Business of Media
Why Rich Lister Bruce Gordon is suing the TVSN shopping channel
Bruce Gordon’s regional broadcaster WIN has taken TVSN to task over what it alleges was a breach of contract, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
In mid-2021, WIN signed a three-year licensing deal with TVSN to broadcast the channel, according to court documents. TVSN sells products in the fashion, health and beauty, kitchen, electronics, travel and leisure segments.
Court documents reveal the contract between WIN and TVSN included a clause that the two companies would meet nine months before the end of their deal on June 30, 2024, “with a view to exploring, in good faith, opportunities to extend their co-operation”.
But WIN alleges that TVSN deliberately ignored attempts to organise a meeting around September or October last year because it was negotiating a new deal with a rival broadcaster behind its back.
Annette Sharp: Who will replace Mike Sneesby as Nine CEO?
Weeks before the inevitable announcement came that Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby was departing the media company, the lobbying for Sneesby’s job had begun, reports Annette Sharp- in The Sunday Telegraph.
Of the top candidates now in line to replace the CEO, one is receiving the most lip service — and not because she’s a woman.
Corporate lawyer Amanda Laing was Nine’s managing director between 2015 and 2017. She came to the role after spending a decade at Nine as the company’s lawyer and commercial director under former CEOs David Gyngell and Hugh Marks.
Another who joins the field as a possible replacement for Sneesby is Andrew Lancaster, the steely CEO of Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corporation and Birketu Pty Ltd, Nine Entertainment Co’s largest individual shareholder.
From within Nine, the drums are beating for the man charged with keeping the seat warm following Sneesby’s departure, Nine CFO and chief strategy officer Matt Stanton.
UK-educated Stanton has a strong finance and commercial background and was, for a year from January 2015, chief transformation officer at Woolworths.
Outside pick firms as next Nine boss: Amanda Laing ‘early favourite’
An external candidate is heavily favoured to be chosen as the next chief executive of Nine Entertainment, with senior insiders claiming that the company is intent on projecting an image of renewal following a torrid year for the media giant, reports The Australian’s James Madden.
Sources have told The Australian that the board is likely to favour an appointment from outside Nine as the need for a “fresh start” for the company is a high priority, especially given the looming release of the cultural review into the organisation’s news and current affairs division.
Former Nine executive Amanda Laing – who has spent the past eight years at Foxtel, but is leaving the company next week – is considered to be the early favourite, given that she already has a strong working knowledge of how Nine operates, but would also be viewed by skittish investors as an external hire who is unencumbered by the damaged workplace culture.
Murdoch family succession battle to remain behind closed doors
Nevada probate commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. last week denied a petition by a coalition of media organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press, to unseal court proceedings and records. He found that hearings will remain closed off to prevent the disclosure of confidential information, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
“A family trust like the one at issue in this case, even when it is a stockholder in publicly traded companies, is essentially a private legal arrangement,” the order stated.
In Nevada probate court, any filings dealing with trust instruments, petitions and fiscal documents filed by fiduciaries can remain sealed. It’s among the primary reasons Murdoch chose Nevada to file his petition to amend the trust.
News Brands
Meghan Markle, Hugh Grant and new Australian privacy invasion laws
Australians will be able to sue for damages for privacy invasion under laws unveiled by the federal government, but experts say a major exemption for journalists may block the kinds of privacy suits fought overseas by celebrities and royals, reports Nine Publishing’s Michaela Whitbourn.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus introduced a bill in federal parliament on Thursday that includes a new tort, or civil action, for serious invasions of privacy. If passed, it is expected to trigger a flurry of litigation.
A plaintiff must satisfy a court that the public interest in protecting their privacy outweighs any public interest in the invasion raised by a defendant, and wide exemptions apply for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Journalists – defined narrowly to exclude citizen journalists or publishers such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – collecting or publishing “journalistic material” are also exempt.
The ABC’s utterly shameful campaign against our soldiers
A Royal Commission found that 2,007 current or former defence personnel had committed suicide between 1985 and 2021, reports News Corp’s James Willis.
