Nine Entertainment has revealed it has entered into an agreement with Tennis Australia for rights to all premium tennis played in Australia for the 2020 to 2024 seasons. Under the terms of this agreement, Nine has acquired the exclusive live rights (including free-to-air, subscription television, streaming, mobile and social media), together with extensive catch-up rights, to the Australian Open as well as the lead-up tournaments around Australia – the Hopman Cup and the Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart Internationals.
The annual cash cost over the five-year period is $60m.
Hugh Marks, CEO of Nine said, “We are very excited to have secured the rights to premium Australian tennis, particularly the Australian Open. The timing of tennis, and the audience demographics, are a perfect fit with Nine’s audiences and advertisers. We are impressed with Tennis Australia’s approach to further growing both its events, particularly the Australian Open, and the associated broadcast proposition in Australia, and are excited to be part of that future.”
The tennis deal was negotiated by Hugh Marks, Tom Malone, director of sport, Alexi Baker, director of strategy and corporate development, Rachel Launders, general counsel, and Sam Brennan, director of sales, Melbourne.
“This is a landmark deal for Tennis Australia and we are very excited to partner with the Nine Network for the next five years,” Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said.
“Four years ago, we brought the host broadcast for all our events in-house and this success has allowed us to unlock even more value in our domestic media rights. Our objective going into this process was a growth plan for exposure across the key planks of both tennis and non-tennis content, and the Nine offer best met these requirements. Nine’s commitment to additional tennis programming year-round was also aligned to our strategy.
“There are components within this new agreement that we believe will help us further grow our events and the sport of tennis.”
In a note to Nine staff after the tennis win, Tom Malone said the result was also a win for Wide World of Sports, and complements “Best Seat in the House” strategy alongside NRL, State of Origin, Netball and The Masters.
Malone added: “It does not mean we won’t continue to pursue cricket. We are still in a good position on cricket, and we still have a desire to secure rights to cricket at the right price and terms. As Hugh has said all along, we won’t be paying more money for sports rights, but we can afford to pay money for sports rights if it’s on terms that enable us to distribute and commercialise the content across all platforms.
“We also still have rights to the upcoming premium cricket events – 2019 ODI World Cup in England and both T20 World Cups in Australia in 2020, and we are the exclusive rights holder to the 2019 Ashes in England, which will mark the first time Steve Smith and David Warner will be eligible to play Test cricket again.”
Seven released this statement after losing the tennis rights:
“We have an incredibly long and proud history with Australian tennis. We have delivered so many milestones to grow the game.
“Seven was the first to deliver the game on multichannels, the first to live stream and the first to deliver every single match across the screens of Seven to every Australian, along with consistently innovating the broadcast on the way.
“Our strategy of delivering value for our shareholders and engagement for our clients remains firm. We build brands and we create success for our partners, and will continue to do so.
“But we have been consistent and steady in what we have said about the economics of sports rights – the deal has to make commercial sense or we will step away.”
“We wish Nine and everyone at Tennis Australia good luck.”
Photo: Nine’s CEO Hugh Marks with Tennis Australia president and chair Jayne Hrdlicka
The duo have been hosting the Talking Lifestyle breakfast show for 18 months and before that they hosted 2UE breakfast together. The program was initially heard only in Sydney and then went onto Macquarie Media-owned stations in Melbourne and Brisbane.
John Stanley will be staying on air at the new sports format and for the duration of the Commonwealth Games will be hosting a networked breakfast show with Tony Leonard and Beau Ryan. Leonard is currently part of the 3AW AFL commentary team and Ryan has been a guest breakfast presenter for KIIS Sydney, filling in for Kyle Sandilands, in addition to his role at Nine’s NRL Footy Show.
Further details of the new format are expected to be released today, the day before launch. There is speculation there could eventually be separate breakfast shows in different markets and then a networked offering across the remainder of the day and on weekends.
The owner of the Talking Lifestyle Network, Macquarie Media, which also operates 2GB and 3AW, has made the move to change the format of its AM network after continued poor ratings. Although the breakfast show was the most successful part of the Talking Lifestyle network, particularly in Sydney, it was not enough to sustain the business.
When Macquarie Media revealed its half-year financial results in February, it announced it was conducting a review into the format for the Talking Lifestyle stations and the decision was subsequently made to change to a sports format.
Although the three-station network – formerly Magic 1278 in Melbourne, 2UE 954 in Sydney and Magic 882 in Brisbane – was made up of two former relatively successful music stations, Macquarie Media is not able to broadcast a music station in Sydney up against its former 2CH, which it sold in 2017 after acquiring 2UE.
