Bruno Bouchet reveals date of Kyle Sandilands’ live return
Kyle Sandilands' manager Bruno Bouchet reveals the launch date, app features, mystery newsreader and behind-the-scenes pressure shaping Kyle Sandilands Live.
Kyle Sandilands will return to live breakfast broadcasting on Monday, 10 August, with his subscription-based program Kyle Sandilands Live, his manager, Bruno Bouchet, has confirmed.
Speaking with Game Changers Radio hosts Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme, Bouchet said the 6am to 10am show would combine live audio and video, music, audience video calls and on-demand viewing through Sandilands’ own platform.
Sandilands’ return date confirmed
Asked directly whether Monday, 10 August was the start date, Bouchet said: “Yes, I can confirm that that is the start date for Kyle’s new show.”
He described the program as a live breakfast show rather than a podcast or conventional streaming series.
“Call it a radio show. It’s a live breakfast show on Kyle’s very own platform where, you know, you get the audio and the video,” Bouchet said.
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“It’s uncensored. It’s ad-free. Instead of taking traditional calls like you would through mobiles and landlines, it’s all video calls. And I think it’s going to be a fair bit of fun.”
A Netflix-style platform with live callers
The dedicated platform will carry the live show across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android, Android TV, Roku and Samsung TV apps. Subscribers will be able to join a live broadcast from its beginning, rewind the program or call the studio using video.
“It’ll look a little bit like, say, Netflix, but with a live component, where you can see that a show is live,” Bouchet said.
“When a show is live, you can either join it live or join it from the start. You can rewind, you can call in as a video caller.”
The platform will also support background audio and picture-in-picture viewing. This will allow subscribers to listen while walking, driving or using other functions on their phones.
Music remains part of the plan, although Bouchet acknowledged the licensing cost involved.
“The plan still is to play music,” he said. “It just means that we’ve got to back up a ute full of cash every day to APRA in fees.”
Four-part series to precede breakfast launch
The platform will house archived programs and several original series, including the four-part At Home With Kyle.
Bouchet said filming was almost finished and the first episode was expected to arrive ahead of the live breakfast show.
“It’ll be four episodes and those will come out in about — well, the very first episode will come out in about a week and a bit,” he said.
Bouchet compared the broader model with Howard Stern’s Howard 360 offering through SiriusXM. However, he said Sandilands’ platform would place more emphasis on interaction.
“I haven’t encountered something similar to that,” he said. “The only similar model, I suppose, would probably be Howard Stern and his Howard 360 platform that he has through the SiriusXM app.
“But that’s not quite as interactive, I’d say, and has the features that Kyle’s platform will have.”
Mystery female talent to join the cast
Sandilands will be joined by an unnamed female newsreader, who Bouchet said already has a profile, particularly within media circles.
He would not reveal her identity but described her as “a fantastic female talent”.
“I’m so pumped for her and Kyle to be reading the show together,” Bouchet said. “I think the chemistry is just off the charts between the two of them.”
Bouchet said the program would not use the traditional co-host title. Instead, it will adopt a cast structure built around Sandilands.
“We’re not really going to go with the title of co-host,” he said. “It’ll kind of be going back to the Howard Stern model of a cast around Kyle.”
The opening program is also expected to address the events that have unfolded in Sandilands’ career since 20 February.
“I think Kyle very much wants to address everything that’s happened since February 20,” Bouchet said. “There’ll be a fair bit of that.”
‘It’s terrifying’: The pressure before launch
With the launch approaching, Bouchet acknowledged that substantial production work remained unfinished.
“It’s terrifying. There is so much to do,” he said.
“It happens quite a bit where I’ll go into the day and be like, ‘Yes, these things need to be done’, and I’ll do them. Then it’ll make me realise that there’s so much more to do.
“I sort of get home at midnight and I’m like, ‘I don’t think I’ve achieved anything’.”
Bouchet said the team had brought in specialist partners to build the technical platform. That allowed the production team to focus on the live broadcast, switching, graphics and other creative elements.
“I think there’s a certain humility that comes along with putting your hand up and saying, ‘Hey, I need someone more skilled, more knowledgeable and more experienced than I am’,” he said.
“In creating this platform and getting it all together, we’ve got some really good people to help us build it.”
Bouchet said he was confident in the outsourced technology, but less certain about his own live production responsibilities.
“The platform, I think, is pretty solid, because I’ve had nothing to do with it,” he joked.
“Where I’m involved is, I guess, the actual broadcast — all the different elements, switching, graphics, titles, all of that. That is going to absolutely go wrong on the first show, and that will be my fault entirely.”
Filling four hours without advertising
The absence of conventional commercial breaks will create another challenge. Bouchet said the team was still developing the structure required to fill four live hours each morning.
“We have a whiteboard in Kyle’s office where it’s, you know, like 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am,” he said.
“For the past two weeks, it’s been blank. We’ve been meeting every day to fill it out.”
Bouchet conceded the full rundown had not yet been settled.
“If I can be totally honest with you, we haven’t,” he said. “I can just agree with you that that’s a phenomenal amount of time to have to fill with content.”
How Sandilands changed during the upheaval
Bouchet also discussed Sandilands’ state of mind during the months leading to the new venture. He said the broadcaster had experienced “every emotion” while remaining focused on the facts.
“To his credit, he kept it together very well,” Bouchet said. “He’s very much like a facts guy, so he enjoyed talking to lawyers because they’re all very matter-of-fact.”
Sandilands eventually became bored and restless during his time away from broadcasting, according to Bouchet.
He also believes the experience added another dimension to Sandilands’ public persona.
“Perhaps he may have been seen as, ‘Oh, he’s larger than life, and he can be nasty and shocking’, and stuff like that,” Bouchet said.
“You’ve now got this extra dimension of going through something that was a nightmare for him. His whole world got upended, and he had to figure it out, push through and accept certain things.
“I think you’ll see that there’s an evolution of Kyle as a broadcaster, as a personality.”
Marketing plans and social media support
The program has engaged AIIMS Creator Hub co-founders Joshua Fox and Pedro Cuccovillo Vitola to oversee its social content.
“We’ve partnered up with Joshua Fox and Pedro Vitola’s agency to handle the social side of things, because what they have is world-class,” Bouchet said.
The team is also preparing an advertising campaign, while Sandilands will take a central role in publicity and marketing.
The truth behind the Kyle and Karl domains
Bouchet also confirmed the registered “Kyle and Karl” domain names were not evidence of a planned program with former Today host Karl Stefanovic.
Asked whether registering the domains had been designed to generate speculation, Bouchet replied: “Yeah, absolutely.”
“There’s nothing to it,” he said. “I probably had a journo call me and be like, ‘What do you think about Karl and Kyle?’
“While I was talking to this journo, I just registered both domains. It was the best $7 I’ve spent, I think.”
Bouchet said Stefanovic could appear on Sandilands’ new show, but there were no plans to make him a regular cast member.
“I’m sure he’ll come on the show,” he said. “I don’t know in terms of necessarily being a regular. It’s not anything that we’ve discussed or planned at this stage.”
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