Business of Media
Delta Goodrem flies high as Netflix increases Australian content
Global media giant Netflix has announced four new locally made titles, as the federal government prepares to implement regulation forcing streaming companies to invest in Australian-made content, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
The announcement comes as streamers including the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and Stan face an important inflection point, forcing them to seek out long-term sustainable revenue streams as subscriber growth slows down.
Netflix’s Australia and New Zealand director of content Que Minh Luu said the streaming giant’s local strategy was driven by audience demand. She declined to reveal full details of Netflix’s total investment into the four new titles, those being a feature film, documentary and two new series.
Premium content, according to Luu, ranges from kids’ content through to expensive productions such as Desert King, Netflix’s new outback epic series announced today which features “cowboys, helicopters, guns and cows.”
“We’re going to do all of it, or we’re going to die trying.”
Andrew O’Keefe spends night behind bars, charged with breaching AVO
Troubled TV personality Andrew O’Keefe has spent the night behind bars, after being arrested for allegedly breaching the conditions of an apprehended violence order, reports News Corp’s Georgina Noack.
Police arrested O’Keefe after being called to a unit on Longworth Ave in Point Piper, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, at about 11.45pm on Saturday.
The 51-year-old was taken to Waverley Police Station where he was charged with one count of contravening a restriction of prohibition of an apprehended violence order, a NSW Police spokesman said in a statement to news.com.au.
O’Keefe was refused bail to appear before Parramatta Local Court on Sunday.
The former television star – who was the face of a number of Channel Seven programs, including Deal or No Deal, Weekend Sunrise, and The Chase, for 17 years – has been in and out of court in recent years on multiple drug and assault charges.
News Brands
Trials, triumphs and tantrums: Andrew Hornery farewells PS after 18 years
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Hornery has farewell his weekend Private Sydney column after 18 years. Hornery, a one-time Mediaweek reporter before joining the Sydney daily, will be staying with Nine Publishing he explained before heading off on leave:
This is the last Private Sydney column in the Herald, but rest assured it is not the last you’ll read from me, he told his readers on Saturday.
After 18 years and about 1300 columns featuring just over 6000 individual stories and, as accurately as I can estimate, about 35,000 bold-type names, the time has come to lower the curtain on what has been a rollicking ride each week through the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the social fauna that makes up the great theatre of Sydney life and beyond.
Some will welcome this news with enthusiasm but I am also aware that many loyal readers will be disappointed their regular snapshot into worlds often kept out of the public eye is coming to an end.
This has not been a decision made lightly. Inspired by my upcoming long service leave and some personal and professional reflection after discussions with my editors, we have agreed the opportunity has presented itself to usher in a new era and approach to how we do certain things at the Herald.
The stories will still come, we’re just going to do them differently.
I’ll be returning in mid-October as a senior writer, with a brief to continue writing stories about the people and events that help frame Sydney’s unique character, but in a way that allows me to dive deeper into some broader topics, unshackled by a relentless, immovable column deadline every week.
Tip Image: Andrew Hornery, centre, with Miss Playboy Brazil, left, and Crystal Hefner at the Playboy Mansion July 4 party in 2013 (Source: Sydney Morning Herald)
Ita Buttrose hints she may extend her term as ABC boss
Ita Buttrose has hinted she may yet extend her tenure as ABC chair after her five-year term expires next March, revealing that she is due to meet with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland “shortly” to make a final decision, reports The Australian’s Nick Tabakoff.
Quizzed by ABC Radio Melbourne morning host Virginia Trioli on Friday about whether she wants to stay on after her term expires in 2024, Buttrose replied: “I’m mulling it over.”
When Trioli asked the ABC chair which way she was leaning, Buttrose replied: “Oh Virginia, come along. We’re talking about the art of the interview. I’m not going to answer that question.”
But Buttrose subsequently did nothing to downplay speculation when Trioli appeared to actively encourage her ultimate boss to go around for another five-year term.
Trioli told the ABC chair: “I was just saying this to my producers – how unbelievably sharp and on it you sound right now. So on that score, I can’t see any reason for you not to.”
Buttrose replied: “I should tell you that my uncle celebrated his 100th birthday last week. I come from a family of long livers!”
Plan to move SBS to western Sydney would ‘punish’ north shore, leaders say
North shore leaders have criticised a proposal to move the Special Broadcasting Service to western Sydney, arguing the plan was politically motivated and would punish their electorates, reports Nine Publishing’s Andrew Taylor.
Federal teal independent MP Kylea Tink, state Liberal MP Tim James and Willoughby Mayor Tanya Taylor say the feasibility study into the proposed relocation of the multicultural broadcaster from Artarmon was “less than opaque”.
