Kyle Sandilands bosses at Austereo react to sponsor boycott

Southern Cross Austereo bosses have reacted to the cancellation of sponsorship deals on The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

Kyle Sandilands, who presents the company's 2DayFM morning show with Jackie O, caused public outrage after an on-air rant aimed at News.com.au journalist Alison Stephenson when she wrote about poor audience response to his one-off TV show.

A number of sponsors on Sandilands's programme soon walked, followed by another group a few days later. Two days ago, weight loss company Jenny Craig announced that it had "badly misjudged public perception" of Sandilands and was cancelling its sponsorship too.

The mass boycott is believed to have cost the station about $10 million (£6.7 million).

Austereo welcomed Sandilands back on the air earlier this week after his Christmas break. The company has issued a statement insisting that it "values [its] listeners and clients dearly, and holds the utmost respect of their opinions and actions". However, it has given no indication of reprimanding Sandilands.

Austereo's chief executive Rhys Holleran has now released a statement to The Age saying: "We are confident The Kyle and Jackie O Show has been positively reset for 2012 and our teams are committed to ensuring it is both entertaining for listeners and provides an advertiser-friendly environment.''

In Sandilands's 2011 rant, he branded Stephenson a "fat bitter thing", a "fat slag" and a "little troll". This followed his verbal attacks against Megan Gale and Rove McManus, plus a controversial racist slur against India live on air.

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