Business of Media
PE investor Straight Bat gets into the events marketing acquiring Click Click
Mid-market private equity firm Straight Bat has taken its next big swing, acquiring a majority stake in Sydney-based events and marketing company Click Click Marketing, reports The AFR’s Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport.
Click Click was founded in 2007 as a one-stop events and marketing business. It had its fingerprints on more than 600 events and 750 lead-generation campaigns across Australia and the Asia Pacific in 2022. It turns over $23 million in revenue annually. Clients are primarily in the software and information technology sector, shelling out for services such as event management, lead generation, campaign design and copywriting.
It is not known what Steve Gledden’s shop paid for the stake. However, it typically invests in profitable, mid-sized businesses with up to $200 million in revenue; $50 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation; and 20 per cent-plus EBITDA margins.
Sony Pictures’ orderly transfer of power, after bumpy rides at Paramount & Disney
Sony Pictures Entertainment said on Monday that its chief executive, Tony Vinciquerra, will step down at the beginning of next year and be succeeded by the studio’s president and chief operating officer, Ravi Ahuja, reports The New York Times.
Ahuja, 53, will report to Kenichiro Yoshida, who runs the Sony Group, the Tokyo-based technology and entertainment giant. Vinciquerra, 70, will serve as nonexecutive chairman of Sony Pictures through the end of next year.
Ahuja’s appointment is a relatively tranquil change by the standards of Hollywood corner offices, where chief executives are sometimes replaced in a much less decorous fashion.
Bob Bakish, the chief executive of Paramount, was abruptly replaced in April during merger negotiations with Skydance, and Robert A. Iger’s succession at Disney has been a yearslong operatic struggle.
Ahuja joined Sony in 2021 to oversee all production businesses for Sony Pictures Television. Before that, he held executive roles at Disney, Fox Networks Group and Virgin Entertainment Group. He has helped steer some of Sony’s deal-making, including the acquisitions of the entertainment company Industrial Media and the British production company Bad Wolf.
‘Miserable joint’: Kyle Sandilands defends Tony Armstrong after ‘moonlighting’ claims
Radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O have come to Tony Armstrong’s defence after it was revealed the ABC star did not get permission from his employer before taking up a new side gig, report News Corp’s Brielle Burns and Benedict Brook.
Weighing in on the issue on The Kyle and Jackie O show, KIIS FM radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson defended Armstrong’s decision to pick up the extra job.
“Who cares? What is their mantra? ‘Work here and make no money anywhere else’,” Henderson said on the show.
“Yeah be an a**wipe forever that no one watches on TV,” Sandilands added. “It’s such a miserable joint to work at.”
News Brands
ABC disowns questions to Peter Dutton over Hezbollah’s status as a terrorist organisation
The ABC said an exchange between a female reporter and Peter Dutton was “not a piece of reporting” or a position taken by the ABC after she asked him to explain why Hezbollah was a terrorist organisation and Israeli flags were not banned.
At a tense lunchtime press conference on Tuesday, ABC reporter Anushri Sood asked the Opposition Leader why particular groups were listed as terrorist organisations and to respond to claims of hypocrisy in Australia over the treatment of Hezbollah supporters. “Just on that point with Hezbollah, you’re saying being responsible for the deaths of women and children,” Sood said.
A visibly frustrated Dutton replied: “Well, Israel is a democracy. It’s not run by a terrorist organisation. Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation.”
He asked the reporter to repeat her questions and to name the media outlet she was from.
Sood replied: “ABC.”
Former ABC newsreader says employee made ‘pretty awful comments’ about her Oxford University offer
Former ABC newsreader Brooke Boney says she is “not surprised” after a bombshell independent review found staff at the public broadcaster had experienced “entrenched” racism, reports news.com.au.
The popular Australian presenter took to Instagram on Tuesday night to detail derogatory comments she copped about her recent offer to attend Oxford University.
Boney worked as a newsreader for ABC’s Triple J from 2016 to 2018 and became known for using the traditional Gamilaroi greeting of “Yaama” when introducing herself before news bulletins.
She left the national broadcaster in 2019 when she was appointed entertainment reporter on the Nine Network’s breakfast program Today before ultimately becoming a host.
She announced her resignation in March 2024 to study a Masters of Public Policy in the UK.
“I settled on the Masters of Public Policy because I thought this is sort of what fits best with my journalistic career thus far,” Brooke said at the time.
“I thought if I don’t do this now, then I’m probably never going to. I am at that age where if I leave now and go and study and come back, I’ll still only be 38.”
But now, the 37-year-old has accused an ABC worker of making a “pretty awful comment” about her offer.
Radio
2GB’s ratings slide can be put down to many reasons
Talkback station 2GB finds itself staring down some of the worst radio ratings it has seen in the past 20 years, a stark contrast to the station’s consistent glory days under the ownership of John Singleton, or ‘Singo’, as he’s affectionately known, reports News Corp’s Brenden Wood.
Now under the ownership of Nine Entertainment, led by Tom Malone and Greg Byrnes, both of whom have decades of experience in the Sydney radio market, 2GB’s sudden decline would seem bewildering.
2GB breakfast presenter, Ben Fordham, has his finger on the pulse, and knows what listeners prefer to hear.
“The Olympics provided lots of memorable moments but they also interrupted our normal programming and that pushes a few people away”, Fordham said in a text message sent to me.
