Business of Media
SAS soldier claims Ben Roberts-Smith ordered ‘mock execution’
An SAS soldier has told a court he pretended to execute a detainee on the orders of Ben Roberts-Smith shortly before his time in the elite regiment unravelled in a near-tragic shootout, reports News Corp’s Perry Duffin.
Nine has argued the articles are true and has called a former Special Air Service soldier, known as Person 10, to testify about Roberts-Smith’s conduct with subordinates.
Person 10 told the court he was still in training with the famed SAS at Lancelin, near Perth, just before their 2012 deployment to Afghanistan.
Australia’s ambassador to China denied entry to Cheng trial
Australia’s ambassador to China has been denied entry to Beijing’s ”state secrets” trial against Australian journalist Cheng Lei, which began yesterday, reports News Corp’s Will Glasgow.
The one day trial against the mother of two was scheduled to begin at 9:30am (local time, 11.30am AEDT) after she has spent almost 600 days in detention.
Australian ambassador Graham Fletcher spoke to media outside the Beijing court after being denied access.
“It’s deeply concerning, unsatisfactory and regrettable,” Fletcher said.
“We can have no confidence in the validity of a process which is conducted in secret.”
Joanne Gray leaves Financial Review to join Pollination
The Australian Financial Review’s managing editor Joanne Gray is leaving to join climate change investment and advisory firm Pollination as an executive director, reports the AFR.
“I am very excited to be joining Pollination, which is building a stellar reputation as a climate adviser and investor, and look forward to working with Australian and international businesses as they implement net zero strategies,” she said.
Gray first joined the Financial Review in 1988 as a banking reporter, progressing to spend five years as the editor of BOSS Magazine and also as the masthead’s Washington correspondent, Opinion editor and Financial Services editor. For the past four years, she was managing editor.
News Brands
Fox News hires ‘trailblazer’ Caitlyn Jenner as contributor
Fox News says it has hired Caitlyn Jenner as a contributor, with her first appearance set for Thursday on Sean Hannity’s program, reports the Associated Press.
Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete, ran an unsuccessful campaign for California governor last year. The network said she will offer commentary and analysis across various Fox News platforms.
“Caitlyn’s story is an inspiration to us all,” said Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media chief executive. “She is a trailblazer in the LGBTQ+ community and her illustrious career spans a variety of fields that will be a tremendous asset for our audience.”
‘I’m loud and proud to be a female CEO’
Cathy O’Connor is fiercely competitive. She likes to keep score, and she likes to beat her own records, reports AFR’s Miranda Ward.
The chief executive of listed outdoor advertising business oOh!Media says if she was good enough to play competitive sport, she would – but only to win.
“When I compete in a physical sense, I compete with myself, doing something I’ve never done. I will run 8 kilometres when I have only ever done 7 kilometres before. I will run the hill fitter than the last time I ran the hill,” she says.
“I think that probably is more about me not having natural sporting talent. If I could play competitive sport, and win, then I probably would.”
This competitive spirit underlies her desire to pursue a range of commercial roles in the cut-throat media sector and ultimately triggered her jump in 2021 from running Lachlan Murdoch’s radio company Nova Entertainment to oOh!Media.
Agencies
JOY announces acquisition of Drum Agency in growth manoeuvre
JOY has announced the completion of the acquisition of communications agency, Drum Agency, for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition, which began in 2021, takes the integrated agency to over 50 people across brand, media and creative services with a balance of blue-chip and emerging clients as it strengthens its position as one of Sydney’s few independent, mid-sized agencies.
Drum Agency was founded by Martin Patton in 2016 and grew to a team of 14 and specialised in agile and provocative guerilla marketing, with expertise across brand, creative, social, media, customer experience and behavioural economics.
It developed campaigns for clients across the health, travel, food and automotive categories, helping brands like RAM Trucks, Musashi, Nutra-Life and American Airlines unlock unprecedented growth opportunities.
The merging of the agencies represented a homecoming moment for Patton who was previously executive director at JOY before he left to launch his own agency with Drum Agency.
Revium announces the appointments of 10 new staff
Revium has announced the appointment of 10 new staff to its Melbourne office. The welcomed additions to the award-winning, full-service digital agency follow strong growth in the business during 2021 and reflect Revium’s ongoing investment in its people and its capabilities across CX, data and digital.
