Business of Media
News Corp’s REA Group weighs big M&A bet: UK’s Rightmove on the radar
The AFR’s Street Talk yesterday reported REA Group boss Owen Wilson has been working with Deutsche Bank to scope out its target. Sources suggested the deal, could involve an overseas player.
The sources added there was no certainty REA would proceed with the transaction. Analysts suggested a deal of size, should it proceed, could require an equity raising.
REA shares were paused Monday morning, after Street Talk on Sunday asked the company if it was weighing a bid for London-listed Rightmove. The spokesperson reconfirmed the denial this morning, before announcing it on the ASX.
“We usually wouldn’t comment on these types of things but in this case I can categorically confirm we have not had and are not in discussions with rightmove [sic] nor anyone else in the UK,” REA executive manager, investor relations, Angus Urquhart told Street Talk on Sunday night.
The $28.9 billion REA is weighing the acquisition at a time when its financials are in rude health, and is being rewarded by sharemarket investors for it.
Also in The AFR:
• History says REA’s $9b UK bet is a risk. But here’s why it can work
• REA eyes global transformation with $9b Rightmove purchase
• REA statement about a potential acquisition
US TV dispute: Disney Channels, including ABC and ESPN, pulled from DirecTV
Disney finds itself at the centre of another major TV carriage dispute, with its channels now unavailable in millions of homes, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
This time, the company and the satellite TV giant DirecTV find themselves at odds, with a number of Disney channels including ABC and ESPN going dark for DirecTV customers.
The channels went dark shortly before the high-profile LSU-USC college football game and in the middle of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The NFL season kicks off in a week.
“The Walt Disney Co. is once again refusing any accountability to consumers, distribution partners, and now the American judicial system,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV, in a statement following the channels going black. “Disney is in the business of creating alternate realities, but this is the real world where we believe you earn your way and must answer for your own actions. They want to continue to chase maximum profits and dominant control at the expense of consumers – making it harder for them to select the shows and sports they want at a reasonable price.”
Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairmen of Disney Entertainment, and Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN put out their own statement, which reads, “DirecTV chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content just as we head into the final week of the U.S. Open and gear up for college football and the opening of the NFL season. While we’re open to offering DirecTV flexibility and terms which we’ve extended to other distributors, we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs. We invest significantly to deliver the No. 1 brands in entertainment, news and sports because that’s what our viewers expect and deserve. We urge DirecTV to do what’s in the best interest of their customers and finalize a deal that would immediately restore our programming.”
Google exec visits Australian policymakers, academics, and industry to discuss AI opportunity
Last week, I travelled to Australia to meet with policymakers, academics, and industry representatives to discuss how we can make the most of the AI opportunity, writes Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs, Google & Alphabet.
And what an opportunity it is: After a decade of progress, artificial intelligence burst into public consciousness. And the early chatbots barely scratch the surface of what is to come.
We are seeing AI’s potential to accelerate leaps in discovery–like Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold program predicting the shapes of nearly all proteins known to science, giving us the equivalent of nearly 400 million years of progress in a matter of weeks.
We also see where those breakthroughs can lead: More than two million researchers are using AlphaFold to advance biology research, including researchers in Australia who are, with the help of AlphaFold, examining early-onset Parkinson’s and paving the way for new treatments.
As we transition into this next phase of AI, public-private collaboration is one way we can ensure we’re making the most of this opportunity: It’s why Google and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have been working together to develop new tools for climate and data scientists, enabling them to do things like analyse the impact of climate change, pollution, and fishing on the Great Barrier Reef or measure how seagrass ecosystems absorb and sequester carbon.
At a visit to the Australian National University, I spoke about how Australia can accelerate AI progress.
I told the audience we can start by getting the regulation piece right with a three-pronged approach that’s balanced, aligned, and targeted.
Podcasting
Bronwyn Winfield podcast evidence sought by NSW Police
NSW police have made a broad request for material from the Bronwyn Winfield podcast following the chilling account of a new witness and a search of a tannin-stained lake for her body, reports The Australian’s David Murray.
Detective Inspector Nigel Warren from the Unsolved Homicide Team in August sought from The Australian “raw and unedited” video and audio recordings, documents, emails, text messages and other material connected to the Bronwyn podcast.
