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By Kruti Joshi

He was speaking from Russia where he is covering the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which began June 14, 2018.

Foster said: “It’s sad and I am not a supporter of it. A lot of broadcasters in Australia feel as though in order for the game to continue to gain acceptance, it needs to be treated in the same way as NRL or AFL. They feel like it needs to use some of the same terms and colloquialisms.

Foster and Lucy Zelić in the SBS Red Square studio

“The history of SBS shows precisely the opposite. Our job is to treat football as it is and demonstrate to Australia the beauty of the game and the international qualities of it. We believe that Australia will come to the game if we do this. SBS is not about changing the game to suit Australia.”

The popularity of football in Australia has increased with each World Cup tournament. “The number of viewers for every single World Cup that SBS has shown has accelerated exponentially,” Foster said.

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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

Andrew Winter, the host of Lifestyle’s Selling Houses Australia, has won a truckload of ASTRA Awards in the past, but his nomination for the TV Week Gold Logie is the first time anyone from a Foxtel program has made that list.

• 2018 TV Week Logie Awards nominees announced

Foxtel is about to launch a multichannel campaign to encourage viewers to vote for Winter when voting opens again on June 25.

Selling Houses Australia presenter Andrew Winter

“Selling Houses Australia ratings are up 10% on series 10 and it is Lifestyle’s highest-rating series ever,” Hannah Barnes, general manager of the Lifestyle group, told Mediaweek.

The program keeps good company. “The only series to have ever outperformed Selling Houses Australia on Foxtel is Game Of Thrones,” Barnes added.

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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.

M1 is Dentsu Aegis Network’s people-based planning and activation platform – a central global resource that will serve all of the network’s agency brands. Australia is the second global market behind the US to introduce M1.

Simon Ryan, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network in ANZ, said: “Designed to help our clients reach real people at scale, M1 enables us to leverage what we know about a person and their passion points to tailor their ad or content experience, while optimising digital activations for effectiveness, efficiency and brand safety.”

Speaking to Mediaweek on Sky News Business on Thursday, Ryan explained: “People-based marketing is working with datasets to drive one-on-one communication with customers. It is a very exciting initiative and we are telling clients about it today. We see it as an opportunity to target real people in real time as opposed to [using] cookie data. We can target a large number of consumers very efficiently which increases the opportunity to get a better return on investment.

“M1 is the first phase of realising our vision for media planning and activation to be people-based, underpinned by deterministic information related to real people. Dentsu Aegis Network is the leader in data and programmatic, and will continue to offer an integrated planning and buying service across all media touchpoints. M1 further bolsters our accountability and effectiveness in delivering business results for our clients.”

• Watch Simon Ryan on Mediaweek on Sky News Business here

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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.

The radio broadcaster partnered with Acast and international research company Ipsos for the new study. It addresses the value of the Australian podcast audience, its motivations for listening and how advertisers can drive brand discovery and create new audience connections.

The study revealed that podcasting has become the fastest-growing on-demand audio medium with 3.5 million listeners aged 16-64. That means one in four people in that age bracket consume podcasts. Twenty-one percent of current listeners are listening to more podcasts than they did 12 months ago.

The report also shows that 49% of podcast listeners are more likely to influence those around them and have a higher discretional spend on key categories such as retail, travel and entertainment. Advertising delivered by the podcast host was also found to be most effective in capturing audience attention and driving brand recall, with listeners twice as likely to trust the message that host-read ads deliver.

The Podcasting Intelligence Report comes off the back of the recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018-2022 industry forecast report, which also attests to the growth in consumption and advertising revenue for podcasting locally.

Nova’s national commercial strategy director of CREATE, Kate Murphy, said, “The Podcasting Intelligence Report presents an opportunity to deepen the conversation around the potency of podcasting for advertisers in Australia with proprietary research based on local market needs and local data. To date, podcast research has relied largely on global data with a focus on awareness and consumption, which is just one part of the story. We saw the potential in exploring a more detailed view of the podcast audience, their motivations for listening and the opportunity that presents for brands.”

Nova Entertainment’s partnership with Acast has seen the company become a powerful commercial podcast player in Australia. It has a focus on creating compelling podcast offerings, including the award-winning Modern Babies, Meet Me At The Barre and The Broncos Podcast.

Acast Australia general manager Henrik Isaksson said, “Globally, Acast is a data-driven business. Doing this research to better understand and serve the local Australian market alongside Nova has been great.”