The reality is, when many of our soldiers returned from combat, they faced a whole new battle. Parts of Australian media decided to declare their own war on our troops.
No outlet has been more involved in this campaign than the ABC. Particularly, Investigations Reporter Mark Willacy.
Over a four-year period, the ABC allowed Willacy to dish out almost 40 negative stories about Australian soldiers.
He was presented with the Gold Walkley after revealing footage of a member of the SAS shooting an unarmed Afghan. That soldier has been charged and remains before the courts.
However, Willacy’s relentless coverage came to a dramatic halt last year.
And that corresponds with the ABC suffering a massive defeat in the Federal Court, after being sued by retired Special Forces Commander, Heston Russell.
Mark Humphries: The man they say has ruined television news forever
Stellar editor Sarrah Le Marquand has interviewed Seven News comedian Mark Humphries. She started her podcast asking Humphries if perhaps the title for the podcast episode could be “In conversation with the man they say has ruined television news forever.”
Mark Humphries: I think that’s fair [laughs]. I think that’s absolutely true. I was so stunned because I did five years at 7.30, the ABC’s flagship current affairs program, which I think of all the shows to have a comedy segment, that’s even less likely to have one. I didn’t know people felt so strongly about the 6 o’clock news and how its integrity must be defended. And, you know, it’s the last three minutes at the end of the week before Better Homes and Gardens. I’ve said this before, but the great thing about The 6.57pm News is that if you want to avoid it, you know exactly what time to tune out. [The reaction] was bizarre.”
Radio
Melbourne radio is superior to Sydney, too good for Kyle and Jackie says consultant
Radio industry consultant and co-host of the Game Changers Melbourne Radio Wars’ podcast, Craig Bruce, said Melbourne was an “incredibly competitive” radio market, reports Fiona Byrne.
“Right at the moment I think the quality of shows in Melbourne is definitely stronger than Sydney and I think it has been that way for a while,” Bruce said.
“It is one thing to launch into a new market with a content plan that Kyle would say is not everyone’s cup of tea, but the central question is where are they going to take an audience from.
“Melbourne seems to just be a stronger market and a much harder market to break through in, particularly when you are being beamed in from Sydney and are not really making much of an effort to engage with the Melbourne audience at any kind of level.
“You can’t take anything away from how good Kyle and Jac have been, but they have not had a lot of competition on the pop side (of radio).
“They don’t have a Fifi, Fev and Nick or a Jase & Lauren equivalent in Sydney, there is nothing like those two shows. It is going to be very hard for them in Melbourne.”
Disrupt staff are waiting to be paid but were left ‘bemused’ by founder’s comments
Staff at trouble-plagued Disrupt Radio remain in limbo about the future of the station and say they were left “bemused” by comments made by founder Benjamin Roberts that employees should be prepared for a “roller coaster” ride, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
The DAB+ (digital audio broadcast) station remains off air and employees are unsure if and when the channel will return to the airwaves after a significant investment in the start-up fell through last month.
Many staff are also still waiting to be paid for work completed weeks ago.
The Australian contacted Roberts multiple times in the past week to find out the status of the station and its future, but he declined to give details or respond to a series of questions.
“We’re still working through all of this,” he said in email correspondence.
Former ABC radio host Libbi Gorr and former TV presenter and businessman Jules Lund are among the station’s high-profile presenters with their own weekly shows, alongside former AFLW player Moana Hope.
Television
Musical chairs at Seven News Melbourne
Rebecca Maddern is in preliminary discussions with Seven about taking over weeknight news sport from Tim Watson once he departs, which would make perfect sense given her longstanding sporting expertise, reports The Australian.
The 47-year-old used to be the co-host of the now-defunct Footy Show on Nine and she’s the number one ticket holder at Geelong, which is in the final four in the race to win the 2024 AFL premiership.
If Maddern takes up the sports reading gig she will switch from working weekends to reading sport Monday to Friday, while Karina Carvalho could take over Maddern’s weekend newsreading gig alongside TV veteran Mike Amor.
