CEO Andrew Penn said the changes, effective from October 1, 2018, were an important step in delivering its Telstra 2022 (T22) strategy.
“Last month I announced the T22 strategy to the market and today I am making further announcements on Telstra’s structure and leadership to ensure we deliver rapidly and effectively on all of the commitments we made to our customers, the market and our team,” said Penn.
“At the heart of these changes is the simplification of our products and services built on new technology. By mid-next year we will have fully rolled out our market-leading products and services. To help deliver these changes, we are announcing a new end-to-end products and technology division of Telstra. It means we will significantly increase our technical capabilities around product development and management.
“The changes I am announcing today will ensure we continue to deliver market-leading innovation in networks and support the build-out of 5G and Internet of Things.
“Ultimately the simplified and streamlined structure will remove duplication, hierarchy and silos across the organisation. It will help us improve the service that we provide to our customers, the efficiency of the business and our competitiveness, as well as increase our productivity and reduce costs,” said Penn.
Telstra’s new structure and the Group Executive team:
• Product & Technology will drive an integrated product and technology roadmap for all of Telstra to deliver innovative and simple product experiences that lead the market and drive profitable growth. An external appointment has been made for this group executive role and the person will be announced shortly.
• Michael Ebeid joins Telstra to run the Enterprise team servicing Australian and international business and government customers with market-leading solutions and services. Ebeid will start at Telstra on October 8.
Telstra has also announced four senior leaders will leave Telstra: Warwick Bray, Stephen Elop, Will Irving and Joe Pollard.
Joe Pollard joined Telstra in 2014 initially as group managing director marketing and media before becoming chief marketing officer and group executive media the following year. She has been instrumental in evolving Telstra’s brand and the experience provided to customers including through the Brand 3.0 work. Pollard has also been responsible for building Telstra’s extensive portfolio of digitally enabled media assets. She will leave Telstra on August 30.
By James Manning
During that time the company has expanded its channel reach in Australia and New Zealand and moved from output deals with specific broadcasters to selling content to all major players in the markets. The NBCUniversal International channels offered to consumers in the two markets include Universal TV, Syfy, E!, 13th Street, Bravo (NZ) and Style.
“It’s flown by,” Taylor told Mediaweek about his time with the company.
When we spoke with Taylor he wasn’t long back from the 2018 LA screenings where he was excited by what he called an incredibly diverse NBCUniversal slate. The screenings are an annual event for TV buyers to sample new product ahead of the new US TV season.
This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here, or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.
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Top Photo: Chris Taylor
By James Manning
• Nine’s merger with Fairfax: A Mediaweek Q&A session on Australia’s biggest-ever media deal
“There is a lot of work to be done between now and early December when the merged entity is expected to be approved,” Stephenson told Mediaweek.
“At that point in time things will really kick into gear.”
As to what the combined sales offer might involve, Stephenson said it was too early to go into detail. He did say: “At Nine we have focused on helping brands to tell their stories through great content. And also help them targeting audiences at scale based on a better understanding of who those audiences are. That is why our data proposition is so important.
“The opportunities that a merged entity brings see us with some of Australia’s greatest content brands in combination with Australia’s largest data proposition, all powered with great technology.
“That allows you to create marketing platforms for brands, which is incredibly exciting.
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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 Kruti Joshi
Apart from news and features, the new digital destination will have e-commerce content as well as peer-to-peer product reviews and expert advice.
The relaunch came has a response of an internal research, which showed that trust in “bloggers and celebrities was waning. They [the readers] were more interested in the decisions and reviews from other mums,” new editor Frances Sheen told Mediaweek.
The new online home of Practical Parenting will follow the template used by another Pacific brand, BEAUTYcrew. Since launching in 2016, the website focused on all things beauty and had more than 28,000 reviews and recommendations for about 5,000 products that can be shopped for on the website.
At launch, Practical Parenting will have 1,300-1,500 products available for purchase online.
