Business of Media
ABC documentary on Luna Park fire cost $2m
The ABC spent almost $2m on its heavily criticised Luna Park ghost train fire documentary, which is now subject to a board-ordered independent review, reports News Corp’s Troy Bramston.
In written replies to questions by Labor senator Tony Sheldon in Senate estimates, the ABC refused to provide a breakdown of research, investigation and production costs aligned to different segments, but said total expenditure was $1,911,028.
The high cost of the program, which ran for just over four hours, comes as the ABC claims it has had to cut TV and radio news programs, and reduce staff, due to budget constraints.
Judge backs journalist Steve Barrett’s legal aid appeal
A Supreme Court judge has backed crime journalist Steve Barrett’s second attempt to secure financial aid for his upcoming blackmail trial after an initial application was rejected last month, warning the charge faced by the reporter was a “complex one” that would involve the cross-examination of key witnesses, reports News Corp’s Kieran Gair.
Barrett, 63, who formerly worked for 60 Minutes, the Seven Network and The Australian, has pleaded not guilty to blackmailing the alleged masterminds behind the $105 million Plutus Payroll tax fraud scam.
In June, NSW Supreme Court judge Peter Johnson was forced to discharge the jury – which had been reduced from 12 people to 11 people – after they reached an impasse during the ninth day of deliberations.
Discovery hits 18M paying streaming subs, U.S. ad revenue jumps 12 percent
Discovery, led by CEO David Zaslav, said on Tuesday that it has now reached 18 million paying streaming subscribers worldwide to its direct-to-consumer services, including Discovery+, after ending June with 17 million, reports The Hollywood Reporter‘s Georg Szalai.
In late April, it had reported 15 million paying users.
In its third earnings report since the Discovery+ launch early in the year, the company on Tuesday also disclosed improved advertising revenue, including a second-quarter gain of 12 percent in the U.S. and an 88 percent jump in its international business, or 70 percent excluding foreign-exchange impacts.
AP and Reuters collaborate with Twitter to help elevate credible information
Twitter has announced that it is collaborating with The Associated Press (AP) and Reuters to expand their efforts to identify and elevate credible information on Twitter.
Through this program, Twitter’s Curation team will increase their capacity to add reliable context to conversations happening on Twitter. This joint work will increase the scale and speed of the current work by:
Increasing and improving context sharing: Ensuring that credible information is available in real time around key conversations as they emerge on Twitter, especially where facts are in dispute or when Twitter’s Curation team doesn’t have the specific expertise or access to a high enough volume of reputable reporting on Twitter. For example, people on Twitter can expect more Trends with contextual descriptions and links to reporting from trusted sources more frequently.
Anticipating and proactively identifying emerging conversation: Proactively providing context on topics garnering widespread interest including those that could potentially generate misleading information. Rather than waiting until something goes viral, Twitter will contextualize developing discourse at pace with or in anticipation of the public conversation.
Improving the effectiveness of product features: Supporting product experimentation and existing initiatives where additional credible context could make our work better. For example, Birdwatch will use feedback from AP and Reuters as one way to assess the quality of information elevated by Birdwatch participants.
During the initial phase of the program, AP and Reuters will focus on English-language content.
“Trust, accuracy and impartiality are at the heart of what Reuters does every day, providing billions of people with the information they need to make smart decisions. Those values also drive our commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation. We’re excited to partner with Twitter to leverage our deep global and local expertise to serve the public conversation with reliable information,” said Hazel Baker – head of UGC newsgathering, Reuters
“AP has a long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism. This work is core to our mission. We are particularly excited about leveraging AP’s scale and speed to add context to online conversations, which can benefit from easy access to the facts,” said Tom Januszewski – vice president of global business development, AP
Radio
RN’s Penny Lomax and Maureen Cooney to be awarded Distinguished Services to Australian Music honour
Penny Lomax and Maureen Cooney, the founding producers of ABC Radio National’s program, The Music Show, will be presented with the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the 2021 Art Music Awards. The ceremony, originally scheduled to take place in Melbourne in mid-August, will now be broadcast to audiences worldwide on Tuesday 24 August via YouTube Premiere.
Lomax and Cooney conceptualised The Music Show 30 years ago, as a nationwide, multi-genre equivalent of state-based classical programs already on air. For two hours each Saturday morning, musicians of all stripes discussed their work and performed, either live in the studio or in outside broadcasts, with an emphasis on new Australian music. The two producers were the program’s driving force, selecting guests and researching interviews, pulling strings, editing out gaffes, and making vital on-air decisions when proceedings went awry.
Under their guidance, the first presenter Christopher Lawrence and his successor, current host Andrew Ford, talked to thousands of musicians, from the ridiculously famous to the delightfully obscure, from street musicians to composers of operas. The Music Show pioneered an ecumenical approach, incorporating classical, jazz, traditional, pop, hip hop, music theatre and a myriad of other genres.
Penny and Maureen said, “We are hugely chuffed and more than a bit proud. We thank the APRA AMCOS & AMC boards for rewarding our efforts, and for recognising the contribution that public service broadcasting can make to Australian music and culture, and we thank our ABC colleagues and the myriad Australian musicians who helped us make it.”
The performance program for the 2021 Art Music Awards has been curated by Musical Director Barney McAll and will feature a diverse range of musicians: Art Music Awards finalist Mindy Meng Wang; female jazz quartet Aura; acclaimed cellist Blair Harris; experimental rock band Liars; and Butchulla songman Fred Leone with experimental contrabassist Samuel Pankhurst.
Entertainment
Actor Samuel Johnson shares update after being hit by a car in Melbourne
Samuel Johnson says he feels “very lucky” to have returned home more than a month after he was hit by a car in Melbourne, reports News Corp’s Catie McLeod.
In his first public update since the June 19 accident, the Logie Award-winning actor said he was on the mend but had “a lot more work ahead” to make a full recovery.
Johnson, writing on the Love Your Sister charity Facebook page on Monday, thanked paramedics, Victoria Police and staff at the Alfred and Epworth hospitals.
“Woot, I’m home! So, I got into a dust-up with a small white vehicle, and lost badly!,’’he wrote.