Television
Neighbours star Ian Smith reveals he has terminal cancer
Longtime Neighbours star Ian Smith has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, The Daily Telegraph’s Angus Dalton, reports.
The 86-year-old actor, best known for playing Harold Bishop on the show, revealed the news in an interview with Channel 10 on Monday evening.
“I found out a few months back that I have cancer. That I have a very aggressive, non-fixable cancer … they expect me to die,” he said.
Footage of Smith’s farewell to his cast and crewmates on one of his last days on the Neighbours set showed the actor in tears paying tribute to the show.
“I’ve had the most privileged life … we didn’t just make a soap, we made the best bloody soap there was to make. I have met the most beautiful people,” Smith said.
Next year, broadcasters bold plans for reality TV
Two decades ago, in its heyday, more than a million people watched Big Brother, following 20 rowdy contestants over some 200 individual episodes, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
The 2005 finale was watched by 2.2 million people. The winners, brother Greg and David Mathew, were awarded $836,000
By the time two Gold Coast influencers, Tay & Ari Wilcoxson, won last year, a little over 150,000 people tuned in. The grand prize? $100,000.
Big Brother disappeared from screens this year and very nearly went the way of Beauty and the Geek, where socially awkward men work with beautiful women to win prizes, and The Biggest Loser, a show where overweight contestants try to shed as many kilos as possible.
But Network Ten, its home for eight seasons from 2001, has decided to give Big Brother another go.
The head of content and programming at Ten owner Paramount, Daniel Monaghan, promises to “inject a sense of authenticity” back into the show.
The A stands for ‘Activist’: ABC slammed for climate campaigning
Public broadcaster the ABC has been accused of energy activism in its reporting – collecting more than $1bn in taxpayer money and then siding with activists, The Daily Telegraph’s Matthew Benns, reports.
The accusation of bias comes after the ABC’s flagship Four Corners program featured controversial footage of a protest outside the West Australian home of Woodside Energy boss Meg O’Neill last year.
A distressed Ms O’Neill said at the time it was not “a harmless protest” but was “designed to threaten me, my partner and our daughter in our home”.
The ABC at first refused to confirm that the film crew was from Four Corners and denied it had advance warning before later backtracking and conceding the crew did have some knowledge of what was about to happen.
Newsbrands
Is media mogul Rupert Murdoch set for a summer holiday in Australia?
It’s been some years since media baron Rupert Murdoch has visited Australia but that may change over the summer, reports SMH’s Anne Hyland.
The talk in well-placed circles is that Murdoch, with wife number five Elena Zhukova in tow, is planning a visit, after failing to make a much-anticipated trip earlier this year for the 60th anniversary of The Australian newspaper.
News Corp’s New York media team did not respond to a request to confirm if the 93-year-old chairman emeritus of News and Fox Corporation would be visiting.
Murdoch, who has sold about $US48 million ($74 million) in Fox shares this month, has endured a year of highs and lows, personally and professionally. A holiday with family in Australia may provide some respite before he fortifies himself for next year, which is promising to be equally troublesome.
Business of Media
Meta tightens ad rules to curb financial scams aimed at Australians
Instagram and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab said on Monday it had introduced stricter rules for advertisers of financial products and services targeting Australians, in a bid to crack down on scams on the social media platforms, reports Reuters.
The move comes after Meta in October said it took down 8,000 so-called “celeb bait” ads, as part of an effort with Australian banks to curb the scams that use images of famous people to trick consumers into giving money to fake investment schemes.
Advertisers will now be required to verify their beneficiary and payer information, including their Australian Financial Services License number before they can run financial services advertisements, Meta said.
“The introduction of financial advertiser verification is an important additional step towards protecting people in Australia from these sophisticated scammers, Meta ANZ managing director Will Easton said in a statement.
