Business of Media
Carsales targets RVs, snowmobiles and trucks in $800m US deal
Carsales.com has made a bold move into the US recreational and industrial vehicles and equipment market with a $US624 million ($800 million) offer to acquire 49 per cent of an online caravan, truck, equipment and motorbike listings group, reports AFR‘s Miranda Ward.
Carsales plans to raise $600 million in new equity to help fund the part purchase of Norfolk, Virginia-based Trader Interactive and went into a trading halt on Wednesday morning to announce the deal.
It will offer investors new shares at $17 each to raise $600 million to fund the acquisition, with another $222 million to be funded by existing debt facilities.
‘Completely excluded’: budget delivers $58.6m to media but ABC misses out
The Morrison government handed out an extra $58.6m to the media sector in the budget but the ABC missed out on the largesse, reports Guardian Australia‘s Amanda Meade.
SBS got $30m, newswire Australian Associated Press received $15m, community broadcasting got $8m and the media regulator secured $4.2m.
According to the forward estimates in the 2021-22 budget, the ABC’s indexation pause is set to end next year, but a tied-funding grant of $14m for local and regional news may not be renewed, leaving a potential shortfall of $10.2m in operational funding.
The budget states the ABC’s operational funding will drop from $880.56m in 2021/22 to $870.34m in 2022/23, a net loss of just over $10m.
News Brands
Seven pays tribute to longtime newsreader Frank Warrick who has died aged 76
The entire team at 7NEWS was saddened this week by the death of legendary Queensland newsreader Frank Warrick.
Warrick passed away this week aged 76 following a five-year battle with dementia.
An icon of our screens in a career spanning four decades, Warrick joined the 7NEWS team in June 1976 as a part-time weekend newsreader. In February the following year, he was promoted to full-time weekend news presenter and reporter.
A move to weekdays would soon follow, where he would eventually co-present the evening news alongside Kay McGrath, until his retirement in 2001.
Kay McGrath said: “My sincere condolences to Frank’s wife Lyn and family. We had a very successful 13-year on air relationship during the 80s and 90s when 6pm news was a ritual for viewers.
“Live TV can be a challenging environment at times, but we always had each other’s backs. Frank was the consummate professional, I never saw him fazed or flustered on air. He taught me a lot and I’m very saddened to hear he’s left ‘this world around us’.”
Director, 7NEWS Brisbane, Neil Warren said: “Frank changed the way TV news was delivered in Queensland, going live on air for hours on end with breaking news and putting himself at the centre of big stories. He was the ultimate newsman and what he pioneered back then, continues with our team today.
Network director of Seven News and public affairs Craig McPherson said: “On behalf of the entire team at 7NEWS, we extend our deepest sympathies to Frank’s wife Lyn and the Warrick family. Frank was one of the greats. He forged an on-air partnership with Kay that became appointment viewing, setting up a golden period for the 6pm news and the Seven Network in Queensland. A wonderful presenter and tremendous mentor to so many.”
ABC set to roll out new features on video-on-demand service, iview
iview, the ABC’s video-on-demand (VOD) service is launching new personalised features that make it easier to enjoy programmes from the national broadcaster.
Rolling out from July, audiences will need an ABC account to watch ABC iview’s catalogue of Australian drama, documentaries, news, comedies and children’s content. Account holders will also get the benefits of individual profiles for each household member and features such as personal programme recommendations and watchlists of shows they want to catch later on.
ABC iview will enable audiences to continue watching programmes across multiple devices – picking up a show on one screen where they left off on another.
Also launching is an iview brand campaign that features puppet characters Linh, Arj, and Gloria. The work is wrapped in the tagline “Don’t be surprised if you’re surprised”.
Diana Costantini, head of creative ABC MADE, said: “The VOD space is heavily populated with a lot of fantastic creative work in market. Our aim was to craft a campaign that stood out from the crowd, piquing the interest and enticing audiences to jump on to ABC iview to experience the vast range of content we have on offer.”
