Business of Media
ABC boss David Anderson to be questioned by Senate over spending, including on the voice
ABC managing director David Anderson will be grilled at Tuesday’s Senate estimates hearing about costs to cover the voice referendum and Garma Festival in remote northeast Arnhem Land, staff salaries and legal and advertising expenditure, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
In a letter to Mr Anderson from Liberal senator Hollie Hughes last week and seen by The Australian, he was given advance notice to ensure he is prepared with the relevant answers.
Southern Cross courts wider interest as board reviews ARN deal
Southern Cross Austereo executives are aiming to drum up wider interest to counter a takeover bid from radio rival ARN Media and private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners lobbed last week, reports The Australian Financial Review’s Sam Buckingham-Jones and Zoe Samios.
Southern Cross shares leapt 20 per cent to 90¢ after ARN and Anchorage broke cover on a surprise offer to acquire the radio and TV network, divide up its assets between them, and create two new media entities.
See Also: Radio goes boom! ARN wants Triple M Network…will the SCA board play ball?
Choice of silk sees Lisa Wilkinson’s ties to 10 turn toxic
The split between Lisa Wilkinson and Channel 10 is becoming increasingly toxic, with legal sources suggesting the network’s refusal to pay her legal bills in the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann stems in part from ill-feeling towards the barrister she chose, Sue Chrysanthou SC, reports The Australian’s Stephen Rice.
The Project host is believed to have hired her own legal team because she felt the network was more interested in defending itself than her.
News Brands
BBC News deputy CEO says broadcaster ‘doubling down’ on getting language right in Israel-Hamas coverage
A senior member of staff at BBC News has admitted the corporation made a “mistake” while covering the immediate aftermath of the bombing of a hospital in Gaza City, reports The Press Gazette.
Hamas has blamed an Israeli air strike for the attack on Tuesday, while the Israeli military said al Ahli hospital was instead hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.
Former ABC political editor Andrew Probyn joins Nine
Former ABC political editor Andrew Probyn has joined 9 News as national affairs editor, working in the Canberra press gallery, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
In June, ABC management made Probyn’s political editor role redundant, alongside up to 120 other staff at the public broadcaster, with host of Insiders, David Speers taking the lead role in the capital, reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Calum Jaspan.
Entertainment
Review: The first look at Baz Luhrmann’s new TV series Faraway Downs
I’ve long wondered if Baz Luhrmann has Oscar Wilde’s mantra “nothing succeeds like excess” embroidered on scatter cushions all over his house, reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Sandra Hall.
The thought first occurred to me in 2008 when I saw his outback spectacular, Australia, which has now been re-fashioned as a four-hour TV series from the 1.1 million feet of film shot during the film’s making. Faraway Downs will unfold over six parts, or chapters, as Luhrmann calls them, with a score enhanced by the work of Indigenous composers and musicians and a new titles sequence featuring graphics redolent of the dust cover of a 1940s potboiler.
Strong first weekend for ‘Killers,’ but Taylor Swift was still No. 1
Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” opened this weekend in over 3,600 theatres, taking in an estimated $23 million in the United States and Canada. It’s the largest box office opening for the director since the $41.4 million opening for “Shutter Island” in February 2010 (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) and a special feat considering both its length — three and a half hours — and the lack of promotional support from its cast, which includes Mr. DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, because of the actors’ strike, reports The New York Times’ Nicole Sperling.