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Hansika Bhagani's Daily Top 5 Picks: Thursday

1. Gelato manufacturer Messina has created a True Blood dessert which combines burnt caramel and pear gelato, with a bitter dark chocolate. The Darlinghurst eatery has started selling the human heart-shaped dish this week, which is injected with plum syrup (the blood) on top of the holey heart. True Blood's fifth season has just been released on DVD this week too, a perfect chance to pig out in front of the TV.

2. Coca Cola has released the heart-warming results of an innovative project in which vending machines were used as portals to connect citizens from the divided nations of India and Pakistan over three days in March. Find the video ad here.

3. The success of Eurovision last weekend had us clamouring for host Julia Zemiro back on our screens, and this weekend we'll be tuning in to RocKwiz's eleventh season on SBS. Tune in on Saturday 25th May from 8.30pm. RocKwiz hasn't had much competition of late, but the return of Spicks and Specks later this year with new hosts means a win for music enthusiasts around Australia.

4. Vogue Australia has released a one off issue of Vogue Brides. The magazine featuring a selection of beautiful real weddings – both local and international (including Candice Lake, Jacquetta Wheeler, Vanessa Traina and local model Annika Kaban), main fashion (including a personally narrated 10-page feature with soon-to-be-wed Dan Single and Bambi Northwood-Blyth) and market pages displaying everything from dream gowns and bridal hair and beauty trends to honeymoon destinations and stationery suppliers. Vogue Brides has been edited by the Vogue Australia team and network of regular contributors.

5. The Sydney Writer's Festival's isn't over with plenty of talks and panels still on the calendar till Friday. Tonight 702's Dominic Knight hosts his radio show from the Sydney Dance Lounge in Walsh Bay. It's a good chance to catch up with international authors and local speakers.

Lauren Barripp's Daily Top 5 Picks: Wednesday

1. 2 days to go until the annual Vivid Sydney festival of Light, Music and Ideas begins. The festival is held from the 24th May till the 10th June and displays an array of immersive light installations and projections on Sydney’s top landmarks, live musical performances at the Opera House and the Vivid Ideas Exchange which features public talks and debates from leading global creative thinkers.

2. Aussie artist Gotye took out 4 major awards from his hit ‘Somebody that I Used to Know’ at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, held last weekend in Las Vegas. Taylor Swift took out 8 awards, whilst R&B star Rihanna took out another 4 awards. The broadcast featured several daring outfits on the red carpet, followed by performances from Swift, Jennifer Lopez and Pittbull, and Ed Sheeran inside the MGM arena.

3. US network CBS have postponed airing the season finale of the sitcom ‘Mike and Molly’ in the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado’s due to the fact that the plot revolves around a tornado which threatens the couple. The show, which stars Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell, is a comedy about a couple who fall in love after meeting at an overeaters support group. The season finale will be broadcast at an appropriate date.

4. After just one survey of unfavourable results, 2Day FM have reclaimed their title as the number one FM radio station in Sydney. Previous number one station WSFM dropped 1.5 points to post a 7.0% market share, where 2Dayfm posted a 0.1-point increase to gain an 8.5% market share. The general manager of Austereo Sydney, Jeremy Simpson, says that "The station has a solid history of ratings wins and huge audiences, driven largely by the ever successful Kyle & Jackie O"

5. Season 4 of Offspring premieres tonight on Channel Ten at 8.30pm. Starring TV’s golden girl, Asher Keddie, the show picks up from the end of last season where Nina (Keddie) and Patrick (Matt Le Nevez) announced they was expecting a baby. In conjunction with the new season, Channel Ten have launched its very own iPhone app; The Offspring: Moving In App.  The free app allows fans to view exclusive scenes and insight into the characters. 

Neil McMahon's Daily Top 5 Picks: Monday

1. The glitz! The glamour! The grandiose hair! The glorious, happy,  horror of it all. It could only be The Eurovision Song Contest, now well-established as one of SBS's biggest audience pullers of every year. As hosts, Julie Zemiro and Sam Pang have made the schlocky show their own, guiding Aussie audiences through proceedings with a nudge, a wink, lots of wit and an essential affection for this most curious of pop culture baubles. Last night's final, with Denmark crowned winner, was watched by around 600,000 in the capitals, and was again a hit on Twitter - perhaps because few other events so effortlessly lend themselves to communal viewing and extreme levels of social media snark.