How bad were the Talking Lifestyle ratings?
Not great. The Talking LifeStyle format was introduced first in Sydney in 2016 and then went into Melbourne and Brisbane in early 2017, giving the brand an east coast capital city network.
Sydney returned the best radio figures throughout the bold audio experiment where sponsors were offered blocks of sponsored airtime to promote their products. Weekends in Sydney were on a share of 6.1% in survey one this year, thanks largely to the George and Paul breakfast show, which has subsequently been moved from 2UE to 2GB in the Sydney market, now running as a morning show from 9am until 1pm.
The weekday John Stanley and Garry Linnell breakfast program was the next-best performer with a share of 3.7% in Sydney. The daytime share was stuck on 1.8% for the morning and afternoon dayparts.
It was in Melbourne and Brisbane where the format really failed to fire with breakfast shares of 0.1% and 0.7% respectively.
John Stanley will be one of the broadcasters to remain with the new sports brand. The other broadcasters across the station have been farewelling listeners and the various experts as they make their final contributions. The various Talking Lifestyle dayparts have been hosted by the likes of Tim Webster, Ed Phillips, Peter Switzer, Nick Bennett & Kayley Harris, Rob Duckworth & Mieke Buchan and Clinton Maynard.
Tech guru Trevor Long hosted a weekday Talking Technology program at 8pm, which also wraps up this week. Long has recently launched a new EFTM podcast with colleagues from his EFTM website that is creating some buzz in audio circles.
By James Manning
Getty Images will upload more than 2,000 images per day to gettyimages.com.
This is Getty Images’ largest local team covering a Commonwealth Games ever.
In addition to covering the opening and closing ceremonies at Carrara Stadium, Getty Images will cover all 23 featured sports across 17 venues and will cover a session in every sport, every day of the Games.
Getty Images pioneered robotic camera technology at the 2012 London Olympics, capturing never-before-seen aerial and underwater views of great sporting moments.
Stuart Hannagan, vice president of Getty Images APAC, told Mediaweek that for the first time ever, Getty Images will be bringing this groundbreaking technology to Australia for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Getty Images has covered every Comm Games since 1982, and has one of the largest collections of archival Comm Games imagery at its Hulton Archive – dating back to the first event at Hamilton, Canada in 1930.
“This event is not just a big deal for Australia and England, but we have strong demand from major Commonwealth countries like New Zealand, Scotland, Canada and South Africa,” said Hannagan.
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This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here, or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.
By James Manning
Tracking change on the singles chart has been relatively easy this year, although not particularly fulfilling for those looking for new music.
After 14 ARIA charts so far this year, just two artists have made it to #1 – Ed Sheeran and Drake.
Ed Sheeran we get, but just quite why Drake has a lock on top spot for the past nine weeks is not quite so easy to understand.
One of the two new chart arrivals this week debuted in the top 10 while a big mover near the top was Lil Dicky f. Chris Brown with “Freaky Friday”, which was up from #18 to #5 in just its second week on the chart.
This week two singles made it into what is becoming something of a very exclusive club – the top 50 – although both debuts were from the same artist!
#9 “In My Blood” from Shawn Mendes – both Mendes tracks are from his forthcoming third album.
#27 “Lost In Japan” from Shawn Mendes
Another few tunes managed to slide into the top 50 from lower down the chart:
#56 to #38 “Delicate” from Taylor Swift
#63 to #44 “Lemon” from N.E.R.D
#68 to #46 “Nothing To Regret” from Robinson
Just two albums have topped the chart for 13 of the 14 weeks so far this year – Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” and the soundtrack album for the movie The Greatest Showman. And those two albums are still #1 and #2 respectively this week as we move into the fourth month of 2018.
Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” has topped the chart for 26 weeks moving it to fourth spot in the all-time chart topping rankings behind only Dire Straits (34 weeks for “Brothers In Arms”), Adele (32 weeks for “21”) and Delta Goodrem (29 weeks for “Innocent Eyes”).
The sole other #1 album this year was from Vance Joy with “Nation Of Two”.
Four new albums made it into the top 50 on debut this week:
#3 “I Hear A Song” from Dami Im
#7 “Staying At Tamara’s” from George Ezra
#9 “Country Heart” from The Wolfe Brothers
#11 “Boarding House Reach” from Jack White
By James Manning
The combination of a close finish in the Easter Monday Hawks v Cats AFL match and the end of daylight saving (plus a good news service!) has helped lift the metro news audience to 1.26m at 6pm.