ABC’s director of audiences, Leisa Bacon, said: “Over three million Australians have already created an ABC account. Logging into ABC iview with an ABC account will help audiences to discover content that they may not have otherwise.
“We know that audiences choose their streaming services based on the content offer and the ABC serves up award-winning content that spans everything from drama to comedy, docos to news and, of course, it’s all for free.”
Publishing
Hearst sells US rights to Marie Claire brand to Future Publishing
British-based Future plc, a global publisher for specialist media, has acquired the joint venture to produce Marie Claire US, the premium women’s lifestyle brand. Hearst published Marie Claire in the US in a JV with Marie Claire International and Future said it had bought the title from both owners.
Future said the acquisition will strengthen the organisation’s position in the women’s lifestyle vertical in North America in line with its strategic approach for expansion and further diversification in the territory.
Zillah Byng-Thorne, CEO of Future, said: “With nearly 17.5 million visitors a month, this is a flagship women’s lifestyle brand and I’m delighted that we are adding it to our already strong Women’s Lifestyle Vertical.
“Our continued growth and success is proof of our strategy in action. We’ve had fantastic results expanding the Marie Claire UK brand and we believe that with our expertise in terms of audience, ecommerce and platform, we can develop the offering to grow the Marie Claire US audience significantly.”
Jean de Boisdeffre executive director of MC International said: “We are thrilled with this new co-operation with Future. We strongly believe that this agreement will create a new, and even more successful era for the Marie Claire brand in the US and Canadian markets. We are sure this will be an exceptional fit between our brand and the Future Group’s expertise, that will create opportunities to leverage and expand Marie Claire into new and exciting business territories.”
Marie Claire US joins Future’s successful stable of women’s lifestyle brands including Marie Claire UK, Woman&Home, GoodToKnow and new launch MyImperfectLife.com. It will increase the organisation’s global monthly reach in this vertical to 30m.
Future has simultaneously entered into a licence to produce Marie Claire US for the next five years.
Future acquired Marie Claire in the UK last year where it is a digital first brand. Are Media publishes Marie Claire in Australia.
Podcasting
US podcast revenues forecast to grow by 150% in next two years to US$2b
The fourth annual IAB US Podcast Advertising Revenue study, prepared for IAB by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”), has found that podcast advertising will grow as much in the next two years as it did in the past decade.
Driven by a particularly strong fourth quarter (+37% YoY), Podcast advertising revenues climbed to $842 million in 2020, up from $708 million in the year prior.
Key findings include:
• The use of dynamically-inserted ads, which enables ad placement at the point of listener download, increased share of revenues from 48% to 67%.
• Announcer-read / pre-produced ads, which also put more control in the buyer’s hand, increased share from 27% to 35%.
• Half of podcast ads lasted longer than 30 seconds in length.
• News continued to be the top content genre for podcast advertisers (22% market share).
• Direct-To-Consumer brands maintained the top advertiser category market share (19%), while Pharmaceuticals more than doubled in share YoY (9%).
2020 US podcast advertising revenues rose to $842m—a 19% increase YoY. The channel is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2021, and $2 billion by 2023.
Podcasting spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, in audience size, in content offered, and in ad buyer interest and investment.
Read the report here (registration required).
Television
Ellen DeGeneres to end her TV talk show next year
Ellen DeGeneres is calling time on her long-running talk show, reports Associated Press’ Mark Kennedy.
The daytime host, who has seen a ratings hit after allegations of running a toxic workplace, has decided that her upcoming season will be the last, ending in 2022. It coincides with the end of her contract.
“Although all good things must come to an end, you still have hope that the truly great things never will,” Mike Darnell, president of unscripted TV for Warner Bros, said in a statement. “It was and is an indelible piece of the television landscape, and it will be sorely missed.”
