By James Manning

Sky News recently approached one of its Melbourne contributors Rita Panahi with a proposal for her to do a weekly show on Friday afternoons for two hours from 4pm.

It’s been a super busy 2018 so far for the commentator, who has built a big following over the past few years. Her current success though has meant a few tough decisions.

Earlier this year Panahi agreed to be a regular on Eddie McGuire’s Triple M Melbourne Hot Breakfast program. However, she had to step back from that after 3AW offered her the role of joining the Sunday Morning program alongside Darren James and Nick Callum. Panahi was wanted to fill the position vacated by the controversial John-Michael Howson.

Similarly Panahi had to step away from a regular contributor’s role on Sunrise to fulfil her Sky News contract.

Panahi will fill the two Sky News hours with discussion around the latest political issues, but she told Mediaweek she wanted to expand the offerings, particularly as it was a Friday afternoon.

“I want to have a greater mix of issues – social issues, pop culture and sport. As it’s a Friday I have the advantage of being able to pick the big issues of the week. I will also be looking for some of the issues that other Sky News programs haven’t touched. Sport is compelling content for so many people – what happens on and off the field.

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By James Manning

Facebook and YouTube are guilty of publishing “pernicious” and “reprehensible” content because they refuse to invest to keep their sites safe, said News Corp CEO Robert Thomson yesterday. Thomson was speaking at Advertising Week in London and was quoted in the newspaper he formerly edited, The Times.

Thomson warned that social media users now struggled to differentiate between fact and fiction because they had been “socialised to accept” dubious content online.

Thomson said both Google and Facebook failed to help their users distinguish between credible and fake news.

“We have a world where it’s difficult to tell the difference between falsity and truth. It could have been different, but they didn’t want to invest in integrity.”

Thomson however credited Sundar Pichai, the Google chief executive, for taking steps to help subscription publishers. However, he said the Google-owned video website YouTube still hosted “pernicious” clips, including pirated and exploitative material.

Reporting from the same event, Digiday added:

Thomson: “[Alphabet and Facebook] have to be more compliant. They have been in a state of denial, particularly Facebook. Mark [Zuckerberg] finds it very difficult to say ‘publisher’, but he is a publisher, and a lot of what they are publishing is reprehensible.”

Speaking about the News Corp business model, Digiday said:

Building successful advertising and subscription models is difficult to do well: People who pay for subscriptions are often put off if they still see ads. News UK’s subscription revenue is increasing while its print ad revenue declines, but in its most recent earnings call, Thomson said the UK newspaper operation had its first quarter of advertising growth in 27 quarters. The publisher is learning how subscriptions and advertising can work together.

The comments came just two days after the launch of the Google News Initiative.

Prior to the official Google News Initiative launch, Mediaweek had the chance to speak with Google VP of news Richard Gingras about the company’s relationship with News Corp and how it felt about the criticism it has been copping.

“We realise we play a significant part in the [news] ecosystem. That means at times we will be criticised and it is up to us to address that as best we can.

“We would much rather work together than exchange criticisms in the press, which is not terribly productive from our perspective.”

Gingras said everybody needs to understand the marketplace for information has changed. “The printing press is now in everyone’s hands. None of us use the local newspaper like we did 40 years ago.”

Gingras noted nobody should know that better than News Corp. “No one in Australia goes to The Australian for real estate listings. They go to a real estate listings site, which News Corp owns.”

When asked if there were publishers Google was not able to talk to, Gingras replied:

“We are engaging with everyone. We have been working very closely with every major publisher in the world. We are working very closely with News Corp and we will continue to work closely with News Corp.”

The campaigns being showcased are:

Cricket Australia – Geo-Targeted

VMO, in partnership with Cricket Australia, delivered a unique data driven out-of-home solution targeting supporters of competing teams in this summer’s Big Bash League (BBL).

The campaign concentrated on BBL’s heartland – mums and children – a core viewing demographic amongst VMO’s 25+ million cumulative audience.

In what was a first for Cricket Australia, audiences were geo-targeted based on Cricket Australia data that identified how suburbs aligned with various teams.

Arnott’s Tim Tam Messina – Australia Day Launch

On Australia Day, Arnott’s Tim Tams launched their new Gelato Messina flavoured Tim Tam range with a first-to-market activation.

Arnott’s partnered with VMO to launch their new “Chill me” Tim Tam range, driving awareness to the new temperature-activated packaging.

The launch experience featured a custom-built digital refrigerated unit utilising a live digital thermometer. Pulling live data from the Bureau of Meteorology, the refrigerated units were programmed to open at a set temperature on the day, giving away 13,500 chilled packets of the never-before-tasted Tim Tam biscuits across three days.

