Business of Media
Principals back social media ban but won’t give up YouTube
Top Australian educators have backed moves to clamp down on social media use among children, but say YouTube should still be allowed in the classroom as a teaching tool, reports The AFR’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
The Albanese government has declared it will legislate a minimum age of 16 to use social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, a move that has alarmed YouTubers but been welcomed by public health advocates.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland on Thursday morning said Snapchat, which publicly states it is used by 80 per cent of 13- to 24-year-olds in Australia, may argue it is a messaging service rather than a social media company. “Snapchat under the Online Safety Act, depending on how it’s defined, could fall within that definition,” she told 2GB host Ben Fordham.
Disney World: Company paints a rosy picture for coming years
The Walt Disney Company rarely provides guidance about what investors can expect in future earnings. On Thursday, however, the entertainment giant shared growth expectations with investors — not just for 2025, but also for 2026 and 2027, reports The New York Times.
Entertainment streaming, for instance, will generate roughly US$1 billion in operating profit in 2025, up from $143 million this year, Disney said. Total per-share earnings will increase by “double digit” percentages in 2026 and 2027, compared with the previous years, in part because of new cruise ships and theme park expansions.
“We’ve got visibility,” Hugh F. Johnston, Disney’s chief financial officer, said. Investors responded favorably, driving up shares roughly 7 percent in morning trading, to over $110.
Disney has desperately needed a new story line on Wall Street: Shares have languished, even amid a broader market upturn, in large part because of uncertainty, something investors loathe, about the company’s future.
Disney earnings powered by streaming and the movie Deadpool & Wolverine
The Walt Disney Co. ended its fiscal 2024 on a high note, thanks in large part to its theatrical film division and growth in streaming, even as its ESPN and experiences businesses dragged down net income slightly compared to a year earlier, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
The growth was driven by entertainment, where revenues were up by 14 percent to $10.8 billion, with segment operating income surging by more than 100 percent to $1.07 billion. The company had both Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2 in the quarter, a pair of massive theatrical hits.
And streaming improved its profitability, with operating income of $321 million between the company’s direct-to-consumer offerings. Disney+, meanwhile, added more than four million “core” subscribers, and now has more than 120 million core subs. Revenue in DTC was $5.8 billion.
The Onion buys Infowars, Alex Jones’s site, out of bankruptcy
The Onion, a satirical publication that skewers newsmakers and current events, said on Thursday that it had won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Infowars, a website founded and operated by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, reports The New York Times.
The Onion said that the bid was sanctioned by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun violence that was founded in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, will advertise on a relaunched version of the site under The Onion.
The publication plans to reintroduce Infowars in January as a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” like Jones who traffic in misinformation and health supplements, Ben Collins, the chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in an interview.
News Brands
SMH editorial: ‘Media campaigns can be a force for good. This one by News Corp is a disgrace.’
The advent of another Donald Trump administration has united most politicians in the hope the friendship between Australia and the United States remains strong, but the unhinged furore surrounding our ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, suggests the former prime minister is a clear and present danger to the bilateral relationship, starts the Friday editorial ion The Sydney Morning Herald.
After quitting parliament in 2013, Rudd, who trained as a diplomat, made critical remarks on Twitter about two American citizens: “Donald Trump is a traitor to the West. Murdoch was Trump’s biggest backer. And (Rupert) Murdoch’s Fox Television backs Putin, too. What rancid treachery.”
Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Rudd as co-chair of the Australians for a Murdoch Royal Commission group when Rudd went to Washington, attacked Murdoch’s acolytes: “This is revenge … this is a campaign that News Corp kicked off, and they are running a vendetta … The question for the Trump adulators in the right-wing media ecosystem in Australia is whether they want our representative in Washington to stand up for Australia, or join the ranks of the Trump sycophants.”
Turnbull is right. News Corp has been running hard on this for months, ramping up a sense of crisis to the point where it has created one. Media campaigns can be a force for good. This one by News Corp is a disgrace.
Media ‘vital’ but should not sway judges: Federal Court justice
Judges must refrain from bowing to “knee-jerk” criticism that comes in the wake of unpopular decision-making, a Federal Court judge says, while acknowledging the “vital” role of the press when issues are not sufficiently addressed by the justice system, reports The Australian’s Ellie Dudley.
In delivering the Sir Francis Burton oration last month, judge Katrina Banks-Smith noted the “all-important freedom of the press” but said judges should be wary that reports might become increasingly marred by “sensationalism and distortion” because of increased pressure on media companies.
She said while there was “no reason” why judges couldn’t “look to informed public debate in the media as a general source of information about matters of public concern”, they must be careful not to “be influenced by the media in relation to any case before them”.
