It would be hard to envisage a more overt display of confidence in the Outdoor Media industry than Nine Entertainment’s recently announced acquisition of QMS Media, one of the country’s leading digital outdoor media platform, whose current portfolio includes contracts for the City of Sydney and Auckland Transport.
The acquisition announcement was accompanied by news of Nine selling 2GB, 3AW, 6PR, and 4BC to Arthur Laundy for $56m in, what Nine described to shareholders as ‘a deliberate strategic pivot away from radio and regional television towards digital advertising’.
Nine’s chief executive, Matt Stanton, said the deals – which also include a $15 million deal to transfer the northern NSW television station NBN to its partner WIN Network – would let Nine promote its media assets on QMS billboards and offer customers more places to advertise.
“QMS is a highly complementary media platform, offering Nine the opportunity to drive significant value by leveraging our premium content on QMS screens and creating an unparalleled advertising proposition that spans from ‘sofa to street’,”
“These transactions will create a more efficient, higher-growth, and digitally powered Nine Group for our consumers, advertisers, shareholders and people. The purchase and related sales mark a critical milestone in our Nine2028 transformation and position Nine well for the future, enabling the Group to withstand industry disruption and deliver long-term sustainable value.”
QMS is expected to report EBITDA of $105m for calendar year 2026, a double-digit percentage leap from the prior year, and more than 80% of its current revenue from billings is for contacts that extend through to December 2028.
Coupled with this is the fact that the outdoor advertising market in Australia, of which QMS currently commands 15% of, has steadily grown over the last decade: making up around 10% of Australia’s advertising market in 2014, to around 18% currently.
Stanton described out-of-home as ‘more resilient to the impact of global digital platforms’, saying that QMS was ‘highly complementary’ to Nine, adding: “The QMS network will provide Nine with a branded platform to support key national news and sporting moments and serve as a public service utility for governments at all levels in times of emergency or community need. We are excited about the potential in this space.”
Some of Stanton’s rhetoric must have struck a positive chord with the stock market, with Nine’s shares ending the day of the announcement up 5% after news of the deal. Other pundits described it as the most significant change to Nine’s business since its 2018 merger with Fairfax Media.
All of the transactions are still subject to ACCC approval and are expected to be completed by June 30. Nine said the structure of the deal and the total outlay of around $780 million in cash would help offset the $254 million in tax it has to pay from selling Domain.
