Six stars will contest the TV Week Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality On Australian Television, as voted by the public. The nominees are broadcasting legend Amanda Keller, leading actors Jessica Marais and Rodger Corser, journalist and presenter Tracy Grimshaw, game show host Grant Denyer and real estate and lifestyle expert Andrew Winter.
This year live voting will take place for Most Popular nominees from Monday June 25 up until the end of the red-carpet telecast on Sunday July 1.
Voting for the nominees will take place at tvweeklogieawards.com.au.
“I would like to congratulate all this year’s nominees,” TV Week editor Thomas Woodgate said at the nominations announcement event at Nineteen at The Star. “The list proves what an exceptional year of TV we have enjoyed. I expect the race in all the Most Popular awards to go right down to the wire, so I urge everyone to get voting once again when live voting reopens on June 25 to make their votes count.”
See also: Logies shock! Date announced, eligibility changes categories slashed
Full list of nominations for the 2018 TV WEEK Logie Awards:
TV WEEK GOLD LOGIE – MOST POPULAR PERSONALITY ON AUSTRALIAN TV
Amanda Keller (The Living Room, Network Ten)
Andrew Winter (Love It Or List It Australia/Selling Houses Australia, Foxtel – Lifestyle)
Grant Denyer (Family Feud/All Star Family Feud, Network Ten)
Jessica Marais (Love Child, Nine Network; The Wrong Girl, Network Ten)
Rodger Corser (Doctor Doctor, Nine Network)
Tracy Grimshaw (A Current Affair, Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR ACTOR
Aaron Jeffery (Underbelly Files: Chopper, Nine Network)
Erik Thomson (800 Words, Channel Seven)
Luke McGregor (Rosehaven, ABC)
Ray Meagher (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Rodger Corser (Doctor Doctor, Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR ACTRESS
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten)
Celia Pacquola (Rosehaven/Utopia, ABC)
Deborah Mailman (Cleverman, ABC)
Jessica Marais (Love Child, Nine Network; The Wrong Girl, Network Ten)
Julia Morris (House Husbands, Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR PRESENTER
Amanda Keller (The Living Room, Network Ten)
Andrew Winter (Love It Or List It Australia/Selling Houses Australia, Foxtel – Lifestyle)
Carrie Bickmore (The Project, Network Ten)
Grant Denyer (Family Feud/All Star Family Feud, Network Ten)
Tracy Grimshaw (A Current Affair, Nine Network)
GRAHAM KENNEDY AWARD FOR MOST POPULAR NEW TALENT
Dilruk Jayasinha (CRAM!, Network Ten; Utopia, ABC)
Matty Johnson (The Living Room, Network Ten)
Sam Frost (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Sophia Forrest (Love Child, Nine Network)
Sophie Dillman (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
MOST POPULAR DRAMA PROGRAM
Doctor Doctor (Nine Network)
Home And Away (Channel Seven)
Love Child (Nine Network)
Offspring (Network Ten)
Wentworth (Foxtel – Showcase)
MOST POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
Anh’s Brush With Fame (ABC)
Family Feud (Network Ten)
Gogglebox Australia (Foxtel/Network Ten)
Hard Quiz (ABC)
The Project (Network Ten)
MOST POPULAR COMEDY PROGRAM
Have You Been Paying Attention? (Network Ten)
Here Come The Habibs (Nine Network)
Hughesy, We Have A Problem (Network Ten)
Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (ABC)
True Story With Hamish & Andy (Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR REALITY PROGRAM
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! (Network Ten)
Married At First Sight (Nine Network)
My Kitchen Rules (Channel Seven)
The Block (Nine Network)
Travel Guides (Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR LIFESTYLE PROGRAM
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)
Gardening Australia (ABC)
Selling Houses Australia (Foxtel – Lifestyle)
The Checkout (ABC)
The Living Room (Network Ten)
MOST OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