Waleed Aly and Anthony Albanese clash over the federal budget on The Project
The Labor party has continued to criticise the federal budget but not every one agrees with what Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has to say, reports News Corp’s Bianca Mastroianni and Matt Young.
The Project host Waleed Aly clashed with Albanese on air during Wednesday night’s episode as he argued that the government hasn’t done enough in the budget to increase wages, tackle debt and lift living standards.
Tuesday night’s budget saw billions announced in spending, aimed at speeding up Australia’s financial recovery after the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
While experts have compared it to a Labor-style budget, Albanese rejected the claims on The Project, “because it doesn’t increase wages and it doesn’t lift living standards,” he fired back.
Montaigne: “I really want to go to Eurovision!”
Australia’s Eurovision entrant Montaigne took to social media to express her anguish over not being able to attend in Rotterdam, reports TV Tonight.
The Technicolour singer became tearful during her first live press conference this week, speaking to European journalists from her bedroom in Sydney.
“I feel like I’m about to have a little cry …. I think before I was like, ‘I’m okay with not being there.’ But I feel quite sad about not being,” she said.
“I’m really enjoying watching everyone do their thing but I do feel like I’ve missed out on something really cool.”
What does Hamish Blake do during marathon Lego builds?
It’s no secret Television can take a long time to film, and on some shows the ratio of what is shot versus what makes the final cut can be vast, reports TV Tonight.
On Lego Masters, in particular, cameras are constantly filming contestants build, with some challenges stretching out to 27 hours.
“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Do you film it all in one day?’” Hamish Blake laughs.
“Then I’ve said to them, ‘The 27 hour build?’
“And they go, ‘Yeah, do you shoot it all in one day?’
Blake repeats again, ‘The 27 HOUR BUILD?’
Clare Sladden to assemble writers’ room with U.S. showrunner Bradford Winters
Screen Queensland has selected Brisbane-based writer, producer and director Clare Sladden to run a writers’ room to develop her TV drama series Pathological, under the expert guidance of renowned U.S. showrunner Bradford Winters (Oz, The Sinner, The Americans, Berlin Station).
This writers’ room opportunity is the final component of the Bradford Winters Series Lab, which was facilitated in-person by Winters in March at Screen Queensland’s Brisbane headquarters.
Bradford Winters Series Lab participants Johnny Moubarak, Clare Sladden, Bradford Winters, Rachael S. Morgan, David Peterson and Meg O’Connell
Five participants were selected for the week-long lab, which concluded with participants pitching to Netflix, Stan, or SBS executives for feedback.
Sladden’s series Pathological, follows the story of Claudia, a ruthless, sociopathic lawyer who, after the removal of a brain tumor, acquires a new sense of empathy and must navigate a dangerous corporate conspiracy to protect a teenage runaway from a contract kill Claudia orchestrated previously.
With guidance from Winters, Sladden will now assemble a five-day writers’ room to apply feedback from the pitch experience and create a pilot script and series bible to present to market.
Screen Queensland Chief Creative Officer Jo Dillon described Sladden’s series as an “outstanding project for further development”.
Sport
Alan Jones keeps barking questions at Rugby Australia. I’ve got the answers.
Listen, back in the day when he was quite genuinely a breath-takingly brilliant rugby coach of Manly and then the Wallabies, one of Alan Jones’ favourite sayings to us, whenever anyone proffered any criticism was, “the dogs bark, the caravan moves on”, reports SMH‘s Peter FitzSimons.
Hence the tragic irony now, whereby, on those rare occasions when Jones is not carrying on about how Covid is no big deal and even India should get a grip and not give into “ignorant alarmism”, he is the dog endlessly barking criticism of rugby.
Look, I try, I really try, to ignore Jones, because if I got too much into it I would seriously have to put another man on just to keep track of all the issues he raises, but having come across, by accident, his column in The Australian last week, I am afraid it has got the better of me. Here, for the hell of it, are some of the questions Jones raised, and my answers.