2. Still with Eurovision: what perfect timing it was that the final was being held in ABBALand - aka Sweden- just as one of the band's alumni was showing the kind of superstar chart power that was the foursome's routine achievement in the 1970s. Agnetha's Faltskog's comeback album A soars into the ARIA album chart at No. 3 this week - off the back of a savvy global PR campaign that included an intimate profile on Seven's Sunday Night a fortnight ago. As an ABBA aficionado  of some years standing, I can report that Faltskog's solo smash warrants the attention. It's a reminder that those ABBA girls could turn their vocal talents to anything - from ballads to disco, and all in a foreign language. In the ABBA tradition, the album does have a couple of duds - but overall, one of pop music's greatest voices delivers the goods. As ABBA's Aussie handmaiden Molly Meldrum used to say: do yourselves a favour.

3. Agnetha's perky chart debut saw it pip the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby by one spot on the ARIA ledger, but there's another 10 days to go to see what local moviegoers rather than music-buyers think of their compatriot's controversial re-imagining of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic. Whatever the merits of the film, you have to dip your lid to the Bazmachine - watching the man make and flog his movies has become a compulsive entertainment all on its own. Reviews of Lurhmann flicks are especially entertaining, given Baz's inclination to send some critics into paroxysms of delight, and many others to emerge from the cinema feeling as if they'd been locked inside a pinball machine for a couple of hours. This movie has had it's share of clunking notices, but Baz surely won't care much given the big business it's doing at the US box office.

4. The revolution continues: Melbourne's Herald Sun got some welcome News Limited company in its year-old canary-down-the-coalmine role of testing reader willingness to venture beyond a paywall. Sydney's Daily Telegraph is there now, too, with The Courier Mail (Brisbane) and The Advertiser (Adelaide) to follow soon. But the rules have changed: News has gone the metered route, meaning you get a certain number of stories for nix, before being asked to pony up a subscription fee. To coincide with the new paywall launch both papers were given an online overhaul as well last week. Will it work? Find out what Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston has to say on his paper's prospects in my interview with him, in the next issue of Mediaweek.

5. Media moments don't come much bigger - or more weighted with TV industry history - than the retirement of American broadcast queen Barbara Walters, who at 83 has announced she is going at last. She will be missed - by everyone from female colleagues who hail her as the woman who led the way, to comedians who've made hay with her style of interviewing and her speech impediment (The late Gilda Radner's "Baba Wawa" skits on Saturday Night Live cemented Walters place in the culture, even if Walters herself didn't much like them at first.) I highly recommend Walters 2008 memoir, Audition. And for your classic Walters interview moments, try these two. Here is one she never lived down, asking of Katharine Hepburn: "What kind of a tree are you, if you think you're a tree?" And I've always had a soft spot for Walters' encounter with presidential paramour Monica Lewinsky - "A lot of people don't know what phone sex is."

Brian Watson's Daily Top 5 Picks: Friday

1. The Place Beyond The Pines stars Ryan Gosling as a stunt motorcyclist who turns to robbing banks to pay support for his illegitimate son and Bradley Cooper as the cop who becomes his deadly adversary. Fifteen years later their sons wind up at the same high school and the movie shapes up as an epic drama. Full marks to the teen actors Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen but especially to Eva Mendes and Rose Byrne as their mothers.

2. Remember Bon Iver, the indie group whose eponymous second album enjoyed worldwide success two years ago and won two Grammy Awards? Many of their fans still prefer their first album, For Emma, Forever Ago (2008), which included their original version of “Skinny Love”. Imagine my surprise to find one of its tracks, “The Wolves (Act I and II)”, plays right through the end credits of The Place Beyond The Pines. The music supervisor certainly had good taste.

3. Another surprise this week was the name of Bart the Bear in the end credits of this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”. Bart, an Alaskan Kodiak bear, appeared in many movies and TV shows before he died in 2000. This week’s Bart is another Alaskan Kodiak, born in 2000, raised by the same trainers, with a similarly long Hollywood career. If you haven’t already seen it, be prepared for his terrifying appearance in this week’s episode.

4. I’m excited about an ad on TEN for their upcoming show The Americans. A dozen or so episodes have been shown on the US FX network and the premise is intriguing. Keri Russell from Felicity and Matthew Rhys, who played the gay brother in Brothers & Sisters, are highly trained Russian KGB agents posing as a American couple in suburban Washington DC in the early 80s. Also in the cast are Richard Thomas, who won an Emmy as John-Boy in The Waltons, and Margo Martindale, who won an Emmy as the villain in season two of Justified. Critics say it’s a gripping spy thriller.

5. The Music Is You is a newly released tribute to John Denver. Artists including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Amos Lee, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dave Matthews perform his songs and the most successful tracks tend to be the biggest hits – some of the others are pretty forgettable. My favourite is “Leaving on a Jet Plane” with My Morning Jacket breathing fresh life into Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit.

