Business of Media
Foxtel turnaround a worthy MBA case study
It is not surprising that the Foxtel turnaround story is being used as a case study at the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of NSW, writes Tony Boyd for AFR.
It is one of the most impressive seen in subscription entertainment over the past six years.
The other big success story in video streaming is Stan, a start-up originally jointly funded by Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment and now a wholly owned and high performing subsidiary of Nine, which absorbed Fairfax in 2018.
The difference between the two is that Stan could start with a clean sheet of paper while Foxtel was a legacy pay-TV operation burdened with excessive satellite distribution costs and a one-size-fits-all business model.
It fell at the feet of Patrick Delany, who applied the lessons learnt during eight years running Fox Sports, to disrupt the ailing pay-TV business from within.
ABC discloses more staff underpayments
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has confessed to underpaying more staff after a review of almost 2000 current and former workers found some had not been paid correctly for their skill level while others were not paid enough for loadings and allowances, reports SMH‘s Nick Bonyhady.
It follows a separate admission from the broadcaster last year that it had underpaid about 1900 staff $12 million, which came to light after casual staff complained they had not been paid correctly, along with a then-record $600,000 apology payment to the wages regulator.
In a statement on Thursday, the ABC apologised for the error and said it would not happen again but did not disclose how many staff members had been underpaid or the total size of the wage issue.
“The ABC will start paying what is owed after a period of consultation with affected individuals,” the statement reads. “We are sorry to all those impacted by this error, which falls short of the standards expected of the ABC.”
Union lashes ABC for ‘serious cultural problem’ of underpaying staff
The Community and Public Sector Union has lashed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for underpaying its staff, accusing the public broadcaster of having a “serious cultural problem” and urging it to “rein in the bad management practices”, reports AFR‘s Miranda Ward.
The ABC has announced it found current and former employees who were engaged on a buyout or a Band 1 classification from July 14, 2014 to June 20 this year were paid less than what they were entitled to.
The public broadcaster began its review in January, finding that those on a buyout – in which employees are paid a loading in lieu of overtime, penalties, allowances and other entitlements – were paid less than they were entitled to. Underpayments also occurred when an employee was incorrectly classified or remained at Band 1, which is appropriate only for an entry-level employee with no experience.
The ABC also identified staff who were underpaid a meal allowance.
Director of journalists’ union, MEAA Media Adam Portelli said the ABC “must ensure that such widespread underpayments do not happen again”.
The ABC said it was implementing a new record-keeping, leave management and rostering system to improve its compliance with employee payment requirements.
It said it was liaising with the Fair Work Ombudsman, the CPSU and the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance to review the measures.
Ozy Media chair Marc Lasry resigns, recommends “crisis management”
Marc Lasry, the billionaire hedge fund manager, has stepped down as chairman of Ozy Media, the embattled media company founded by former CNN contributor and MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson, reports The Hollywood Reporter‘s Alex Weprin.
In a statement Thursday, Lasry said “I believe that going forward, Ozy requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise … I remain an investor in the company and I wish it the best going forward.”
Lasry was named chairman of Ozy earlier this month. His fund led a $35 million investment round in Ozy in 2019.
Lasry’s resignation comes as Ozy continues to deal with the fallout from a New York Times exposé earlier this week. The story, by Ben Smith, included an anecdote about Ozy’s co-founder and COO Samir Rao impersonating a YouTube executive while on a fundraising call with Goldman Sachs.
News Brands
Scrooge McDuck, Hitler raised in court as Erin Molan defamation case continues
Thomas Jefferson’s sexual relationship with a woman he enslaved and Hitler’s Mein Kampf have featured in a Federal Court defamation battle between Erin Molan and the Daily Mail continued, reports News Corp’s Lane Sainty.
The Nine sports broadcaster is suing the online news outlet over a June 2020 article she says falsely suggested she is a racist and “arrogant white woman of privilege” who mocked the names of Pacific Islander NRL players.
The Daily Mail is defending the case, armed with years of audio from the 2GB rugby league program Continuous Call Team it says proves Molan is racist. To decide a victor, judge Robert Bromwich will likely have to reach a conclusion on what exactly constitutes racism.
The Daily Mail’s barrister Bruce McClintock proffered examples of racism including Jefferson’s racism and “hypocrisy” for maintaining a relationship with one of the many people he enslaved, and Hitler’s horror, documented in Mein Kampf, at seeing a man dressed in traditional Jewish garb.
