Kyle Sandilands: Sacked KIIS FM radio star takes $12m settlement from ARN with eye to new pod project

Kyle Sandilands will be back in the ears of his fans, but it won’t be on ARN, the radio network which sensationally sacked the divisive media personality in February.

Sandilands and ARN have reached a settlement in the lawsuit he launched. He will be taking a $12.09 million cash payout, with $3 million to be doled out in July and the remainder in monthly instalments of roughly $250,000 until June 2029.

ARN likely couldn’t afford to pay out the settlement in one lump sum, given its accounts at the end of 2025 declared cash holdings of $10.2 million.

The sum is vastly lower than what Sandilands and his team had demanded at the outset of the legal action, which was $85 million, the equivalent of the unpaid portion of his 10-year $100 million terminated contract.

Ultimately, ARN may have gotten off cheap. It has been widely interpreted that ARN wanted out of the contract with Sandilands and his former co-host, Jackie “Jackie O” Henderson, whose separate ongoing legal action is currently set for an October trial.

Sandilands and Henderson had been the network’s marquee stars, which led to their collective $200 million contract renewal at the end of 2023. But a series of debacles, including a calamitous launch into the Melbourne market, seemingly made the pair a far less lucrative investment for ARN.

Given Sandilands and Henderson’s penchant for controversy and trouble, that outsized deal was a risk – and it didn’t pay off.

Under the settlement between Sandilands and ARN, the network has agreed to provide his media company with $1.5 million worth of advertising for his as-yet unrevealed media project.

In return, ARN will take a 19.9 per cent of the revenue from this project for three years.

Sandilands has a non-compete condition in which he can’t appear for nine months on any radio stations considered a direct competitor to ARN, while the network also stressed that Sandilands and his company won’t be providing it any services.

As in, he won’t be going back on air on any of its stations including his former home, KIIS FM. Sandilands had previously said it was his goal to return to his microphone at the network.

As for next steps, this mysterious future media venture from which ARN will be taking that revenue share, it is expected to be an independently produced podcast that will be streamed on weekday mornings, the same time as his old slot.

As reported by Nine Newspapers, the show has a working title of Kyle Sandilands Live, and is likely to be subscription-based.

If that holds true, then it will be a different experience to what his existing fanbase have been engaging with for more than two decades, where the broadcast has been free to access and ad-supported.

It could be that Sandilands’ new venture will be hosted separately from popular podcast platforms such as Apple and Spotify, and users will be charged for just his product. Or it could be that it would be hosted on an existing podcast network and only accessible on premium paid-for tiers.

There are many popular podcasts around the world which have a “freemium” model, which could work as either free episodes coupled with a subscription tier for extra, bonus or ad-free content.

Others release episodes early to subscribers, but how that would work with a format that is reacting to news, current events and daily trends is an open question.

Sandilands may also pivot the style and structure of his show to be less like a daily radio program and more in line with popular podcast hosts such as Joe Rogan, whose show is often interview-based, which gives it a longer shelf-life than what Sandilands has been broadcasting.

The commercial success of the venture will be a test of how wide and dedicated Sandilands’ audience is, especially if they have to pay.

In the local broadcast space, he was distinct as an FM radio personality with a bombastic and unapologetic attitude, but online, even as a known quantity, he is competing with hosts and presenters who are more extreme.

And while Sandilands has expressed political views on his broadcast show, it is not what he is known for, whereas many podcast hosts, particularly in the manosphere space, make that their bread-and-butter, which has proven to be commercially successful.

Channel 9 presenter Karl Stefanovic launched an independent podcast in recent months and it has been notable for pursuing political interviews, particularly with those on the right-wing side of Australian politics.

What will certainly be different is the latitude Sandilands will have in an online space, which is not governed or constrained by broadcast codes enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Nor will the show be as sensitive to activist campaigns which targeted ARN’s advertisers. An online show or podcast will genuinely be an opt-in experience for those who have chosen to listen to him.

Sandilands and Henderson were frequently investigated by ACMA for breaches within their show, and ARN was recently, after the two were already taken off-air, again served with enforceable conditions that if violated, threatened the station’s licence.

The shock jock’s recurring fights with ACMA was one of the headaches ARN faced, having already added censors and delays, as well as repeated sensitivity training.

Sandilands once threatened the censors’ employment on air in a tirade which included the line, “Don’t go bleeping this s—t out or you censors will have no job”.

He also said, “Let me explain one more time, the bosses have no control whatsoever over what we do on this show. Zero. None.”

Those examples were to form part of ARN’s defence had the legal action proceeded to trial. The company had terminated Sandilands on the basis of misconduct.

“This agreement brings certainty for ARN and resolves the legal dispute,” ARN chief executive Michael Stephenson said in a statement released to the ASX today.

“ARN remains focused on executing its strategy, including driving a leaner, more efficient operating model, strengthening its core radio network and continuing to invest in digital capabilities and long-term growth.”

In the first full radio ratings period after the pair’s contracts were terminated, KIIS’s share of the breakfast market declined from 11.7 per cent to 8.2 per cent.

Henderson’s lawsuit against ARN may prove to be the trickier of the two. Henderson’s action hinges on whether ARN violated workplace safety laws.

The catalyst for the breakdown between Henderson and Sandilands was a February broadcast in which he berated her on air for being “off with the fairies” but Henderson’s team said that relations had been strained for some time due to other alleged bullying behaviour from Sandilands.

Henderson alleged that this had been communicated to ARN, and in the final instance, the company terminated her contract when she told them she could no longer work with him due to offensive behaviour.

What complicates matters for ARN is that it had classified Sandilands’ behaviour as such when it sacked him.

“You made abusive, humiliating, and belittling comments to, and about, Ms Henderson while on-air. This included attacks on Ms Henderson’s personal character, work ethic, and job performance, and accused of having lost touch with reality,” it said in a letter sent to him.

While Sandilands has played showman in front of court hearings and through media statements, Henderson has been much more circumspect with any public comments.

Henderson’s lawsuit, which seeks damages of $85 million, has been set for an October trial if a settlement is not reached before then.