Agencies have offered their reactions following The Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) 2026 Upfronts, where the network unveiled its post-radio transformation strategy centred on digital audio and the iHeart platform.
The event showcased ARN’s ambitions beyond traditional broadcasting, championing its relationship with the iHeart brand, along with rolling out a slew of new podcast shows.
The company also revealed a redrawn metro map for 2026, confirming sweeping rebrands and breakfast line-up changes across its KIIS and GOLD networks.
It was a confident, and glitzy performance. But as always, the real test is in the agency response – who’s buying the pitch, and who’s not.
Rebecca Segalla, Group Investment Director, Mediahub
“ARN’s first-ever Upfront delivered all the glitz and glam of – dare I say – a TV Upfront and cemented its position as an entertainment powerhouse.
“While data, tech and measurement featured strongly, what stood out was ARN’s expansion beyond traditional audio with content initiatives Save Our Pub, Run Club Rave, Kiised at Sea and The Zone – a clever way to extend audience reach and create fresh opportunities for brand integration.
“The launch of the iHeart Women’s Sport Network also signals a strong play in a rapidly growing space for advertisers in Australia.
“Finally, the launch of Ruby – a dedicated content studio designed to create custom podcasts within the ARN ecosystem – is an innovative move that offers a smart solution for brands eager to enter the audio space but lacking the technical capabilities.
“Overall, ARN demonstrated a confident, forward-thinking vision for the future of entertainment, content creation and brand collaboration.”
Alexandra Thomas, National Trading Lead, Atomic 212˚
“ARN’s first Upfronts was a bold and well-produced event, repositioning the network firmly as an entertainment company, with iHeart clearly central to its key pillars of audio, video, social and experience.
“The strengthening of ARN’s audio ecosystem through a major rebrand and expansion of its KIIS and Gold networks across five capital cities (alongside the use of DAB+) will create a scalable platform for advertisers, making it easier to deliver campaigns across multiple markets with unified reach and messaging.
“Networked shows like Christian O’Connell (Breakfast) and Jonesy & Amanda (Drive) will anchor strong personalities nationally, while still maintaining relevancy for listeners through investment in local content across the day.
“ARN’s new content-led promotional properties – for example, Save Our Pub and The Zon – will have audience participation in mind and are evidently structured to provide advertisers with more ways to connect with listeners beyond the spots and dots.
“Partnerships with Are Media and TikTok will serve to deepen reach into younger and lifestyle audiences, while iHeart Live events in 2026 will offer immersive, high-impact brand experiences. Together, these platforms will deliver a strong mix of storytelling environments, experiential touchpoints and culturally relevant moments for our clients to leverage.
“It’s an exciting year ahead for ARN, and we are keen to connect with our clients on how they can tap into their refreshed ecosystem.”
Taylor Fielding, TFM, CEO
“First impressions – it felt very big, impressive and polished. Unifying Gold and KIIS and taking them national felt like a real moment. The ‘Stevo’ influence of the ‘big broadcaster’ approach was on full display.
“A lot of promises were made across audience reach, new segments, data deals, tech improvements, as well as a slate of new shows and content. A new app and some undetailed promises around video content have piqued media buyers’ attention. We’ll see if ad dollars flow off the back of it.
“It genuinely feels like we’re comparing apples with apples when looking at the other TV networks. The data sets will be comparable with Seven, with a similar Westpac deal struck.
“Also, the Are Media partnership is an interesting one. Female-led traditional media now looking to appeal to Gen Z, along with women’s sport tie-ups with the likes of Cricket Australia through iHeart, was a unique audience focus from these Upfronts and felt like a compelling one for our client base.
“The theme throughout this Upfront season has been measurement.
“While Meta and Google continue to sell ‘the idea’ of attribution at scale, traditional media is closing the loop. Between ‘Total TV’ promises and ‘entertainment’ vibes from ARN, tying TV and radio ads through to in-store and online sales is becoming a closer reality.
“The competition is the tech duopoly, and it feels like publishers are realising there’s a common enemy – and the tech stacks they’re deploying should command a greater slice of the budget for the right campaign.”
Sophie Carkeek, Group Business Director, Involved Media
“For ARN’s first-ever Upfronts, they did not disappoint. 2026 is going to treat ARN’s audience of 16 million with bigger cash prizes, bigger celebs, new shows, new content, and branded alignment across markets.
“For advertisers, deeper integrations across audio, video, social, experiences and content offer a much broader and stronger addition to the existing audio ecosystem, supported by tech, data and partnerships.”