Users of Practical Parenting can review these products or recommend new ones. The team behind the brand won’t be removing negative comments, but will keep a close eye on the section to moderate language and get suggestions of how the offering can be constantly improved.
Sheen explained: “One of the great things about BEAUTYcrew is that if a product gets overwhelmingly negative response, they go to the manufacturer to give them the right to reply. Likewise, we will be printing the negative reviews [and doing what BEAUTYcrew does].”
The new e-commerce aspect of Practical Parenting is an important part of its business model. “It’s a new world for us. We will be following it very closely,” Sheen said. She is realistic about the success that the new website will have with its audience at launch.
“We will be looking at things like the number of people visiting the site and how many people buy products. We won’t know [how successful] it is for a while though. It will take time for us to get all that data back. We want a lot of reviews about the products on offer – I won’t put a number to it.”
Sheen said: “A lot of the readers are first-time mums, who are looking for reassurance and advice. However, the website caters for everyone – from first-time mums to parents with pre-teens.”
Mediaweek spoke to Sheen on the Friday before the new website went live: “It’s an exciting and a nerve-racking time.”
Prior to joining Practical Parenting, Sheen was the editor of Pacific Magazines’ weekly entertainment title New Idea. After nearly eight years in the job, which she said “is an awfully long time in the world of weekly magazines”, Sheen quit at the beginning of 2018. As a mother of two young children, she saw Practical Parenting as the next right move in her career. “I wanted to do something different and get off the news cycle for a while,” she said. While she won’t be completely out of the news cycle, it isn’t a main focus at Practical where there are many new parts of the business.
On how the additions will impact her role as editor, Sheen said: “If you are working as an editor of a weekly magazine now, you are not just the editor of the magazine, but the brand. That is exactly what this is like.”
By James Manning
Last week he told us about his stripper career and getting nude, but today we are on safer turf.
However, Taylor admitted that after The Real Full Monty role, he would like to try his hand at another reality series if the opportunity arose. “That may come at some stage. I have no idea what that might be, but I am ready for a new challenge at some stage.”
Taylor said the highlight of his current role at Seven is working with Bruce McAvaney. “He is just a ripper. It is like having a full-time coach when you work with Bruce. I am always trying to make myself better. He is a joy to work with and it has made football different for me.”
—
This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here, or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.
In what Network Ten is promising will be a Survivor season like no other, 12 Australians will go into battle with 12 achievers from different backgrounds when Australian Survivor: Champions Versus Contenders premieres at 7.30pm on Wednesday 1 August on TEN and WIN Network.
Isolated in the tropical region of Savusavu for up to 50 days, the two tribes will face off against each other in challenges of strength, endurance and wit in an effort to become the Sole Survivor.
The Champions, people who have achieved excellence in their fields, will be applying their steel determination to a whole new game while The Contenders, the ultimate underdogs, will be using their strengths and knowledge of the game to take the big guys down.
Adding a solid string to the bow of the Champions is veteran Survivor competitor Russell Hantz. Known as one of the greatest villains in the game, Hantz is keen to show the Aussies how it’s done.
On joining Australian Survivor, Russell said: “I have no choice in this. I have to win. I have to prove to everyone that I can do it and I have to prove to myself that I am as good as people say I am.”
The full list of Castaways for Australian Survivor this year:
•Brian, 36 VIC: Former AFL Legend
•Damien, 36 NSW: Ex-Special Forces Commando
•Jackie, 44 VIC: World Series Poker Player
•Lydia, 36 VIC: Olympic Freestyle Skier
•Mat, 42 QLD: Dual Code Football Legend
•Moana, 30 VIC: Women’s AFL Player
•Monika, 27 NSW: Miss Universe Australia 2015
•Russell, 45, USA: Survivor USA Player
•Samuel, 26, QLD: Astrophysicist.