Home and Away started the new week on 706,000 after an average of 613,000 last week.
The final of Australian Spartan did 447,000 with The X Games Sydney the winning team taking away $150,000. The victory is a nice cross-promotion for Seven with The X Games coming to town later this year when Seven will partner with ESPN.
The Resident then did 272,000.
A Current Affair did 824,000 after a week 13 average of 708,000.
Young Sheldon did 933,000 after two episodes last week averaged over 1m.
The Big Bang Theory then did 790,000.
Nine’s Monday movie Olympus Has Fallen followed with 389,000.
The late night footy show audiences were down – Footy Classified did 71,000 (Melbourne 37,000) and 100% Footy did close to 30,000 in Sydney.
The Project 7pm did 549,000 after a 7pm average of 432,000 last week.
Bachelor In Paradise attracted the channel’s biggest audience with 707,000 after 656,000 on Monday last week.
A Law & Order: SVU double followed with 364,000 for the new episode and 227,000 for the repeat.
The channel dropped its regular Monday schedule for Easter Monday. A special on the cricket cheating scandal called Caught Out did 636,000 at 7.30pm.
The crime drama Maigret followed with 520,000 after an 8.15pm start.
A repeat screening of A Lego Brickumentary attracted 197,000.
A repeat of the Tonya Harding doco The Price Of Gold then did 177,000.
MONDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 12.7% | 7 | 17.6% | 9 | 20.4% | TEN | 13.7% | SBS One | 5.0% |
ABC 2 | 2.1% | 7TWO | 4.8% | GO! | 2.4% | ONE | 3.1% | VICELAND | 1.9% |
ABC ME | 0.9% | 7mate | 3.2% | GEM | 2.4% | ELEVEN | 2.2% | Food Net | 0.9% |
ABC News | 1.5% | 7flix | 2.2% | 9Life | 2.5% | NITV | 0.4% | ||
TOTAL | 17.2% | 27.8% | 27.7% | 19.0% | 8.2% |
MONDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 12.3% | 7 | 19.6% | 9 | 19.0% | WIN | 9.4% | SBS One | 4.6% |
ABC 2 | 2.4% | 7TWO | 7.4% | GO! | 3.5% | ONE | 4.1% | VICELAND | 1.7% |
ABC ME | 1.1% | 7mate | 3.2% | GEM | 3.0% | ELEVEN | 2.2% | Food Net | 1.2% |
NEWS 24 | 1.2% | 7flix | 1.9% | 9Life | 2.0% | NITV | 0.3% | ||
TOTAL | 17.0% | 32.1% | 27.5% | 15.7% | 7.8% |
MONDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
83.3% | 16.7% |
Friday Top 5
Saturday Top 5
Sunday Top 5
Chris Jose and Fiona Cameron have been appointed as new full-time members and James Cameron has been reappointed as a full-time member.
Chapman is currently the head of regulatory affairs and corporate communications at Southern Cross Austereo. She brings extensive legal experience and a significant depth of experience from previous senior leadership roles at PBL, the Nine Network and News Corp. Chapman will commence her five-year term on June 11, 2018.
Jose and Fiona Cameron have been appointed as members for five years and James Cameron has been reappointed as a member for three years.
Jose has extensive experience in public administration and competition and consumer law, with a focus on telecommunications. He is currently a consultant on competition regulation and trade at Herbert Smith Freehills, having been a partner there for 15 years. He was also the principal regulatory adviser to the Papua New Guinea Government on major reforms to their information and communications technology sector. Jose will commence on May 1, 2018.
Fiona Cameron is currently the chief operating officer of Screen Australia. She brings a wealth of knowledge from her experience in executive roles within the communications industry, including in commercial radio and television, as a general manager of DMG Radio Australia and director of the Australian Film Television and Radio School. She will take up her role on July 23, 2018.
“Welcome Home” is a digital-first radio brand campaign and encourages multilingual Australians to feel at home wherever they are. Its key objectives are to build brand awareness for SBS Radio and to direct people to download the refreshed SBS Radio app.
• SBS Radio’s new schedule: Seven new languages join 68-language program
The campaign features SBS staffers from Punjabi, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, Cantonese and NITV programs. The word “home” features prominently throughout, in languages including Italian, Mandarin, Greek, Hindi, Somali and Samoan.
