Media Code
Facebook deals with Nine and News Corp edge closer
A deal between Facebook and Nine Entertainment, the owner of The Australian Financial Review, over payments for news content is imminent, and a letter of intent is likely to be signed as early as this week, reports AFR‘s Miranda Ward.
A deal between the Silicon Valley giant and News Corp, the publisher of The Australian and The Wall Street Journal, is also understood to be close after discussions with local publishers had stalled in recent weeks.
Industry sources suggest the deals are now moving forward after conversations had come to a standstill in recent weeks. However, there is no guarantee the agreements will be completed.
News Brands
Daily Mail accuses CBS of ‘deliberate distortion’ during Harry & Meghan special
Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers has demanded that CBS remove a “misleading montage” of newspaper headlines from its Oprah with Meghan and Harry broadcast, reports Press Gazette.
The publisher has called on CBS to investigate a section of the interview that apparently sought to demonstrate how the British media’s coverage of Meghan Markle may have been racist.
The letter was sent after the London Telegraph and Mail published articles that sought to demonstrate how some British newspaper headlines had been distorted to demonstrate racism.
The Telegraph reported that a third of the headlines highlighted were in fact from non-UK gossip magazines. After analysing more than 30 headlines shown in the programme, the Telegraph found that stories from 11 American and Australian supermarket tabloids were included.
Business of Media
Southern Cross Media plummets as Nine returns to WIN
Shares in regional radio and television broadcaster Southern Cross Media Group fell as much as 20 per cent on Friday – the most in 12 months – after Nine Entertainment Co walked away from renewing a regional affiliate agreement, choosing to switch back to former long time broadcast partner WIN Corporation, reports News Corp’s Lachlan Moffet Gray.
The move will mean that from the end of June Nine’s broadcast signal will no longer be carried across the Southern Cross network in regional Queensland, Southern NSW and regional Victoria, and instead will be carried over WIN in the same market.
It is also expected to lead to the loss of dozens of regional journalism jobs and the likely axing of Nine’s regional news bulletins that operate in the same regional as WIN.
‘Shareholders should be represented’: Bruce Gordon ignites push for Nine board seat
Billionaire media mogul Bruce Gordon has said he wants to be more involved in decisions made at Nine Entertainment Co as part of a push by the 92-year-old for representation on the company’s board of directors, reports SMH’s Zoe Samios.
“We are believers that shareholders should be represented on public company boards, particularly shareholders who continue to invest so much in the business,” Gordon told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in his first public comments on the matter. “Now that the affiliate deal is done, Birketu, Nine’s largest shareholder, will seek a seat on the board.
Nine merger one final, big play for Gordon?
Ninety-two-year-old media owner Bruce Gordon has been living in the upmarket “toaster” apartments in Sydney’s Circular Quay for the past 16 months — the longest time the Bermuda resident has spent in Australia for decades reports News Corp’s Glenda Korporaal.
The question now being asked is whether Gordon, who owns the Wollongong-based WIN television network, has also been quietly paving the way for the last big deal of his corporate life: to merge his company with Peter Costello’s Nine Entertainment, now in new headquarters at North Sydney just a ferry ride from where Gordon has been living.
ACCC chief Rod Sims says no problem with competition in Australian media
The nation’s competition watchdog says no single media company enjoys a monopoly in Australia, claiming there are many other sectors in the country that are far more concentrated than the media industry, reports News Corp’s James Madden.
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims also told a Senate hearing into media diversity in Australia on Friday that the issue of foreign ownership of some local media — News Corp, The Guardian, The Daily Mail — had no bearing on the issue of genuine competition in the domestic market.
Under sustained questioning from Labor senator Kim Carr, who argued that News Corp had a “80 per cent print monopoly” in Australia, the ACCC chairman was asked to “define market dominance”.
“Where you’ve got the ability to do things without much constraint from your competitors,” Mr Sims said.
Television
Natalie Barr opens up about new role replacing Sam Armytage on Sunrise
Natalie Barr has taken a bat to her Sunrise predecessor’s provocative parting words – speaking up for Channel 7’s army of working mothers who felt maligned by Sam Armytage’s claims network bosses had gone easy on them when assigning extra duties, reports News Corp’s Holly Byrnes.
Barr wasted no time addressing the incendiary Stellar podcast comments which exploded in Sam’s final days before her shock exit from the top-rating breakfast show.
While newlywed Armytage said she was taking a break to “calm things down” with husband, Richard Lavendar, the controversial Seven star threw a few grenades on her way out – using her new News Corp Australia podcast, Something To Talk About, to also describe her TV colleagues as “sociopaths and narcissists.”
While Barr said “everyone was entitled to their opinion” the popular TV newsreader railed against any suggestion Seven staffers with children were given an easier ride than childless singles when it came to overseas or breaking news assignments.
Sunrise hosts Natalie Barr and David Koch’s awkward start
Jokes have fallen flat at brekky central this morning as Sunrise begins a new era, reports News Corp’s Mitchell Van Homrigh.
In her first official morning as Sunrise host, Natalie Barr struggled to see the funny side in David Koch’s jokes.
“Now nothing much has changed since Friday, so you should be okay … And we were never convinced she could do this after 18 years.”.
“Excuse me,” Barr replied.
Eddie McGuire makes secret return to TV after Collingwood resignation
Eddie McGuire has secretly returned to TV after stepping back from his media commitments following his resignation as president of the Collingwood Football Club, reports News Corp’s
Fiona Byrne.
While he has yet to confirm when he will return to his footy media roles, McGuire has quietly returned to one of his familiar and favourite roles in front of the cameras.
The media heavyweight was back playing quizmaster last week at the Dockland studios in Melbourne where it is understood he filmed a block of episodes for Millionaire Hot Seat. The episodes will air after Easter.
Sport
Seven claws back small $5.3m cricket discount
Seven has secured a $5.3 million discount in its cricket rights fee, understood to be far less than what it had asked for, in recognition of changes to the schedule and squad availabilities due to COVID-19, reports AFR’s Miranda Ward.
The Kerry Stokes-controlled, free-to-air network lodged a claim with the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration in October last year, seeking a discount with Cricket Australia.
Seven hoped the move to arbitration would result in an independent expert ruling its $450 million broadcast deal with Cricket Australia was not worth that amount in light of what it alleges are breaches of the contract between the pair.
The expert appointed by the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration determined $5.3 million should be deducted from the next scheduled rights fee payment on March 15.
The expert also decided that if the Afghanistan Test was not rescheduled for the 2021-22 season, a further discount of $3 million should be applied to the next rights fee payment for that season.
CA the big winner in broadcast fee battle as Seven vows to fight on
Cricket Australia has dodged a major bullet with Channel Seven awarded only a fraction of the broadcast fee reduction it was seeking, but the network has warned it will continue to fight, reports SMH‘s Andrew Wu.
Seven, however, has indicated it may not accept the ruling from the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, having previously said the finding would be binding.
“Seven West Media has to date reserved and continues to reserve all rights concerning the expert not having met fundamental contractual conditions of independence under the media rights agreement,” Seven said in a release authorised to be given to the ASX by Seven chief James Warburton.