“Furthermore, they must be assiduously careful to preserve the integrity of any proceedings, criminal or civil, that are before them,” she said.
Her comments come amid debate between Federal Court judges regarding the role of the media in court proceedings, and discussions around the meaning of open justice.
Fears for local news diversity if rightwing startup buys SCA regional TV network
Diversity of local news may be at risk if a rightwing startup, ADH TV, is given the green light to purchase Southern Cross Austereo’s regional television network, an expert has warned, reports Guardian Australia’s Amanda Meade.
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has confirmed it has received an offer from the fringe streaming news channel to buy its 93 regional free-to-air TV stations. The digital broadcaster, which is chaired by the former ABC chair Maurice Newman, was launched in December 2021 with the former 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones at the helm.
“SCA continues to actively progress with the sale of its regional television assets and is in active negotiations with several parties with an interest in acquiring those assets,” an SCA spokesperson told Guardian Australia.
The Australian Digital Holdings co-founder Jack Bulfin confirmed “a robust and compelling offer” had been made, but said he had yet to receive a response.
“Revenue is still strong for free-to-air regional television, despite the pressures of the times, and with improved cost-controls and investment in key markets, the group sees a good future for the licences and improved TV services for the regions,” Bulfin said.
Matthew Ricketson, a professor of communication at Deakin University, said independent local journalism must be free of political and commercial interests.
“We already know that the provision of locally gathered and reported news and current affairs in regional and rural Australia is stretched almost to breaking point,” Ricketson said.
Radio
Can Bob Murphy and Sharnelle Vella help turn around the fortunes of ABC Radio Melbourne?
Sharnelle Vella has spent the past week telling people she was leaving Channel Seven News to become host of The Golden Bachelor. In truth, she is headed to ABC Radio Melbourne, where she will co-host Breakfast with Bob Murphy from January, taking over from the departing Sammy J, reports Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn.
While she’s not really off to a matchmaking program, there are those at the ABC who have already dubbed Vella, 36, and former Western Bulldogs captain Murphy, 42, “the unlikely couple”.
ABC management hopes it’s a Melbourne pairing that comes to life. Breakfast and Mornings are the bedrocks of radio, and while COVID-19 gave 774 a huge boost as people tuned in for crucial updates, as the air of crisis moved on, so did many listeners.
Sydney’s unlikely new radio king, Ugly Phil O’Neil
In a surprising ratings upset, Ugly Phil has dethroned 2GB heavyweight Ray Hadley, becoming Sydney’s new top morning host on WSFM and marking the first time in decades that Hadley has been beaten in his timeslot, report News Corp’s William Tyson and Jonathon Moran.
Phil O’Neil, who built his radio career across Australia and the UK, quietly clinched the victory with a 12.7 per cent share, nudging past Hadley’s 11.1 per cent and SmoothFM’s 11.2 per cent.
“It’s like I’ve always said in my radio career, if it’s lying around on the floor broken in pieces, don’t fix it,” O’Neil told Confidential, making light of the fickle industry.
“All I ever wanted to do when I was a kid was be on radio, since I was 17 years of age. So I still get as much fun doing it now as I did way back then when I did my first ever radio show back in 1980.”
O’Neil’s journey in radio began in the 1990s, where he hosted the Hot30 Countdown and later held prime slots on stations like Nova 969 and Triple M.
Departing ABC radio star mocks Sandilands over ratings win
Melbourne radio presenter Sammy J has poked fun at Kyle Sandilands lack of popularity on the city’s airwaves, reports News Corp’s Joshua Haigh.
Sammy J, who recently announced his departure from ABC, has been hosting the broadcaster’s breakfast show since before the pandemic.
On Thursday, Sammy took to social media to reveal that his morning show had once again beaten The Kyle and Jackie O Show’s ratings in Melbourne.
“I beat Kyle again in my final ratings today,” teased Sammy J on Twitter in response to the news. “So I’ll forever live rent free in his head. I’m his white whale; his tormentor; the last face he sees at night and first face he sees each morning. When he strolls on the beach at night, the wind will whisper Sammy J’.”
Television
Lilley reveals surprise career change: Wildlife YouTuber
Australian comedian Chris Lilley appears to have undergone quite the career change in recent months, reports News Corp’s Joshua Haigh.
Lilley, who has been out of the spotlight in recent years and is best known for his show Summer Heights High, doesn’t have any current TV projects in the pipeline.
And, at least for the time being, it seems like his TV comedy days are behind him.
Instead, he’s embarked on a new career as a YouTuber and seems intent on following in the footsteps of fellow Aussie wildlife star Rob Irwin.
Over the last six months, Lilley has turned his back on comedy, and instead has been sharing videos of his many wildlife encounters while travelling around Australia.