DMG Radio Renamed Nova Entertainment Under Murdoch's Control

DMG Radio will now be known as Nova Entertainment as the company rids itself of the final ties to the Daily Mail Group.

Home to commercial radio stations Nova (which launched the company in 2001), smoothfm, Fiveaa, Star 104.5 and digital stations Nova Nation, Koffee and Coles Radio, the Lachlan Murdoch owned-company is stepping out on its own, as reported in AdNews.

CEO Cathy O'Connor said today that the company now needed to move to monetise diversification investments it had made recently, including Smoothfm's Foxtel channel, Red Room events and a music streaming joint venture with Rdio.

“The immediate future is on making it pay, generating a return, building audiences beyond broadcast across platforms and developing our experiential business and working with more partners to leverage what we have built,” she said.

She also denied that the re-brand came as the Daily Mail – one of the UK's biggest tabloid's with the strongest web presence – entered the Australian market. Murdoch first bought into the company in 2009.

As Mumbrella reports, she said, “Lachlan purchased the remaining stake in 2012 so DMGT [Daily Mail and General Trust] has not been involved since 2012 so it was natural that at some point we would change the name.”

O'Connor also had her say on the crowded music streaming market.

“Australians love technology, look at the penetration of smartphones. It's a tough game with lots of players but we have learnt a lot from the partnership. We see streaming as becoming the preferred mode of accessing music. We can leverage our broadcast assets and cross over with events. And our commercial interest in the business could become a nice investment when the business reaches critical mass.”