Business of Media
“The longest TV negotiation I have ever seen”: Behind Kate Bush’s ‘Stranger Things’ sync deal
Kate Bush’s 1985 single Running Up That Hill has been given “a whole new lease of life” with its starring role in a crucial scene of season four of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the music star said in June. Soon after, the song topped charts in multiple countries, setting records in the process, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai.
The success of the integration has put a renewed spotlight on sync (or synchronization) deals, which place music into TV series, films, video games or other content, and which have been energized by, among other things, the growth of streaming video services. (In 2021, sync royalties for licensing songs in media including TV shows and movies totaled $302.9 million, up 14 percent from $265.2 million a year earlier.)
“TV in general has exploded in the last three or four years, because of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney and because everybody else is trying to get into this space,” Tim Miles, senior vp sync, U.K. and Europe, at Warner Music Group tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But we have never seen anything like this in terms of getting a number one record,” adds Tom Gallacher, senior director, digital & marketing at Rhino, Warner Music’s catalog arm. Warner Music and Rhino distribute music from Bush’s label, Noble and Brite.
Crikey owner goes to war with Lachlan Murdoch
Private Media, which owns news website Crikey, has published private legal correspondence with Lachlan Murdoch and will effectively dare the media mogul to sue over an article that linked his family to the January 6 Capitol attacks, reports Nine Publishing’s Mark Di Stefano.
The explosive manoeuvres from the small subscription-based outfit, which includes taking out an advertisement in The New York Times, will set up a potential blockbuster defamation battle against Murdoch – whose own Fox News is the subject of a major defamation lawsuit over alleged false claims related to the 2020 US election.
“We are publishing all legal demands and accusations from your lawyer, and the replies from our lawyers, in full, so people can judge your allegations for themselves,” reads the advertisement, which is due to run in the local news section of The New York Times. “We await your writ so that we can test this important issue of public interest journalism in a courtroom.”
Agencies
Havas Blvd to manage consumer and lifestyle communications for Lexus Melbourne Cup
Havas Blvd, the brand experience and production agency of Havas Australia, has been appointed to manage consumer and lifestyle communications of Lexus’s sponsorship of the Melbourne Cup.
This includes the Japanese carmaker’s presence in Flemington’s Birdcage enclosure during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
This year’s Lexus Melbourne Cup is a milestone for Lexus, marking the 20th year of its partnership with the Victoria Racing Club and its fifth as principal partner with naming rights to the race that stops the nation.
News Brands
Top 50 most popular news sites in the world in July: New York Times only top ten site to see year-on-year growth
The New York Times was the only top ten news site to grow its worldwide audience year-on-year in July and was the fastest grower among the overall top 50, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of global online traffic to English language newsbrands, reports Press Gazette’s Aisha Majid.
Visits to nytimes.com were up 27% year-on-year to 436.5 million, according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb.
Every other top ten site by number of visits in contrast saw year-on-year traffic falls, with five sites (Google News, foxnews.com, theguardian.com, Yahoo Finance and the BBC) all seeing double-digit declines in visits. The BBC’s sites bbc.com and bbc.co.uk recorded the largest fall among the top ten (1.1 billion visits, down 17%).
The BBC remained the largest site by number of visits in the top 50. It was followed by msn.com (870.3m visits, down 5%), cnn.com and edition.cnn.com (585.5m visits, down 7%), Google News (490.2 million visits, down 10%) and nytimes.com (436.5 million, down 3%). Similarweb’s data captures visits to all content on the BBC’s primary sites – not just news.
Radio
SCA priming Abbie Chatfield to take on Kyle, Jackie ‘O’ as breakfast radio saviour: insiders
Southern Cross Austereo is in “desperate” need of a radio wildcard, with industry speculation Abbie Chatfield could soon take on Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson in the all important breakfast market, reports News Corp’s Mikaela Wilkes.
Well placed radio executives told The Daily Telegraph that SCA, parent company of station 2Day FM, is priming ‘It’ girl Chatfield to take over a breakfast slot in 2024 in a bid to salvage a decade-long ratings spiral.
“They’ll definitely make a play for Abbie in 2024,” the executive said.
“They were in discussions for next year,” but haven’t yet come up with the perfect on-air partner.
“She’ll want someone young, fresh, modern, relatable … like her.”
Television
HBO Max Crashes for thousands in the minutes after ‘House of the Dragon’ premieres
The HBO Max streaming service crashed for thousands of users when House of the Dragon, a long-awaited Game of Thrones prequel series, made its debut on Sunday night, according to HBO and Downdetector, which tracks website outages, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Alyssa Lukpat.
Game of Thrones fans had been eagerly waiting for new content since the series finished in 2019, but for some viewers on Sunday night, the wait lasted a little longer. There were more than 3,700 reports of HBO Max being down in the minutes after House of the Dragon premiered, according to Downdetector.
An HBO Max spokesman said that the show had been watched by millions of viewers on Sunday night.
“We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices that are having issues,” he said, “and are in the process of resolving for those impacted users.” Fire TV is a line of video-streaming devices owned by Amazon.com Inc.
Scott Cam had ‘no idea’ about Block contestant’s connection to alleged drug kingpin
The Block host Scott Cam has said he was completely unaware a contestant on the popular renovation show was connected to an alleged Sydney drug kingpin, reports News Corp’s Bella Fowler.
It comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed one half of the team renovating House 5, Omar Slaimankhel, was in the car when alleged cocaine importer Mostafa Baluch tossed his ankle monitor last year, prompting one of Australia’s most intense manhunts in recent history.
After being driven by Slaimankhel last October, Sydney restaurateur Baluch was on the run for 16 days until he was found hiding in a Mercedes parked inside a shipping container on the back of a truck, allegedly attempting to cross the border to Queensland.
Shaynna Blaze bashed in assault horror while walking dog
A man has been jailed for 100 days over a terrifying assault on The Block star Shaynna Blaze who was walking her dog when the assailant randomly attacked her from behind, reports News Corp’s Ashley Argoon.
Mark Christopher Surmon, 40, was found guilty of unlawful assault after he struck the TV star to the back of the head and punched her to the left cheek, causing her to fall face down on her chin.
When she screamed, court documents show Surmon “attempted to quieten her by putting his hand around her face and mouth” during the attack on April 18, 2020.
“He placed pressure on her shoulders to keep her down while this occurred,” Detective Senior Constable John Connor told the County Court.
The high-profile designer had “no opportunity to run” during the “unprovoked attack”, he said.