To accompany this research, Nova Entertainment has just launched a podcast series called Word of Mouth. It takes listeners deep into the world of podcasting, interviewing some of the most prolific podcast creators behind this rapidly growing medium and driving discovery of some of the most influential content and categories worldwide. Acast’s global chief content officer Adam Martin and Modern Babies’ Jess Hamilton are the hosts of Word Of Mouth.

Nova Entertainment is currently in market presenting findings of the Podcasting Intelligence Report to agencies and advertisers.

By Andrew Mercado

In 2008, Nine axed Nightline and Sunday, Kate Ritchie left Home & Away and TEN launched So You Think You Can Dance Australia. Meanwhile, ABC was on fire, having its most successful ratings years ever, with a share of 17% and shows like Enough Rope, Spicks & Specks and even a doco about parrots all landing in the Top 10. Oh yeah, and it also started a catch-up service called iview.

Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, iview has been revamped and refreshed. In particular, it has followed SBS On Demand’s lead by offering original and quality dramas to binge online and the lineup has some absolute scorchers like Killing Eve, which is going to be in many Top 10 lists this year. Starring Grey’s Anatomy’s Sandra Oh and Doctor Foster’s Jodie Comer, this is an MI5 drama that redefines genres as it switches effortlessly from workplace comedy to assassin mayhem. Get on board people – everybody is going to be watching and talking about this show.

iview is the most popular catch-up service in Australia and why not? ABC embraced the future before anyone else would and its viewers, particularly the older ones, have adopted all new technology enthusiastically. It is no surprise that certain media outlets and networks are seething with jealousy about the ABC’s continuing popularity and some take every opportunity to run negative stories about it, usually “bias”. Aunty’s most devoted viewers, however, will fight to the death to keep the public broadcaster immune from Government interference and well funded enough to keep moving with the times.

One of ABC’s biggest hits right now is the delightful Back In Time For Dinner. The Ferrone family, who were tapped on the shoulder while out shopping and asked to audition, have been great to watch as they have navigated fashion, society and food. The youngest child, Olivia, has been a particular delight, bursting into tears at having to eat tripe in the 1950s but beside herself with excitement when lollies and cordial appeared in following decades. It is my fervent hope that Pete Evans and Sarah Wilson will never influence this child’s unbridled joy by trying to cut sugar from her diet again.

The original BBC Back In Time format has spun off into multiple series, with one covering 1900s to 1940s, the weekend and Christmas specials. That means there is plenty of scope for the ABC to do more of these and I am sure it will. Let’s also hope it is also having discussions about what to do with Gruen, also celebrating its tenth anniversary. It too has had multiple spinoffs (Gruen Nation, Gruen Planet, Gruen Sweat and now just Gruen) and yet again, there is chatter that it may have reached the end of the line.

But I am calling bullshit because this season of Gruen has been as good as any before it. The chemistry between Wil Anderson, Russell Howcroft and Todd Sampson never gets old so why end when everyone is still peaking? Maybe Gruen needs to go Back In Time á la Mad Men. Or maybe there is a series about the media and all those that get nasty because they can’t cope with change.

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Top photo: Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in Killing Eve

TV exec to run Vodafone

Russell Stanners

Jason Paris is to replaced Russell Stanners as chief executive of Vodafone NZ. Paris brings media experience to Vodafone, having headed marketing at TVNZ and at the TV operation at MediaWorks. Over the past six years, Paris has run the home mobile and business unit at the dominant Spark. The Commerce Commission recently knocked back Vodafone plans to merge with Sky TV, but the companies have pledged to cooperate extensively. Stanners is rumoured to be replacing John Fellet as CEO at Sky TV later this year

Stuff poaches for its A-team

Fairfax-owned Stuff has been involved in a flurry of poaching senior editorial staff. The print-digital operation hired Carol Hirschfeld as head of video, audio and content partnerships. Hirschfeld recently, and controversially, exited her role as head of content at Radio New Zealand, after being involved in a political stoush about a secretive meeting with the broadcasting minister, Clare Curran.

Meanwhile, high profile Auckland specialist reporter Todd Niall has joined Stuff after more than 30 years with RNZ.

Rebecca Stevenson has been appointed national business editor for Stuff, after a short stint as business editor at the focused Spinoff website. She replaces Ellen Read, who has been appointed press secretary to Finance Minister Grant Robertson.

Also joining Stuff are high profile feminist and RadioLive presenter Alison Mau and Parliamentary reporter Andrea Vance, formerly with TVNZ.