McClintock argued neither intention nor antagonism was necessary to conclude something or someone was racist.
Radio
Channel 9 reporter Chris O’Keefe to fill in for 2GB drive host Jim Wilson
TV-type Chris O’Keefe will have “a crack at radio”, filling in for Jim Wilson on 2GB over summer, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
Nine is parachuting the television journalist into the drive slot as pressure continues on the station after a year of turbulent ratings.
“I speak too much, so that is probably why I am on radio,” O’Keefe said while sitting in with breakfast host Ben Fordham to learn the ropes of the medium.
“After watching you, it was like watching Michael Schumacher in the F1s. It is amazing, it is high octane. I am really looking forward to it, it will be a good opportunity and big shoes to fill with Jimmy Wilson in the afternoons so I am looking forward to it.”
AM rocks! Ross and Russell welcome 3AW listeners to Rocktober
The first day of the month of Rocktober used to be huge at what were a couple of Australia’s biggest radio stations in the 70s and 80s – 3XY and 2SM. (A promotion used at many other AM and later FM stations and even the late, great Vega FM at one stage.)
3AW breakfast hosts Ross and Russell this morning welcomed their 5.30am audience to Rocktober. They were joined in the station by veteran Melbourne radio newsman Denis O’Kane who worked at 3XY during the Rocktober days.
The station switchboard soon had a number of enthusiastic callers remembering the Rocktober days. One caller sent in photos of his Rocktober T-shirts and another talked about his brother who worked at 3XY and then EON FM in his school holidays and who had a collection of station jingles. Before the end of the half hour 3AW breakfast audio guru Damian Tardio had 3XY jingles on air.
O’Kane recalled some of the on air personalities that helped make 3XY’s Rocktober such a success including Lee Simon and Barry Bissell. Others on air still working in radio and podcasting in Melbourne included Craig Huggins and Kevin Hillier and some of the other DJs included Peter Grace, Jane Holmes, John Peters and Peter and Richard Stubbs.
O’Kane remembered this morning how Derryn Hinch even spent time with 3XY in a morning current affairs program before he went to 3AW.
O’Kane also recalled a concert that went live to air featuring US rockers The Knack with one of the first words going to air was the F-bomb from the band’s lead singer.
O’Kane also recalled the launch of the first Melbourne FM stations, first EON FM and later Fox. The stations found it hard to initially make an impact on the AM music champ 3XY, but they gradually took over, one playing rock music and the other high rotation top 40.
For more on the highest-rating stations in Australia, don’t miss Mediaweek’s coverage of the next radio ratings. The delayed Survey 6, 2021 results will be out on Thursday October 7.
Television
Tony Ayres’ Clickbait claims top spot on the Nielsen US streaming charts
The Tony Ayres’ co-produced drama series Clickbait spent time in the Parrot Analytics TV top 10 demand charts published in Mediaweek across several weeks in September. The Hollywood Reporter has news today that the series, filmed in Melbourne and the US, has also topped the Nielsen Streaming chart for the start of September when the series was first released on Netflix:
Clickbait racked up 1.46 billion minutes of viewing time for the week of Aug. 30-Sept. 5, a 60 percent jump over the 912 million minutes for its debut the previous week. It was far and away the most watched original series on Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix, drawing more than triple the viewing time of the second-place show, Money Heist (452 million minutes).
Don’t miss the recent Mediaweek podcast with Tony Ayres. The Melbourne-based award-winning creator, showrunner, writer and director spoke with Andrew Mercado and James Manning about his current ABC drama Fires and also the Netflix drama Clickbait.
Listen here or on your favourite podcast platform.
Ant Middleton not happy over SAS UK down under
Ant Middleton is pretty grumpy again…. this time around his previous UK series SAS: UK screening on 7plus, reports TV Tonight.
The SAS Australia chief instructor took to Instagram to lash out at British “cancel culture” after he was dropped by Channel 4, which he accuses of cashing in on his name by screening the show down under.
“Funny how the UK cancel culture ‘supposedly’ sacked me but they’re still willing to make money from my profile, my brand, my name, my work and my show! And now that I’ve opened up a market for myself in Australia they are capitalising on my success! Laughable, hypocritical and shameful but business is business and that’s exactly what it is… just business baby!” he stated.