The disappearance and suspected murder in Lennox Head in May 1993 of Bronwyn, a mother of two young girls, is being examined in the investigative series by journalist Hedley Thomas.
Police requests for information are revealed in a new episode, released at the weekend ahead of the launch of a second series at the end of this month.
Listen to the Bronwyn podcast here.
See also: Hedley Thomas on Bronwyn, and doing ‘more good with this sort of journalism than most’
News Brands
PM’s media chief resigns in office shake-up
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s media chief, Brett Mason, has resigned, clearing the way for a refresh of the government’s messaging ahead of the next federal election, reports Nine Publishing’s James Massola.
This is the second time Albanese’s communications boss has changed in the government’s first term of office.
Mason’s exit comes just nine months after he took the job of media director following Liz Fitch’s resignation from the role in December and comes as the government’s standing in the polls continues to erode.
Mason is expected to be replaced by Fiona Sugden, who was former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s press secretary and is currently working in the Albanese communications team.
Before joining Labor, Mason, 40, had a long career with SBS World News, including nine years as a foreign correspondent based in London and then three years as chief political correspondent for the network in its Canberra office.
Nine News Canberra facility opens with new four-camera studio
Nine News recently opened its new remote-operated Parliament House studios, installing Sony ILME-FR7 PTZ cameras not traditionally used in studio television, reports TV Tonight.
The new four-camera studio has both fully remote production from Sydney and open-plan local control in Canberra. It also comprises production, news exchange and basic edit facilities and capabilities.
Nine now has the ability to have complete access to the studio in Canberra when needed and the ability to sit talent in a remote location, while doing all the production including audio/video, lighting and comms from Sydney.
Nine Chief Technology Officer Broadcast Operations David Bowers said, “This new studio is particularly effective for us as, by using the Sony FR7 cameras, we can remotely control all of the cameras and setup from Sydney. This is not only a very efficient workflow, but it also saved us a considerable amount of money when compared to a buying and installing full robotic setup.”
Radio
Kyle Sandilands calls Steve Price a ‘demented old loon’
Kyle Sandilands has blasted Steve Price, calling the broadcaster a “demented old loon”, reports News Corp’s Andrew Bucklow.
The KIIS FM host unleashed on Price on Monday’s radio show in response to a scathing opinion piece Price penned in News Corp papers over the weekend.
In the article, Price had a crack at Kyle and Jackie over “a degrading and grubby stunt” that aired on their radio show last week.
The stunt saw five female members of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, including Jackie, record themselves urinating.
The audio was then played to the male team members on air, and they had to guess which piece of audio belonged to each of the female team members.
More of the Kyle and Jackie O pile on here:
Hats off to Melbourne for flushing Kyle and Jackie O down the toilet
Television
MAFS star Mel Schilling gives health update amid cancer battle
Married At First Sight expert Mel Schilling has shared a positive update on her health as she prepares to begin filming the upcoming season, reports News Corp’s Bronte Coy.
Schilling took to Instagram with a video message for her more than 200,000 followers, in which she detailed how she’d been focusing on her recovery after being diagnosed with colon cancer late last year.
“So here I am in Sydney, Bondi to be specific. The gorgeous Bondi Beach and this is now my home for the next couple of months,” she said.
“Just had a gorgeous month with my family here in Australia. My hubby and daughter came out with me for the first month of my filming journey here, and they’ve just returned to the UK, so it’s very bittersweet.”
After receiving her diagnosis last year, Schilling underwent surgery and has recently completed her chemotherapy.
Sports Media
Eddie McGuire credits The Front Bar: ‘Magnificent part of the football tapestry’
Nine’s Eddie McGuire has acknowledged the success of rival AFL show The Front Bar, hosted by Mick Molloy, Sam Pang and Andy Maher, reports TV Tonight.
“Mick’s persona is old school, with a Front Bar vernacular, and he can do that,” he tells TV Tonight.
“I mean, if you did some of the gags that the guys do there in what I’ll say is a ‘normal’ type of footy show, people would go nuts.
“But it’s seen and understood that that’s the fun of it.”
McGuire, whose company JAM Media recently produced 30 years of The Footy Show, is particularly pleased with The Front Bar’s embrace of AFL greats.
“They interview past guys who come in and revel in the days of what old footy used to be,” he continued.