By James Manning
When we visited Tom Malone‘s office in the Wide World of Sport cottage adjacent to the Nine Network studio and office complex in Sydney we were offered a cup of tea that sits on a Cricket Australia coaster.
“Sorry,” Malone told Mediaweek when we noted the branding. “We haven’t updated yet!” [Laughs]
Despite being outbid for the domestic cricket rights for international clashes in Australia, Nine still has plenty of other sport – including cricket. Before our interview turned to NRL, netball and its new Tennis Australia partnership, the discussion came back to losing the cricket.
That triggers a green light for Malone, Nine’s director of sport, to roll off Nine’s continuing cricket schedule one more time: Australia in England in June for a ODI tournament and a T20 game this winter, then the 2019 ODI World Cup for men and women. “Next year of course we are the exclusive rights holder for the Ashes in the UK, which will be the first time Smith and Warner will be eligible for test selection again,” said Malone.
“We remain heavily invested in cricket for the next five years.”
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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.
Tomorrow: Nine’s Tom Malone on a summer without sport – how bad might it be? – plus Australian Open plans, NRL and State of Origin plus growing netball audiences.
By Kruti Joshi
Nine announced Love Island Australia for its multichannel 9GO! last year, when Sophie Monk had just finished her journey to find love on Ten’s The Bachelorette. Monk and her relationship with her then-beau Stu Laundy were much talked-about in the press. Therefore, it made perfect sense that Nine wanted her as host of Love Island Australia. After a battle of the networks, Nine came out winner. It secured Monk from Ten as the host of its newest reality TV show.
One would think that Monk might have been over dating reality TV after being in the eye of the media storm during The Bachelorette and in the days after. “Oh, no. I am a sucker for love,” Monk told Mediaweek, without a moment of hesitation. “I am just happy I am on the other side this time. I will just kick back with a cocktail and watch it like you guys do.
“I have always done everything publicly so it was all right. It’s all settled down now. It’s fine.”
news.com.au was the top news entity in terms of highest unique audience (5.6 million – down from 5.8m in March), followed by nine.com.au (4.8 million) and then ABC News Websites (4.7 million). Fourth place was smh.com.au (3.6 million).
Next in the Nielsen online news rankings was Yahoo7 News Websites (2.8 million), followed by BBC (2.5 million – up from 2.4m in March) which climbed to sixth position after ranking ninth in March.
In seventh position was Herald Sun (2.5 million) which lifted from tenth to seventh, followed by The Guardian with a unique audience of 2.5 million – down from 2.8m. In ninth place was MSN (2.4 million) followed by Daily Mail Australia (2.3 million – down from 2.4m).
All publishers managed to hold in the top 10.
Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston said yesterday the results proved more Victorians were turning to the Herald Sun as their favourite source of breaking news, AFL, crime, gossip and commentary, with Commonwealth Games coverage and the Trinity Grammar haircut saga among popular stories last month.
“The Herald Sun continues to maintain its long history of providing Victorians with the news that affects them,” Johnston said.
“While some other news websites report from Sydney and hope Victorians won’t notice, our newsroom is firmly entrenched in Melbourne and our journalism is written by reporters who live in Victoria for the people who live in our state.”
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Top photo: chrisdorney / Shutterstock
The channel has recorded a winning primary share and Seven also has the highest combined channel share for the second successive night.
Home and Away went from 690,000 on Monday to 662,000 last night.
House Rules promised Tuesday viewers a half-built house, a secret door, a magic mirror and an explosive confrontation. The audience was on 638,000, which was up on 599,000 a week ago, which was the lowest episode screened last week. The series is well behind on comparisons with where the show was this time in 2017.
Interview featured mystery healer Charlie Goldsmith – younger brother to Tottie and nephew to Olivia Newton-John – plus later in the show some bloke with a mullet. It was a program featuring a different kind of entertainment star. Goldsmith was a good guest even though it is very hard to accept the healing powers he claims. The audience of 467,000 was close to last week’s 472,000.
