Business of Media
Bruce Lehrmann rejected offer to settle, should pay all costs: Ten
Bruce Lehrmann should be forced to cover millions of dollars in legal fees for Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson because he lost, and because he rejected an offer to drop his defamation case and walk away in August last year, Ten has argued, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
The former Liberal staffer, who has been found by a Federal Court judge to have raped Brittany Higgins in a Parliament House office, lost his high-profile case against Ten and Wilkinson last week. He had sued over an episode of The Project that aired in February 2021 that interviewed Higgins about her then-alleged rape.
Lisa Wilkinson should still be liable for defamation costs despite win in Bruce Lehrmann case, says Ten
Lisa Wilkinson may end up footing a large chunk of her enormous legal bill in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case after the Ten Network told a judge she should be liable for any “duplicative or wasteful” work by her expensive legal team, reports The Australian’s Stephen Rice.
Ten says if the unemployed Lehrmann can’t pay the expected costs of the action, which could top $10m, then Wilkinson should be required to pay her share for all aspects of the case where it wasn’t necessary for her to have separate representation.
After a successful cross-claim by Wilkinson, Ten agreed to pay “reasonable” costs for her team, which was led by top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC.
Her investigations were not welcome in Modi’s India, so neither was she
The ABC’s lead India correspondent Avani Dias has returned to Australia after a campaign of intimidation and bureaucratic meddling by the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reports Nine Publishing’s Zach Hope.
A decision to withhold Dias’ visa came after an episode of Foreign Correspondent about Sikh separatism aired last month and before the final instalment of her podcast investigating Modi’s life.
Spotify hits 239m paying subs in first quarter
Audio streaming giant Spotify has reached 239 million paying premium subscribers for the first quarter of 2024, up from 236 million at the fourth quarter of 2023, which met analyst expectations, report The Hollywood Reporter’s Etan Vlessing and Caitlin Huston.
Stockholm-headquartered Spotify, led by CEO Daniel Ek, also reported that it hit 615 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of the end of the first quarter to March 31, 2024, up 19 percent from 602 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. That missed on a Wall Street forecast for 617.9 million MAUs for Q1.
Vale: David Tiley
Writer and industry colleague David Tiley, best known as a former ScreenHub Editor and documentary screenwriter, has died, reports TV Tonight.
He died in hospital last night, where he was in palliative care, attended by friends and family.
I was Deputy Editor at ScreenHub when David Tiley joined in 2005.
David wrote with personality, passion and a constant strive for justice. I remember days of him cycling to work, huddling over a cheap heater, tapping madly on a keyboard when he wasn’t battling the infernal computer wiring, and dropping the word “comrade” a lot.
News Brands
Read all about it: WAtoday enters a new era
Today is an exciting day in the evolution of WAtoday, reports Nine Publishing’s Daile Cross.
Our new WA news live blog, delivered with the assistance of our Nine News Perth colleagues, will bring you breaking news as it happens in a fresh and interactive way.
We are launching three new series telling the stories of Perth’s people, often in their own words, with our new Lunch with Jesinta Burton series set to be a highlight.
Our new marketing campaign highlights the mission we are on to serve our readers.
Radio
Ex-boss reveals truth about Kyle and Jackie O
You might not remember 1984, but I certainly do, Craig Bruce writes for news.com.au.
I was 17 and had just purchased my first car – a 1.3 litre mustard brown Ford Escort with a bonnet scoop.
Looking back now the only good thing about the car was the sound system, and nestled inside that brand new Pioneer cassette deck for the entirety of 1984 was Prince’s masterpiece Purple Rain.
Television
MasterChef judge Andy Allen pays tribute to friend Jock Zonfrillo ahead of first anniversary of his death
MasterChef judge Andy Allen has decided to return to popular cooking competition nearly a year after his friend and fellow judge Jock Zonfrillo died, reports News Corp’s Aisling Brennan.
The beloved chef said returning to the MasterChef kitchen without his mate was filled with mixed emotions.
“It’s nearly a year. Sometimes it feels like yesterday and other times it feels like it was a long, long time ago,” Allen told the Carrie and Tommy Show on Monday. “It was hard. It was really hard. I didn’t actually know if I was going to do it (MasterChef) again.
How Stephen Fry ended up hosting the Australian version of Jeopardy!
There are few, if any, inhabitants of the world of showbusiness whose net has been cast wider in the quest for creative fulfilment than Stephen Fry. Over the decades this iconic Cambridge colossus has brought his effortless charm, intellect and classical, aristocratic Englishness to just about every arena possible: writer, actor, comedian and presenter, TV, film, stage and books, fiction and non-fiction, comedy, drama, documentaries, panel shows, memoirs and novels, reports Nine Publishing’s Ben Pobjie.
Nothing, such a polymath essays, should come as a complete surprise, and yet his latest endeavour, hosting both the British and Australian versions of long-running American quiz show Jeopardy!, doesn’t seem an obvious fit.
Sports Media
‘They’ve listened’: Wallaroos hail sweetened investment in women’s rugby
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh said the relationship between his organisation and the Wallaroos was “a strong one” as he helped to announce the side’s new sponsorship deal that runs until Australia’s home World Cup in 2029, reports Nine Publishing’s Jonathan Drennan.
Monday’s announcement was in stark contrast to last August when Wallaroos players collectively called out RA for a lack of investment and promotion for women’s rugby in an open letter posted on social media.
See Also: Cadbury becomes principal partner of Wallaroos, Australian women’s rugby team