By James Manning

Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) has launched the next wave of its Radio Alive campaign in its bid to convince business not currently using radio as a medium that it should get on board.

The campaign includes four radio ads created by radio and specialist audio agency Eardrum that use more than 15 different sound effects to tell the story, including the honking of a cruise ship, the rev of a sports car, an angelic choir and sauce squeezing from a bottle.

“Given the great interest in audio at present, it is a really good time to be reminding media buyers about the power of radio,” CRA chief executive Joan Warner told Mediaweek. “We see radio continuing to get around 7.5-8% of ad spend.

“Some people think we are lucky because we haven’t lost revenue like some others. We actually think because of our growing audience reach and the role cross-platform broadcasting is playing that we should do better than 8%.

“We need to keep ourselves in front of the media buyers in an amusing and interesting way, and using our own airwaves, to try to bring this about.

“Our members are very competitive broadcasters, but we do come together on a lot of things and this is one of them. We feel our influences far outweigh our share of the ad dollar.”

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By Kruti Joshi

Just days before Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was due to face the US Congress and as the tech giant alerts members who had their data misused by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook in Australia was trying to continue its work with publishers and the promotion of trusted content.

This year, Facebook wants to focus on promoting informative content, prioritising local news and working towards eliminating spam accounts and the distribution of fake news.

Facebook Australia hosted a breakfast on Friday April 6 at The Ivy in Sydney to talk about new tools and strategies it is working on to achieve the three goals. Just under 20 journalists, academics and internal Facebook employees were briefed by the organisation’s news partnerships lead for Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Hunter. The news partnerships leads for Central Europe and Indonesia, Guido Buelow and Alice Budisatrijo, were also present at the event.

Facebook’s breakfast at The Ivy

In his presentation, Hunter first addressed the changes to the news feed announced by Facebook in January 2018, which would give priority to updates from family and friends over public pages. “What does this mean for publishers?” he said. “News before January was contributing to about 5% of the news feed content – that will be reduced to about 4%.

“There is a lot of work we are doing to improve the content in the news feed. Even if the public content is reducing slightly, we are elevating the quality of that content.”

Facebook is working on improving the integrity of the content that is shared on the platform. One of the major steps the social media giant has taken to achieve this is to work with third-party factcheckers. A number of trials have been carried out in Southeast Asia. Budisatrijo explained to the room that if a piece of content is classified as spam or fake news by the third-party factcheckers, the circulation of that content on Facebook is reduced by 80%.

When asked why not stop the circulation of that content completely, Budisatrijo explained that content like opinion pieces may be classified as spam or fake by the third-party factcheckers, but they do not breach community standards. Therefore, it would be not right to remove that content completely. Facebook does not want to choose what content the users should and should not see, Hunter and Buelow added. That is a power it wants to keep with its users.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (credit: Shutterstock)

One way Facebook is helping users identify genuine news stories is via the breaking news tag, which appears on the bottom left-hand side of a post made by a publisher. The feature isn’t yet available to all Australian publishers, but Facebook is trialling the tag down under via partnerships with Fairfax, News Corp, Seven, Nine and ABC News to trial the tag.

Facebook also prioritises content from local publishers in the news feed, an update announced at the start of this year. The change was first rolled out in the US in January 2018. Explaining this change, the organisation wrote in a blog post: “We identify local publishers as those whose links are clicked on by readers in a tight geographic area. If a story is from a publisher in your area, and you either follow the publisher’s page or your friend shares a story from that outlet, it might show up higher in news feed.”

In November last year, the company began trialling subscriptions on the platform with about 10 publishers who are based in US and Europe. “Publishers have full control of the payment process and customer relationship, data and pricing,” Buelow said. “There were some initial challenges with Apple, which we have solved now. Since March 2018, we have been testing on iOS devices as well. We are quite confident that this is another step forward in supporting publishers and their business models as we do with any other business models like native advertising.”

Asked how Facebook will be earning from this, Buelow emphasised, “We don’t take any cut from the subscription cost.” As to when the subscription feature is likely to become available, Buelow said that more trials need to be done and he would not like to put a timeframe on this.

By Magazine Networks’ Brooke Hemphill

With one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world, it’s no surprise Australian magazine brands in the homes category bat above their weight. It’s a fitting analogy given Claire Bradley, associate publisher of Homes at NewsLifeMedia, calls property “our national sport”.

Claire Bradley is the associate publisher of Homes at NewsLifeMedia

According to the editors of titles in the space, at any point in time Australian homeowners are either renovating or planning a renovation. “They’re researching and they’re doing. Then they’re re-doing. They’re upsizing and they’re downsizing. We’re the bible to all of those processes,” says Lisa Green, editor-in-chief of Australian House & Garden.