Acting SBS Chief Content Officer Mandi Wicks said: “SBS remains the world’s most linguistically diverse public broadcaster. The refreshed SBS Radio app provides audio content on demand and on the go to our listeners in 68 languages. Accessible anywhere, at any time on the device of their choice, the free SBS Radio app helps our audiences ‘feel at home’ wherever they are.”
Acting SBS Director of Marketing Jane Palfreyman said: “The concept of ‘Welcome Home’ signifies SBS’s commitment to providing Australian-focused content to multigenerational migrants as well as those having newly arrived in Australia.
“The campaign videos are produced in English and subtitled and produced in seven other languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hindi and Punjabi.”
The campaign will run across the SBS network (TV, radio, online) during April, supported by off-channel digital activity including pre-roll videos, promoted social activity and native content to drive digital engagement.
The chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which is in the early stages of an inquiry into digital platforms, said the public’s shock at the scandal confirmed what he already knew – that consumers are largely ignorant about the potential of social media giants and search engines to access and harvest their information.
“I’ve been in a presentation where an informed person said, ‘People know what Google and Facebook have on them and they don’t mind.’ I’m not sure I would have said that,” Sims told Guardian Australia.
The Brightcove video platform underpins the live and on-demand video experience on 7plus, ensuring a high quality viewing experience for Australians across devices including web, mobile, and the big Connected TV screen.
Seven is also leveraging Brightcove’s Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) technology to boost audience reach and engagement. SSAI allows ads to be seamlessly integrated into the video stream to a wide range of devices while ensuring premium content is kept secure.
Seven announced its Commonwealth Games coverage last week, which included a one-off $20 subscription for premium content and fewer ads.
Seven West Media’s Chief Digital Officer Clive Dickens said: “Brightcove has been critical in the development of the 7plus platform, providing not just the technical components to help run the product, but deep video expertise throughout the entire implementation process.
“As we scale to three million Monthly Active Audience by May 2018 Brightcove will continue to be a key pillar in the delivery of Seven’s video live and on-demand content.”
Brightcove Vice President ANZ Mark Stanton said: “We’re proud to be part of Seven West Media’s innovative new video 7plus platform. Our Brightcove Global Services (BGS) team worked closely with Seven to assist with a range of areas from the design, to the architecture and development of the 7plus platform and ensured a rapid delivery to market – taking just a few months to execute from concept to launching.
“We launched the local arm of our Global Services team last year and it has already had a massive impact on customer projects. Seven is at the beginning of a new video era and we look forward to working closely together to roll out its vision of becoming a leading total video company.”
Brightcove has been a long-term partner of Seven West Media powering video delivery for The West Australian, and Yahoo7’s PLUS7 platform, as well as working on major sporting events including 7Tennis (Australian Open) and the Melbourne Cup.
Chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette has seized the biggest sales haul on record for a Commonwealth Games as major partners including Optus, Toyota, Harvey Norman, Woolworths, Samsung, McDonald’s, AGL and Elastoplast invest in big, expensive events despite changes in media consumption habits.
Local partners include Griffith University, Blueprint Homes and Tourism Queensland. Optus, Toyota, Samsung and Harvey Norman are part of a six-week deal that began with Seven’s coverage of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics last month.
“We’ve sold out at a partner and sponsor level. It’s not just about a broadcast of 12 days, it’s about delivering a huge multiplatform audience spike from April 4 to April 15 across all screens including social and digital,” Burnette told The Australian.
The AFR’s Joe Aston reports from what he dubs the “wedding of the decade” – former Nine Network’s managing director Jeffrey Browne took Perth Rich Lister Rhonda Wyllie. Eddie McGuire was best man and guests included Nine director David Gyngell, the network’s news boss Darren Wick, Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delaney, former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel and Victorian Liberal elder John Calvert-Jones, wife Janet and daughter Penny Fowler, a Visy director and chair of Herald & Weekly Times, whose editorial director Peter Blunden was also present.
David Koch doesn’t sleep much not just because of the Sunrise early morning starts but because he has maintained a rich and productive life away from morning television: his many and varied public campaigns, chairmanship of Port Adelaide AFL club, charities, his finance columns for News Corp metro papers and his “family small business” Pinstripe Media, which specialises in personal finance and small business.
Why does he bother? His contract with Seven is said to be worth $1 million a year and it doesn’t seem as if the finance guy (he started life as an accountant) is any longer motivated by money. The answer is surprising.
“I’ve never trusted media for a living. I go in two-year contract cycles and I never assume my contract is being renewed.”
