Mauboy will perform “#We Got Love” at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal and broadcast exclusively on SBS from 9 to 13 May.

Jessica Mauboy said:

“I love the Eurovision Song Contest. I have since I was a little girl watching it with the family in Darwin. I wanted to write a song that captured that instinctive sense of joy of how a great song can change the darkest of moods into happiness. ‘#We Got Love’ is also about how music can lift the human spirit. You can always rise above in the hardest times with something as simple as a great song.”

Michael Ebeid, SBS managing director, said:

“SBS has been bringing Eurovision to Australians for 35 years, but Jessica introduced homegrown talent to the world stage in 2014 when she became the first non-European solo artist to perform. She wowed the global audience and showcased what Australia is made of – and SBS is thrilled to invite her back to compete for Eurovision glory this year.

“At the heart of Eurovision is a celebration of diversity through music – a universal language that transcends culture – and ‘#We Got Love’ really resonates as a song about overcoming barriers and bringing people together.”

Denis Handlin, chairman & CEO, Australia & NZ, president Asia, Sony Music Entertainment, said:

“Jessica is an outstanding Australian artist who will no doubt capture the world’s attention and the hearts of Europe, with the brilliant song she has written with DNA Songs, ‘#We Got Love’.

“Being selected back in 2014 to be the first to showcase Australian talent at Eurovision highlighted her amazing abilities as a world class performer. For all of us at Sony Music, we are delighted to be partnering with Michael Ebeid and SBS along with Paul Clarke from Blink TV again this year to provide Jessica with this wonderful opportunity to once again showcase her incredible talent at Eurovision.”

Paul Clarke, Australian head of delegation and director of Blink TV, SBS’s Eurovision production partner, said:

“From the first time we took Jessica to Eurovision, we really hoped we could return with her to compete. ‘#We Got Love’ is the culmination of that four-year plan, and the song so fits her beautiful soul voice. It’s a song of belief and overcoming the status quo, and I love the passion of it. I’m sure it will lift your heart. We hope you all love it and hope Europe gets behind Jessica and ‘#We Got Love’.”

“#We Got Love” is written by Australian hit makers DNA Songs duo David Musumeci and Anthony Egizii in collaboration with Jessica Mauboy. DNA also worked on Dami Im’s 2016 Eurovision hit “Sound Of Silence”, which saw the singer land second place, and Isaiah’s “Don’t Come Easy” placing him in the top 10 at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017.

“#We Got Love” has been released globally and is now available to stream and download. It will also be available as a physical CD single on May 11 through Sony Music Entertainment Australia.

Listen to the track here.

The research includes:

• The increase in investment made by OTT platforms.

• The growth in digital original titles and SVOD subscribers.

• How new TV shows are discovered by consumers in Australia and how audience engagement drives demand for Digital Original series, broken down by age and gender.

• The top 20 digital streaming shows in Australia across all SVOD platforms.

• Australian audience preferences for specific genres and how these have changed over the course of 2017.

• Market share of the major OTT platforms Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu in Australia.

The research found that most consumers discover offline TV shows by word of mouth. But don’t worry, advertising works – it ranked #2 in methods of discovery. TV listings were #3.

When it comes to discovering online content, word of mouth (which included social media) also ranks #1, while editorial coverage of a program ranked #2.

The research also listed the top 20 most in-demand original TV series last year with 13 Reasons Why a clear leader. The top nine shows on the chart belong to Netflix and 16 of the top 20 shows are from Netflix. Stan didn’t have an entry in the top 20. Stan’s highest entry for an Australian original was Wolf Creek at #42.

The report can be downloaded here.

Photo: 13 Reasons Why (Beth Dubber/Netflix)

Nisar Malik has been appointed to the role of Agency Sales Director. Malik joins ARN after two years as a Group Business Manager with Nine Entertainment Co, and has in past held sales and leadership roles at SCA and Ten.

Nick Flood joins ARN as Direct Sales Director. Flood was most recently Macquarie Media’s Melbourne sales manager and has an extensive media background including roles at carsales.com.au and Nova Entertainment.

Lena Rapley has moved from her role as Melbourne Agency Group Sales Manager into the newly created role of Head of Client Solutions – Melbourne and Adelaide.

All roles will report into ARN Melbourne Commercial Director, Peter Whitehead.

Whitehead said: “I’m delighted to welcome leaders with the experience and reputation of both Nisar and Nick as they join ARN to take charge of our Agency and Direct Sales teams respectively.