From Australian House & Garden, Belle and Real Living, which are published by Bauer Media, to NewsLifeMedia’s Inside Out and Vogue Living, Pacific’s Better Homes & Gardens and Home Beautiful, there’s plenty of inspiration for people planning to update their personal spaces.

Home Beautiful editor Sarah Burman

Sarah Burman, editor of Home Beautiful, says her title’s point of difference is in the name. “We’re about home. Other magazines in the category are about houses. We’re about creating a place where you want to be, where your friends and family want to come, a place that’s just for you.”

Elsewhere across the landscape, with its focus on architecture, Bauer’s Belle appeals to a more niche audience, Real Living targets a younger, urban reader, while Better Homes & Gardens has a much more practical bent offering step-by-step how-to guides.

While the offerings have their own unique personalities, the sense of place remains a constant across the publications and is a major selling point for advertisers.

Better Homes and Gardens editor Julia Zaetta

Julia Zaetta, editor of Better Homes and Gardens, says, “Homes are where everything that matters happens. It’s where you rest. It’s where you build your relationships. It’s where you bring up your children. Your home is where you want the people who matter to you. It’s where you go when you want to seek refuge from the outside world. Why wouldn’t you want to be in that space if you were an advertiser?”

Engaged audiences

As readers turn to the trusted brands in the homes category for advice and inspiration, advertisers find a receptive audience as well.

In the case of Home Beautiful, for instance, readers spend around $10.3 million on furniture a month, $4 million on homewares and $35 million on electrical goods. Burman says: “We’re getting them in their research phase and that’s so important to anyone who’s trying to sell anything, from a fridge to a brand new home.”

This opportunity extends well beyond retail brands to life decisions opening up the space to any number of products including loan and mortgage providers. Bradley says: “When homeowners are making big renovation decisions, they’re also making other large lifestyle choices, so it’s important for advertisers to be a part of those conversations.”

The other factor homes titles have going for them is the amount of time readers spend with the brands. For example, Lisa Green says: “It’s not uncommon to hear readers spending two and a half hours a month with the magazine in their hands. It’s a pretty strong number.” This figure is a hefty increase on Magazine Networks research, which shows on average readers spend 1 hour and 17 minutes with a print magazine.

Zaetta says print offers readers something they can’t find online. She says: “When you go online, you’re looking for something specific. When you go to a magazine, you’re given a whole breadth of other ideas you didn’t even know you wanted. You’ll go looking for kitchens and you’ll find a million kitchens, but you’ll learn how to cook lemonade scones as well.”

The multiplatform experience

Digital is providing a number of unique opportunities for homes titles to extend their reach and widen audiences. Case in point is Home Beautiful’s multiplatform video project House to Home Beautiful, which has seen interior stylist Aimee and her builder husband Frank transform a house into their home. This project went some way to driving the 131% increase in traffic to the Home Beautiful website last year and the additional 1 million Facebook followers the brand has acquired during that period.

Despite the massive reader engagement with print, Green and the team at Australian House & Garden also think well beyond the page when it comes to content. She says, “We don’t just commission a print story now without thinking of the wider applications. We’re always looking with a 360˚ view at any piece of content and how we can make more of that across all of the platforms.”

Bauer has taken a unique approach to digital with content from all of the titles in the category falling under the Homes to Love umbrella. Fiorella Di Santo, Bauer Media’s General Manager Publishing – Fashion, Luxury, Food and Home, says the platform is a visual feast. She says: “What Homes to Love does is give you the ability to navigate the different types of magazines and the content they offer. There is lots of great video because video is important to this category and there are lots of galleries.”

Homes titles also connect seamlessly to more traditional mediums, in particular, television. Programs such as The Block are helping to drive readership while they provide talent that traverses all mediums.

Better Homes and Gardens is a prime example of a brand extending across channels. Editor-in-chief Zaetta says the magazine and the TV program it spawned work hand-in-hand. She says: “The magazine is our instruction booklet for all of the television segments. If they make something, cook something or plant something, we’re the backup to show you how to do it again. We call ourselves practical information with visual indulgence.”

Emerging homes trends

The same digital developments that are transforming the way readers consume content are changing the homes around them. Of all the trends the editors of Australia’s homes titles are seeing, the connected home is one of the most exciting.

Australian House & Garden has partnered with Mirvac for the My Ideal House project, which sees a tech-enabled sustainable home being built including sun and wind sensors to set blinds to open or close at a certain light level, or in response to changing weather conditions.

