Business of Media
Seven and Nine vie for TV ratings crown
Seven has claimed it will wrest the ratings crown back from rival Nine for the first time since 2018 but advertising buyers warn the battle for the top spot, which is worth tens of millions in revenue to the networks, is far from over, reports AFR‘s Miranda Ward.
While Seven is preparing for its victory lap already, the race between it and Nine, which also owns The Australian Financial Review, will be tight.
Nine is currently in the lead in the commercial free-to-air market rating survey, with a total audience share for the year to date of 38.63 per cent, just ahead of Seven’s 37.21 per cent share.
Prime Media cosies up to Seven West Media as affiliation draws nearer
There’s nothing like affiliate deals to re-spark corporate activity at Prime Media, reports AFR’s Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd.
And so it is, again, with Prime understood to have canvassed the prospect of one of the longest mooted deals in Australian media in recent weeks; a combination with big brother Seven West Media.
Sources said Prime, in full realisation it had only 18 months left on its deal to carry Seven West content, had gone to its affiliate partner, spruiking its relatively healthy balance sheet and franking credit balance and talking about what the combined business could look like.
But, don’t start getting ready for a deal. It is understood Seven West, while keen to come together with Prime, isn’t prepared to dust off the M&A files until Prime sorts out its share register.
Roberts-Smith probed over cliff he allegedly kicked man off
Former special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has faced his first grilling over the accuracy of his evidence and been accused of “inventing” stories to suit his version of events in a defamation action against Nine, reports AFR‘s Max Mason.
There was considerably more tension during Roberts-Smith’s second day of cross-examination by Nine’s barrister, Nicholas Owens, SC, who spent much of Thursday methodically walking the former Special Air Services soldier through his own version of events and different military protocols and expectations.
The Sky News host some want in parliament – and it’s not Paul Murray
Some conservative figures are pushing Peta Credlin to enter state politics and take on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews at next year’s election, writes Annika Smethurst in The Age.
The “Peta for Premier” push started in late 2020, when she publicly grilled Andrews over phone records that hadn’t been released to the hotel quarantine inquiry.
The push bubbled to the surface again in March when Victorian Liberal leader Michael O’Brien was challenged for the leadership by shadow roads minister Brad Battin. Conservative commentators, many of them friends of Credlin, argued that O’Brien was too reasonable to puncture Andrews’ dominance and what the Victorian Liberals needed was a strong female leader.
Conservative commentator Steve Price used his column in Melbourne’s Herald Sun to call for Credlin to replace O’Brien. Credlin’s Sky News colleague Alan Jones later joined the chorus, telling viewers that the Victorian Liberals should not reinstate former leader Matthew Guy but instead roll little-known Liberal backbencher Gary Blackwood, who holds the western Gippsland seat of Narracan, and replace him with Credlin.
“No disrespect to him, but no one has heard of him,” Jones said. “If he is a true-blue Liberal, why not resign the seat and the Victorian administration invite Peta Credlin – unopposed – to be the candidate and pitchfork her straight into the leadership.”
There is little doubt Credlin is being encouraged to run for Parliament at some stage. When asked, she is unwilling to rule out a tilt in the future but it is difficult to find a serving politician, state or federal, who thinks she will do so any time soon.
ABC gets Silver for its new top lawyer
Ingrid Silver, a partner with international law firm Reed Smith, has been appointed ABC general counsel after a handover delayed by the defamation case against the public broadcaster by Industry Minister Christian Porter, reports AFR‘s Miranda Ward.
Silver takes over the role from Connie Carnabuci, who told ABC management last November she was leaving but was unable to do so once Porter launched his proceedings.
In late May, Porter dropped his claim in court against the public broadcaster and journalist Louise Milligan. ABC managing director David Anderson announced Silver’s appointment on Friday.
Social media reined in by new laws on defamation
A second wave of national defamation law reform will seek to regulate the “wild west” of social media and clarify who should be responsible for defamatory posts, reports News Corp’s Lydia Lynch.
All Australian states and territories agreed to overhaul and uniform the nation’s outdated defamation laws in July 2020.
The first tranche of legislation shifted the balance towards freedom of expression with a public interest defence to better protect journalists and a “serious harm” test to prevent long and expensive litigation for trivial matters.
News Brands
GB News will flourish if the success of partisan, rightwing TV in Australia is any guide
It is probably fair to say that GB News, the UK’s new conservative TV channel, has launched to a somewhat mixed reception, writes Guardian Australia‘s Anne Davies.
The Telegraph derided the content as “unutterably awful; boring, repetitive and cheapskate”. Others criticised its claims of being “anti-woke” and unbiased as simply bias in another direction.