Amor and weeknight newsreader Peter Mitchell both have some time to run on their contracts and won’t be going anywhere soon, but there’s no doubt Seven Melbourne’s news boss, Chris Salter, is looking to mix things up against rival Nine News, led by news director Hugh Nailon.
Actor, director and radio presenter Lex Marinos dies aged 75
Australian actor, director and former Double J radio presenter Lex Marinos has died aged 75, his family has announced, reports ABC’s Dan Nancarrow and Jason Dasey.
A post to his Facebook on Saturday said the former Kingswood Country actor died at home on Friday at his Sydney home, “at a moment of his choosing, surrounded by family and the sounds of Bob Dylan accompanying our vigil”.
“There was so much love in the room,” the post read.
A recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the performing arts, Marinos was the former deputy chair of the Australia Council as well as a member of the creative and production team for the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Marinos started his career as a producer and presenter on 2JJ/2JJJ (the precursors to Double J and Triple J) in the 1970s, going on to present on ABC and commercial radio in the following decades.
But Marinos is perhaps best remembered for his role in the popular 1980s sitcom, Kingswood Country.
He played the role of Bruno, the Italian son-in-law of the main actor, Ted Bulpitt, whose Holden Kingswood car was the highlight of his suburban life.
Aussie TV legend Reg Grundy honoured by stars including Tracy Grimshaw & Alan Jones
Six years after his death, Australian television great Reg Grundy has been remembered in a joint memorial for his late wife, Joy Chambers-Grundy, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
It was a who’s who of Australian television that turned up to the memorial at the State Library of NSW, from presenters to actors of some of our biggest shows since television began.
Neighbours star Stefan Dennis performed Their Way while graduates from the National Institute of Dramatic Art sang a medley of theme songs for Grundy shows, Neighbours, Sons and Daughters and Prisoner.
Perfect Match host Greg Evans likened Grundy to Australia’s answer to the late Walt Disney.
Prisoner’s Val Lehman and The Restless Years’ Benita Collings never met Grundy but wanted to pay their respects to the man that gave them some of their biggest jobs.
Broadcaster Alan Jones made a rare public appearance as he paid tribute to the couple he called friends.
Sports Media
Buzz on Shadow, Matty Johns and feuding commentators
Nine playing with fire in Flanno bash
The campaign by Nine Entertainment hatchet men to drive a wedge between St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan and star playmaker Ben Hunt is an interesting one, reports News Corp’s Phil Rothfield.
Interesting because the highly-regarded Dragons chairman is Andrew Lancaster, a close supporter of Flanagan, but more importantly an influential board member at Channel 9.
Lancaster represents Nine’s largest shareholder Bruce Gordon on the media company’s board.
Now we’ve all heard how Nine and its newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, is allegedly ‘independent always’ and we’re not suggesting Lancaster would ever try to influence the editorial side of the business.
Other sports media highlights from Rothfield’s What’s the Buzz column…
Channel Nine NRL caller and The Late Show
Footy caller Matt Thompson arrived late to call an NRLW game on Saturday from the network’s studios, reports News Corp’s Phil Rothfield.
It was left to the talented host Emma Lawrence to call the first seven minutes of the Broncos-Sharks game before Thompson arrived, claiming he had been held up in traffic.
He had even phoned the studios, asking if the game could be delayed.
Thompson was overlooked for the men’s Saturday games on Nine with Brenton Speed covering the match out of Melbourne and Peter Psaltis out of Townsville.
Buzz on Graham McNeice. I have never known a nicer, more genuine person in the sporting media. I first met “Shadow” when he was a taxi driver in the late 70s. He’d drop me home at Coogee via a late-night feed at the old Colonial Diner on Anzac Parade – and often shout if I’d done my money on the punt. RIP Shadow.
No one knows rugby league like Matty Johns and I’m always asking him if he would consider coaching: And his reply: “Thanks Buzz, appreciate that mate. I wouldn’t mind getting into coaching, but unfortunately no one can afford me.”