•Shane, 61, TAS: Olympic Swimming Legend
•Sharn, 41, VIC: Criminal Barrister
•Steve, 41, NSW: Fitness Specialist
•Anita, 50 QLD: Sales Rep
•Benji, 26 VIC: Entrepreneur
•Fenella, 33 VIC: Interior Designer
•Heath, 33 QLD: Builder
•Jenna, 28 WA: FIFO Worker
•Matt, 35 QLD: Traffic Police Officer
•Paige, 24 SA: Marketing Coordinator
•Robbie, 26 SA: Construction Manager
•Shonee, 26 QLD: Pro Skater’s Wife
•Steve, 58 NSW: Takeaway Delivery Rider
•Tegan, 32, WA: Management Consultant
•Zach, 39, WA: Personal Trainer
VOZ brings together OzTAM TV ratings and OzTAM VPM connected-device viewing data to deliver an all-screen, de-duplicated picture of what Australians are watching, who is watching, and how they are watching (Total TV).
VOZ will incorporate viewing on 7 million connected devices plus minute-by-minute actual viewing behaviour of more than 12,000 individuals, 24/7/365, in OzTAM TV panel homes.
Conceived and being developed in Australia by OzTAM in conjunction with Nielsen, VOZ will be securely stored in the cloud and progressively roll out from the first quarter of 2019.
VOZ will crystalise Australia’s Total TV picture:
• Advertisers and media agencies will be able to create media plans encompassing TV inventory across all broadcast channels and devices, and manage cross-screen campaigns – including overall audience reach goals. They will also be able to overlay other datasets on top of VOZ to support advanced audience targeting.
• TV networks can determine the incremental reach from viewing on connected devices, and optimise their inventory across all markets, platforms and devices.
• The media industry gains an objective, independent, consistent and transparent metric by which to evaluate the performance of TV content across all screens and platforms.
OzTAM CEO Doug Peiffer said: “There are 1.8 TV sets but a total of 6.6 screens, on average, in Australian households, and people are using them to watch television throughout the day – inside and outside the home. Primetime is now any time and OzTAM is building VOZ to report Total TV viewing.
“We’re proud to be working with Nielsen on this world-leading development. The positive feedback we’re receiving from media agencies, advertisers and broadcasters as we present VOZ indicates we’re meeting a significant industry need.”
Nielsen’s head of TV audience measurement David Ellem said this next stage in TV audience measurement is a significant one. “Nielsen is laser-focused on bringing to the Australian market the very best total audience measurement solutions available in the world. Delivering VOZ will enable this market to better understand audience targets across and between all devices, as well as provide the opportunity for advanced audience targeting for TV.”
OzTAM and Nielsen have for the past 18 months been developing, building and testing the components needed to deliver VOZ, including:
• Increasing the number of households in OzTAM’s TV ratings panel by 50% in 2017, to make OzTAM TV ratings even more robust as Australia’s population grows and people spread their viewing across many more devices and channels.
Every day, OzTAM samples the actual viewing behaviour of more than 12,000 individuals, minute-by-minute, 24/7/365. Together, OzTAM and Regional TAM’s panels make Australia the world’s largest per capita people metered market.
• Building out OzTAM’s Video Player Measurement (VPM) service, which provides minute-by-minute data on 7 million connected devices streaming participating broadcasters’ (currently ABC, Seven Network, Nine Network, Network Ten, SBS and Foxtel) TV content across all platforms and devices.
• Introducing demographics into OzTAM’s VPM Report – on track for delivery before the end of 2018.
• Installing streaming TV meters in approximately 1,300 TV panel homes, to provide valuable insights into cross-platform viewing by household members; enhance demographic modelling of device-based viewing on household connected devices, which is collected by OzTAM’s VPM service; de-duplicate and identify linked device use; and deliver greater perspective on how people use their TV sets for purposes other than watching live or playing back linear television within 28 days of original broadcast.
• Constructing the data handling, processing and production infrastructure to support VOZ.
• OzTAM is briefing media agencies, advertisers and broadcasters on VOZ, listening to their feedback, and will communicate further developments to market as VOZ progressively rolls out from Q1 2019.
