Vinyl Group Ltd (ASX: VNL) has agreed to acquire 100% of Pedestrian Group Pty Ltd from Nine Digital Pty Ltd for nominal consideration, with no cash, debt, scrip, or royalties attached to the deal.
The transaction is scheduled to complete on 15 June 2026. Following a restructure, Pedestrian Group is expected to contribute between $0.6 million and $0.8 million of pro forma EBITDA to Vinyl in FY27.
What Vinyl is getting
Pedestrian Group’s portfolio includes PEDESTRIAN.TV, Pedestrian Jobs, Openair Cinemas, and Pedestrian Studio. Since launching in 2005, PEDESTRIAN.TV has built a following among Gen Z and Millennial audiences, delivering content across web, social, video, newsletters, and experiential channels.
The business reaches more than 9.4 million people monthly across owned, social, and distributed platforms, including approximately 1.0 million monthly readers and 75 million minutes of video content watched.
Revenue is generated across display advertising, native content, production, video, programmatic, BVOD, affiliate, and jobs-related activity.
On an Ipsos iris de-duplicated basis, the acquisition is expected to lift Vinyl Media’s combined online audience reach from approximately 51% to 53% of Australians online.
Strategic fit
Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons said the deal added a wholly owned original brand to a portfolio that had previously leaned on licensed IP.
“Pedestrian Group is one of Australia’s most recognisable youth media brands, with a distinctive voice, loyal audience and strong reputation in culture and entertainment. The addition of Pedestrian’s brand further rebalances Vinyl’s portfolio of cultural assets through a mix of licensed and wholly owned, original IP,” Simons said.
“The transaction also reflects the strength of Vinyl Group’s acquisition strategy. We are continuing to secure high-quality cultural assets through capital-efficient structures, validate our adaptive media flywheel, and build Vinyl into the acquirer of choice for subscale youth, culture and entertainment brands in Australia.”
Vinyl Group’s publishing division, Vinyl Media, already operates Concrete Playground, Mediaweek, and Tone Deaf, and holds Australian licences for Rolling Stone, Variety, Refinery29, POPSUGAR, BuzzFeed, and LADbible Group.