Still more have pointed to the age of the presenters, wondered aloud why any young person would tune in, and predicted its swift demise. After all, Britain is not ready for a rightwing TV channel.
But those looking in from afar – specifically Australia – are warning not to underestimate it and its leader.
Provocative journalist Janet Malcolm dies, aged 86
Janet Malcolm has died, and here is a quote we are required to use: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible,” reports News Corp’s Caroline Overington.
It’s obligatory for this obituary, and for anyone writing about slippery business, in journalism.
The quote is the opening line from Malcolm’s book: The Journalist and the Murderer.
Journalists don’t necessarily like it, but on some level, they know it’s at least sometimes true.
Key ABC witness Peter Alexander Priest is a serial conspiracy theorist
A key witness in the ABC’s Four Corners story on QAnon is a serial conspiracy theorist who has twice been detained by the fixated persons unit of Queensland Police and who admits he took part in the TV program to “politically damage Scott Morrison”, reports News Corp’s Stephen Rice.
The man introduced by the program as “Eliahi Priest” and described as “a self-styled online anti-corruption crusader” has a long history of making bizarre claims, which the ABC failed to mention. His real name is Peter Alexander Priest, a jeweller who works in his parents’ jewellery store on the Sunshine Coast but claims to be the designate consul to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to have infiltrated a CIA front company involved in an alleged $US15 trillion fraud linked to Australia’s failed Nugan Hand Bank.
Television
Why Manu Feildel is giving up on restaurants
French-Australian chef and former My Kitchen Rules host Manu Feildel is sitting in Botany, weighing up his future. It might be a new television program or spending more time watching his son play rugby, but there’s one thing it won’t be: launching a new restaurant, reports SMH‘s Zoe Samios.
“Never say never, but I think my wife would kill me if I did,” he says. “A lot of things would have to change in Australia for me to get back into a restaurant because it’s a very fickle business. The margins are so small nowadays that you have a lot of work that you have to do to be successful.”
It’s far from what the 47-year-old Feildel might have said a decade ago. The restaurateur, who made his name hosting the Seven Network’s popular cooking show My Kitchen Rules with controversial chef Pete Evans until it was axed last year, has tried several times to launch his own restaurant. One of his more infamous endeavours was with former Masterchef Australia judge George Calombaris in Melbourne. Their Le Grand Cirque in South Yarra closed four months after opening following several bad reviews.
Sports Media
NBL owner racing the shot clock for TV deal with final series underway
Larry Kestelman isn’t understating it when he calls the last 12 months “an incredibly challenging year, but fruitful as well”, reports News Corp’s John Stensholt.
Kestelman is an entrepreneur who very much mixes business with pleasure, as owner of the National Basketball League – a rarity in the world, let alone Australia – and property developer.
Kestelman needs to negotiate a new broadcast deal for the next season which begins in October, with Nine Entertainment and its Stan streaming service said to be competing with Foxtel and ESPN in a deal that could be worth $10m annually. He could also join the sporting dash for private equity cash.
There could also be a string of ownership deals for some of the nine existing teams in the competition, including the Perth club by Kestelman’s fellow member of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 in Jack Bendat.
The sports administration job that David Gyngell reportedly doesn’t want
Leading league officials have started a push to get former Channel Nine chief executive David Gyngell on to the ARL Commission, reports Nine’s Danny Weidler in The Sun-Herald.
His football and business knowledge would be invaluable, but all the indications are he does not want to do it and won’t be swayed to change his mind.
Can Peter V’landys work some magic as list of NRL rights bidders shrinks?
The next big issue for the NRL is negotiating a new free-to-air TV deal, writes Nine’s Danny Weidler in The Sun-Herald. So it was worth noting that Mike Sneesby, the boss of Nine Entertainment was the guest of ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys at the State of Origin series opener in Townsville.
V’landys is a renowned dealmaker and his renegotiation of the TV deals last year in the midst of the pandemic was crucial to saving the game. A subscription and digital TV deal was done until 2027 with Fox Sports and its streaming service, Kayo. Telstra lost the streaming rights from 2023 onwards so the telco shut down its streaming for this season. This has been a huge boost for Kayo, which has experienced major growth as a result.
it would appear the 10 Network’s decision to ramp up its investment in football is bad news for the NRL. The governing body has been trying to drive competition among media outlets for broadcast rights when Channel Nine’s deal ends in 2022. First, they suggested that Channel Seven was interested, even though they already hold the AFL and cricket rights, and would probably have to show AFL games on their secondary channels in the northern states. Then it was suggested Channel 10 was interested in rugby league. 10 doubled down on its investment in football last week, announcing a $100 million deal for international matches, the FFA Cup and Asian tournaments on top of the $200 million it paid for rights to the A-League and W-League last month.
So the number of potential bidders appears to be dwindling.