Business of Media
What David Koch did next: Investor to take stake in Ausbiz
David Koch teared up last year telling viewers he was departing Sunrise, the oft-dominant morning show he had spent (a remarkable) 21 years playing its dorky finance dad, reports The AFR’s Mark Di Stefano.
And good for him, He’d get his mornings back, and more time for his other interests.
There’s his club president role at Port Adelaide. Its success has brought him into the conversation to succeed the imperious Richard Goyder running the AFL. And Pinstripe Media (with his son, Alexander “AJ” Koch), which shares Sydney office space with his other media start-up, Ausbiz, a streaming TV channel and collection of podcasts that covers finance and business run by co-founder and owner Kylie Merritt.
He and wife Libby Koch own 31.8 per cent of Ausbiz. There’s also big-name backers such as former treasurer Joe Hockey and renos-over-receipts tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, whose 2.2 per cent stake must be borne of his relationship with Port Adelaide.
This week, it took a baffling strategic turn. It was announced that ASX-listed ARC Funds Limited would take a 30 per cent equity stake in Ausbiz Capital, a new, wholly owned subsidiary of Koch’s media start-up that’s being described as a “capital markets business”. ARC Funds will tip in $1 million in three tranches over three years.
Stan weighing advertising as streaming service looks to boost revenue
Nine Entertainment’s Stan is reportedly weighing a move to introduce advertising, as the homegrown streaming service looks at ways of boosting revenue, reports Sky News.
Stan is one of the few remaining streaming services to run without ads in Australia, with the only other platform not to offer a cheaper, promotion-subsidised subscription, Disney+, expected to introduce advertising soon.
Despite managing to successfully compete against the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and Binge for close to a decade without incorporating ads, Nine Entertainment’s financial position may now force the company’s hand as it looks to make up for flagging incomes elsewhere.
According to The Australian Financial Review, the departure of Nine boss Mike Sneesby has potentially opened the door for the introduction of ads on Stan, with new acting CEO Matt Stanton understood to be mulling his options.
Industry heads to Canberra to champion screen stories
CEOs, producers, policymakers, and stars gathered in Canberra his week for the Screen Producers Australia annual Screen Stories Long Table Dinner, reports TV Tonight.
In attendance were Janet Anderson (Last King of the Cross, Reef Break), Bryan Brown (Cocktail, Breaker Morant, Boy Swallows Universe), Paula Garcia (Bump, The Twelve), Ashan Kumar (Last King of the Cross, Nautilus), alongside comedian and filmmaker Dan Ilic, production designers Fiona Donovan (A Place to Call Home, Frayed) and Deborah Riley (3 Body Problem, Game of Thrones), and producers from production companies WildBear Entertainment, Hoodlum Entertainment, SLR Productions, Roadshow Films, and Fremantle Australia.
Parliamentarians present included Tony Burke, Michelle Rowland, Perin Davey, Josh Wilson, Graham Perrett and Susan Templeman.
Industry leaders, including the CEOs of Screen Australia, Australian Children’s Television Foundation, Australian Directors Guild, Australian Writers’ Guild, Australian Guild of Screen Composers, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, National Institute of Dramatic Art, Screen Queensland, and Screen Territory, were also in attendance.
News Brands
New breakfast format could lead RN in 2025 after Karvelas exit
A new-look Breakfast show will headline a revamped Radio National in 2025, with fill-in hosts Sally Sara and Steve Cannane early front-runners to replace the departing Patricia Karvelas, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
Announced on Wednesday morning, Karvelas is the first major change to come as a result of an ongoing review into Radio National, which has endured a steady decline in audience.
Karvelas leaves after three years, having replaced long-term host Fran Kelly in early 2022 and will take on a new role as an anchor on the ABC’s news channel in 2025, covering national politics, as well as hosting a new podcast, alongside her existing duties as host of Q+A and The Party Room.
While the ABC said it will announce replacement soon, there is speculation the program could implement a new format with multiple hosts, mirroring the British public broadcaster BBC’s like-for-like Today program on Radio 4.
