Liberty’s takeover of iHeart changes everything.
Soon one company with a satellite radio monopoly, one of the top three streaming music services, a live events platform and iHeart’s 850+ terrestrial stations and an array of side businesses will redefine radio’s place in the media business.
Standalone radio companies will be left with their debt and not much else including digital with which to compete.
Radio groups other than iHeart will now have to be thinking of how they could bring their free cash flow and bury their debt in to a larger growth platform.
Let’s start with Entercom, the most vulnerable radio group once Liberty merges with iHeart -- what would Spotify and Entercom look like together?
And what non-radio media company buys Beasley or Townsquare?
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