Business of Media
Labor ministers withdraw from AFR summit due to Nine journalists’ strike
Three Labor ministers who were scheduled to appear at a summit hosted by the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday withdrew because they did not want to address the conference while Nine’s journalists were on strike, report The Guardian’s Amanda Meade and Karen Middleton.
The AFR’s government services summit was cancelled at the last minute on Monday afternoon by Nine, which had planned to hold the conference in the midst of the five-day strike by Nine Entertainment’s newspaper journalists.
Guardian Australia understands the minister for government services, Bill Shorten, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, and the new minister for employment and workplace relations, Murray Watt, were uncomfortable about crossing the picket line.
Karl Stefanovic’s wife Jasmine divides with social media post amid lay-offs: ‘Thank you, 9’
Karl Stefanovic’s wife, Jasmine, has divided fans with a social media post showcasing an extravagant dinner, funded by Channel 9, in the wake of mass staff redundancies, reports News Corp.
On Monday, she shared a picture of herself and Karl at the glamorous – and eye-wateringly expensive – restaurant La Girafe, which boasts breathtaking views of the Eiffel Tower.
It’s understood the dinner was attended by select Nine talent and corporate clients.
Streaming, catch-up services on verge of eclipsing TV advertising
Broadcasters will make the same revenue from advertising on streaming and catch-up services as they do from free-to-air television within four years amid a reinvention of the media’s business model, reports Nine Publishing’s Kylar Loussikian.
That’s the conclusion of a comprehensive sector outlook report published by PwC on Tuesday, which found revenue growth had stalled in the last year, falling from 6.6 per cent in 2022 to 2.8 per cent. The survey covers television, publishing, film, gaming and other forms of entertainment.
Ex-BBC news presenter Huw Edwards charged with indecent child picture crimes
Former British TV news presenter Huw Edwards, a household name in Britain, has been charged with three counts of making indecent pictures of children, police said on Monday, reports Reuters.
Edwards, 62, was the BBC’s highest paid news presenter and anchored the broadcaster’s “BBC News at Ten” bulletin for more than two decades. He resigned in April.
He has been charged with three counts of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child relating to images found on a child’s phone, according to court documents.
In a troubled Box Office, premium still sells
If it seemed to you like no one was going to the movies during the second quarter, you wouldn’t have been far off. You also probably haven’t stepped into an IMAX lately, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Dan Gallagher.
The second quarter was a dismal one for the U.S. box office. Sales of $1.95 billion were down 27% from the same period last year. Excluding 2020, when the pandemic closed theaters across the globe, that is the biggest drop for that period since 1976, according to data from Box Office Mojo. And that was with Inside Out 2, which accounted for nearly a fourth of the quarter’s total domestic box office haul despite releasing in the final two weeks of the period. The blockbuster from Disney’s Pixar studio has since gone on to become the year’s best performing film to date, with a global box office nearing $1.5 billion.
Entertainment
The music industry is engineering artist popularity – listeners are right to be angry
For months, one question has been plaguing pop fans: why is Spotify playing me the same songs over and over again, asks The Guardian’s Shaad D’Souza?
Every other week, a post goes viral on X asking why Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe!, or Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso, or Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, are constantly being put into a user’s autoplay queue by the streaming service’s algorithm, regardless of what they were listening to previously. One user got Carpenter’s recent hit Please Please Please after the extremely different vibe of Get It Sexy by St Louis rapper Sexyy Red; another complained to NME that Espresso was constantly playing after the “sad music and songwriter types” she often listens to.
Television
Axed Seven weatherman unleashes in final live cross
Channel 7 star Paul Burt has lashed out at the network after he was axed as part of a cost-cutting move, reports News Corp’s Kate Schneider.
The 51-year-old veteran weatherman unleashed during his final segment on Saturday, which turned into very awkward viewing.
“Hello everybody yes it is my last weather for the network tonight,” Burt said at the end of the 6pm news bulletin.
“Let’s get straight into it everyone because it’s the most important thing is your Sunday and not me.”
Sports Media
Eurosport removes commentator Bob Ballard from Olympics coverage over comment on Australian athletes
British sports commentator Bob Ballard has been sacked from duties at the Paris Olympics over an “inappropriate” remark he made in reference to the Australian women’s swimming team, reports the ABC.
Ballard, who was contracted for the Olympics coverage by French broadcasting network Eurosport, dropped the comment on-air shortly after the team took out a gold in the 4x100m freestyle final on Saturday.
“Well, the women just finishing off. You know [what] women are like, hanging around, you know, doing their makeup,” he can be heard saying in the segment, as the swimmers made their way from the medal presentation.