Business of Media
‘Political interference’: Ita Buttrose slams ABC inquiry
ABC chairman Ita Buttrose has labelled a Senate inquiry into its complaints handling process a “blatant attempt to usurp the role” of the board and undermine the public broadcaster’s operational independence, reports AFR’s Miranda Ward.
The inquiry was announced late last week by Senator Andrew Bragg with the aim to examine “the adequacy of the existing arrangements to provide a framework that is accessible, responsive, efficient, accountable and fit-for-purpose”.
Buttrose has asked the Senate to terminate or suspend the inquiry until its own independent process commissioned by the ABC board last month has been completed.
The ABC recruited a former Commonwealth ombudsman, Professor John McMillan, and former SBS, Seven and Ten news boss Jim Carroll to review how it handles complaints
Buttrose commissioned the external review following scrutiny from federal and state politicians about how the ABC’s internal division reviews complaints about its programs, including the Ghost Train series focusing on the 1979 Luna Park tragedy.
Coalition senator Andrew Bragg goes ‘rogue’ on ABC
The Coalition senator who announced an inquiry into the ABC’s complaints handling procedures is understood to have been rapped over the knuckles by the Prime Minister’s office at the weekend, reports News Corp’s Nick Tabakoff.
NSW senator Andrew Bragg announced the ABC complaints inquiry last week, prompting the public broadcaster’s chair, Ita Buttrose, on Sunday to accuse the government of “political interference”.
But some senior government sources are furious with Senator Bragg, and have told The Australian they believe he went “rogue” in announcing the inquiry in the first place.
Regional Communications Minister Bridget McKenzie’s push to change ABC
Drawing a larger cohort of reporters from regional areas, moving the ABC’s offices out of Ultimo and Southbank, and diversifying board representatives are part of the latest push by the Coalition to overhaul the public broadcaster, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
Minister for Regional Communications Bridget McKenzie has revealed her plans to help ensure the ABC better represents mainstream Australia and said she hoped to “see more change” in the future.
Her proposals come just a few weeks after The Australian revealed ABC chair Ita Buttrose admitted the public broadcaster was “too east coast-centric”.
Rupert Murdoch’s former right-hand man promoted at Aunty
On Sunday ABC chair Ita Buttrose launched a haymaker against Liberal senator Andrew Bragg over the publicity craver’s Senate inquiry into the ABC complaints process, which critics deem superfluous given the public broadcaster has commissioned its own independent inquiry, reports SMH’s Samantha Hutchinson and Stephen Brook.
Accusations of government interference in Aunty is exactly the sort of controversy Prime Minister Scott Morrison runs a million miles from, particularly with a looming federal election.
But the even bigger news out of Aunty is the appointment of an ABC deputy chair, who could ultimately replace the 79-year-old Buttrose when her five-year term ends in 2024.
Step forward recent ABC board appointee Peter Tonagh, whose elevation is sure to give some ABC staff conniptions, given he once worked for Rupert Murdoch.
News Corp eyes small-cap shares website Stockhead for next digital play
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia is in talks to acquire small-cap ASX shares website Stockhead, in another sign the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media giant is searching for growth through new digital outlets, reports SMH’s Zoe Samios.
The publisher of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun has held advanced discussions with Stockhead, a website specialising in coverage of emerging ASX-listed companies, according to industry sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential. A spokesperson for News Corp declined to comment. Stockhead’s director David Greer confirmed talks were underway.
Bastion Australia’s ‘biggest ever’ agency claim after Shine deal
Advertising firm Bastion has bought New Zealand creative and digital agency Shine in a deal it claims will make the combined business Australasia’s biggest locally owned independent agency, reports News Corp’s John Stensholt.
Bastion chief executive Jack Watts says his business is one of the few in the sector to grow substantially during Covid, with the Shine deal adding about 20 per cent to its staff on top of the 250 Bastion already employs across Australia and the US.
The deal adds Shine clients such as Air New Zealand, telco Spark, energy company Genesis and Tip Top to Bastion’s global client list that includes Microsoft, Google, KFC, AIA and L’Oreal.
News Brands
Roddan offends at Kennedy Awards
By now, it is common knowledge throughout the media and its adjacent industries that Financial Review senior reporter Michael Roddan was on Thursday night given an award for outstanding finance reporting, then kicked off the stage and later out of the venue, reports AFR’s Myriam Robin.
His crime was jokingly referring to the Kennedy Excellence in Journalism Awards as the “bogan Walkleys”, in reference to that other rather more rarefied awards night where the ABC always seems to sweep most of the categories while the tabloids and commercial broadcast outlets do well to earn a single gong apiece.
In a similar vein, Roddan went on to congratulate the other finalists in the category – being Gold Walkley winners and veteran journalists Neil Chenoweth, Adele Ferguson and Kate McClymont – by saying he’d never heard of them but thought their work showed promise. He didn’t get any further, being at this point abruptly ushered off the stage as the lights were dimmed.