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Top photo: OzTAM CEO Doug Peiffer
The AFL last week entered into an agreement with Crocmedia to acquire the AFL Publications business responsible for the AFL Record publication from season 2019 onwards.
Crocmedia will produce all weekly match-day magazine content, including the AFL match day Record, AFLW publications, the AFL Season Guide, JLT Community Series, AFLX, International Rules Series, along with the AFL Finals and Toyota AFL Grand Final editions of the Record.
Crocmedia’s move into sports publishing comes after the closure of Inside Football magazine, which was published by the owners of 1116 SEN before it was taken over by Crocmedia earlier this year.
The AFL Record has been the official match program for more than 100 years. Since Essendon won the premiership in the Record’s inaugural year of 1912, it has continued to inform and entertain fans from generation to generation.
AFL general manager commercial Kylie Rogers said the agreement will ensure the AFL Record remains a core part of the match-day experience for footy fans.
“The AFL Record is an essential part of the experience of attending a footy match.
“Crocmedia is a leader in content production and publishing. It will ensure the AFL Record continues to evolve, grow and succeed,” Rogers said.
Having considered a number of opportunities, including a range of external options, the AFL has accepted a bid by Crocmedia based on its aspiration to ensure the AFL Record remains a key part of the game day experience.
“Crocmedia’s tender for this much-loved magazine was exceptional. They respect the heritage of being able to mark the goals down next to your favourite player, paired with a strong vision for its future innovation and national reach.
“We look forward to seeing the AFL Record remain an essential part of match day and where Crocmedia will take it,” Rogers added.
Crocmedia CEO Craig Hutchison (pictured) said the acquisition represented a key strategic opportunity to deepen Crocmedia’s AFL association.
“The AFL Record is one of the oldest magazines in Australia so it’s a great privilege to become its custodian into the future.
“It complements our broader suite of AFL assets including our flagship AFL Nation game-day call and allows us exciting opportunities to integrate our brand partners across multiple touchpoints to connect with footy fans.”
“We have aspirations to grow the Record’s reach while honouring its iconic past. We’ll continue to ensure that footy fans get all the insight, team stats, match previews and exclusive features that they’ve come to know and love – and that it remains a much-loved part of our footy fabric,” he added.
The AFL Record has been produced by AFL Media for the last seven years, having previously been licensed to Slattery Publishing.
The AFL Record will continue to be produced by AFL Media until the Toyota AFL Grand Final edition in 2018.
National newspapers reported positive growth in direct ad revenue for the second consecutive quarter, up 5.5% to $5.7 million in Q2, building on the growth seen since Q2, 2016. Digital ad revenues from news websites grew 10.8% in Q2 to $135 million, with the largest growth evident in the programmatic market, up 52% to $33.4 million.
Media agency ad spend for metropolitan newspapers was down 1.8%. Total metro newspaper sector (including direct advertiser spend) was down 2.9%.
Australia’s news media sector remains the third largest media sector by ad revenue, reporting $2 billion for the full 2018 financial year.
The industry’s decline has almost halved in the past quarter, with total news media ad spend back -3.7% in Q2 to $494.4 million, compared to -7.3% in the first quarter. This is well below the latest SMI agency-only ad spend data, which showed a decline in print spend of 14.1% in Q1. Its figures are also expected to moderate in the Q2 period.
Direct ad spend now accounts for 55% of all news media advertising, which highlights the difference between the agency and direct ad revenue markets, although the media agency sector has significantly improved.
The total agency spending on news media declined by 7.2% in Q2, but the total newspaper decline was less, at 4.8%. Agency spending on print display was back just 3.4% and spending on catalogue inserts declined by only 1%. Total spending on inserts grew 7.3% this quarter to $17.7 million.
NewsMediaWorks CEO Peter Miller said: “The News Media Index Q2 numbers are encouraging to say the least. They indicate a long-awaited review by agencies of media investment priorities. Advertisers have in all likelihood been asking the hard questions about why they are spending big dollars to reach millions of bots on non-news websites.