Home Beautiful’s Burman says of the trend: “The smart home idea is about how technology is changing your home: how you live in it and how you kit out your spaces to make your life easier.”

On a more practical level, the real estate market has led to an increased population of renters. For a title such as Home Beautiful with a readership skewing slightly older, a shift could be on the cards as millennials come of age. Burman says, “We’re still figuring out what effect that is going to have and how our readership is going to change when we are speaking to, potentially, a generation of renters as opposed to homeowners.”

Better Homes & Gardens is only too happy to help renters spruce up their homes. Zaetta says: “You can make your rental place as much a home as something you own. We’re highlighting that more in our titles, showing renters all the things they can do with their homes.”

The housing affordability crisis has also seen the rise of multigenerational homes, which has led to homes titles striving to innovate smaller spaces. Green says, “It plays into the whole share economy. People are looking for ways they can actually make more money out of their homes. I think the era of McMansions is coming to an end. People are more conscious of the size of houses, which is important for long-term sustainability.”

Whether they’re renting or sharing with extended families, it seems the love Australians have for their homes isn’t going anywhere, which suggests a sustainable future for homes titles. But it’s not just about renovating. Burman says: “Renovating is a means to an end. At the end of the day, it’s all about life ROI. People are investing in their homes so that they can live a better life. For us, that means creating a place that they want to be.”

Bradley adds: “We love helping our audiences harness the passion they have for their homes and give them all the inspiration and tools they need to achieve their dream properties.”

Television coverage at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games is led by NEP Host Broadcast with the support of production partners the Seven Network and Sunset+Vine.

GC2018 is the fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games Contract for NEP Australia (formerly Global Television) following Glasgow 2014, Delhi 2010 and Melbourne 2006.

GC 2018 Host Broadcaster responsibilities:

• 11 days of coverage plus the Opening and Closing ceremonies: April 4-15, 2018
• Approximately 1,340 hours of high definition live television coverage
• 1,600 hours of video archive material
• 17 venues (Gold Coast, Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville)
• 18 sports disciplines and a record seven para-sports events
• Daily media conference coverage
• Two daily highlights packages and edited previews
• Commonwealth Games channel
• Six long-form multichannels

The Host Broadcaster is also responsible for the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), which is the nexus of all Commonwealth Games broadcasting activity, handling incoming video and audio from the venues and distributing it to broadcast rights holders’ home countries.

The IBC, located at the Gold Coast Exhibition and Convention Centre (GCECC) at Broadbeach, will also manage outgoing worldwide transmissions from rights holders based on site.

GC 2018 Host Broadcast: People

• During Games time 1,450 broadcast technical and operational experts will work as part of the Host Broadcaster to deliver worldwide television coverage.

• 240 broadcast trainees working with the Host Broadcast Training Program will assist in delivering event coverage.

• 3,500 international media representatives will work from the IBC and venues to provide commentary and coverage to their home countries.

GC2018 Host Broadcast: Technical

• 25 outside broadcast vehicles and control rooms
• 325 High Definition cameras
• Two helicopters and one light plane with cameras
• Two lead vehicle, two boat-mounted and five motorbike-mounted cameras
• More than 140km of cable laid
• 121-week project schedule (February 2016-May 2018)

See below: NEP’s ultimate work experience gig at Gold Coast Comm Games (

By James Manning

A total of 240 students and recent graduates with their sights on television careers have begun their biggest real-life industry experience to date: working with the NEP Host Broadcast team to deliver the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Representing 10 Queensland universities and TAFEs, the Host Broadcast Training Program (HBTP) participants are in roles spanning the gamut of Host Broadcast operations: camera control unit (CCU), camera assist/cable hands, broadcast technical assistants, broadcast information assistants, runners, loggers, camera operators at media conferences and audio technicians. On average, trainees will work around 100 hours on the events, which started last week on April 4.

Host Broadcast information manager Faye Andrews showing Lily Mitchell the Games Info system

NEP Australia and the NEP Host Broadcast team have supported the training program, providing trainees with 12-18 months’ preparation that included NEP-led workshops on the Host Broadcaster’s responsibilities, training for specific operations roles, and attending NEP outside broadcasts of NRL, AFL, Cricket and A-League for hands-on participation in live event coverage under the supervision of NEP and skilled freelance staff on location.

Among the trainees is Griffith Film School Bachelor of Film and Screen Media Production student Lily Mitchell, who is working with NEP Host Broadcast at the Beach Volleyball at Coolangatta as a Broadcast Information Assistant.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Mitchell said. “I’m helping with accreditation, working with the commentators, making sure all the cameras are tagged and that people are in the right place at the right time.”

