Injunction granted to delay ABC Radio Adelaide name change

Radio Adelaide has been granted an injunction in the Federal Court against 891 ABC Adelaide rebranding itself to ABC Radio Adelaide.

This will cause a hiccup in the ABC’s planned local radio network rebrand, which will now take place in other cities, but not in Adelaide, until the court matter is settled.

The Federal Court heard Radio Adelaide was concerned the renaming would cause confusion between the two broadcasters and would harm Radio Adelaide’s brand, which had been built up by volunteers over four decades.

Justice Natalie Charlesworth allowed the injunction just before Christmas, saying while the logos and branding were quite different between the two broadcasters, there still might be confusion when the names were heard over the radio.

“Radio services are by their nature to be delivered orally and received aurally — even if they may be marketed by visual uses by words,” she said.

“The phrases Radio Adelaide and ABC Radio Adelaide share a much closer resemblance than the visual words.”

She said there was value to the ABC in having a nationally consistent naming convention, but that there was evidence to suggest the ABC predicted its new name change would not be well received by Radio Adelaide.

The court heard the delay to the roll out of the rebranding could cost more than $100,000.

A trial is expected to begin in April 2017 if the matter is not settled before hand.

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