“The sales operations of the news media companies deserve great credit. They are talking to advertisers directly about the power of newspapers and the value of premium websites, while investing heavily in their online presence. And they are doing excellent work developing strategic proposals for advertisers across print, digital and video and producing top-class branded content.
“All of this is creating a perfect storm of the very best kind. Further improvements lie ahead. The renaissance of the most trusted media channel for content and ads is well under way.”
SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe said: “The story of this data release really is the stabilisation of media agency spending to news media, and in particular the print products. For example, the NMI is reporting a 7.3% increase in agency bookings to Melbourne metropolitan mastheads and static agency spending for the Brisbane and Tasmanian mastheads.”
The monthly SMI data reports agency only revenue. Meanwhile, the quarterly News Media Index reports all print and digital ad revenue to Australia’s largest news media publishers from both agencies and direct advertisers and is independently verified by SMI.
By James Manning
This should be a simple report this week.
No new entries cracked the top 50 this week.
Drake is #1 again with In My Feelings. Although this tune is only in its second week on top, Drake has led the chart for a total of 15 weeks this year.
And just two tunes snuck into the top 50 for the first time from further down the chart. They were:
#52 to #32 The Reubens with Never Ever featuring Sarah
#54 to #48 Bebe Rexha with I’m A Mess
Just days after her triumphant performances at Splendour, MTV Unplugged and the Nova Red Room, Amy Shark’s I Said Hi has slipped out of the top 10 to #15 after 15 weeks on the chart.
It is quiet time on the album chart too this week.
P!nk has replaced Adam Brand in the top 10 with the country crooner dropping from #6 to #18 for his second week on the chart with Milestones… 20 Years.
P!nk has two albums in the top 10 as she tours Australia – the four times platinum Beautiful Trauma at #7 and the nine times platinum Greatest Hits… So Far at #10.
After conquering the box office last weekend, the soundtrack to Mama Mia! Here We Go Again has climbed from #4 to #1 to be one of the few albums this year to get to #1 without debuting as a chart-topper. The only other album not to debut at #1 this year and managed to later assume the position was Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys.
Last week’s leader, Amy Shark’s Love Monster, has dropped from #1 to #4.
Only one album managed to debut inside the top 50:
#40 The Internet with Hive Mind
By Luke Reilly, Games Editor, IGN Australia
This week’s Australian charts are largely dominated by older releases, from Nintendo’s acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild (a game that won an armful of Game of the Year awards in 2017) to the all-conquering Grand Theft Auto V (which today is the third highest-selling video game of all time).
The appearance of Bethesda’s Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus at the top of the list is interesting considering the game’s age and its nature as a single-player only experience, but it’s a best-in-class shooter and appears to be still finding an audience. The persistence of Nintendo’s niche turn-based role-playing game Octopath Traveler in the charts, despite a drop from last week, is also a handy demonstration of the popularity of the Nintendo Switch in Australia.
One important note is that this chart only indicates what’s going on in retail and doesn’t factor in digital sales (digital downloads exceeded physical console and portable software sales in Australia in 2017 by approximately $366 million). This naturally means successful digital games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and the free-to-play Fortnite are not reflected in these charts.
By James Manning
The Seven Productions special event The Real Full Monty was the most-watched show after the Seven and Nine news bulletins last night. The program, which promised much and delivered most of it, averaged over 1m viewers in metro markets, which might leave programmers optimistic there is still an audience for a well-produced one-off event on Sunday nights.
Sunday Night followed with under 600,000 watching, but the program can boast it did out-rate 60 Minutes.
The final of the Australian Ninja Warrior semifinals screened in the final week of the show. It was the biggest audience yet for the second year of Ninja Warrior with 974,000 watching. All of the Sunday episodes have made it above 900,000, but none has yet to crack 1m. With two grand final episodes left this season tonight and tomorrow, reaching 1m might be a challenge given season finals of Seven’s House Rules and TEN’s MasterChef on successive nights.