“They join ARN at an exciting time as we take a fresh approach to market with our new on-air lineups across KIIS, GOLD and iHeartRadio, and continue to deepen our position in the Melbourne market with our agency and client partners.

In other appointments to the Melbourne team, Paul Edwards has been appointed as Direct Group Sales Manager after holding previous sales management roles at Nova Entertainment and Southern Cross Austereo, while Denis Donati has been promoted to Agency Group Sales Manager.

Photo: Nisar Malik, Nick Flood, Lena Rapley 

Then again, TV Week also declared Australian Spartan would overcome its disappointing ratings by saying “we’re calling it – it’s a hit”. The very next day, Seven dumped the show to the non-rating dead zone of Easter.

Australian Spartan is the latest in a long line of shows to be filmed in Southeast Queensland that have failed to fire despite the state’s great studio facilities, perfect weather and stunning nature backdrops. There have been Fire, Medivac, Paradise Beach, The Strip, The Adventures of Skippy and Flipper: The New Adventures. But the best thing about this has been all the training it has given to new talent, two of whom have stayed in the region while conquering the world.

Twenty years ago, Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield were working (as was I) on a TV debacle called Pacific Drive (but oh, didn’t we have fun!). Now they own Hoodlum, the award-winning production company that made Secret and Lies before they adapted it for America’s ABC network, where it ran longer than it had on Ten. Secret and Lies was also set in Brisbane, which is now the home for their next murder mystery drama, Harrow, airing on Fridays for Australia’s ABC.

Brisbane, which is cleverly animated in the cool opening titles, looks a million bucks here, especially given hunky Ioan Gruffudd lives on a boat moored off the CBD. He plays a brilliant but shit-stirring forensic pathologist with massive issues involving workmates, family members and multiple murder mysteries. There is a top cast, particularly Darren Gilshenan, Robyn Malcolm, Ella Newton and Remy Hii, along with guest stars like Gary Sweet, Hunter Page-Lochard and (TV Week cover River Boy alert!) Dan Ewing.

The Brisbane River also features prominently in Safe Harbour, the other new Aussie drama now on Wednesdays. Uninterested in any murder mystery not Nordic in origin, SBS instead makes multicultural mysteries and this one from Matchbox is about a cruising group of recreational sailors who come across a boat full of refugees.

Safe Harbour, which stars Ewen Leslie, Jacqueline McKenzie and Joel Jackson for a four-episode run, is a far more serious production than Harrow, which clocks in at 10 episodes. SBS can’t seem to afford longer-running local dramas and it could also possibly be sharing the cost of actor Damien Garvey, given he appears in both shows playing a police officer. But that’s not a complaint – Garvey is a welcome addition to any Aussie drama and I am pleased to report that both these new shows are must-see TV.

Queensland will next be home to two original productions from Netflix. Its first original Australian (and supernatural) commission is Tidelands (another from Hoodlum) and then Netflix has something new from Chris Lilley (but please, no more Jonah or black rappers). If either of these shows is looking for fun locations to film at, there is a “Mad Max wasteland” at the mouth of the river, or at least that’s how Seven described the Brisbane location they chose for Australian Spartan. And if the giant Lifesaver swing has been left behind, let’s hope the cast and crew have more fun than anybody who watched Australian Spartan.

Photo: Safe Harbour

The event – a partnership between Gold 104.3 and Empire Touring – was hosted by daytime announcers Gavin Miller and Craig “Huggy” Huggins. Billed acts included Uncanny X-Men, Pseudo Echo, Kids in the Kitchen, Hush, Wendy Matthews, Chocolate Starfish, Eurogliders, Billy Miller, Deborah Conway, Joe Dolce, Paul Norton, The Chantoozies, Sean Kelly, Stars, Stephen Cummings and Real Life.

Highlights from the night included a rare performance by Hush, who re-united on stage for the first time in eight years, and a special all-star encore that paid tribute to the great INXS. Check out the pics below.

Huggy and Pseudo Echo’s Brian Canham

Gavin Miller and Chocolate Starfish front-man Adam Thompson

Multi Channels Asia announces JV

Los Angeles-based TV4 Entertainment, which bills itself as the world leader in streaming channels, has partnered with Singapore media outfit Multi Channels Asia to bring its programming to Asia. The new joint venture, operating under the name Omni Channels Media Asia, will be the exclusive Asian distributor of TV4 Entertainment’s channels, including over 30 specialty targeted brands tipped to expand to 100 brands by 2020. The venture will also acquire Asian content for its channels and secure local production partners for original content development to be packaged and distributed to mobile, OTT and pay-TV carriers.