“Christian O’Connell will see his breakfast show go national in 2026 in a move closely watched by advertisers. Christian’s continued success will build more emotional connections, shared experiences, comedy and conversations across the entire country.
“Jonesy and Amanda move to Drive to deliver their relationship and trusted voices to the whole of Australia in 2026. Gold seems to have a winning formula and solid talent they are taking truly national to deepen relationships across the entire country.
“There was clear support for the news network across metro and regional markets – true local voices. News that connects on a genuine local level is a trusted commodity and a strength of the ARN network. This localisation helps build connections for advertisers when the content is real, trusted and leaned into.”
Lorena Danes, Media & Investment Partner, Avenue C
“ARN’s 2026 Upfronts certainly nailed the repositioning of ARN from a radio network to an entertainment company, with iHeart taking centre stage as the backbone of ARN’s evolving ecosystem. It felt like the start of something much bigger – the first chapter in a major transformation.
“The integration of iHeart into every layer of the strategy was notable, from Ruby’s best-in-class client-funded podcasts to the iHeart Women’s Sport Network, iHeart Live events, and youth extensions through DAB+ and TikTok Trending.
“Leveraging the success of Ruby in the US, ARN will make it easier for Australian brands to tackle the daunting task of creating their own bespoke podcasts.
“There are clear opportunities for advertisers to reach specific audiences with little wastage – women through the Women’s Sport Network and Are Media partnerships, under-30s with KIIS X DAB+ and TikTok channels, to name a few.
“There was a huge focus on podcasts. It felt like the new frontier of podcast advertising, with more original content being produced than ever before. ARN is building full ecosystems around shows, creating stronger contextual opportunities for brands, and blending new talent with well-known personalities finding fresh audiences – great news for advertisers who want to more authentically align with contextually relevant content.
“I foresee the move to creating national networks for both Gold and KIIS as the first stage in making traditional radio easier to buy nationally for agencies and advertisers in years to come.
“The Upfronts will no doubt instil confidence in agencies and marketers alike, demonstrating ARN’s capability to deliver truly integrated, cross-channel campaigns across audio, video, social and experience. The structure and sophistication of their offering make it easier than ever to brief ARN as a one-stop entertainment partner rather than a single-channel network.
“As expected, the event itself was glitzy, high-energy and expertly produced – it had Stevo’s signature all over it. The combination of polish and purpose showed a business that’s setting up for more transformation in the years to come.”
Sue Cant, Head of Investment, This is Flow
“I was really interested to attend ARN’s first Upfront, and it did not disappoint. Centred around the ‘power of entertainment,’ they promised plenty of big announcements (12 to be precise), showcased a massive and expanding content slate with new shows and new content ideas – including a new women’s sport network, which saw cheers around the room – new partnerships with Are Media, and a refreshed ad stack, all centred around delivering a new era of commercial radio.
“For me, ARN’s Upfront was about scale and productisation: nationalising their key radio brands, upgrading their tech and data plumbing, while really leaning hard into their live and experiential inventory via iHeartLIVE.
“ARN’s Upfront signalled a clear pivot from fragmented local buys to national, productised audio. With KIIS and GOLD going national, this converts their positioning from a tactical local channel into a national reach vehicle that needs to be priced and planned as such.
“The key promise was centred around making audio a combined, one-stop, measurable buy for agencies and brands.
“They announced national rollouts for their flagship KIIS and GOLD brands, repositioning them as a national reach play – not just a collection of city-by-city assets – a really smart move that will allow agencies and brands to tap into a much more unified national buy.
“But with this, I think we should expect premium pricing for unified national packages, and we’ll need to push for transparency on reach versus duplication.
“There is no doubt that packaged, guaranteed inventory is great for speed and scale, but we need to remain mindful that this can also hide yield inefficiencies, meaning there will be importance in ensuring we negotiate clear SOV, accountability and explicit audience delivery SLAs.
“A lot was spoken about their ad tech upgrades that will enable richer audience segmentation and data linkages to support targeting and measurement. Hopefully, if this delivers on the promise, it means we can buy audio with more precision, not just GRPs and spots. Integrations with Magnite and OpenPath, on the one hand, should make audio more purchasable programmatically, but agencies will need to ensure we update bid strategies, floor price rules and verification so that we avoid overpaying for low-quality inventory.
“As we know, ease of access is not the same as guaranteed outcomes, so for us, testing match rates, audience validity and delivery accuracy will be key before allocating incremental budget.
“Their redesign of the iHeart app, along with the iHeartLIVE expansion – sold as a way to bundle brand experiences and inventory from pre-roll audio to exclusive live integrations – is an interesting one and a great way to reposition ‘fan moments’ for brands.”