60 Minutes followed with a smallish 561,000 watching, although it was up on lat week’s 533,000.
A Bondi Rescue repeat was filling the 6pm timeslot last night with 227,000 watching.
The Sunday Project then started on 249,000 and climbed to 409,000 after 7pm. That was up on last week’s 7pm Sunday audience of 374,000.
The usual Thursday MasterChef elimination moved to Sunday last night followed by the final Masterclass of the season. Surprisingly one of the most crucial elimination challenges of the season took place on a floating barge moving around Sydney harbour. The bobbing vessel didn’t agree with 19-year-old Jess Liemantara and she was eliminated, missing out on the final three. She and her two colleagues Ben and Sashi had to present dishes to the judges plus guest chefs Jock Zonfrillo from Orana, Danielle Alvarez from Fred’s, Lennox Hastie from Firedoor and Ross Lusted from The Bridge Room. With the guest judges split down the middle between eliminating Jess and Sashi, it came down to the judges, and with too many elements that did not work, it was Jess who was sent home, narrowly missing out on her place in the semifinal. The audience of 872,000 was up from 854,000 a week ago.
The final MasterClass of the season then did 800,000, which was the biggest of the season and up 150,000 from the previous Masterclass in week 29.
Grand Designs New Zealand did 484,000.
Jack Irish was then on 611,000 after 684,000 the week prior.
The final episode of SBS World News did 222,000 but deserved more. It was, however, the channel’s biggest audience last night. The reason for the crowd was the final bulletin from Lee Lin Chin, who noted last night as she farewell her social media audience: “30 years, it goes by rather fast. Goodbye.” Among the well-wishers was outgoing SBS boss Michael Ebeid, who stopped by the newsroom before the bulletin went to air last night. The bulletin ended with a Lee Lin Chin reel with highlights and bloopers across the past 30 years.
Also screening last night was Ewan and Colin McGregor: RAF at 100 with 189,000 watching.
First Civilisations did 185,000.
The late night final stage of the Tour de France did 84,000. That brings to an end three massive events exclusive to SBS over the past three months – Eurovision, World Cup and the bike race.
Coming soon though is the start of the Premier League season on August 11.
FRIDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 11.6% | 7 | 23.3% | 9 | 16.4% | TEN | 9.6% | SBS One | 7.2% |
ABC 2 | 3.2% | 7TWO | 3.9% | GO! | 3.6% | ONE | 3.2% | VICELAND | 1.4% |
ABC ME | 0.7% | 7mate | 5.6% | GEM | 1.6% | ELEVEN | 2.0% | Food Net | 0.8% |
ABC NEWS | 1.8% | 7flix | 1.8% | 9Life | 2.2% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 17.3% | 34.7% | 23.8% | 14.8% | 9.4% |
SATURDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.9% | 7 | 21.6% | 9 | 16.3% | TEN | 6.3% | SBS One | 6.5% |
ABC 2 | 3.3% | 7TWO | 3.6% | GO! | 3.7% | ONE | 2.9% | VICELAND | 1.1% |
ABC ME | 0.7% | 7mate | 5.3% | GEM | 4.9% | ELEVEN | 2.3% | Food Net | 1.3% |
ABC NEWS | 4.7% | 7flix | 2.3% | 9Life | 2.3% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 19.5% | 32.7% | 27.1% | 11.6% | 9.1% |
SUNDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.6% | 7 | 23.7% | 9 | 20.8% | TEN | 13.0% | SBS One | 5.2% |
ABC 2 | 2.1% | 7TWO | 2.8% | GO! | 3.6% | ONE | 1.7% | VICELAND | 0.7% |
ABC ME | 0.6% | 7mate | 5.1% | GEM | 2.5% | ELEVEN | 2.1% | Food Net | 0.5% |
ABC NEWS | 1.1% | 7flix | 2.1% | 9Life | 1.8% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
TOTAL | 14.3% | 33.7% | 28.7% | 16.7% | 6.5% |
SUNDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 11.6% | 7 | 25.0% | 9 | 20.5% | WIN | 8.5% | SBS One | 5.1% |
ABC 2 | 2.3% | 7TWO | 4.1% | GO! | 2.9% | ONE | 1.5% | VICELAND | 0.6% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 5.4% | GEM | 4.8% | ELEVEN | 1.6% | Food Net | 0.5% |
ABC NEWS | 1.2% | 7flix | 1.6% | 9Life | 1.6% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 16.1% | 36.1% | 29.8% | 11.6% | 6.3% |
SUNDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
85.6% | 14.4% |
Friday Top 10
Saturday Top 10
Shares all people, 6pm-midnight, Overnight (Live and AsLive), Audience numbers FTA metro, Sub TV national
Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM 2018. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM
While advertising in newspapers continues to rapidly decline, free-to-air TV is bucking the trend, with major corporations saying it still makes up a critical part of their marketing strategy.