In an exclusive coup, newly engaged Ferguson chose Cosmopolitan Bride for her first bridal fashion shoot. In the issue, now on sale, Ferguson models gowns from Australian brands including Karen Willis Holmes, Paolo Sebastian, and Chosen by One Day Bridal.
As one of Australia’s most in-demand influencers, Ferguson’s engagement to Joel Patfull in December did not go unnoticed by fashion and beauty media or her 630,000 plus Instagram followers.
“As soon as we heard she was engaged we just knew she would make the perfect Cosmo Bride bride,” said editor Alexis Teasdale. “Not only does Elle shine in all of the gorgeous gowns, but we got the lowdown about her romantic proposal and the incredible engagement ring that her sister Lucie from BabyAnything designed. Both her fiancé Joel and sister appear in the fashion shoot, making it a true family affair!”
Ferguson has a long history with the Cosmo brand, taking out the Cosmopolitan Women Of The Year Social Media Star of the Year award in 2017.
“Shooting my cover for Cosmo Bride was an absolute dream,” said Ferguson. “I got to shoot with my sister and my soon-to-be husband Joel, and to top it off, I’m a Cosmo Bride! I’ve been buying the magazine for so long and now I hope to give inspiration to other brides-to-be. To say I’m grateful is an understatement because I’ll have these pictures for the rest of my life. The shoot will always hold a very special place in my heart.”
The April 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan Bride is the annual Real Wedding Special Issue, featuring 30 inspiring celebrations along with the Cosmo Bride Little White Book.
This is Anderson at his most introspective: when he speaks of being destroyed and embarrassed by the incident, one obtains a rare insight into the heartfelt humanity of one of Australia’s finest raconteurs.
In the hands of lesser comedians, this show, with its single-story focus, would be done and dusted in 15 minutes. Anderson artfully forges 75 minutes of insightful, nail-biting, gob-smacking, comedy gold from his airline mishap and its painful fallout.
“In TV we are always interested in certain things – news, sport, comedy, drama, and infotainment,” he said.
“I still believe that there is an occupiable space after 10pm and that is what I keep pitching. I believe there are ways to do that which are cost effective and highly entertaining.”
He said while he was pitching his own ideas, Seven had plenty of its own concepts in the works.
It was Easter Monday, 1958 when Philip Brady began working at Channel Nine in Melbourne. In the live-to-air interview on Easter Monday, 2018, Brady’s radio partner Simon Owens and radio historian Kevin Trask covered the amazing 60-year career of an Australian show business legend.
Brady detailed his years working on late-night TV at Nine with Graham Kennedy and also on his own Tonight show. Brady also hosted a daytime show called Everybody’s Talking. Brady even spent time at Nine presenting the weather, although he explained how he had worked for every TV network in Melbourne.
Brady also spent time as a gossip columnist, writing for the HWT publication Listener-In.
Listen to a podcast of the program here.
The organising committee of the Gold Coast games, GOLDOC, released a statement accusing “Channel 9 News” of broadcasting footage from rehearsals for the Opening Ceremony, filmed at the weekend.
The suspension comes just days before Wednesday’s Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.
“GOLDOC has informed Nine Network Australia that their GC2018 media accreditation has been suspended until further notice,” GOLDOC said in a statement.
Nine said it was now negotiating an end to the suspension.
“An error was made in our News last night,” a spokesman for the network said.
A Cricket Australia deal could be announced as soon as this week, sources said, as officials move fast to reach an agreement on a contract after its long-term partner, the Nine Network, lined up with Tennis Australia as part of a $300 million, five-year commitment.
Network Ten will make a new bid to broadcast cricket that seeks to bring in international matches to the free-to-air broadcaster as well as the Twenty20 Big Bash League, reports The AFR’s Max Mason.
Ten, which had its joint bid with Nine Entertainment rejected by Cricket Australia a little under two weeks ago, is eyeing off a renewed bid and now with its partner having locked up rights to Tennis Australia’s next broadcast deal, the CBS-owned broadcaster is hoping to add some international cricket to its sports portfolio.
“Obviously, we’d like to retain the rights or renew the rights,” CBS Studios International president Armando Nuñez told The Australian Financial Review.
“We’re in the midst of it right now, so really can’t speak too much in any sort of detail. Cricket Australia has been, through this process, very complimentary of Ten in terms of the incredible way Ten’s sport team has built the Big Bash League up over the last five years, and all the innovations and creativity and the way the sport is covered, covering the family aspect of the sport and the announcing crew, and the enthusiasm and passion that the Ten team has brought to that sport, they’ve been very complimentary to us, and it’s ongoing and we hope to retain those rights.”