A Place To Call Home (Foxtel – Showcase)
Doctor Doctor (Nine Network)
Harrow (ABC)
Top Of The Lake: China Girl (Foxtel – BBC First)
Wentworth (Foxtel – Showcase)
MOST OUTSTANDING MINISERIES OR TELEMOVIE
Romper Stomper (Stan)
Safe Harbour (SBS)
Seven Types Of Ambiguity (ABC)
Underbelly Files: Chopper (Nine Network)
Wake In Fright (Network Ten)
MOST OUTSTANDING ACTOR
Damon Herriman (Lance Gowland, Riot, ABC)
Ewen Leslie (Ryan Gallagher, Safe Harbour, SBS)
Hugo Weaving (Alex Klima, Seven Types Of Ambiguity, ABC)
Lachy Hulme (Blake Farron, Romper Stomper, Stan)
Rodger Corser (Hugh Knight, Doctor Doctor, Nine Network)
MOST OUTSTANDING ACTRESS
Elisabeth Moss (Robin Griffin, Top Of The Lake: China Girl, Foxtel – BBC First)
Kate Atkinson (Vera Bennett, Wentworth, Foxtel – Showcase)
Kate Box (Marg McCann, Riot, ABC)
Leeanna Walsman (Bree Gallagher, Safe Harbour, SBS)
Pamela Rabe (Joan Ferguson, Wentworth, Foxtel – Showcase)
MOST OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR
Aaron Pedersen (Frank Gibbs, A Place To Call Home, Foxtel – Showcase)
Alex Dimitriades (Doc Tydon, Wake In Fright, Network Ten)
Anthony Hayes (Mitch, Seven Types Of Ambiguity, ABC)
David Wenham (Jago Zoric, Romper Stomper, Stan)
Hazem Shammas (Ismail Al-Bayati, Safe Harbour, SBS)
MOST OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Celia Ireland (Liz Birdsworth, Wentworth, Foxtel – Showcase)
Elsa Cocquerel (Michelle, Wolf Creek, Stan)
Jacqueline McKenzie (Gabe Jordan, Romper Stomper, Stan)
Jenni Baird (Regina Standish, A Place To Call Home, Foxtel – Showcase)
Nicole Chamoun (Zahra Al-Bayati, Safe Harbour, SBS)
MOST OUTSTANDING CHILDREN’S PROGRAM
Crash The Bash (Foxtel – Nickelodeon)
Get Arty (Channel Seven)
Grace Beside Me (NITV)
Little J & Big Cuz (NITV)
Mustangs FC (ABC ME)
MOST OUTSTANDING SPORTS COVERAGE
2017 AFL Grand Final (Channel Seven)
2017 Australian Open Men’s Final (Channel Seven)
Bathurst 1000 (Network Ten)
Jeff Horn v Manny Pacquiao (Foxtel – MAIN EVENT)
The 2017/2018 Ashes (Nine Network)
MOST OUTSTANDING NEWS COVERAGE OR PUBLIC AFFAIRS REPORT
“Don Burke Special” (A Current Affair, Nine Network)
“Escape From Salt Creek” (60 Minutes, Nine Network)
“Haiti Uncovered” (Sunday Night, Channel Seven)
“Pumped” (Four Corners, ABC)
“The Siege” (Four Corners, ABC)
MOST OUTSTANDING FACTUAL OR DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Michael Hutchence: The Last Rockstar (Channel Seven)
Struggle Street (SBS)
The Queen & Zak Grieve (Foxtel – Crime + Investigation)
War On Waste (ABC)
You Can’t Ask That (ABC)
By James Manning
Any doubts that the TV Week Logie Awards might have trouble luring stars to its new home on the Gold Coast were blown out of the surf yesterday when five of the six Gold Logie nominees travelled to the Goldie for the announcement ceremony.
SEE MORE: 2018 TV Week Logie Awards nominees announced
Ironically the only person missing was Gold Coast local Andrew Winter, who was unwell and unable to attend.
TV Week editor Thomas Woodgate said there were many surprised that both Amanda Keller and Andrew Winter were nominated. “There were less people surprised to see Tracy Grimshaw nominated, given her support from Nine colleagues,” Woodgate told Mediaweek shortly after the nominees were revealed.
“Amanda, Andrew and Tracy have not been nominated before and when you add them to Rodger Corser, Grant Denyer and Jessica Marais it is a very strong list and I am very happy with it.”
—
This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here, or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.
Top photo: The 2018 Gold Logie nominees (minus Andrew Winter) – Grant Denyer, Tracy Grimshaw, Amanda Keller, Rodger Corser and Jessica Marais
In an email to staff on Friday the following changes were detailed:
Current Fiveaa program director Craig Munn has been appointed to the role of station manager Fiveaa and current sales director Katie Bridges has been appointed to the new role of commercial director and market lead.