“2GB listeners love news and opinions and when you take those things away and replace them with live sport there’s a risk they’ll switch off or listen to something else. The good news is that everything is back to normal now so hopefully the results will reflect that by the end of the year. If not, we’ll just have to work even harder.”
Another question being asked in the industry is whether or not 2GB’s management has spread itself too thin?
In typical Sydney fashion, Kyle and Jackie O just don’t get Melbourne
Like an alien spaceship from Planet Porno, the arrival of Sydney breakfast shock jocks Kyle and Jackie O on Melbourne radio this year was an attempt to crash through ingrained media parochialism. Instead, they’ve just crashed, reports The Age’s Stephen Brook.
The latest ratings, released on Tuesday, are abysmal. According to ratings agency GfK, the pair, who have ruled Sydney FM breakfast radio for years with a mix of celebrity, sex, scandals and contests, dropped to eighth in the Melbourne breakfast market, sinking to a 5.2 per cent share, down from 6.1 per cent in the previous survey. Meanwhile, their audience dropped from 491,000 daily listeners in July to 420,000 in September.
The program’s national rollout strategy is in jeopardy, while the duo’s parent company, ARN, is in crisis.
Melbourne is a community. And while Kyle and Jackie O – just like your family WhatsApp group, local Facebook page, or newspaper letters section – has successfully fostered its own community, which adores its trashy fun, that community has proved incompatible with Melbourne’s.
The audience they seek is divided between those who find Sandilands’ obsession with sex, celebrity news and endless competitions addictively entertaining, and those who find the duo’s topics of conversation demeaning and misogynistic.
4BH shocks Brisbane radio market, surging past Nova and KIIS in ratings battle
In a dramatic shake-up of Brisbane’s fiercely competitive radio market, 4BH has stormed into third place, overtaking major players Nova 106.9 and KIIS 97.3, according to the latest radio survey results, reports News Corp’s Georgia Clelland.
The station’s “more music, less talk” strategy has clearly resonated with Brisbane listeners, cementing its place as a serious contender after years of being sidelined in fourth place or lower.
It is 4BH’s most significant rise since moving to 1116kHz in 2020, capturing an impressive 11.2 per cent of the market share and leapfrogging some of the biggest names in Brisbane radio, a major feat in one of the most cutthroat markets in the country.
While 4BH’s recent surge may come as a surprise to many, its success can be traced to a combination of a laser-focused strategy on an often-overlooked demographic and competition downfall.
When 4KQ was shut down in 2022, many of its loyal listeners — who had long enjoyed its classic hits — were left searching for an alternative.
4BH stepped in to fill that void, attracting a significant portion of 4KQ’s former audience. With a similar classic hits format, minimal chatter and familiar voices, like longtime radio veteran Bob Gallagher, who joined 4BH after 4KQ’s downfall, the station became the obvious new home for displaced listeners.
Television
Netflix loses first battle in $170 million Baby Reindeer defamation case
Netflix should not have claimed Baby Reindeer was “a true story” at the beginning of each episode because the actions portrayed by the character Martha were worse than those of the real-life woman whose actions inspired the show, a US judge has said, reports Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn.
In a massive blow to the streaming giant, US federal court judge Gary Klausner has ruled the defamation action brought by Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for Martha, could proceed.
Harvey is seeking $US170 million ($245 million) in damages against the streaming giant. Her claim states that since the release of the series – in which “Martha” harasses and sexually assaults “Donny” (the show’s creator and star, Richard Gadd) – she had been “inundated … with threatening and harassing messages” from viewers, and had suffered “severe emotional distress in the form of anxiety, nightmares, panic attacks, shame, depression, nervousness, stomach pains, loss of appetite, and fear. Specifically, a fear of going outside.”
Sports Media
Melbourne legend in box seat after Mark Robinson sacked from AFL 360
Melbourne Demons great Garry Lyon has emerged as the frontrunner to replace News Corp’s chief football writer, Mark Robinson, who was axed from Fox Sports’ popular AFL 360 talk show.
Robinson was informed by Fox Sports boss Steve Crawley last week that Monday’s show would be his last, becoming the latest talent change ahead of Fox and Seven’s new broadcast contract with the AFL kicking in, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
However, he did not show up, fearing he might “say something or act in a way that I might regret”, he told radio station RSN on Tuesday morning.
Speaking on RSN on Tuesday morning, Robinson said he was informed by Crawley last week that changes were being made to the program – and that he was the change.
“Clearly, at the end, not everyone was in my corner. Well, if you’re going to get sacked from that show, clearly people aren’t in your corner,” he said.
Robinson said he was considering a number of Fox Footy proposals that Crawley had put to him.
Channel 7 commentator Kate McCarthy hospitalised over heart issue
Former Brisbane Lions AFLW star Kate McCarthy’s celebration of the men’s team’s grand final triumph has been cut short after she was hospitalised over her ongoing heart issue, reports News Corp’s Andrew McMurtry.
The 31-year-old McCarthy was a 42-game veteran of the AFLW, playing for the Lions, St Kilda and Hawthorn over seven seasons before retiring.
However, McCarthy has continued her footy career behind the microphone, having become a member of Triple M and Channel 7’s commentary teams, including as part of Channel 7’s AFL grand final coverage over the weekend and co-hosting panel shows Armchair Experts and Talking W.
But McCarthy took to X on Tuesday, revealing she had been hospitalised to treat her heart issue.
When the @brisbanelions & @lionsaflw double over the weekend sends you into ventricular tachycardia,” she wrote.
“On the mend now but Monday night review shows pacemaker performing like the Swans on the big stage.”