From pumping gas to Elon Musk’s boss: Inside Robyn Denholm’s rise to the top
Victoria Denholm recalls her mother, Robyn, saying that they might be in a position to start a family office. It came as a surprise to Victoria. She always knew mum was successful, “but like, you know, never really had the gravity of how successful”.
She wasn’t alone in underestimating Robyn Denholm, who had leapfrogged from soccer mum/swimming mum/basketball mum to chair of one of the most consequential companies in the world, Tesla, and as such, being the boss of one of its most consequential individuals, Elon Musk. And here Denholm was, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing to her children, Victoria and Matt, that they had this “opportunity”. They were going to the next level.
Denholm was in the process of making US$280 million ($426 million) from the sale of Tesla options in 2021 and 2022. On top of this, she owned more Tesla stock, making her, during Tesla’s Nasdaq zenith in November 2021, an Australian-dollar billionaire. It was, she would tell a Delaware court, “life-changing”.
Ad campaign comparing Peter Dutton to Donald Trump sees Climate 200’s donations surge by $380k
Climate 200 has reported a surge in first-time donors in November off the back of a donation-matching campaign comparing the Coalition and opposition leader Peter Dutton to the politics of Donald Trump, reports The Guardian Australia’s Paul Karp.
The funding aggregator claims to have raised $377,000 from 3,900 donations including 1,373 people who donated to it for the first time, the biggest wave of first-time supporters since it was launched in 2021.
Meta’s ad library reveals that the result was driven by a pledge to double donations given in the days after Trump’s US election victory, with ads linking the Coalition to Trump on issues including access to abortion and questioning its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.
When some in the Coalition raised the issue of abortion, Dutton said there would be no change in the opposition’s policy.
Climate 200 raised $13m from 11,200 donors ahead of the 2022 election, helping to elect six new independent MPs and senator David Pocock and to re-elect MP Zali Steggall.
Streaming
Keira Knightley’s spy thriller ticks so many boxes
Black Doves is the British spy thriller I didn’t know I needed. That’s because as well as being a story about covert spooks, it’s also a melancholic examination of desire’s hold, a body count banger with John Wick vibes, a ticking clock geopolitical drama, a farcical comedy of English manners, and a meditative dialogue about the killer’s creed. There’s probably another element or two I missed, but every time Ben Whishaw’s triggerman greeted Keira Knightley’s undercover operative with a “hello, darling!” I stopped keeping count, The Age’s Craig Mathieson, reports.
Yes, that’s quintessential English rose Keira Knightley and the voice of Paddington Bear, Ben Whishaw. The casting of this six-part series is unconventional and to the credit of all involved it’s the narrative that changes shape, not the stars. After a tension-filled cold-open, where a trio of Londoners connected by an unknown thread is done away with, Black Doves takes shape around survival and vengeance. But from the second episode on, it keeps opening unexpected new fronts. This caper is eclectic to the point of recklessness.
Radio
‘It’s a sad moment’: Another Sydney radio presenter departs ABC
Another high profile radio personality has announced that they too won’t be heard on ABC Radio Sydney next year, creating the greatest line up upheaval in the radio station’s history, The Daily Telegraph’s Brenden Wood, reports.
Listener favourite Robbie Buck told the ABC audience that after almost three decades at the organisation he was ending his time as a full time broadcaster.
“It’s a sad moment, I’ve got to say”, Buck told his audience.
“I’m stepping back from the ABC somewhat, which is a big move for me. I have been here over 28 years as a constant employee, and it’s been such a privilege to have been a part of this organisation.
“I am hoping to still have a toe in the water here on the airwaves, and so I’m hoping to pop up from time to time, but it just seems like it’s the right time for me to step back.”
In a statement to The Daily Telegraph, Buck said his time at the ABC had been a “glorious ride” and added he felt “extremely lucky” to have held so many roles at the broadcaster.
“I feel extremely lucky to have enjoyed the many roles and to build a connection to the country’s greatest audience: the ABC audience. I look forward to new adventures ahead,” he said.