Standard Media Index figures for 2017 revealed that advertising spend across newspapers was down 22.3% and 20.8% for magazines, while television avoided the landslide, slipping only 0.7% across the calendar year. The Australian Financial Review was the only paper in 2017 to grow print advertising revenue, and print and digital readership were up 15% and 40% respectively.
While advertising in newspapers continues to rapidly decline, free-to-air TV is bucking the trend, with major corporations saying it still makes up a critical part of their marketing strategy.
Standard Media Index figures for 2017 revealed that advertising spend across newspapers was down 22.3% and 20.8% for magazines, while television avoided the landslide, slipping only 0.7% across the calendar year. The Australian Financial Review was the only paper in 2017 to grow print advertising revenue, and print and digital readership were up 15% and 40% respectively.
Both companies’ investors gave their blessings to the $US71.3 billion ($96 billion) transaction in separate votes at the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan on Friday. It’s expected to close in the first half of next year, according to Fox. Upon completion, a new Fox will emerge focused on broadcast TV, sports and the Fox News Channel.
Neither of the two companies’ leaders made an appearance. Fewer than 70 people showed for the Fox meeting, which was run by general counsel Gerson Zweifach. Chief financial officer John Nallen, one of the main architects of the deal, was also on hand. One shareholder read an ode to Fox’s executive chairman. “Nobody does it like Rupert Murdoch,” he said. “I love Rupert Murdoch.”
Nine CEO Hugh Marks is already reported to be considering offloading non-growth and non-core assets, including Fairfax’s regional media and New Zealand business units. Will his gaze go further?
While the future of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age appear tied to Domain, is the new Nine board likely to consider spinning off the Financial Review?
“It’s obviously the end of an era. It’s sad in a lot of ways there will be no Fairfax name in the company any more,” he told The Australian in an exclusive interview from his home in Annapolis, Maryland.
“But while it is sad, I get the economics of it. It’s been tough for newspapers all over the world and it’s hard to be sustainable.
“On a personal level, the family company dates from 1841 when John Fairfax bought the Sydney Herald and will be sad not having the Fairfax name associated with it. Change is inevitable – it doesn’t mean you have to like it.”
Australian fund manager Legg Mason Martin Currie said it was not convinced by the price implied by Nine’s pitch given the value of Fairfax’s assets, including real estate listing business Domain.
“It’s unclear that it’s a very strong price, from a Fairfax point of view, given they are getting control of Domain,” Legg Mason chief investment officer Reece Birtles told The Weekend Australian.
“There is clearly transparent listed value of the assets inside Fairfax and it doesn’t look like a very high price compared to the valuation you can put on those other assets.”
Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page said consolidation in the industry was inevitable and predicted the Nine-Fairfax deal was the beginning of mergers in the sector.
“Consolidation will mean advertisers will be able to get cheaper ad rates,” she said.
“I want the industry to become more competitive as it allows it to offer more competitive advertising rates.
“Consolidation is an evolution which happens in every industry from time to time, and now it’s the media’s turn.”