The initial suite of channels will include Motorland, dedicated to cars and motorcycles; horror films and series from Screambox; end of days movies from Apocalypse; the first global channel dedicated to guitars, the All Guitar Network; and house and garden series on Inside Outside. The portfolio will also include sports networks and networks covering food, cooking and drinking.

South China Morning Post launches inkstone

The Asian media’s obsession with China further cranks up this week, with the South China Morning Post launching inkstone, a daily multimedia look at what’s happening in China. Juliana Liu, previously international correspondent for BBC News in Hong Kong, is the senior editor. She said, “We’re named for actual inkstones, which were invented thousands of years ago in China to grind and store ink for calligraphy.” She noted that the remit is broad and, as well as covering mainland China, inkstone will also report on Hong Kong – where the inkstone core team is based – plus Macau and self-ruled Taiwan.

CNBC boosts Hong Kong bureau

CNBC will strengthen its Hong Kong operations to service increasing international interest in the Chinese market. Anchor Akiko Fujita moves from the network’s Asia headquarters in Singapore to join Bernie Lo in hosting CNBC’s flagship morning show Squawk Box in Hong Kong.

Multimedia journalist Uptin Saiidi, who fronts many of the network’s digital video series on its digital and social platforms, will also move from Singapore to Hong Kong. Kelly Gerard Olsen, formerly news editor and deputy bureau chief of Agence France-Presse in Tokyo, has also been hired as market correspondent with the Hong Kong digital team and will report to Asia Pacific editor, Everett Rosenfeld. Earlier, Yolande Chee, CNBC’s senior booker and producer, joined the Hong Kong news desk from the network’s Sydney bureau.

Tencent backs Indian music streamer

• Sony Music & Tencent Music launch dance music label in Hong Kong

Chinese internet investment company Tencent Holdings has backed a US$115 million (A$148.2m) funding round in Indian music streaming app Gaana.

The other backer is Times Internet. Gaana is operated by Ganna Gaana Ltd, a Times Internet subsidiary, and this investment gives Tencent a minority stake in Gaana, formerly wholly owned by Times Internet. The capital injection will be used to fund more artificial intelligence-related technology to personalise music choices for consumers and to further develop subscription services for paying users.

Hong Kong ad spend lifts

Hong Kong’s total ad spend for 2017 was HK$41.9 billion, up 4% YOY according to the latest Hong Kong Advertisers Association Advertising Spending Projections 2018 survey, conducted by Nielsen. Nielsen noted that online ad spend continued to drive growth in Hong Kong, with spending on online interactive and mobile accounting for 38% of all advertising spending, compared to 39% for TV and newspaper advertising combined. Interestingly, the survey shows that instead of ad funds shifting from offline to online or mobile channels, 31% of advertisers are now gaining additional funding to support online marketing.

Celestial Tiger zeroes in on combat sports

Hong Kong-based Celestial Tiger Entertainment has launched its Asian Combat Sports on action entertainment channel KIX. Asian Combat Sports presents top Asian-focused mixed martial arts and championship fight events including a new Muay Thai tournament, TopKing World Series, featuring 16 of the best fighters from around the world.

Pictured above.

Blue Ant ups its Asian presence with new carriage deal

• Bauer sells Australian Geographic magazine to Blue Ant Media

Canada’s Blue Ant Media has ramped up its Asian presence in a new carriage deal with satellite operator MEASAT, which is now distributing six Blue Ant media channels in the region. The six channels – Entertainment HD, Extreme HD, Entertainment Philippines SD, ZooMoo HD, Love Nature 4K and Love Nature HD – are now available to pay-TV operators in the region.

The news comes this week after the group bought Australian Geographic from Bauer Media.

ABS-CBN #1 in Philippines

ABS-CBN was the most watched free-to-air TV channel in the Philippines in January with an average audience share of 46%, according to data from Kantar Media. This placed ABS-CBN 12 points higher than its closest competitor, GMA, which had a 34% share. ABS-CBN also hosted the top nine most-watched programs in the Philippines for January, with the local version of talent franchise Pilipinas Got Talent, now in its sixth season, clinching the second spot with an average national rating of 38.1%.

Mobile ads dominate in the Philippines

Mobile advertising dominated digital ad campaigns in the Philippines, while on-target mobile ad performance outpaced digital ads served via desktop and digital in 2017. Digital ads targeting the 18-49-year-olds age bracket reached their intended audience 81% of the time for mobile, 77% and 59% for total digital and desktop respectively.

