Business of Media
ABC exiting Twitter: Australia’s national broadcaster shuts down almost all accounts on Elon Musk’s X
The ABC is shutting down almost all of its official accounts on Twitter – now known as X under Elon Musk’s ownership – citing “toxic interactions”, cost and better interaction with ABC content on other social media platforms, reports The Guardian’s Amanda Meade.
There will only be four remaining official accounts for Australia’s public broadcaster: @abcnews, @abcsport, @abcchinese and the master @abcaustralia account. ABC Chinese reaches Chinese-speaking audiences on X.
“Starting from today, other ABC accounts will be discontinued,” the ABC managing director, David Anderson, has told staff.
Anderson said the closure of the Insiders, News Breakfast and ABC Politics accounts earlier this year limited the amount of toxic interactions, which had grown more prevalent under Musk and made engagement with the shows more positive.
Several high-profile ABC journalists left Twitter after being subjected to abuse, including News Breakfast host Lisa Millar and Australian Story host Leigh Sales.
What The New York Times’ results say about Australia’s media stocks
The New York Times Company reported its quarterly results on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), and the market was surprised to learn it had smashed its digital advertising revenue expectations, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Analysts expected the digital advertising market to suffer a low to mid-single-digit fall. Instead, it rose 6.5 per cent to $US73.8 million ($112.7 million), fuelling a better-than-forecast $US590.9 million in revenue for the Gray Lady in the three months to June 30. Print advertising fell 8.6 per cent to $US44 million.
Meredith Kopit Levien, chief executive of The New York Times Company, said its strategy to bundle news subscriptions with other products – cooking, games, product reviews and sports news website The Athletic – was working.
She said more than half the new digital subscribers added in the last quarter, about 180,000, subscribed to the entire bundle of products that the Times offered.
The result has buoyed the company’s rival, the News Corporation-owned Dow Jones and its flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal. “In our view, the better-than-expected ad revenue outcome for NYT is a positive indicator for News Corp’s Dow Jones segment,” E&P Capital analyst Entcho Raykovski wrote on Wednesday morning.
Radio
‘We’re full of love for each other’: Kate Langbroek on potential radio reunion with Dave Hughes
Kate Langbroek says she hasn’t given up on the prospect of a fairytale radio reunion with her former co-host Dave Hughes, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
The popular duo worked together across almost two decades, ruling the airwaves as Hughesy and Kate in breakfast and then in drive.
After she relocated to Italy she took time off radio and then returned to the 3pm Pick Up which was axed last year. Hughes is still heard on breakfast radio in Sydney.
“We’re full of love for each other and nothing is off the table for us,’’ Langbroek said.
“I love Hugh. I’m not doing radio at the moment but I will always love radio because it’s such a natural medium for me.”
Television
‘Bring back Pang’: When fans will see Logies’ host on TV again
Where the hell is Sam Pang? The king of the 2023 Logies has been missing in action from his television day jobs since hosting the awards 10 days ago, reports News Corp’s Lisa Woolford.
While most hosts only go to ground after they’ve had a bad gig, the hilarious Pang – who skewered everyone from Karl Stefanovic to David Koch – should have been doing a victory lap after the Logies.
Or maybe he exhausted his reservoir of top-shelf jokes at the Logies and had nothing left to give as a panellist on Seven’s The Front Bar and Ten’s Have You Been Paying Attention?
Pang missed his regular appearances on both shows last week after TV’s night of nights, and was again a no-show this week.
And his legion of fans are asking why, with many flooding social media inquiring about his absence and demanding to know “Where is Pang? and “Please come back Sam”.
According to his Seven reps, Pang booked travel insurance before his big Logies gig.
Seven confirmed he’d be back with his mates Mick Molloy and Andy Maher on the network’s popular AFL show The Front Bar “in a few weeks”.
ABC’s Garma Special Q+A delivers show’s lowest audience
A special edition of Q+A at the Garma Festival has delivered the ABC the show’s lowest-ever number of viewers, with a five-city metro audience of 84,000 on Monday night, in the face of stiff competition from the Matildas, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
Including regional viewers of 32,000, the national audience was 116,000 (excluding streaming), according to ratings agency OzTam.
Almost 2.3 million metro viewers watched the Matildas beat Denmark 2-0 in Seven’s World Cup coverage in the same 9.35pm time slot on Monday, making it the highest-rating TV program of 2023.
The “total TV” audience, which includes metro, regional and streaming viewers is not available, as it did not rank in the top 30 programs on the night.
Q+A has faced two successive weeks of clashes with the Matildas, with 143,000 viewers for last week’s episode across the five key cities, plus 51,000 across the rest of Australia.
Tipping Point ripe to replace Hot Seat
Nine’s likely plans for its 5pm timeslot in 2024 are looking much clearer with confirmation that a local version of Tipping Point will be filmed in Melbourne, reports TV Tonight.
Casting by Endemol Shine Australia is underway for a local series filming from October.
“To be involved all you need is a fun positive personality, a good level of general knowledge and to be above the age of 18,” a casting notice announced.
The oddly hypnotic, slow-burn UK game show sees Ben Shephard test contestants on general knowledge to win counters which they use on a large coin pusher arcade-style machine. It currently screens at 3pm on Nine and often inches into the daily Top 20 shows.
Sports Media
Star Swans player’s gambling podcast sparks watchdog scrutiny
The NSW gambling regulator has contacted the Sydney Swans to express its concerns about a newly launched betting podcast by one of the club’s star players, reports Nine Publishing’s Mark Di Stefano.
Tom Papley went to air with the podcast called The Early Crow last week, which features himself and a professional bookmaker providing sport and racing tips, and discussing their lives as “two punting obsessed humans just trying to find a way”.
The duo repeatedly mock responsible gambling and joke about rorting online bookmakers’ special deals. Swans defender Nick Blakey also appears on the first episode, introduced by Papley as a “gun NRL punter”.
The Sydney Swans signed up to the NSW government’s anti-gambling Reclaim the Game initiative earlier this year, publicly swearing off betting sponsors in an effort to combat the “normalisation of sports betting”.
The Office of Responsible Gambling, which sits within the NSW gaming regulator, runs the program and raised the podcast directly with the Swans.
“While there is no affiliation between the Swans and the aforementioned podcast, we have raised concerns directly with the Swans, who are treating the matter very seriously,” a spokesperson for the Office of Responsible Gambling said.