences to the family of Jacintha Saldanha.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Is this the new definition of blood money?
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SCA / 2Day FM still have questions to answer as does the Hospital.
At least this is a step in the right direction.
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disgusting and dumb.
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I still want to hear the full, unedited phone call. No way what we’ve heard of the interaction with Saldana is the whole thing.
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It’s paltry… 19 days – profits – is that how much a life costs these days?
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Profits from the advertising it cancelled? Get real. This is as manufactured as those pathetic Today Tonight and ACA interviews. Tracy Grimshaw didn’t once press for names from “The Team” and decisions made “way above us”. Is she a journo or a sitcom writer? And now media falls for this spin? Connect the dots people. They canceled advertising, now that are donating the profits from that negative gearing? Does ANYONE in media research the subject anymore?
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Is this the new definition of blood money?
Unfortunately YES….
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This is absolutely disgraceful, despicable and depraved.
1.) This has nothing to do with remorse or dealing with the consequences of their actions. This is purely a ploy to entrap advertisers into not cancelling their advertising.
2.) True charity is done anonymously – you don’t taken credit otherwise you are simply looking for attention and stroking your ego, it which case it’s advertising, not charity.
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There are 19 advertising days left this year for 2Day – I’m sure they are hoping that people will happily buy from their advertisers – thus be a part of the generous donation to the Jacintha Foundation – and then next year, with advertisers happily onboard, it will be back to business as usual, more irresponsible content, maybe some sexist jokes, a few pranks that exploit and humilate – no prank calls, oh no – but other than that, business as usual.
Their total lack of sincerity is just astounding!! You think you’ve seen them in action and it’s pretty low – but then they manage to go even lower!! Unbelievable!
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Tokenism at it’s best.
Who in senior programming management is going to resign?
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Still waiting to see who the advertisers are and BOYCOTT them and do my best to urge others to do the same
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We are still waiting to hear from the faceless ‘TEAM’ pack of cowards I suspect.
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I’m surprised the the usual (activist) suspects haven’t started a dodgy online campaign to hurt advertisers. Why?
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Anone can go to SCA annual report as a ASX listed company, and look for the exceutives under programming who along with legal made the decison to air the unauthorised prank call.Notice the 2 presenters mentioned departments and they did not know the code or procedure Any jock at any station is inducted well and truly on code matters but the 2 young kids were well scripted to protect by not naming names they knew were involved in the desicion to air.9.3 of the code simply says you cannot air a recorded interview without the express permission of the person/people involved.Be looking for those 5 phone calls supposedly made and the fact is they elected to air the piece no matter. Yesterday’s ratings saw a big drop in audience and this incident was not even covered in the survey period so wait for february 2013 and you will see the impact of this and other regulatory matters SCA have been involved in for some time. .
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As much as a donation to the family is the right thing to do, why are the shareholders being penalised for it. The profits from the remainder of the year going to the family is $500,000 . $500,000 is 1/6th of the total wage of the Top 3 decision makers of “the team”. They should each give up their next two months salary for the family instead of taking it out of shareholders pockets.
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As Austereo has axed the Hot 30 Show and indefinately suspended Greig and Christian we can only assume that they acted alone in instigating this horrible prank. Until the faceless persons inform us otherwise this will remain the case. By the way I suggest Christian may consider changing his name He is anything but.
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Based on last year’s declared profits of $225.8 million, 19 days of profit would be worth around $12 million.
However, since they are free to decide what ‘profit’ means, it is likely to be substantially lower.
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