Global media heavyweights at APOS

Media APOS 2018, which focuses on how broadband connectivity is combining with local economies and ecosystems to transform prospects for the production, distribution and monetisation of content, games and IP in Asia-Pacific, will be held in Bali from April 24 to 26. Key speakers at one of this year’s APOS themes – Race To Scale: Local Challenges For Global Leaders – include Bob Bakish, President and CEO, Viacom; Uday Shankar, President, 21st Century Fox Asia; JB Perrette, President and CEO, Discovery Networks International; Ricky Ow, President, Turner International Asia Pacific; Mahesh Samat, SVP and MD, The Walt Disney Company, South Asia; Gina Brogi, President of Global Distribution, Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution; and Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18 Media.

Mediaweek Asia In Brief

• Thailand’s online media value is estimated to increase from US$800 million to $1.5 billion in 2025, according to research titled Google and Temasek e-Conomy Southeast Asia. The report adds that in 2020, there will be 59 million Thai internet users, compared to 38 million in 2015. The number of Southeast Asian internet users in 2020 is forecast to be 480 million, up from e 260 million in 2015.

• Australia’s Fatfish Internet Group-backed Cloudaron, a Singapore-based IT solutions company listed in Malaysia, is acquiring Realtors8, a subsidiary of ASX-listed 8common Ltd that owns SaaS provider Ubertor, for S$4.23 million (A$4.13 milion)$3.2 million).

• China’s big tech Baidu video streaming service iQiyi has now filed for an IPO in the US, with an offering size of $1.5 billion (A$1.94 billion), an initial placeholder amount that is likely to change.

• The New York Times Company has appointed Glo Media Limited, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based digital marketing agency Guru Online, to represent its advertising in China. Glo Media will be overseen by Alice So, regional advertising manager, Asia Pacific, and she will work closely with The Times’ in-house sales team in Hong Kong.

• Twitter has signed a landmark deal with Formula E to live stream races for Japanese audiences who follow Formula E.

• NHK’s international broadcasting service NHK World will have a name change in April to NHK World-Japan, to gain wider recognition of the service’s Japanese roots in readiness for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

• Workpoint Digital TV’s The Mask Singer, a weekly Thai music reality TV show featuring performing masked celebrities, has become a big hit via social media. A YouTube clip from the show’s second season topped YouTube’s global trending videos in 2017 with over 217 million views. Workpoint Digital TV was the first Thai media company to simulcast on TV, YouTube and social media, building a big fan base on multiple digital channels and video platforms.

And what’s good enough for his customers is good enough for him, he said, pointing out, “I drive a 2013 Range Rover Evoque 2.0 Si4 Dynamic, and I bought it through Carlist.my, iCar Asia’s business in Malaysia, because it has the largest choice of cars in the country, and I could see that the dealer was part of the Trusted Dealer Program, so I knew I could trust them.”

Kuala Lumpur-based Stone now presides over a growing iCar Asia empire that has seven marketplace and content platforms in the three largest automotive markets in Asean – Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

The company operates marketplace platform Carlist.my and content platform LiveLifeDrive.com in Malaysia; One2Car.com – marketplace, Thaicar.com – marketplace and Autospinn.com – content in Thailand; and Mobil123.com –marketplace and Otospirit.com – content in Indonesia.

Stone said that since he joined the company, listings have increased 19% in Indonesia, 35% in Thailand, and 51% in Malaysia.

“Audience is up. Leads are up. Paid dealer accounts also up – by as much as 119%,” he added.

Stone, a University of Sydney graduate, was working as a senior associate at CRA International when he made the big switch to the digital marketplace in May 2006, signing on as affiliate manager, eBay Australia and New Zealand, and beginning a decade-long career with that company.

After a spell in Australia, he moved to London in July 2011 to work with the eBay classified business Gumtree.com. He said, “By defining a comprehensive strategy and operational plan, I was able to set Gumtree up to successfully launch into the car dealers market in 2013, building on its market leadership in consumer secondhand car sales.”

In October 2013, he moved to eBay’s Netherlands Company Marktplaats.nl as director of automotive before joining iCar in 2016.

Stone said he wasn’t worried about the allegedly fickle nature of digital workplaces when he initially made the big move to eBay, pointing out that eBay was started in 1995 and by 2006, when he joined, it was already a global phenomenon.

“I was looking for a new challenge and to move into a digital marketing role. eBay was just beginning to get traction and I thought it was a great dynamic company to join,” he said.

A decade after joining eBay, Stone made his next big move to iCar, and said several factors drove this decision.