Later, he was asked to leave by event director Adam Walters: the Kennedys have 16 awards named for deceased journalists, and some of their families (who attend the Kennedys) were apparently upset that the said awards could be deemed second-rate or unsophisticated.
Television
SBS move Upfronts to 2022
If you’ve been wondering when SBS would confirm its Upfronts for 2022, you’re going to have to wait a little longer, reports TV Tonight.
An SBS spokesperson tells TV Tonight, “SBS have decided to host an in-person Upfronts event in early 2022.
“Stay tuned for more details to come soon and in the meantime, look out for exciting upcoming commissions including Could You Survive on the Breadline?, A Girls Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Wild Cooking, more Eurovision: Australia Decides artists, Framed and much more.
Lisa Wilkinson has last laugh as her book sales skyrocket
The revolting and undignified media pile-on concerning Lisa Wilkinson – the longest serving female host of Nine’s Today show and the only woman in Australian TV we can think of to be attacked by the media’s feminist sisterhood for trying to negotiate a better deal for herself (unfathomable isn’t it) — certainly hasn’t hurt sales of her new biography, reports News Corp’s Annette Sharp.
The publishers of It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, Harper Collins, last week ordered a 10,000 copy reprint of the bio to ensure bookshelves remain stocked for Christmas.
No doubt fanned by phenomenal media interest in the book, more than 4200 copies of the book sold in its first week to market.
The Project forced to apologise after mocking a visually-impaired woman and mother of a deceased Australian soldier
The Project has been forced to make an embarrassing apology to the visually impaired mother of a deceased soldier after mocking her during an on-air segment, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
The Network 10 program on Thursday night aired a 30-second clip showing Yvonne Sher, 65, attending a Remembrance Day breakfast at the Doncaster RSL in Melbourne, where she was seated near Scott Morrison.
During the segment, comedian and guest co-host Nath Valvo poked fun at Sher as she sat down beside the Prime Minister. “Scott Morrison was at an RSL having a feed, as you do, and I think this woman had absolutely no idea – or did she?” Valvo said.
The vision showed Sher pulling up a seat next to the Prime Minister as he ate his breakfast. She had her back to him, prompting Valvo to observe: “She’s giving him the cold shoulder”.
Sher, whose 30-year-old son Greg was killed in a rocket attack while serving in Afghanistan in January 2009, said she was left devastated after she learned of the on-air incident.
Key players from The Block profiled in Saturday newspapers
A week after the season final and the auctions on The Block, two of the show’s key figures are profiled in Saturday newspapers. Neale Whitaker, a judge on The Block and a co-host of Foxtel’s Love It Or List It, was profiled twice on the same day in News Corp metro supplements, while Block co-founder Julian Cress and wife Sarah Armstrong, who runs The Block Shop, were in Nine newspapers Domain section (in print a week after it first appeared online).
Read more:
• Inside the home of one of Australia’s leading interior designer Love It or List It Australia’s Neale Whitaker
• Why Neale Whitaker loves living on the NSW south coast
• ‘It was meant to be’: Inside The Block co-creator Julian Cress’ spectacular Melbourne home
Sports Media
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo issues warning to Nine over TV rights
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has fired a shot across the bow of the Nine Network as he attempts to finalise broadcast talks and provide some financial certainty for clubs in the lead-up to Christmas, reports News Corp’s Brent Read.
Having secured a long-term deal with Foxtel, the NRL has been in talks with Nine over finalising a free-to-air contract for 2023 and beyond.
There was talk late last month that the game was on the verge of agreeing an extension to its current deal but Abdo hinted there was still significant work to do.
The game’s broadcasters provide the bulk of the money that flows on to clubs and the inability to strike a deal with Nine has prevented head office providing clarity to clubs around their funding beyond 2022.
Abdo insisted the NRL wouldn’t undersell the game and while he praised Nine Network boss Mike Sneesby, he said head office would fight to extract every cent they could from their commercial partner.
Free-to-air future for 2022 T20 Cricket World Cup in doubt
Australia’s tilt at a first men’s Twenty20 World Cup title on Monday morning is locked behind a paywall, and next year’s tournament on home soil may not be seen by a free-to-air television audience either, report Zoe Samios and Daniel Brettig in The Sun-Herald.
Under Australia’s anti-siphoning legislation there is no obligation for fans to be able to glimpse it for free. But it’s also because no television networks bid for the broadcast rights. Fans will be more frustrated if they have to pay to watch Australia play at the T20 World Cup next year, when the tournament is held on home soil and supposedly under the protection of a list that also features Ashes series and all home games.
Nine’s former CEO Hugh Marks said last August its deal to televise cricket’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia was no longer valid because of the postponement of the tournament by two years. This means that, currently, there is no FTA broadcast partner for the World Cup in Australia until a contract is renegotiated.