Patricia Karvelas’ departure from Radio National is no surprise, given Kim Williams’ plans
it’s no accident that Patricia Karvelas’ sideways career move at the ABC coincides with the overt push by the organisation’s chairman Kim Williams to put Radio National back into “the ABC’s heartland”, reports The Australian’s James Madden.
Williams loves Radio National, and since taking over as ABC chair in March, he’s made his feelings known about the direction of the station. Indeed, Williams decried the ratings slide of Radio National during an interview on Karvelas’ own program in June.
“I would like to see larger audiences for Radio National. I would like to see Radio National lift its ambitions in terms of its role in Australia,” Williams said during the interview.
Karvelas, who worked at The Australian for more than a decade, is an excellent political journalist and will no doubt be an asset to the public broadcaster for years to come.
But the decision to remove her from the all-important Radio National breakfast program is the right one, and perhaps the first of many major ABC personnel moves quietly engineered by Chairman Kim.
Piers Morgan apologises to Jay-Z and Beyoncé over allegations on YouTube show
British broadcaster Piers Morgan has apologised to Beyoncé and Jay-Z following allegations made against them on his YouTube-hosted show Piers Morgan Uncensored, reports The Guardian.
Singer-songwriter Jaguar Wright made an appearance with Morgan last week to discuss the numerous sexual assault allegations against rapper and mogul Sean Combs. During the interview she referred to Jay-Z, who she once worked for as a backing singer, as a “monster”, and he and Beyoncé as a “nasty little couple”. She claimed Jay-Z had links with Combs and others, and alleged serious offences against both Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Morgan has now issued an apology, saying:
Their lawyers contacted us to say that those claims were totally false and have no basis in fact. And we’ve therefore complied with the legal request to cut them from the original interview. Editing interviews is not something we do lightly on a show called Uncensored. But, like the proverbial cries of fire in a crowded theatre, there are legal limits on us, too. And we apologise to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Radio
ARN responds to claims that Kyle and Jackie O Show is normalising ‘violent misogyny’
KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O Show is facing an advertiser boycott after a campaign that claims the content on the breakfast program is normalising “violent misogyny”, reports Guardian Australia’s Sarah Martin.
High-profile advertisers including AMP, Bendigo Bank, Flight Centre and Australian Super have confirmed to Guardian Australia that they have stopped or are reviewing their advertising with the show.
The grassroots activist group Mad Fucking Witches launched a community campaign targeting the show’s co-host Kyle Sandilands in May, to coincide with the expansion of the top-rating Sydney program into Melbourne.
An ARN Media spokesperson told the Guardian that “listening to Kylie & Jackie O is a choice millions of Australians make”.
“While we accept the show does not appeal to everyone, it’s the nation’s most successful breakfast program with an audience in excess of 1.5 million people,” the spokesperson said. “The show regularly takes on feedback from its audience.”
Sports Media
Former Nine TV boss Jeff Browne quits role at Collingwood Football Club
Jeff Browne will step down as Collingwood president and won’t seek re-election at the end of the year, saying he is confident the Magpies are set up for sustained future success, reports News Corp’s Glenn McFarlane.
Browne told staff members on Wednesday morning of his decision, stressing that it was with “mixed feelings” that he had made the decision.
Having overseen Collingwood’s 16th VFL-AFL premiership last year, and taking the club to a record membership this year, Browne urged the club to continue to be “bold and evolve, blending the art and increasing proportion of science in football, to climb to the top of the mountain and relish in and maintain the view from there.”
He told members: “It is with mixed feelings that I announce I will complete my three-year term as President of the Collingwood Football Club and will not seek re-election at the upcoming AGM to be held on December 16 this year.”
Browne was recently outspoken about the management of his former home at the Iine Network.
Collingwood president and ex Channel 9 boss Jeff Browne has slammed the leadership of Nine Entertainment under chairman Peter Costello, reported News Corp’s Michael Warner in June this year.
Browne, 70, has confirmed he had been approached by Nine Entertainment executives to consider a return to the network following Costello’s physical altercation with a journalist at Canberra Airport on Thursday.