Kyle Sandilands Live: fans are already lining up, $99 at a time

Love him or hate him, and frankly it seems everyone is firmly in one camp or the other, Kyle Sandilands has a big profile, a huge following and decades of success as a broadcaster. So when that all came to an end abruptly he had to pivot if he wanted to keep doing what he loved.

Now it seems, he might be doing what he really wanted to do all along – live, uncensored, ad-free “radio” – on his own terms as Kyle Sandilands Live.

After settling his lawsuit against former employer ARN for $12 million Kyle has been putting all his effort into a new platform – simply called “Kyle Sandilands Live”. Launching in just a few weeks it’s going to be a daily show, broadcast online to paying subscribers.

While the site and Kyle Sandilands Live service hasn’t formally launched, over recent days the team behind the new show and platform have had to send the site live for real-world testing. During those times, plenty of people have signed up – paying $99 for a year’s access without really knowing what’s coming.

There’s no free trial, there’s no monthly option – you’re in, or your out. Simple.

Looking at the “Community” forums on Kyle Sandilands Live there’s well over fifty people who have not just signed up, but commented on their enthusiasm for “King Kyle’s” return.

And yes, he calls himself the King, and that’s his company name too – you’ll see it when you make the payment for Kyle Sandilands Live.

People have signed up, literally not knowing what’s coming!

Kyle’s long-time manager Bruno Bouchet appeared on the Game Changers Radio podcast this week, and basically spelled out everything he could about what was coming with Kyle Sandilands Live.

And frankly, it sounds like the original radio show he had been doing, but without Jackie O, and without Ads.

There will be music played, and using the Howard Stern model several members of the team will also appear on air – like a “Cast”.

But there will be no “co-host”

A venture like this is a huge challenge, a difficult one to execute. I was sceptical about how well it would run for both sign-ups and the live stream.

Even Bruno Bouchet was suggesting flippantly that there would be issues and they would be his fault – but in truth, he knows full well this is going to be ok.

Because King Kyle has not built his own platform. EFTM can reveal he and his team are creating what’s known in the business as a Whitelabled app and site, from a company called uscreen.tv.

Uscreen offers a subscription based video platform to small and large creators. People with classes to show, videos to share and communities to build.

There’s many examples of it in action.

And the best thing, it allows the service to be available across the web and apps.

Not just smartphone apps either, the Kyle Sandilands Live app will be on smart TV services too.

I’m not saying this to diminish the work of Kyle and his team, I’m saying this to demonstrate that they are launching on a proven platform – a smart move to ensure reliability, deployment and ubiquitous access.

This will also allow the creation of on-demand content in addition to Kyle Sandilands Live every weekday, including the upcoming four part series which is basically a Behind the Scenes documentary of Kyle produced over the last month or so. That will launch in advance of the first live show.

For now, it’s a “soft launch”, with the potential for the site to go down while it’s developed, but while it’s up, you can sign up – if you’re willing to pay the $99 fee for one year of Kyle in your life.

UPDATE: The team have added the upcoming on demand content and their go-live dates, with the “At Home with Kyle” series of four episodes launching on July 27, and some sort of behind the scenes of building the show launching in early August.

I for one as a media nerd am paid up and waiting to tune in, the rest of the radio industry will be paying very close attention.

Web: KSLive.com.au