Nova Entertainment said the re-organisation has been designed to ensure that the specific needs of each of the local stations’ clients and audiences are met.
The role of general manager has been abolished, which means current Adelaide general manager Neil O’Reilly will be leaving Nova Entertainment at the end of June.
CEO Cathy O’Connor told staff: “Neil has made a strong contribution to our Adelaide stations and has been passionate about local listeners and local advertisers. We wish him the best as he moves on to the next stage of his career…”
Neil O’Reilly said: “I’ve had nothing but great experiences as leader of these two iconic Adelaide radio brands and I’m looking forward to a new challenge. Both Katie and Craig are well qualified to lead this next era of Nova Entertainment in Adelaide.”
Now in their sixth year, the 2018 Women of the Future awards will recognise women aged 18-35 with a business, innovation or charity idea, competing for an overall prize pool of $200,000. This year’s award categories are Innovation and Technology, Entrepreneur and Business, and Community Health and Charity.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, media personalities Ita Buttrose and Lisa Wilkinson, and The Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Nicole Byers return as judges for the awards. The new members joining them on the panel are deputy leader of the opposition Tanya Plibersek, AGL’s Stakeholder Relations executive general manager Lisa Harrington and OzHarvest Australia founder and CEO Ronni Kahn.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with AGL on the Women of the Future initiative,” said The Australian Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Nicole Byers. “These awards showcase The Weekly’s long-standing engagement to support and promote the leaders of tomorrow, and with AGL’s work to create a future of equality, the partnership makes perfect sense. We’re also very pleased to welcome Tanya, Lisa and Ronni to the judging panel.”
Tlozek’s new role as Jerusalem-based correspondent follows his posting in Papua New Guinea, where stories he broke included the Manus Island detention centre and PNG’s political crisis.
Harvey’s role as Beirut-based correspondent will follow his current posting in Jakarta, where he covered security threats and terror attacks, an increasingly assertive China, and the violent populism of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.
In June last year Harvey also became the story when he was shot in the neck while covering the battle for Marawi in the Philippines.
Tlozek and Harvey take over the Middle East posts from Matt Brown and Sophie McNeill, who both won multiple awards for their reporting from the region.
McNeill has joined Four Corners while Brown remains in the Middle East in a role yet to be revealed.
The starting dates for the postings will be announced in the coming weeks, as will recruitment details for both the Jakarta and the Port Moresby roles.
—
Top photo: Eric Tlozek and Adam Harvey
More than 200 fans watched the Australian band perform live. Nova’s nightly host Kent “Smallzy” Small was the emcee for the event.
Members of 5SOS – Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin and Michael Clifford – performed five songs including their upcoming single “Valentine”, which was leaked earlier this year. The set list for the night was: “Girls Talk Boys”, “Valentine”, “Youngblood”, “Jet Black Heart” and “Want You Back”.
“I don’t suppose anyone listened to the leaked version? No? No,” Hemmings joked.
By James Manning
Singles
After a chart year so far dominated by international superstars, how refreshing is it to get an Aussie act at the top? After six weeks on the chart, and buoyed by a visit home, 5 Seconds Of Summer have worked their way to the top with “Youngblood”, up from #3 last week. The song is the first Aussie hit to top the singles chart in close to two years (with The Veronicas’ “In My Blood” in July 2016). It is also the second 5SOS #1 single here after “She Looks So Perfect” in March 2014. It’s a remarkable achievement this week from 5SOS when you look at the other talent and chart-pulling power of the artists who could have been #1 this week – Post Malone, Childish Gambino, Calvin Harris, Drake (again), Ariana Grande, the deserving Amy Shark or Khalid.
5SOS played in Sydney for Nova’s Red Room last week. See photos from the event above.
Just three artists debuted inside the top 50 this week:
#36: BTS with “Fake Love”. The K-pop superstars also made a splash on the album chart this week.
#39: Clean Bandit with “Solo” featuring Nicki Minaj
#50: Backstreet Boys with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”
First of all, congratulations to Post Malone for pushing “Beerbongs & Bentleys” back to #1 for the second time in four weeks. But really, at what cost?
That chart resurgence has cost Courtney Barnett a chart-topping debut with her second album “Tell Me How You Really Feel”. However, landing at #2 already ranks it a stronger performer than “Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit”, which peaked at #4 in 2015. Her well-reviewed new album is a joy to listen to and hopefully it will linger on the chart for some time.