After winning the first two nights of the week in primary share, Nine last night dropped to third place.
Reporter Alison Piotrowski was a pregnant passenger on Sydney trains on A Current Affair, followed by a hidden camera to see if anyone would offer her a seat. Not much luck. The show has had audiences of 884,000 and 810,000 on the first two nights of the week.
Episode two of East Well For Less featured host Leila McKinnon reminding viewers Australians pay more for food than any major city in the world. During the show she told how three flatmates could save $16,000 a year – cutting down on takeaway meals was part of the strategy. The second episode did 532,000 after launching on 613,000.
The first episode of The Truth About Obesity followed with 302,000.
Nigella Week has led the primary channel to its highest share since the Big Bash League in January. TEN had a better share than Seven in Sydney and outperformed Seven and Nine in Melbourne.
Maude Garrett was reporting from the US again on The Project, covering the press junket for Solo: A Star Wars Story including interviews with stars Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover and director Ron Howard. The episode was on 557,000 after 568,000 on Monday.
MasterChef featured the series’ second immunity challenge with Nigella Lawson the special guest on night three of Nigella Week. Victorian stay-at-home dad Loki Madireddi has become the first contestant in season 10 of MasterChef Australia to win a coveted immunity pin and is now a bonafide cooking star who has just changed his life. Loki managed the highest score to win immunity after going head-to-head with the 2017 Young Chef of the Year, Alanna Sapwell, from Saint Peter in Sydney. Alanna was awarded 34 out of 40 for her dish with Loki finishing with a higher score thanks to a perfect 10 from Gary. Loki literally jumped for joy after the win, kissed Gary on the cheek and looked on stunned as Nigella stuck the pin on his apron. The audience of 877,000 was up on the previous Tuesday.
Shark Tank followed after revelations last week that the sharks don’t end up investing in all of the projects they bid for. Last night the dollars were being distributed freely with all eight entrepreneurs scoring a deal. The competition between the investors was fierce and Steve Baxter stormed off the set after missing out on three successive deals. The audience of 622,000 was well up on the launch audience of 506,000.
Two episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles followed with audiences of 262,000 and 147,000.
Stargazing Live got under way with hosts Brian Cox and Julia Zemiro at 8pm with 463,000 watching.
The Checkout: Factory Seconds was pushed back to 9pm and did 321,000 after 391,000 a week ago.
The 2017 doco The Secrets Of Silicon Valley then did 265,000.
Todd McKenney was the entertaining subject on Who Do You Think You Are? with 376,000 watching after 362,000 tuned in last week.
A repeat episode of last year’s Insight on solo parents followed on 221,000.
TUESDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 11.3% | 7 | 18.1% | 9 | 16.5% | TEN | 17.4% | SBS One | 5.6% |
ABC 2 | 3.1% | 7TWO | 3.6% | GO! | 3.8% | ONE | 2.9% | VICELAND | 0.8% |
ABC ME | 0.9% | 7mate | 4.5% | GEM | 3.7% | ELEVEN | 2.0% | Food Net | 0.8% |
ABC NEWS | 1.4% | 7flix | 1.8% | 9Life | 1.6% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
TOTAL | 16.7% | 27.9% | 25.6% | 22.4% | 7.4% |
TUESDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.6% | 7 | 20.4% | 9 | 13.4% | WIN | 13.3% | SBS One | 4.6% |
ABC 2 | 3.4% | 7TWO | 5.5% | GO! | 4.2% | ONE | 2.8% | VICELAND | 1.0% |
ABC ME | 1.3% | 7mate | 6.6% | GEM | 6.0% | ELEVEN | 2.3% | Food Net | 0.7% |
ABC NEWS | 0.9% | 7flix | 1.3% | 9Life | 1.4% | NITV | 0.3% | ||
TOTAL | 16.2% | 33.8% | 25.0% | 18.4% | 6.6% |
TUESDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
85.1% | 14.9% |
16-39 Top 5
18-49 Top 5
25-54 Top 5
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
The Japanese company will buy about 60% equity interest from a consortium led by from Mubadala Investment Co. for about US$2 billion, Sony said in a statement. The Tokyo-based company already owns almost 40% of EMI, operates the business and had been in talks to buy the library for the past few months.