Network Ten, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! – Location Domination

To promote the premiere of the fourth season of the hit family entertainment television series I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Spark Foundry and Network Ten partnered with VMO to deliver a 360° campaign domination at Sydney’s iconic Manly Wharf – a media first at a landmark commuter hub that attracts more than 16,000 visitors daily.

This year’s recruitment drive by newly appointed general manager Stephen Leeds has identified key senior staff to service existing clients.

Helen Karambilas joined The Media Store as group business director on the Lexus account and will be responsible for partnership initiatives and channel planning for the luxury motor brand. Formerly of Initiative, Karambilas brings over 18 years’ experience to The Media Store and says she is excited to drive the Lexus business forward in Melbourne: “Lexus is such an innovative brand to be a part of and I look forward to evolving the brand within the ever changing and challenging media landscape.”

Also joining the Melbourne team after two years in London is Ella MacDonald, business manger on Toyota Retail. MacDonald brings over six years’ media planning and buying experience to The Media Store, specialising in fashion retail across brands such as Burberry, Marks and Spencer and Rolex.

MacDonald will report to group head for Toyota, David Lodge, who has been with the company since 2005 and relocated to Melbourne in January alongside head of digital, Ally Cooney, business managers on Toyota, Richard Lowe and Jen Nicholls, and digital planner buyer Sam Coughlan.

Both the Lexus and Toyota teams’ client service offering will be complemented by two new partnership and integration specialists – Hayley Short and Melanie Scully.

“The Media Store’s Melbourne office has incredible momentum with the building full of hungry, creative staff looking to make an impact for their clients in ways that lead the pack,” said The Media Store chief executive officer Craig Jepsen.

“Stephen has orchestrated a wonderfully successful recruitment drive in a new market, which along with our existing team enhances our drive for growth in both Sydney and Melbourne.”

Nine is going off the scale in the last week of ratings before the Easter survey break.

The channel last night recorded the highest primary share for any channel since survey started six weeks ago.

Nine won in all metro markets last night with primary share over 32% along the east coast and Nine even managed to win in Perth on both measures – primary and combined channel.

Nine didn’t set any combined share records last night though as its 38.0% was short of Seven’s record opening week of survey where its combined channel share went from 38.5% to 42.5% for the combo of Seven and its multichannels during the Winter Olympics.

Seven

After two nights close to 700,000, Home and Away was on 698,000 for the week’s third episode.

My Kitchen Rules went to the Elimination House. Davide & Marco cooked reasonably well but they couldn’t match the talents of Kim & Suong, who scored perfect 10s from Pete and Manu for the first two courses.

The MKR audience was 936,000 after 963,000 a week ago. The ep held up reasonably well considering the viewing attraction elsewhere.

The 2010 spy thriller Salt followed on 238,000.

Nine

After two nights over 900,000, A Current Affair was on 901,00 last night with its best week so far this year. Leila McKinnon was hosting, Martin King reported on James Packer’s resignation and there was a preview of the final Married At First Sight.

The final Married At First Sight featured an almost forensic examination of all the different relationships. As the series ended, three of the original couples survived, with another two finding love with other spouses. The series has been the #1 program for six of its eight weeks on air. The first episode did 914,000 and the audience dipped to 835,000 on its first Sunday, but that grew to 1.35m a week later and the series was flying high.

Talking Married set a new audience high for 9Life with 342,000.

Viewers in NRL markets then saw an episode of 20 To 1 with 302,000 watching.

AFL markets got The Footy Show a night early with 363,000 from three metro capitals – an improved 250,000 in Melbourne.

TEN

Viewers heard Steve Price plugging his forthcoming musical appearance again on The Project. Courtney Act was on the panel and guests included Mark Webber at the Melbourne GP track at Albert Park. Wednesday started on 266,000 and grew to 442,000 after 7pm.

Bondi Rescue returned for a second evening with four episodes now over two nights. After both were over 300,000 on Tuesday, the midweek numbers were 264,000 and 273,000.

Graham Norton then did 234,000 and then This Is Us was on just 135,000.

ABC

The Wednesday audience numbers took off last week – were the programs able to sustain those numbers?

Among the experts on Hard Quiz was one who specialised in Weird Al! After 636,000 last week, the episode last night was on 608,000.

Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell then also did 608,000 after 667,000 a week ago.

The new comedy Sando from production house Jungle did 427,000 after Squinters did 328,000 in the slot a week ago.

SBS

Great Continental Rail Journeys crossed Germany from the Black Forest to Hanover. After the channel’s biggest audience of 281,000 a week ago, the German train rides did 245,000.

Episode three of Safe Harbour then did a disappointing 138,000.