Business of Media
Financial manoeuvring shows Foxtel machinations as News considers sale
Foxtel has spent at least $79 million launching its new Hubbl TV platform, while its majority owner, News Corp Australia, has suffered a 9 per cent drop in advertising revenue, accounts for the two biggest Murdoch family-controlled media businesses in Australia reveal, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
The accounts show Foxtel had a good year for advertising. It reported revenue of $2.9 billion in the 2024 financial year, which was made up of $2.5 billion from subscribers, $360 million in advertising and $46 million from agency and installation fees.
Despite a wider television advertising market downturn that has stripped $650 million from free-to-air broadcasters over the past two years, Foxtel’s ad business rose 6 per cent from $339 million. Adding advertising to Binge, the company’s streaming service, last year may have helped. As at the end of June this year, Foxtel said it had 4.8 million total subscribers across pay TV and streaming, which was broadly in line with the previous year.
The advertising slowdown impacted News Corp Australia, however, which owns news mastheads The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and news.com.au. It posted $1.5 billion in revenue in the 2024 financial year, down from $1.6 billion in 2023, its filings reveal.
Domain boss Jason Pellegrino to depart as Nine considers its future
The chief executive of Australia’s second-largest property sales platform, Domain, will step down after six years in the role and an uphill battle to reel in REA Group, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Jason Pellegrino (pictured above) joined Domain in August 2018 after a decade as managing director of tech giant Google’s Australian operations. He took over the platform nine months after its then-owner Fairfax Media took it public, and after former journalist turned real estate entrepreneur Antony Catalano’s sudden departure.
Over the past five years, Domain’s value has fallen 4.7 per cent while REA has more than doubled. Domain is 60 per cent owned by Nine Entertainment, which merged with Fairfax in late 2018 (and owns The Australian Financial Review).
Since January this year, REA has grown by more than 23 per cent to a market capitalisation of $30 billion, while Domain has fallen 9.6 per cent to $2 billion over the same time. This is despite Domain announcing $264 million in acquisitions over the past three years.
News Brands
Nine’s TV news boss Fiona Dear ‘angry’ she had to clean up ‘someone else’s shit’ after exit of Darren Wick
Journalists within Channel 9’s TV newsrooms have expressed outrage at claims by network’s news boss Fiona Dear that she was “angered” by the rotten workplace culture that developed under her disgraced predecessor Darren Wick, amid allegations Dear herself was complicit in the mistreatment of staff, report The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth and James Madden.
Several Nine employees spoke to The Australian on Wednesday after an interview with Dear was published in a report by the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia, on the subject of gender bias.
In that interview, Dear repeatedly said she was “angry” after taking over from Wick in May.
“I was angry myself. I worked in the newsroom in that period (under Wick),” she said. “I was angry. I was angry as a woman who worked in that environment at that time.
“I was angry that I was given this opportunity and had to clean up someone else’s shit. This sounds selfish but I was angry.”
Telegraph journalists honoured for crime, social media coverage
The Daily Telegraph’s investigation into the alleged murders of two Sydney men by a police officer and reporters’ contributions to a nationwide push to protect young children from social media have been honoured with prestigious News Awards celebrating the best of Australian journalism, reports the Sydney news brand.
This week, crime and investigation reporters Mark Morri, Josh Hanrahan and Clementine Cuneo were awarded the Scoop of the Year for their work breaking the news that a serving NSW police officer was wanted by his colleagues in the force for the murder of two Sydney men in the inner city suburb of Paddington.
Their coverage earlier won Scoop of the Year at the Kennedy Awards in August.
The Sunday Telegraph columnist Peta Credlin won Best Specialist for her revelations that the Uluru statement was longer and had more attachments than pro-voice referendum activists had let on.
Social Media
Australia’s top TikTok stars revealed as nominees for content creator of the year announced
These young Aussies have been nominated as 2024 TikTok content creators of the year and they are tackling misconceptions of what it means to be an influencer, reports News Corp’s Zara Powell.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s winner Indy Clinton, the nominees include Bridey Drake (3.2 million followers), Maddy Mcrae (1.8 million), Jojo ASMR (4.2 million), Elle Ray (642.1K), Josh and Matt Design (3.3 million).
“A pretty common misconception is that it’s a really easy job, and that we just get up and film a cute video and that’s it,” Maddy McRae told Confidential.
“We work really hard on creating really engaging content, high quality content, staying up to date with trends, making sure that we’re posting consistently, staying engaged with our communities, and replying to our followers.”
Television
Bondi Rescue star charged with domestic violence offences
Lifeguard and star of reality series Bondi Rescue Andrew Reid is facing domestic violence charges over a series of alleged assaults in northern Sydney, reports Nine Publishing’s Clare Sibthorpe.
The 45-year-old, known as “Reidy” on the hit show, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of common assault (DV) which allegedly occurred in November 2022 and January this year at Chatswood.
He also faces one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (DV), dated March 24 at Chatswood. A fourth domestic violence charge was dismissed.
All allegations relate to the same woman, who is listed as a protected person in an apprehended domestic violence order against Reid.
Reid, who has featured on Bondi Rescue since 2006, made headlines in April when he rushed to help injured people following the Bondi Junction attack in which six people died.
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‘Not that kind of show’: Alice Zaslavsky wants to shake up perfectionist TV cooking
There are two words that ABC News Breakfast food correspondent Alice Zaslavsky will never use when talking about her expert subject: “healthy” and “naughty”. So committed is she to changing the language around what we eat, when she cooks a pumpkin lasagne for fellow ABC broadcaster Sammy J on her “chop and chat” series, A Bite To Eat with Alice, she simply calls the dish a “lasagne”, and doesn’t even mention the fact that her guest is vegetarian, reports Nine Publishing’s Bridget McManus.
“Australian tastes are changing,” says Zaslavsky, aka “Alice in Frames” to her online followers, and to MasterChef Australia fans the bespectacled young woman who, in 2012’s season four, famously relinquished her immunity pin to save a fellow contestant.
The 50-episode series follows a familiar format: celebrities (including Pia Miranda, Colin Lane, Anthony Callea, Josh Thomas, Dilruk Jayasinha and Stephanie Alexander) enter a studio kitchen with one favourite ingredient. They also bring a mild food hang-up for Zaslavsky to address. The mood is light. Mistakes and mess are celebrated.
Aussie film by Unless Pictures, Every Cloud Productions and ACTF winner in Cannes awards
Stan 2023 movie Windcatcher has been awarded at the MIPCOM Diversify Awards, reports TV Tonight.
The film by Unless Pictures and Every Cloud Productions and represented by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation won in the category Representation of Diversity in Kids Programming – Older Children.
It was the only Australian titled nominated.
Behind the Scenes Impact Award winner:
Banijay Entertainment for its Banijay Launch initiative, a global accelerator program that discovers and empowers emerging female creators and pairs them with Banijay’s global network of creatives with the aim of helping them develop bold new formats.