There were six new arrivals in the top 50 this week, four of them hitting the top 10. The other five are:
#4 Five Finger Death Punch with “And Justice For None” – another unrelenting metal band from Las Vegas.
#6 BTS with “Love Yourself: Tear” – a solid debut for the massive K-pop masters.
#9 Deadpool 2 soundtrack, which joins plenty of movie music still hanging around the chart including Moana at 75 weeks.
#14 James Bay with “Electric Light”. Mixed opinions have greeted the release of Bay’s second album.
#45 West Thebarton with “Different Things Being Different” – the debut album from Adelaide hard rockers.
—
Top photos: 5SOS at Nova’s Red Room last week, Courtney Barnett (credit: Rene Oonk / Shutterstock)
By James Manning
Seven finished first with a primary channel lead of 1.1 over Nine, while Seven had a clear lead in combined channel share with 30.0% to Nine’s 26.7%.
Nine was again leading the week in primary share after five nights, but the AFL helped secure Seven a lead on Friday, which then increased on Saturday.
Nigella Lawson Week on MasterChef helped TEN secure its best share since January. MasterChef was also the #1 non-news program for the week all people and the network had the top three shows 25-54 with Have You Been Paying Attention ranking #1.
By James Manning
House Rules contestants were rushing to finish their rooms in Maryborough, Queensland, which created some nasty friction amongst the players before they heard from the judges. David and Chiara shocked the judges and finished on top of the leaderboard with 23 points. The audience of 795,000 was close to the Sunday crowd of 798,000 a week ago.
Jacqui Lambie was a star attraction on Sunday Night with host Melissa Doyle back from her royal wedding triumph as the show did 444,000.
Crimes That Shook The World then did 188,000.
The second episode of the live finals of The Voice started with Aydan Calafiore and again it was Boy George offering the most realistic review of what the audience had just heard. Maybe that wasn’t true of his comments throughout the whole night though! The episode did 896,000 after 875,000 in this timeslot a week ago.
Tara Brown led 60 Minutes with a special episode looking at the police investigation into the murder of schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer. The episode did 721,000. Although the episode of 60 Minutes that screened a week ago initially reported an overnight metro audience of 777,000, it was later corrected to 428,000 because of The Voice running over time.
Love Island started on Go! last night with Sophie Monk on hosting duties in Mallorca, Spain. The series also got a late night repeat on Nine. The numbers: 155,000 on Go! and then 246,000 on Nine.
The Sunday edition of The Project featured TEN’s Gold Logie nominees Amanda Keller and Grant Denyer live from the Gold Coast with 479,000 watching, which was enough for a top 10 finish.
MasterChef started Gordon Ramsay week with a mystery box challenge that delivered some intriguing dishes and a barrage of beeped F-bombs. Sashi Cheliah performed best and secured a place in the next immunity challenge. There was then another round to identify two who would join him and also to identify three who would be on Monday’s pressure test to face elimination. The Sunday audience of 903,000 was the second-best audience this season. The episode was a clear leader in all demos for the night.
Roseanne followed on 392,000 after 400,000 a week ago.
NCIS then did 213,000.
Attenborough And The Evil Empire Of The Ants did 541,000 with Sir David in the Swiss Jura Mountains.
The final of the three-part UK drama Agatha Christie’s Ordeal By Innocence was on 469,000.
The 7.30 doco slot was filled by Britain’s Pompeii and the repeat episode After Stonehenge on 225,000.
The 8.30pm doco on the king followed with 192,000 watching Elvis Presley: The Searcher.
SUNDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.7% | 7 | 17.5% | 9 | 23.7% | TEN | 14.5% | SBS One | 5.0% |
ABC 2 | 2.1% | 7TWO | 3.3% | GO! | 3.6% | ONE | 2.6% | VICELAND | 0.5% |
ABC ME | 0.5% | 7mate | 5.2% | GEM | 3.2% | ELEVEN | 2.4% | Food Net | 0.4% |
ABC NEWS | 1.3% | 7flix | 1.8% | 9Life | 1.5% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 14.5% | 27.8% | 32.1% | 19.5% | 6.1% |
SUNDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.4% | 7 | 19.1% | 9 | 21.8% | WIN | 11.7% | SBS One | 4.0% |
ABC 2 | 2.4% | 7TWO | 4.1% | GO! | 4.1% | ONE | 2.3% | VICELAND | 1.0% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 5.2% | GEM | 5.3% | ELEVEN | 2.3% | Food Net | 0.6% |
ABC NEWS | 0.9% | 7flix | 1.7% | 9Life | 2.1% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
TOTAL | 14.7% | 30.1% | 33.3% | 16.3% | 5.8% |
SUNDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
84.4% | 15.6% |
Friday FTA
Saturday FTA
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 move comes after the 2018 Starcom Media Future report showed that very positive brand experiences have 10 times the impact on consumer brand choice. Return on Experience (ROE) is an additional measure that works in tandem with Return On Investment (ROI).
