Rupert Murdoch’s Irish radio group reports advertising revenue fall
From irish Indo
Onic Audio reports loss of €3.58m for the year, with group directors saying economic conditions were ‘turbulent’
The company behind Dublin radio stations Q102 and FM104, plus LMFM and Cork’s 96FM, has reported a fall in advertising revenue for its last financial year.
Onic Audio, which is ultimately owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, had net advertising revenue of €22.9m in the year ending June 29, which was down from €23.27m recorded the previous year.
The drop reflects a stagnant Irish radio advertising market in that period. The industry had reported that all Irish radio generated revenues of €79.4m in the first half of 2025, up just 2pc on the same period the year before.
The Onic group also includes Limerick’s Live 95, and the U105 station in Belfast, which recently suffered the loss of five presenters after a breakdown in contract negotiations.
Over the last two years, Onic has included Ryan Tubridy in its presenter line-up, initially through his contract with the Murdoch-owned Virgin Radio in the UK. Tubridy’s weekday show for the station was broadcast on Q102 between January 2024 and last December. He now presents a Sunday morning show across the Onic stations.
The group has reported a loss for the year ended June 2025 of €3.58m before taxation, which compares to a loss of €2.75m for the previous year.
The directors say economic conditions were “turbulent” during the year, “with the ongoing challenges of spiralling cost-of-living increases, and the changing global political environment”. In the financial report, there are references to “the impact of global macroeconomic inflationary pressures” and “the general challenging market environment”.
They say that in spite of these challenges, the company continues to generate a “strong revenue performance”.
The impact of reduced revenue on ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was “compounded” by an increase in operating costs during the year.
It reported administrative expenses were €25.02m, up from €24.38m the previous year.
The directors say that the group is facing “strong competition” for advertising, but digital revenues did deliver significant growth, “and we continue to invest in this area to promote future growth”.
Last May, the company changed its registered name from Wireless Ireland to Onic, which it said was “to reflect a strategic rebrand”, and with no impact on its legal status.
“In addition, we also launched a suite of new digital services to become the largest content provider on a new DAB+ trial across Leinster, and rolled out a number of new podcast and visualised offerings to complement this,” the report says.
“We have invested heavily in visualised studios for our radio output and also a dedicated space for our Onic Original and TalkSport Ireland series.”
The group’s staff numbers increased from 235 to 238, with production staff up to 153 from 144. The wages and salaries bill came to €10.5m, up from €10.3m in 2024.
News Corporation originally bought the Wireless Group in 2016 in a £220m (€254m) deal, paying £3.15 per share.
It had previously been owned by UTV Media, which sold its TV assets and its name to ITV the previous year.
As well as the seven Irish radio stations and Virgin, the group also included the London-based TalkSport, which had many lucrative football rights.
It has since launched Times Radio, a digital channel, in conjunction with the Murdoch-owned newspapers The Times and The Sunday Times.