Nicky Hager wins apology and payout

Nicky Hager

Media are judging a police apology and payout to high profile investigative journalist Nicky Hager as a win for media freedom. Back in 2015, the High Court found police illegally raided and searched Hager’s Wellington home after publication of his book Dirty Politics, which exposed the National government spinning material to selected right-wing blogs, undermining opponents. Police initiated the raid looking for the source for information against the government, and accessed his banking details. Kiwi police have increasingly come under scrutiny over political independence of events, such as the Kim Dotcom police raid in conjunction with the FBI and intervening with media to refute unpublished rumours about Clarke Gayford, the partner of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Legal battle

The property baron and former National Business Review columnist Sir Robert Jones has lodged a defamation claim against Renae Maihi. The Maori filmmaker organised a petition of 68,000 people seeking the government to remove Sir Robert’s knighthood over what she said were racist comments, including suggestions Maoris should replace the national holiday, Waitangi Day, with Maori Gratitude Day to non-Maoris. The NBR pulled the paywalled column after complaints. Jones said the column was satirical and a joke. There has been a divisive debate about introducing hate speech legislation, heightened by comments from Israel Folau about homosexuals.

Reality heartbreak

Heartbreak Island hosts Matilda Rice and Mark Dye

TVNZ2’s new reality show Heartbreak Island has had a modest start on its first night on Monday this week. It came in third behind Three’s Dancing With The Stars and the TVNZ1 consumer show Fair Go. TVNZ has bet big time on the format, which it co-owns and which is running at 7.30 pm three times a weeks.

RNZ content sharing plans

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson says the public broadcaster is keen to expand its content-sharing arrangements with other New Zealand media outlets. Thompson said the revenue from its content-sharing arrangement with Stuff was “peanuts”, but gave exposure it couldn’t afford to pay for. The state-owned broadcaster now has 25 content-sharing arrangements and is looking to do more.

Netflix acquires hit Kiwi movie

Makers of the hit Kiwi comedy The Breaker Upperers have secured a deal with Netflix and it will debut on the platform next year. The movie has already earned NZ$1.7 million on the Kiwi box office, and debuted to good reviews in Australia at the Sydney Film Festival. Co-producer Ainsley Gardiner said discussions first opened with Netflix soon after the movie’s debut at the South By Southwest Film Festival in March, in Texas.

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Top photo: The Breaker Upperers

By John Drinnan

His post-university curriculum vitae has him working on key media brands like Knight-Ridder, then 11 years at Microsoft in Seattle.

From 2008 to 2012 he was founder, vice-president and general manager at NBCUniversal digital studios in Los Angeles. At NBCUniversal digital studios he became more involved in programming for different platforms.

In New York from 2012 to 2014, he worked as chief revenue officer for Core Media Group, which owned half of American Idol, along with other assets.

His expertise is finding commercial connections for new digital content, a skill that is in hot demand right now. A Kiwi by birth, he returned three years ago to care for his poorly mother. She recovered, and within nine months he had been snapped up by NZME.

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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

Seven

The week of Home and Away came to an end with 601,000 (four markets – no Adelaide).

Thursday Night AFL helped boost the Seven primary share in Melbourne and Adelaide. Seven won Melbourne on 23.1% while in Adelaide share nudged 30%. The AFL audience was 416,000 with 223,000 in Melbourne and 125,000 in Adelaide.

The Front Bar followed the football with 236,000 across metro markets and 150,000 in Melbourne.

Nine

Thursday Night NRL was a winner for Nine again in Sydney and Brisbane with respective primary shares of 23.3% and 20.7%. Nine had the biggest live single-market sport crowd with 227,000 in Sydney.

The Footy Show followed the NRL in Sydney and Brisbane with 142,000 (77,000 in Sydney).

TEN

Wayne Brady was a guest on The Project and the program also reported on the latest in the Rebel Wilson v Bauer Media saga with Melissa Hoyer and Deborah Thomas commenting on the appeal result. The episode did 488,000.

MasterChef visited Maggie Beer last night with a pressure test that resulted in Jenny Lam going home. The regular episode did 787,000. An Adelaide Masterclass followed with former MasterChef stars Poh and Callum cooking from the wonderful Adelaide Market with 561,000 watching.

Maggie Beer on MasterChef

ABC

Grand Designs Australia was just over half a million followed by QI on 310,000.

SBS

SBS got a boost from the first match of the World Cup, but that came late in the night.

The Handmaid’s Tale delivered the biggest audience – 232,000.

Earlier, Great British Railway Journeys did 213,000.

The World Cup day one numbers:
Russia v Saudi Arabia 147,000
Preview show 146,000
Pre-match 140,000