Business of Media
Allan Gray shops its Southern Cross, ARN stakes to media types
High-profile Sydney fund manager Allan Gray has been hitting up media executives to see if they would be keen to buy its chunky stakes in listed radio rivals ARN Media and Southern Cross Media, report Nine Publishing’s Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport.
Street Talk understands Allan Gray has done the rounds at key media players including Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment and News Corp. The fundie has been offering up its 18.7 per cent stake in KIIS radio station’s owner ARN Media and 16.44 per cent in Southern Cross Media. Southern Cross operates rival stations HitFM and Triple M.
The shrewd investor is trying to drum up strategic interest just three days after ARN raided Southern Cross Media’s register via Jefferies, and walked away owning 14.8 per cent of the register.
Sources said Allan Gray portfolio manager Simon Mawhinney was pitching the two companies as massive turnaround stories with cost-outs hiding in plain sight. However, he was ready to call his time on the register and hand it off to another shareholder who can effect the change required.
Media industry investors are likely to have an eye on the talent skirmish brewing with presenters Kyle and Jackie O. The radio stars, who host Australia’s number one breakfast show, signed a multimillion-dollar deal with KIIS in 2019, due to come up for renewal at the end of 2024.
Use news code, not copyright, to make AI firms pay for content: Sims
Former competition chief Rod Sims says growing calls to force companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Google to pay to access online content for their artificial intelligence products should fall under the News Media Bargaining Code, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
The federal opposition has called on the government to intervene to create commercial arrangements between tech giants and online publishers – including media organisations. It is unclear, however, whether those would fall under the News Media Bargaining Code or under Australia’s copyright laws.
Sims has previously said the “logic is the same” with AI as with Google and Facebook under the bargaining code. Updating the code would be more effective than using copyright laws, he added.
“I think the existing News Media Bargaining Code can be adjusted to capture media content used by generative AI,” Sims said on Thursday. “I also agree generative AI needs wider regulation. As a start I would ask the [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] to do a detailed inquiry into all this.”
A spokeswoman for the ACCC said the future of the code is currently being considered by the government following a review by Treasury.
Canada passes law forcing Facebook, Google to pay media for links
Canada’s Parliament approved legislation to compel digital companies to compensate domestic media outlets for links to their articles, a move Facebook said would force it to block access to news reports on its platform for Canadian users as it did two years ago in Australia, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Paul Vieira.
Google, owned by Alphabet, also has signaled possible restrictions of news content on its search function in Canada as a result of the legislation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government wouldn’t back down, and accused Facebook, a unit of Meta Platforms, and Google of deploying bullying tactics to get their way. “It’s not going to work,” Trudeau said this month.
The legislation’s passage Thursday marked the second time in roughly three months Canada’s Parliament had endorsed new measures to regulate activity in the digital field, irking leading technology companies that worry other countries might mimic Ottawa’s approach. Ottawa passed legislation in April that would order streaming platforms, like Netflix and YouTube, to feature more Canadian content to users in that country.
Russian court extends detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich
A Russian court has upheld the extended detention of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter deemed by the US to be wrongfully held, ordering that he remain in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison until at least August 30, according to Russian state-news service TASS, report The Australian’s Ann M. Simmons and Shelby Holliday.
Gershkovich, smiling briefly and wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans, appeared in the courtroom inside a transparent box. Media outlets were allowed into the courtroom for a short time before being ushered out.
On May 23, a Moscow district court judge granted a request from the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, to extend Gershkovich’s detention while he awaits trial, a ruling that the reporter’s lawyers appealed.
Gershkovich’s parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, were present in the courtroom and stood next to the box ahead of the hearing. While waiting for the ruling to be announced, they spoke at length with Gershkovich, who smiled and gesticulated as they conversed.
In a phone call before their trip to Moscow, Milman said they felt it was important to see her son in person and show that they are standing with him.
News Brands
ABC’s international budget should grow as China spends billions on information war, inquiry told
China is spending billions to win the information war in the region, a committee inquiry has heard, and greater funding for the ABC would allow it to be a stronger presence in the Asia-Pacific, reports The Guardian’s Tory Shepherd.
Claire Gorman, the ABC’s head of international services, told the inquiry into supporting democracy in the region that China is spending at least $3bn a year on international media, compared with $11m for the ABC.
Extra funding due to roll out from July means the national broadcaster “stands ready” to do more to advance democracy, civil society and peace, she said.
“We do an enormous amount on that skeleton budget,” she said. “But we could do a lot more with a much higher level of funding. If we were to be funded at same per capita basis as the BBC World Service, the ABC’s funding would sit at about $270m a year.
“We know that the [People’s Republic of China’s] investment in international media activities sits at probably more than $3bn a year.”
Television
Dr. Chris Brown to be covering Logies Red Carpet
Dr. Chris Brown will be covering the Logies Red Carpet for Seven. Seven News has confirmed the news in an online article flagging his return from July, where he first began his media career, reports TV Tonight.
“I’m not entirely sure my old access pass works, but once we get over that hurdle and I’m back from the jungle, I can’t wait to sink my teeth into some exciting new projects in the second half of the year and beyond with Seven,” he said.
Insiders the only ABC current affairs show to grow broadcast audience as Q+A numbers collapse
Insiders is the only ABC current affairs show to grow its broadcast audience since 2019, lifting its TV numbers by 4% while Q+A dropped by 36% and Four Corners by 19%, as audiences abandoned traditional broadcast television, reports The Guardian’s Amanda Meade.
The show, now in its 21st year, has bucked the trend which has seen Australian Story fall by 16% between 2019 and 2022; Foreign Correspondent by 22% and 7.30 by 4%, according to an internal presentation for executives seen by Guardian Australia.
The program to lose the biggest chunk of its audience is Q+A, which has dropped by 36% in three years – and a dramatic 58% since 2016 – and was moved from Monday to Thursday and back to Monday in an attempt to find an audience. Stan Grant, who was appointed full-time host a year ago, is on leave and it is not clear if he will return.
Sports Media
2011 Women’s World Cup champions Japan will fundraise to buy broadcast rights
The 2011 World Champions are set to crowdfund to raise the money needed to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup, reports Optus Sport’s Isobel Cootes.
All eyes have been on the broadcast standoff between FIFA and five European countries ahead of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand. But that has since been resolved and it’s left world No. 11 Japan as the last major country facing the reality of a ‘television blackout’.
The situation has grown so dire, the head of the WE League – the country’s women’s league – Haruna Takada announced this week that she would attempt to crowdfund the money to broadcast next month’s World Cup domestically.
According to Japanese wire service Kyodo News, the target amount and start date of the campaign will be announced at a later date.
Yet time is not on Takada’s, FIFA’s or Japanese football fans’ side, with only 27 days to go until the July 20 kick-off Down Under.
“I understand FIFA’s opinion that it is an appropriate amount to improve the position of women, and the media’s opinion that it is market value,” Takada told Kyodo News.