Hansika Bhagani's Daily Top 5 Picks: Thursday

1. PolitiFact has launched in Australia, and in the lead-up to September's Federal election, is sure to get a workout. So far the site proves interesting reading, with some media commentators claiming some of the fact-checking is being selective. Find ex-SMH editor Peter Fray's new venture here.
2. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has gone global and this weekend there will be events to celebrate the chef's Food Revolution Day. You can participate by cooking and sharing your fresh homemade food at the Love Real Food Picnic at Centennial Park this Saturday. As the food revolution is all about fresh, homemade tucker – and being equipped to prepare it yourself – the organisers are challenging people to home-make "absolutely everything for their picnic loot – crackers, dips, thermos soups, salads, meats, home-made lemonades. EVERYTHING!! No packets."

3. It's taken eight long years but How I Met Your Mother has revealed the identity of Ted Moseby's wife and the "mother" of the series. Cristin Milioti showed her face for a fleeting minute in the season finale, buying a train ticket to Barney and Robin’s wedding in “Farhampton,” the show’s fanciful, fictitious stand-in for the East Hampton. Milioti will appear regularly next season, the show’s last, beginning in September.

4. The John Singleton/Gai Waterhouse saga has been given ample coverage in Sydney's daily papers but Four Corners on Monday night will be worth watching for exclusive insights and historical background. Marian Wilkinson reports on Four Corners, Monday at 8.30pm on ABC.

5. Head On Photo Festival opens tomorrow as part of Vivid Sydney. Head On is Australia's largest photo festival and the world's second largest festival. With over 200 events at 100 venues, the 2012 festival was a resounding success for everyone who participated: galleries and other venues, photographers, Head On partners and the viewing public and the 2013 festival is already looking like being even bigger! 

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Wednesday
May232012

Tablets now in 15% of homes

DateMay 23, 2012

An estimated 15% of Australian households now own at least one tablet device, according to the latest Australian Multi-Screen Report covering the first quarter of calendar 2012.
New technologies are creating additional opportunities to view, keeping consumers engaged with broadcast television and enabling them to watch when and where they like.
The report also reinforces findings from the previous edition (Q4 2011): viewing via conventional TV sets remains strong and is rising due to the increasing use of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), now in 47% of homes, coupled with digital terrestrial television (DTT) penetration approaching 100%.
More digital televisions sets in Australian homes mean more available channels per home, resulting in higher viewing levels. 96% of homes can receive DTT and 74% have converted every set in the home to digital, up from 55% a year ago.

Key findings as of Q1 (January-March) 2012
* An estimated 15% of Australian households now own at least one tablet device
* Viewing of any video (both television broadcast content and other available video) on PCs, smartphones and tablets is growing rapidly, albeit from a small base
* Viewers overwhelmingly watch on the largest screen available to them: 96% of all video viewing still is via the conventional TV set (Viewing via the conventional TV includes broadcast content only; video viewing on second and third screens can include both broadcast and non-broadcast video content.)
* Viewing on conventional TVs is strong with time spent rising 1.2% year-on-year

Doug Peiffer, CEO, OzTAM, said: "The use of new devices will continue to grow – as seen in the estimated 15% of Australian households that already have a tablet device. PCs and mobile devices are creating additional opportunities to view, in the process keeping consumers close to the content.
"Amid the excitement about such technologies though, Australians' TV habits remain largely unchanged. People still enjoy nearly 100 hours of television on the conventional set every month, and 96% of viewing is still to the traditional in-home TV.
"The quarterly insights provided by the Australian Multi-Screen Report provide a better understanding of how much viewing is actually going to various devices – drawing on the best available measurement sources in Nielsen, OzTAM and Regional TAM – to assist the industry in planning and forecasting."
Matt Bruce, MD of Nielsen’s media group in Australia, added: “The Australian Multi-Screen Report again highlights that Australians' fast adoption of smart phones and tablets is in fact broadening the viewing opportunities of TV across multiple platforms.
"Our Nielsen Online Consumer Report 2012 forecasts that growth of tablet use among online Australians will more than double this year to 39%, while smart phone ownership is expected to reach 64%. The rapid rise of these devices and new technologies is further extending Australians’ TV viewing opportunities, and our Multi-Screen report is providing media owners, agencies and advertisers with clarity and actionable insights into the way multiple screens are reaching and engaging with consumers.”
Deborah Wright, the Chair of Regional TAM, said: “The information gathered to produce this report also highlights that multi-screen viewing is consistent right across regional and metropolitan Australia with no material variations in any key findings.”
 
About The Australian Multi-Screen Report
The Australian Multi-Screen Report, released quarterly, is the first and only national research into trends in video viewing in Australian homes across television, computers and mobile devices. It combines data from the three best available research sources: the OzTAM and Regional TAM television ratings panels and Nielsen’s national NetView panel and Consumer & Media View database.
Sources: OzTAM, Regional TAM, Nielsen

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