EMI’s extensive catalog will solidify Sony’s position as the largest music publisher amid a boom in streaming services that has fuelled valuations for music copyrights.
Sony is paying $1.9 billion for the 60% equity stake from the consortium. With the cost of warrants for stock and management incentives, the price is $2.3 billion, a spokesman for the company said.
Mubadala said the EMI deal is based on an enterprise value of $4.75 billion, exceeding its target of getting at least $4 billion. That’s double what the Sony-led group, which also includes billionaire David Geffen, paid for the business six years ago. That makes the sale the largest music-industry transaction since the last time EMI changed hands.
Zuckerberg was questioned on Tuesday by political leaders and lawmakers at the European Parliament in Brussels for about 80 minutes.
His replies left them mostly frustrated. They used the last few minutes of the meeting to complain and accused him of giving general answers.
“I asked you six yes and no questions,” Philippe Lamberts, a Green party politician, said. “I got not a single answer.”
The setup of the meeting was largely to blame. The lawmakers were given three minutes each to ask their questions one after another. Zuckerberg was allotted time at the end to answer them.
As time ran out, Zuckerberg promised Facebook will respond to each of the lawmakers’ questions in writing in the “next few days”.
Zuckerberg pledged to double the number of people working on Facebook’s security and said the investment will “significantly impact [Facebook’s] profitability”.
“Keeping people safe will always come before maximising our profits,” he said.
Multiple members of the European Parliament pressed Zuckerberg on whether Facebook is a monopoly, with one asking whether the CEO could convince him that the company does not need to be broken up. Zuckerberg said Facebook exists “in a very competitive space”, pointing out people use different tools to communicate.
Despite the program beaming into Sydney from Melbourne most mornings, the show seemed to be steadying with a bigger share last survey, which was followed by what looked like team unity at a Sydney listener event last week. Although Grant Denyer did make that event, albeit late after filming commitments, he wasn’t well and didn’t make the show the following morning with all announcers to be in the one studio in Sydney.
The latest in-house angst is linked to Em Rusciano’s podcast with Wil Anderson where she talks frankly about being thrown on-air with her new colleagues and she also unloads on Sydney media.
The Daily Telegraph’s Kris Crane reported this morning that staff at SCA are refusing to work with Rusciano while co-host Ed Kavalee reportedly did not talk to her off-air on Tuesday.
The Wednesday morning show started with only Kavalee on air – he said Em and Grant were out making a waffle. He said that a special guest on the Wednesday show would be Wil Anderson. The trio were on-air together by the first break.
Anderson appeared in the first hour of the show, before he was due on-air at Triple M Melbourne’s Hot Breakfast. There was no mention of his podcast with Em with the interview plugging the next episode of Gruen.
Now judges Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston have spilt the beans on how they managed to secure the British royal for the Channel 10 cooking show.
“We didn’t know it was going to happen until the very last minute,” judge Gary Mehigan told Confidential. “I mean, why on earth would he do it? Why would he say yes?”
Mehigan revealed after a “a very, very long conversation” with Kensington Palace it was Prince Charles’s wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who got them over the line.
“She’s a massive MasterChef fan,” he said.
The West Australian brand joins as a shirt sponsor for all three forms of the game in a four-year deal to be announced today.
The governing body had been under pressure from its corporate partners after the ball tampering crisis with wealth management company Magellan ending a lucrative agreement one year into a three-year deal.
Qantas also expressed its disappointment but continued its shirt sponsorship deal. Magellan had held the naming rights for the Test series.