“I was at eBay for 10 years, I was lucky enough to have three totally different experiences across three countries and more jobs than I can count. That taught me the benefits of always looking for how you could take on more responsibilities, and stretch yourself into new areas, even when that meant moving countries, or switching from a marketing role into a general management role of a business unit.

“When I was offered the CEO role at iCar Asia, it was a big decision to leave eBay, but it was also one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to join a very promising startup in the most interesting region in the world for what’s going to happen in the digital space over the next five years.

“iCar Asia had built itself into a great position. I was fortunate to be able to join a business that was ready to take the next step.”

While Stone was talking to Mediaweek, the company was in the middle of releasing its ASX 2017 full year financial report, announcing revenue growth of 41% YOY to $9.1million.

Some highlights included a 48% YOY growth in total audience numbers across the company to 11.2 million unique visitors, 42% YOY growth in total leads across the company to over 1 million leads, 23% YOY growth in total paid accounts to over 5,900 accounts, and total listings growth of 12% YOY to 479,000 live listings.

“2017 was a transformational year for the business,” Stone told Mediaweek. “iCar Asia has made the right choices in its product and business to drive sustainable growth across the core businesses of used cars and advertising solutions, while also building out its proposition in adjacent areas of new cars and events.”

Stone stressed, “New cars are a key focus for iCar in 2018. Our new car platform is focused on providing the best digital experience for new car buyers. We’ve partnered with the leading car brands in each of our countries to ensure that car buyers have all the best information and the best deals to help them find the perfect car for each individual.”

The move is being helped along by Ari, a chatbot the company developed and launched late last year in preparation for its new car buyers.

“We built Ari, our chatbot, in order to have a 24/7 assistant available to car buyers to find that perfect car,” Stone said.

“Ari can process terabits of information and helps the car buyer, while also qualifying them as a lead for our dealers. This also allows iCar to play a great role in the new car dealers business and track the car buyer through the buying process in order to monetise the transaction.”

With Ari in place, Stone is ready to usher iCar into a new phase that will please shareholders and, Stone said, “We now have the right technology platform and business models to grow across our markets towards profitability.”

By James Manning

Seven

Home and Away continues to screen just one episode on Thursdays at present. Across the week the audience ranged between 642,000 and 682,000, and ended on 588,000.

As we discussed yesterday, the weakest My Kitchen Rules teams from each group took part in a sudden death showdown. Pete and Manu were judging the teams in elimination house with Josh and Nic taking an early lead and they never looked back. Matt and Aly didn’t do better than 5 out of 10 and were subsequently eliminated. The Thursday episode did 954,000 after 1.04m last Thursday.

Seven then went into Gordon Ramsay mode with not one, not two, but three series back-to-back. The numbers were:

Gordon Ramsay On Cocaine 392,000
Ramsay’s Hotel Hell 249,000
Kitchen Nightmares 125,000

Nine

The first night of live NRL for 2018 didn’t get Nine over the line in network share, but it did keep Nine in front in Sydney and Brisbane.

A good start to the week with three episodes all just under 900,000 for A Current Affair. The Thursday episode then did 562,000 (in four markets – no Brisbane) with stories on electricity suppliers and then Married At First Sight.

Live NRL returned at 7.30pm with the first game of round one on Nine or 9Gem across the network. A crowd of 452,000 was watching on Nine in Sydney (244,000) and Brisbane (208,000).

The new-look NRL Footy Show followed without Fatty with a two-city audience of 188,000 (Sydney 110,000, Brisbane 78,000).

Melbourne viewers got to see RBT which did 139,000 in that market.

The AFL Footy Show also returned with 173,000 watching in Melbourne.

TEN

The channel had a much-improved night with a network primary share of 14.7%.

Shaggy and Sting were guests on The Project plus Pete Rowsthorn talking about his departure from I’m A Celebrity. The Thursday edition started on 289,000 and lifted to 409,000 after 7pm.

Simone Holtznagel was the final contestant eliminated from I’m A Celebrity this week ahead of the two-part final starting Sunday. The final Thursday episode was on 548,000 and 562,000 after 660,000 and 728,000 a week before.

Series seven of Gogglebox is halfway through after episode five did 602,000.

ABC

Call The Midwife was on 481,000 in the 8pm timeslot.

Unforgotten then did 364,000 after 9pm.

SBS

Stonehenge was one of the stops on Great British Railway Journeys last night with 251,000 watching.

How To Lose Weight Well did 137,000 followed by the European drama Knightfall on 70,000.