Simone Galletly joins Starcom as national planning director from parent company Publicis Groupe, where she was the global strategy director, based in London. Stu Carr returns to Starcom from Publicis Media’s analytics department. Carr has been appointed to the role of national head of measurement. Meanwhile, Nancy Lan has been promoted to national commercial partnerships director. She was previously Sydney agency director at the company. All three appointments will report to Barbour.
“These appointments will strengthen our national leadership team as we deliver on our strategy of client-obsessed value creation and Return on Experience. The findings from our 2018 Media Futures report, the only study of its kind that uses a combination of consumer and industry research with marketers and media owners, has evolved our focus for client investment,” Barbour said.
“We will apply our insights to closing the expectation gap by satisfying the tension between what people want and what brands need to create – connected experiences that drive human and business outcomes. The ROE framework will be a key indicator of our business success. I am delighted to announce Simone, Stu and Nancy to these new roles and I am confident they will help create the next level of insights for clients as we look to deliver the best brand experiences for consumers.”
These additional leadership team appointments join recently appointed Melbourne managing director Stuart Jaffray, who was previously BMW general manager of marketing.
In this role, Clarke will oversee entertainment and lifestyle content and editorial strategy for the BuzzFeed brand in Australia. She will lead the team of writers, editors, video producers and social media specialists who create content for BuzzFeed’s cross-platform network.
With a journalism career spanning more than 13 years, Clarke has held roles at Fairfax Media, Southern Cross Austereo, Seven and Nova 93.7. Most recently, she was the digital managing editor at Bauer Media, overseeing titles including Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan Australia.
Clarke will report into BuzzFeed Australia’s general manager and editor-in-chief Simon Crerar.
“We’re thrilled to have Jenna joining the BuzzFeed team. She brings such a wealth of knowledge across print, TV, radio and digital publishing, and deep experience gained from so many Australian entertainment and lifestyle brands. Jenna’s the ideal person to take BuzzFeed’s entertainment content to the next level here in Australia,” said Crerar.
Clarke will join BuzzFeed’s Sydney-based team on June 25.
For two weeks from Monday May 28, News Corp Australia will run half-page and medium strip print ads in support of Reconciliation Australia and National Reconciliation Week. It will promote this year’s theme, Don’t Keep History a Mystery.
Penny Fowler, News Corp Australia’s community ambassador and Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Working Group chair, said: “We will always tell the stories that inform, advocate and inspire people to build a better Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and all Australians.
“We are proud to support Reconciliation Australia and National Reconciliation Week by ensuring the message of encouraging curiosity and ongoing learning about our history are front and centre with our audience of over 16 million Australians.
“Reconciliation is not primarily the business of corporations or even governments – it’s everybody’s business – and at News Corp Australia, we take this responsibility very seriously.”
Reconciliation Australia CEO Karen Mundine said: “Don’t Keep History a Mystery is a call to action, prompting Australians to learn more about our shared history. In turn, we hope this will bring more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the broader Australian community together to promote a unified nation.”
Contrary to popular myth, the recording rights to “C’mon Aussie” are not owned by the estate of the late Packer, John “Strop” Cornell or Nine.
Instead, The Australian can reveal the rights were signed over by Packer and Cornell to the composers who wrote the song, Allan “Jo” Johnston and the late Alan “Mo” Morris – better known in combination as “Mojo” – in 1978.
Now, exactly 40 years after the original song was written in the dawn of Packer’s World Series Cricket, Johnston has written and sung a new version of the anthem to familiarise the public with Australia’s new-look cricket team, and to lift fans’ spirits in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal.
