Business of Media
ARN throws a Hail Mary to revive collapsed radio merger
Commercial radio group ARN Media, the FM home of The Kyle & Jackie O Show, has made a last-ditch attempt to revive its attempt to buy assets from its rival Southern Cross Austereo after its first play collapsed, reports Nine Publishing’s Nick Bonyhady.
ARN on Monday flagged an indicative proposal to buy the same radio stations and brands from Southern Cross as under the previous deal but also take its share of digital audio assets in exchange for shares.
ARN chairman Hamish McLennan said ARN was in a position of strength to launch its indicative proposal.
“It would deliver a business of the scale necessary to compete against global platforms,” Mr McLennan said.
See Also: Anchorage pulls pin on ARN and SCA deal due to regional TV decline
No TV buyers last time around in Southern Cross sale process
Southern Cross Media Group received only one bid for its regional television business when it was placed on the market in 2022, and it came from Anchorage Capital Partners, reports The Australian’s Bridget Carter.
However, DataRoom understands that the offer from Anchorage was in a form where the company was doubtful it would follow through on the offer, and so the regional television business was withdrawn by Southern Cross Media for sale due to a lack of interested buyers.
Fast-forward to 2024, and this time, it is the reluctance of Anchorage to take on the regional television business rather than a desire to buy it that has derailed its acquisition of Southern Cross Media Group with bidding partner ARN Media.
Court ends injunction on X over videos of Sydney church stabbing
The federal court has refused to extend an injunction against Elon Musk’s platform X over 65 tweets containing video of a stabbing attack at a Sydney church, before a final hearing in the case, reports The Guardian’s Josh Taylor.
Last month, X was ordered to hide the posts of the stabbing attack on bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel while he was giving a livestreamed service at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley.
The eSafety commissioner sought a federal court injunction after X only made the tweets unavailable to Australian users and vowed to challenge the notice. The injunction was due to expire on Monday unless the court extended the order ahead of a final hearing, which is expected in mid-June.
Picking fights with social media giants seems to be ending in tears
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner’s office and the Albanese government just received a further nasty reality check – that wrangling Elon Musk doesn’t come easy. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant joins a conga line of regulators around the world attempting to lasso social media giants, and in particular Musk’s X, reports Nine Publishing’s Elizabeth Knight.
A court setback this week in the eSafety Commissioner’s battle with Musk over showing video posts of the Wakeley church stabbing in Sydney is a blow to the regulator’s powers to cushion people from what it believes to be dangerous online content.
Tingle lectures journos on how to do their jobs properly
The ABC’s 7.30 chief political correspondent Laura Tingle took to the stage at the Melbourne Writers Festival on the weekend to give fellow journalists some pro bono advice on how to do their jobs properly, report The Australian’s James Madden and Sophie Elsworth.
Delivering the annual John Button Oration at RMIT University’s Capitol theatre, her 40-minute lecture – titled ‘‘off-course discourse’’ – included a lament that “public broadcasters are under attack around the world”, and apparently useless journos are partly to blame.
“It feels like the incidence of governments being framed up for questions that are simply unanswerable, in the name of political or media sport, seems to be growing,” she said.
Television
Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald lifts lid on Merlin’s iconic Big Brother protest: ‘I had no idea’
It was one of the most controversial moments in Australian TV history, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
And now two decades later, Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald has revealed how his Big Brother 2004 cast mate Merlin Luck was able to orchestrate his refugee protest on live TV.
The cast of Big Brother 4 reunited in Sydney on Saturday night, including Fitzy, the season’s winner Trevor Butler and runner-up Bree Amer, the latter of whom organised the catch-up 20 years after they all starred on the now defunct Channel 10 reality series.
‘Lost a friend’: Today hosts mourn death of Sam Rubin on-air
The hosts of The Today Show have this morning paid tribute to veteran US showbiz reporter Sam Rubin, who died on Friday at the age of 64, reports News Corp’s Nick Bond.
Rubin, a frequent guest on Today, reportedly suffered a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles.
Today host Karl Stefanovic said on-air this morning that he had “lost a friend,” calling Rubin a “beautiful man.” Fellow entertainment guru Richard Wilkins was also on-air to pay tribute, revealing he’d seen Rubin in person just weeks ago during a visit to LA.