Caitlin Merritt has joined Revium as senior account director, bringing 10 years’ experience in marketing with her. She joins from Purple Hat Group and will focus on providing strategic advice and support to new and existing clients.
Himanshu (Hamish) Malik joins as head of back end development, leading a team of seven. Having previously worked at Day3 and Telstra, he has extensive experience in consulting on and delivering technical solutions.
Harrison Friend has been hired as a senior digital producer with almost a decade of client and agency-side experience, having previously worked at Reach Markets and Sense Creative.
Revium has hired two new digital producers: Lydia Chew, who joins from Reka Inc, and Lisa Prince, who was previously at Spark Digital. Amrit Kurup has also been hired as a business analyst, joining the agency from Koach.
Two new people have been added to Revium’s development team: Aleksandar Trpkovski joins as a front end developer from Lizard Software and Tafadzwa Shiringo joins from Nikee Business Group as a junior PHP developer.
Revium has also added Daniel Almeida from Casa Forte Group as a junior UI designer and Steven Nguyen as a junior data analyst.
Radio
Ben Fordham fakes racehorse accident for April Fool’s Day prank
2GB radio host Ben Fordham has pulled a shocking April Fool’s prank on his listeners this morning, tricking fans into thinking he’d had an accident before going on-air, reports News Corp’s Kaitlyn Hudson-O’Farrell.
The breakfast program — which is being hosted at Royal Randwick this morning ahead of the Star Championships this weekend — began a little differently at 5.30am on Friday.
At a time when Fordham usually delivers his opening monologue, sports reporter James Willis stepped in, alluding to listeners that their morning host had been involved in some kind of accident involving a racehorse.
Willis hinted that Fordham had somehow come to ride one of the racehorses during a trackwork session in the wee hours of this morning before some kind of accident occurred.
“Now I want to stress Ben is OK … but these horses can take off at full place and if you don’t know what you’re doing you can be in a little bit of trouble,” Willis said on air.
“I‘ve got to stress Ben is OK, he’s fine now we’re just trying to work out a few things here in the meantime.”
The show then cut to the traffic report, before Fordham returned to the mic.
Television
The Netflix model is destined for a huge crash
If you want to binge-watch Bridgerton it will be more expensive than the last season. The latest Star Wars spin-off is getting pricier than the spectacular special effects, and even Apple’s television offering is no longer being given away for a year along with your new phone. The main streaming services are certainly doing their bit to help keep inflation running at a three-decade high. All of them are steadily making watching television more expensive than ever before, reports SMH’s Matthew Lynn.
But hold on. Sure, we can all understand the rationale for that. The streamers have spent vast sums of money on programming, locked us all into their service, and now want to turn that into profits. And yet there may well be more of a limit to what the market will bear than they realise.
In reality, there is only so much television we can consume; there is not enough quality to justify the vast amounts spent on new shows; and this remains a product that we can get for free elsewhere. Investors have bet huge sums that the pricing strategy will stick – and if they turn out to be wrong, the whole industry will crash.
The one market Netflix hasn’t managed to crack
Two-and-a-half years after it launched in India, Netflix had its first big hit. Based on a sprawling novel by Indian-American author Vikram Chandra, 2018’s Sacred Games was a Hindi-language TV show exploring Mumbai’s criminal underworld and one police officer’s efforts to save the city, reports AFR’s Lucas Shaw.
The drama stood out in a country best known for romantic musicals, which was the point. The New York Times named Sacred Games one of the best foreign-made shows of the last decade, and Netflix described it at the time as its most-watched, locally produced show in the country.
Several months before Sacred Games was released, chief executive Reed Hastings told a group of Indian business leaders that Netflix would sign up 100 million customers in the country.
Almost four years later, it has only 5.5 million subscribers in India, research firm Media Partners Asia says. Netflix describes the second season of Sacred Games as a success, but hasn’t announced a third season.
10 Peach doubles up on Neighbours episodes in time for finale
Neighbours fans will be relieved to know that the last ever episode will screen in Australia in sync with Britain, reports TV Tonight.
From Monday June 13, double episodes will screen on 10 Peach, addressing a recent lag which has affected episodes in Australia.
A Network 10 spokesperson told TV Tonight, “From Monday June 13, friends of Ramsay St can tune into double the fun, double the action with double episodes to celebrate the final season of Neighbours.
“The ultimate series finale will air on Monday August 1.”