The audio of the new version, “C’mon Aussie Revisited”, exclusively unveiled on theaustralian.com.au today, references everyone from captain Tim Paine, to fast bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins and spinner Nathan Lyon. Paine tonight begins his first full tour as captain when the team flies to England for a one-day series.
The channel will offer programming from Sky News, Fox Sports News and Sky Weather and will be seen across the WIN Network’s 29 markets. No date has been revealed for the launch.
The details of the partnership come on the day that the Sky News offerings change channels on the Foxtel platform.
Sky News Live now broadcasts across two channels – 103 and 600.
Sky News Business is now located at channel 601.
Fox Sports News is now available on channel 602, as well as remaining on channel 500.
Sky News Weather still calls channel 603 home.
Sky News Extra, formally A-PAC, now broadcasts on channel 604.
Sky News UK HD has launched as a stand-alone channel on 605.
Sky News Live is now also available as an audio stream with a new online radio platform.
The Weekend Australian understands the rights have been won by Seven’s Sunday Night, after a bidding war with Nine’s 60 Minutes, reports Nick Tabakoff.
It is believed Seven paid about $150,000 for the interview.
Joyce, who had been on a salary of more than $416,000 as deputy prime minister, now receives a backbencher’s base salary of $203,030, and has also lost a series of perks that went with his former role.
He is also writing a political memoir for Melbourne University Press, the sales of which will help cushion the financial blow and deal with the potential implications of his upcoming divorce.
The Treasury’s competitive neutrality review and a three-year freeze to the ABC’s funding present an opportunity for the national broadcaster to cease its endless expansion and refocus on its core mission of providing services that can’t easily be provided by the private and community sectors.
Unfortunately, rather than making the tough decisions necessary, the ABC has instead chosen to respond with a clumsy attempt at political blackmail.
This shows why the ABC charter must be amended by parliament to ensure it delivers services that can’t be met by non-government providers, rather than the continued creation of a giant media conglomerate that is already making our media landscape less diverse.
Aaron Patrick in The AFR:
Power doesn’t last forever. Most of the Murdoch family empire is being sold, son Lachlan has been crowned heir of what’s left, and Murdoch’s ageing court has mostly dissipated. The time has come, finally, for some insiders to start sharing their Murdoch stories.
The first comes from someone who could barely be closer to the Sun King, Leslie Hinton. (Apart from family, perhaps only News Corp CEO Robert Thomson became closer.) “The Bootle Boy” describes Hinton’s journey from working-class son of a British army cook, to Adelaide Advertiser copy boy, to CEO of Dow Jones, the publisher that owns The Wall Street Journal.
Mark Day in The Australian:
Leslie Hinton has always had a way with words. As a copy boy and newspaper cadet in Adelaide in the early 1960s he frequently declared his only ambition in life was to be a reporter – the best newspaper writer he could be.
His ambition was derailed. He became a manager, first with Rupert Murdoch’s US publishing and broadcasting interests, then for 12 years as the head of News International in London, before taking over as the chief executive of Dow Jones, owner of The Wall Street Journal.
His career ended when he resigned – fell on his sword – after the extent of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal became apparent in 2011. He declares he did not know what was happening, but it happened on his watch and so the honourable thing to do was to offer his resignation.
Fleming played for Australia across Tests and ODIs including a Test hat-trick on debut and a key role in the 1999 World Cup winning team. After his playing career he’s worked in the commentary box on television and radio where fans have enjoyed his entertaining and insightful “bowlology” theories.
Damien Fleming commented:
“Channel 7 has delivered iconic sports coverage to Australians for many years so it’s very exciting to have the opportunity to join its cricket broadcast team and contribute to something really special.
“It will be exciting to continue my relationship with Ricky Ponting in the commentary box and I’m sure all Aussie cricket fans will enjoy the innovative new coverage Seven will be bringing to Big Bash and Test match cricket.”
Seven head of cricket Dave Barham said:
“There was no ‘avenue of apprehension’ when it came to getting Flem to Seven. He is a highly entertaining commentator with theories and expressions that resonate with fans, and cricket and bowling knowledge that’s second to none.”
The Fleming signing follows the recent announcement that Ricky Ponting will call Test matches and BBL on Seven.
The deal would see Amazon broadcast the tournament, named after Australian tennis great Rod Laver, in Australia via its Prime Video service, which launched in 2016, as revealed by the Financial Review, ahead of Amazon’s wider launch late last year.