Business of Media
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox creates $130m fund to invest in NFTs
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. is joining the list of investors and businesses pumping big money into nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, a type of digital file that can be bought and sold around creative works like pictures, music and videos, reports Bloomberg’s Christopher Palmer.
The entertainment giant behind Fox News and the Fox broadcast network said on Tuesday (US time) it’s launching a new fund for digital creators and seeding it with $US100 million ($130 million). The fund is part of a broader effort announced in May that includes a new business unit, Blockchain Creative Labs, that will sell and administer NFTs and other digital goods.
NFTs are verified by a blockchain, introducing scarcity to digital goods to make them attractive to buyers and also provide proof of authenticity.
Scott Greenberg, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment animation studio, will also serve as CEO of Blockchain Creative Labs.
Ben Roberts-Smith hired investigator to follow woman
Former special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith paid a private investigator to check if a woman he was dating was faking being pregnant, fearing he was “being manipulated, so he would stay in the relationship”, reports AFR’s Max Mason.
Roberts-Smith is suing The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald for defamation over reports in 2018 that he says allege he punched the woman, known as Person 17, in the face in Canberra.
“My head hurts,” Person 17 is alleged to have said while in a room at the Realm Hotel in Canberra on March 28, 2018.
Roberts-Smith is alleged to have responded “I’ll show you what hurt is” and punched her in the face. He said it was “simply false” that he’d said those words and denied that he hit Person 17.
Independent media agency Indago Digital announces three new clients
Independent media agency Indago Digital has bounced back from COVID revenue losses with three new client wins.
The clients are Nestle Professional, Eclipx Group and the City of Parramatta.
Indago Digital managing director, Gary Nissim, said the agency’s growth comes after marketing and media budgets nosedived in 2020, which saw the agency chase the storm to recover its revenues.
WarnerMedia reveals Space Jam: A New Legacy content and merchandise ahead of film release
WarnerMedia is set to roll out the largest Looney Tunes collection of content and merchandise in decades ahead of the new Warner Bros. Pictures movie Space Jam: A New Legacy, with advance screenings from July 8, 2021.
The line-up of products and content available around the globe will allow fans to join the jam and share the fun. In Australia and New Zealand, WarnerMedia will launch a coordinated roll out to support the theatrical release of Space Jam: A New Legacy with new toys and apparel, Cartoon Network and Boomerang channel takeovers, the original Space Jam remastered in 4k Ultra HD and on ground activations at Warner Bros. Movie World.
News Brands
‘Ritual abuse’ in sex abuse royal commission report, despite claims QAnon inserted it to Scott Morrison’s speech
Ritual abuse was identified by the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse as a regular experience of victims, despite claims Scott Morrison used the term in a speech under the influence of a conspiracy theorist, reports News Corp’s James Madden and Richard Ferguson.
The ABC’s Four Corners reported on Monday that Tim Stewart – a family friend of the Prime Minister who believes the world is controlled by a cabal of Satanic paedophiles – sent text messages claiming he’d had the phrase “ritual abuse” inserted into Morrison’s 2019 apology to victims of institutional sex abuse.
The term “ritual abuse” has been identified as a key word for followers of the QAnon conspiracy, who also believe a global child sex trafficking ring is being led by Hollywood actors and former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in their online forums.
Radio
Gold toilet: Kyle Sandilands lavish birthday gifts revealed
It is the ultimate birthday conundrum — what to get as a birthday gift for someone who seemingly has it all, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
In Kyle Sandilands’ case, it appears the radio host’s friends had all bases covered, from luxury items to the still luxe but more practical.
Confidential has gathered a list of what Sandilands celebrity friends presented him at the weekend when the KIIS FM breakfast host put on a lavish birthday boat bash that insiders claim cost close to $500,000.
Kyle Sandilands threw Ben Fordham’s ‘cheap’ birthday present overboard
KIIS radio co-host Kyle Sandilands has revealed the celebrity guest who gave him the “worst” birthday present at his star-studded 50th birthday bash, reports News Corp’s Mibengé Nsenduluka and Jonathon Moran.
Sandilands celebrated in style aboard a $3000-per-hour superyacht on Sydney Harbour on Saturday night and claims one particular guest arrived with a gift so “cheap”, he threw it overboard into the harbour.
“Ben Fordham came on-board and he wanted to give me his gift early,” Sandilands said on the Kyle and Jackie O show on Tuesday.
“Ben presented the present which was a terribly cheap Casio watch from 1988. So I’ve looked at it and he’s written a note, (it read) ‘You’ve probably got a few watches but here’s your favourite’.
“I’m looking at the watch and I thought, ‘This is s**t’.”