Few who have criticised [the Nine-Fairfax] proposed merger have been able to enlighten me with a viable alternative. It is certainly far preferable to the private equity deals that swirled around Fairfax little more than a year ago. The motives of those organisations would have been radically different to those being pursued under this proposed scenario. The Nine deal, therefore, is the “least-worst” way to – at the very least – buy another precious few years for proprietors to figure out an ultimately sustainable way to perform “at-scale” journalism… and fight the Google, Amazon, and Facebook behemoths.
Of course, it is devastating the Fairfax name will no longer be associated with Australian journalism. But a far sadder outcome would have been Fairfax’s collapse altogether, and a subsequent massacre of its journalistic ranks that would make recent cuts look modest. This is an inconvenient truth that is almost always overlooked by Fairfax’s conga line of critics.
Omnicom Media Group’s Australia and New Zealand chief executive Peter Horgan said Nine would need to ensure that its proposed merger with Fairfax Media did not impinge of the quality of the output from publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review.
“The culture of journalistic excellence within what was Fairfax and will be part of Nine should be jealously protected,” he said on Sunday, warning against any temptation to try to merge newsrooms.
“A television journalist is a very different thing to a newspaper journalist and journalism skills are specific to channels.”
IPG Mediabrands chief executive Danny Bass said a market without the editorial strength of the Fairfax mastheads would be “much, much poorer for brands” with research showing time and again advertisements around trusted news were well received by audiences.
Hewitt will host and report for the Channel 9 series, which is set to also star Today Extra’s Sonia Kruger, veteran broadcaster Ray Martin, Melbourne fashionista Lauren Phillips and weatherman Steve Jacobs.
Hello World will air 4.30pm, Sunday, from October 7 on Nine.
The property in Grey St, which is currently used as backpackers accommodation, will be transformed into five luxury, three-storey, four-bedroom dwellings should the plans, lodged with the council on July 16, be approved.
Each home would feature a ground floor lounge that opens onto a terrace, along with a courtyard and garage.
The Oslo was purchased for an estimated $11.8 million by a company linked to Channel 9 earlier this month.
The company, Micjoy, is the same one used by The Block previously to purchase the Regent St site in Elsternwick for $9.4 million that was the basis for the 2017 series and the Gatwick Hotel in St Kilda for $10 million that is the location for this year’s eagerly anticipated series.
On a mission of “taking the fun of KIIS 1065 directly to listeners, wherever they are in Sydney’s suburbs”, Sandilands personally oversaw the launch of the new-look KIIS 1065 Thunderbirds – playing a part in everything from choosing the cars and the design, through to today’s launch.
The co-host of the Kyle and Jackie O Show said: “I remember before I was even in radio one of the great loves of mine was to hear on the radio where the Thunders were because it was a way I could touch someone from the radio station rather than just hearing them.
“It seems so simple but I just loved it. This is a rebirth of old, great radio where we take ourselves to the listeners. It’s going to be brilliant.”
The new KIIS 1065 Thunderbirds are hitting the streets of Sydney from today.
The series, by national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas and producer Slade Gibson, is delving into the 1982 disappearance and suspected murder of Sydney mother Lyn Dawson. It has unearthed new witnesses who have since been interviewed by police, and has led NSW detectives to launch Strike Force Southwood to investigate historical assaults and student-teacher relationships at northern beaches high schools.
International downloads are surging, led by interest in the US followed by Britain, New Zealand and Canada.
Almost half the downloads from the most recent instalment, Episode 11: Loyalty, were from outside Australia.
Lise Carlaw and Sarah Wills were scouted by the head of the Hit Network to host the Saturday morning radio show on Hit 105.
“We heard from several people that two women on radio wouldn’t work; that we would always need male voices to balance out our tone and that people switch off hearing female voices,” Wills said.
After hosting the weekly show for the past 18 months, they believe they’ve created a pathway for female duos.
The pair will today be announced as the face of a new women’s empowerment campaign by leading global lingerie brand Triumph to coincide with National Friendship Day.