On location at the beach volleyball: Host Broadcast director Greg Breakall explaining the Mixed Zone in preparation for Beach Volleyball with Mitchell

Despite a degenerative eye condition that impairs her sight, Lily is well on her way to a television and film career.

“I love the adrenalin rush of producing live TV and sports broadcasts, and the GC2018 traineeship is the perfect opportunity to combine my passion for film and broadcasting with my love of sport,” she said.

NEP Host Broadcast’s head of broadcast training Gerry O’Leary added: “The Host Broadcast Training Program (HBTP) is all about helping young people embarking on their careers to know about the interesting and challenging world of live broadcasting, the changes that are occurring, and how their skills as enthusiastic adopters of technology will provide the opportunities they seek.

“I am so proud of the passion with which our Host Broadcast team has embraced the training program, the collaboration and support our university and TAFE partners have extended, and most of all to see our up-and-coming colleagues rise to the challenge of delivering Gold Coast 2018.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to know we are enriching the local skills base, promoting gender equality in the broadcast technical industry, and that the Host Broadcast Training Program will leave a lasting, positive legacy from the Games.”

More information at:

www.nephb.com

www.nephb.com/Student

www.gc2018.com/

Top photo: Mitchell with her GC2018 accreditation

• Peter Rabbit moves back to #1 as total earn hits $15m

With Easter now but a memory, box office revenues cooled after the holiday break, yet they still remain stronger than across the four weekends prior to Easter.

The four-day weekend gross was $14.35m, down 17% from Easter.

There was just one new release in the top five this week and two in the top 10.

#1 Peter Rabbit $2.90m

Takings were down 26% from Easter as the movie held on just over 400 screens with its screen average dipping from $9,600 to $7,100. After three weekends in cinemas, and a strong preview weekend, total revenue is close to $15m.

#2 Ready Player One $2.55m

A second weekend saw ticket sales weaken 35% as the number of screens showing the movie dropped 76 to 404. Screen average was $6,332 with a gross to-date of $8.73m.

#3 A Quiet Place $2.42m

We love a scary movie in the top five and this US horror outing is directed by John Krasinski, who also stars alongside his real-life wife Emily Blunt. Opening on 282 screens, the movie had the weekend’s best screen average of $8,588.

#4 Blockers $1.73m

The last of the four movies to trade over $1m on the weekend, Blockers has been on the chart for two weeks with revenue down 34%. Screen average was just under $5,000 from 349 screens with a gross of $6.85m.

#5 Love, Simon $915,000

Second weekend here too for this movie with 225 screens and a screen average a touch over $4,000. Total earn so far is $3.5m.

By James Manning

Seven

Seven has pulled its biggest competition crowds of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games so far with over 1.3m watching both Monday night sessions and many highlights from the pool and the track keeping viewers entertained.

Although we will probably never hear about subscriber numbers, the paid app should have been working overtime last night with Aussie teams competing in a number of sports not able to be covered in full on the “live and free” coverage.

Commonwealth Games on Seven

April 4: Opening Ceremony 2.0m, Primetime primary share 43.8%

April 5: Night 1 1.23m/1.16m, Afternoon 554k, Day 418k, Primetime primary share 33.0%

April 6: Night 2 1.01/1.09m, Late night 566k, Afternoon 468k, Primetime primary share 30.7%

April 7: Night 3 979/973k, Late night 499k, Afternoon 583k, Day 471k, Primetime primary share 32.3%

April 8: Night 4 1.24/1.24m, Afternoon 710k, Day 482k, Late night 466k, Primetime primary share 31.4%

April 9: Night 5 1.33/1.45m, Late 539k, Afternoon 458k, Day 321k, Primetime primary share 29.2%

Nine

A Current Affair Monday did 746,000 after a week 14 average of 721,000.

Episode 5 of Young Sheldon had the biggest entertainment audience with 767,000 after the episodes screened last week prior to the Comm Games averaged 916,000.

The Big Bang Theory then did 656,000.

The 2008 James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace was on 356,000.

TEN

The Project 7pm was on 490,000 after a week 14 average of 449,000. Features included coverage of Steve Price’s theatrical debut.

Bachelor In Paradise was on 673,000, which was down a little from 707,000 on a Comm Games-free Monday last week.

Two episodes of Law & Order: SVU then did 292,000 and 197,000.

ABC

Australian Story was on 553,000 followed by Four Corners with its partnership with Fairfax Media looking at ATO investigations with 627,000 watching.

Media Watch then did 521,000 with Q&A on 315,000.

SBS

Leonardo: The Man Who Saved Science was on 247,000 at 7.30pm.

The two episodes of The Bomb then averaged 150,000.