“We are concerned and frustrated over the complete lack of consultation with our community in what can only be described as blatant disrespect of the electorates we represent,” they wrote in a letter to federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
The federal government in April announced a feasibility study into moving the SBS from Artarmon, as western Sydney councils compete to become the broadcaster’s new home.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year said moving the multicultural broadcaster to western Sydney “makes sense” as a cultural investment in the city’s west.
The letter said the feasibility study being conducted by a committee led by former top bureaucrat Mike Mrdak “seems set on a path that makes little economic sense”.
Radio
Neil Mitchell rumoured to be replaced by Tom Elliott in 3AW shake-up
The jungle drums are beating that the biggest shake-up in 3AW history is under way, with some big names in and some old names out, reports News Corp’s Alice Coster and Jackie Epstein.
With Neil Mitchell set to hang up the headphones, whispers from inside the 3AW corridor are growing louder that Tom Elliott is the man to move into the Mornings hot seat.
Legendary news breaking king Mitchell will be a hard act to follow for former hedge fund manager Elliott who currently hosts Drive.
Mitchell has been ambiguous about his future plans at the 3AW after an incredible 33 years at the station since joining in 1990, topping the ratings each survey in his timeslot by a country mile.
It is no secret 3AW has a huge obligation to do right by him, with insiders saying it is ultimately Mitchell’s call on when he decides to leave. His current contract was rolled on from June 30 to the end of 2023, to give him the “time and space” to make his decision.
But as they say in the classics, the show must go on, with a road map already in the works of what 3AW could look like in a post Neil era.
It’s a game of musical microphones with other big news at 3AW that former Channel Seven presenter Jacqui Felgate is set to take over the reins from Elliott in Drive.
Completing the switcheroo is well liked overnight presenter Tony Moclair, who finally moves into the light and out of the graveyard shift as the new Afternoons presenter, in place of dumped host, Dee Dee Dunleavy.
Television
Stan Grant criticises Q+A for setting up panels designed to have conflict
Television presenter Stan Grant has condemned the ABC show that he abruptly quit for setting up panels with guests holding starkly different views that are designed to cause conflict and encourage a social media “pile-on”, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
Grant, a Wiradjuri, Gurrawin and Dharawal man, quit Q+A in May after citing relentless “racial abuse”, and said the show had failed to bring guests together to have harmonious debate.
Speaking at the Canberra Writers Festival on Saturday during a one-hour session led by Four Corners investigative journalist Louise Milligan, Grant said the show’s set up was flawed.
“You go on Q+A and the first thing you do is you introduce a panel that have more often than not been picked because they have conflict, rather than seeking to find connection,” he said.
“Then you say, ‘go on social media’, basically form your lynch mob, hit the person you hate and pile on.
“I can’t do that anymore and I don’t think that is what you want from our media. I think we are failing you and we must find a better way to doing it.”
Sonia Kruger explains what went wrong with Logies speech
A few weeks ago, I was reminded of what it felt like to go out all night and tie one on when I ended up in the thick of the Logies afterparty, Sonia Kruger writes for News Corp.
For the first time, people from every TV network were invited to an all-in soirée, and it was going off. The music was pumping, everyone was dancing and I was holding the Gold Logie… it doesn’t get any better, right? So why wasn’t I having the time of my life? To understand, we need to rewind. So let’s go back to the beginning.
The day started well enough at 8am with hair, make-up and styling. Four hours later (Todd McKenney says it takes six people to build me) I was ready to assume my co-hosting duties with Dr Chris Brown on the Logies red carpet.
Eventually, I made it off the carpet and into the auditorium, just as the main course was being inconveniently removed and the show was starting.
Sports Media
Fewer sports behind TV paywalls under proposed reforms
The record 11-million-strong audience for the Matildas’ FIFA Women’s World Cup bid has helped put women’s sports on the table for an overhaul of games protected to appear on free-to-air television, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
The Albanese government’s proposed reform of the “anti-siphoning list”, which outlines the sporting events that must sell their broadcast rights to free-to-air networks before pay TV or streaming companies, should be boosted by 600 events to include more women’s and para sports.
The list was created in 1994 to stop major sporting events, like the AFL and NRL grand finals, from disappearing behind pay TV companies like Foxtel. Since then, global streamers like Disney+, Netflix and Amazon emerged and have scooped up sports rights around the world.
Optus Sport bought the rights to the current FIFA Women’s World Cup, for example, then sold 15 games to Network Seven.
“Every Australian deserves the chance to enjoy live and free coverage of these events, no matter where they live or what they earn,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement.