Business of Media
Lachlan Murdoch delivers “exceptional 2021 financial results” at Fox Corp
Fox Corporation has reported financial results for the three months and 12 months ended June 30, 2021. The US entertainment business produces and delivers content across Fox News, Fox Entertainment, Fox Sports, and the Fox Television Stations.
Executive chairman and chief executive officer Lachlan Murdoch said: “Our exceptional Fiscal 2021 financial results highlight the strength of our distinct strategy and serve as a foundation for sustained operating momentum. Despite the challenges presented by Covid, our businesses continued to inform and entertain households across the country.
“In the midst of it all, we strengthened our core brands and expanded our digital capabilities, which together provide a robust platform for future growth. We look forward to the year ahead, anticipating the return of normalised sports and entertainment calendars and the start of the midterm election cycle. Fox’s core live event programming, coupled with its growing digital businesses, will continue to deliver audiences on an unmatched scale for our advertising and distribution partners.”
Total quarterly revenues increased 20% to US$2.89 billion with strong growth across all revenue categories. Affiliate revenues increased 10% with 16% growth at the Television segment and 6% growth at the Cable Network Programming segment.
Advertising revenues increased 38%, reflecting 51% growth at the Television segment and 17% growth at the Cable Network Programming segment. Other revenues increased by $56 million or 30%.
Cable Network Programming reported full year segment revenues of $5.68 billion, an increase of $191 million or 3% from the amount reported in the prior year. Advertising revenues increased $173 million or 15%, primarily due to stronger linear and digital results at Fox News Media, including the impact of the presidential election cycle. Affiliate revenues increased $125 million or 3% as increases in affiliate revenues were partially offset by the impact of an accrual for potential distribution credits as a result of cancelled college football games due to Covid-19.
Other revenues were $351 million as compared to the $458 million reported in the prior year, primarily due to the timing of sports sublicensing revenues and pay-per- view boxing content at Fox Sports as a result of Covid-19.
Cable Network Programming reported full year segment EBITDA of $2.88 billion, an increase of $170 million or 6% from the amount reported in the prior year, primarily due to the revenue increases noted above.
Television reported full year segment revenues of $7.05 billion, an increase of $387 million or 6% from the amount reported in the prior year. Affiliate revenues increased $402 million or 20%, driven by increases in fees from third-party Fox affiliates and higher average rates at the company’s owned and operated television stations.
Other revenues increased $60 million or 13%, primarily due to higher content revenues at Bento Box. Advertising revenues were $4.09 billion as compared to the $4.17 billion reported in the prior year, as the impact of the consolidation of Tubi and record political advertising revenues at the Fox Television Stations were more than offset by the absence of the prior year’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIV.
Television reported full year segment EBITDA of $555 million, an increase of $125 million or 29% from the amount reported in the prior year, as the revenue increases noted above were partially offset by higher expenses. The increase in expenses primarily reflects the consolidation of Tubi and contractual annual rights escalators at FOX Sports, partially offset by the absence of the prior year’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIV.
The Brag Media appointed as lead marketing agency for SEND app
SEND, Australia’s first ever exclusively online supermarket, is the latest brand to fall under The Brag Media marketing remit.
An extension of the SEND marketing team, The Brag Media has been appointed to manage all digital marketing activity, customer relationship management, out-of-home advertising, and graphic design.
SEND aims to redefine the way people shop for groceries and daily essentials. The platform allows users to browse and buy goods via the SEND App, with a delivery time of 15 minutes or under.
Emma Greenhalgh is the account lead for the new client, having joined The Brag Media in 2020. Emma holds 7+ years’ experience within multiple media agencies.
Luke Grigis, CEO of The Brag Media, said: “We want to work with companies whose appetite for growth and innovation is as grand as our own. We believe that SEND is about to take Australia by storm, and we can’t wait to build an incredible business with them as they open multiple stores all around the country. Our goal is to make sure every Australian thinks of SEND when ordering groceries, and we believe both the organic reach of our media business, plus our internal creative and marketing capabilities, will give SEND the huge competitive advantage they need to succeed.”
Founder of SEND App, Rob Adams, said: “We’d met with a handful of marketing agencies and were looking to partner with an agency who really understood the direction we were going in with our brand. The Brag Media were a clear stand out! After they presented their vision for an edgy, urban inspired brand that’s looking to disrupt the Australian grocery industry, we knew they were the ones and are extremely happy to be working with them.”
Former Nine Entertainment chief information officer Mat Yelavich joins oOh!media
Technology executive Mat Yelavich is set to join oOh!media as its new chief technology & information officer, charged with leading the company’s digital transformation.
Yelavich has a strong background in technology delivery and strategic leadership in both media and other industries. He will commence his role with oOh! on 13 October and arrives from a similar position at Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand.
Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Nine Entertainment in various positions including group chief information officer. There he played a major role in the digital transformation of one of Australia’s largest media organisations, leading the technology strategy as well as the extensive integration work following Nine’s acquisition of Fairfax Media.
Mat Yelavich
After beginning his career at Nine, Yelavich progressed to other roles at Grass Valley Australia, BSkyB and Al Jazeera International, building wide-ranging local and international experience, including supporting emerging news gathering and production technologies.
oOh! CEO Cathy O’Connor said that with data and the increasing digitisation of ad buying now an important part of the company’s focus, Yelavich was well placed to help the company drive towards new commercial opportunities.
“We have a market-leading position in data and scale in Out of Home. Mat is the strategist we’ve been looking for to take us to the next level when it comes to deploying technology to build the business and capitalise on our unique strengths for the benefit of our customers,” she said.
“He has an outstanding track record of delivering enterprise-wide innovation in technology, extensive media industry experience, and the vision required in a dynamic and rapidly changing industry. We are very much looking forward to him joining the leadership team.”
Yelavich said he was excited to be joining oOh! at a time of growth opportunities. “I feel privileged to be working with Cathy and the leadership team, and it’s great to be joining such a fantastic organisation. I’m absolutely driven to make an impact, drive innovation and help further oOh!’s transformation.”
Foxtel Arts channel to close
Foxtel Arts channel will close at the end of August as Foxtel introduces FOX Docos on Ch. 129, reports TV Tonight.
It brings to an end a stand-alone Arts channel designed to attract affluent, discerning subscribers interested in opera, ballet, music, theatre, dance, cabaret, classical and contemporary performance, documentary specials and series from cinema, literature, music, visual art and artists.
Foxtel Arts launched in 2016 replacing SBS-owned STUDIO, which itself replaced Ovation in 2010.
US movie distributor using Facebook for platform’s first ever ticketed premiere
Facebook will host its first paid film premiere later this month, reports Variety. The Outsider, a documentary about the challenges and controversies involved in building the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan, will screen exclusively on the platform on August 19.
While Facebook has livestreamed free events in the past, this will be the first time a film has premiered on the platform.
The exclusive Facebook premiere of The Outsider will be available to screen globally, available at this link, starting August 19 at 8 pm ET until August 20 at 8 am ET. Tickets are US$3.99 and include access to a panel discussion that will follow the film’s premiere.
News Brands
Legendary Nine broadcaster Brian Henderson has died aged 89
Tributes to long-time Nine Sydney newsreader Brian Henderson are flooding social media this morning. Nine’s Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic announced his passing at 9am on the program this morning.
“Brian was 89 and a much loved member of the Nine family,” said Stefanovic.
“He read the weeknight Sydney News from 1957 until his retirement in 2002 as Australia’s longest-serving news presenter. He also hosted Bandstand for many years. I knew him, he was an absolute legend.
“He was a gentleman and a total professional who provided guidance and inspiration for so many colleagues and generations who followed. Brian was married to his lovely wife Mardi for 48 years and she was at his bedside along with his daughters Jodie and Nicole.”
Henderson was born in New Zealand and became known to colleagues and many viewers as “Hendo”.
His trademark farewell at the end of each bulletin was “…and that’s the way it is” or “the way it is”.
When Henderson retired at the end of the TV ratings year in 2002, he noted it was time for him to stop presenting the news and to start watching it.
His final message to viewers was: “Not the way it was, as has been suggested, but for the last time, the way it is, this Friday the 29th of November, this is Brian Henderson – a sad Brian Henderson – saying not good night, this time, but goodbye.”
Henderson was later heard on Foxtel a decade later as the narrator of the documentary on the Granville rail disaster.
Former colleague Jim Wilson, now with 2GB, said this morning: “A giant of the industry, was a task master (along with Ian Cook) with me when I started at Nine News Sydney and best thing that ever happened to me professionally.”
Sharri Markson says YouTube suspension of Sky News Australia is ‘cancellation of free speech’
The News Corp Australia journalist Sharri Markson has told Fox News in the US that YouTube’s suspension of Sky News Australia for violating its Covid medical misinformation policy was “the most extreme cancellation of free speech imaginable”, reports Guardian Australia’s Amanda Meade.
Markson, the investigations writer at the Australian newspaper and a Sky News presenter, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to talk about the seven-day YouTube ban imposed on Sky News Australia. YouTube has not identified which videos violated the policy but Sky had posted numerous videos disputing the seriousness of the disease and the need for lockdowns while promoting hydoxychlorquine or ivermectin.
“Sky News, the entire news network in Australia, has been censored by YouTube for an entire week for bringing responsible, informed coverage to Australian people,” Markson told Tucker Carlson. “It’s the most extreme cancellation of free speech imaginable.”
The New York Times Reaches 8 Million Subscriptions
The New York Times Company said in a statement announcing its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday that it had eight million subscriptions and expected to add as many this year as it did in 2019, when President Donald J. Trump dominated headlines and a pandemic had yet to melt the global economy. The company estimated that it will have 8.5 million paid print and digital subscriptions by the end of 2021, reports The New York Times’ Edmund Lee.
Meredith Kopit Levien, the chief executive, said in the statement that the company’s performance was “a testament to the success of our strategy” of focusing on digital subscriptions. She put the potential market size of Times readers at 100 million, adding that there was an opportunity to continue to invest while “daily habits are up for grabs.”
Podcasts
Listen and watch: why podcasts have become rich TV fodder
If you’re having trouble getting through all the podcasts you’ve downloaded there’s a back-up plan at hand: just wait until they become television shows and then watch them, reports SMH’s Craig Mathieson.
Having quietly taken root over the past few years, the television adaptation of the podcast, whether factual or fictional, has achieved launch trajectory this year. From the Netflix true crime series Sophie: A Murder in West Cork to Stan’s medical thriller Dr Death, what we listen to increasingly informs what we watch.
When it comes to source material, the podcast really is the new book. There is a deluge of podcasts that have been optioned for TV translation over the past two years or served as direct inspiration, to the point where similar projects are now racing to air. Just like the rival asteroids-headed-for-Earth Hollywood blockbusters Armageddon and Deep Impact, there are two true crime series about the 1996 murder of French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, the subject of Audible’s 2018 hit podcast West Cork.
Television
I’m a Celebrity (UK) returns to Wales as Australia misses out again
The UK version of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! has ruled out an Australian return for its upcoming season and will instead return to historic Gwrych Castle, Abergele in North Wales, reports TV Tonight.
The show hosted by Ant & Dec, filmed its most recent series at the same site.
Prior to the pandemic all seasons had filmed in Australia, mostly at Dungay near Murwillumbah.
Farmer Wants A Wife star Nickia slams Farmer Will for paternity statement
Will Dwyer, the reality star embroiled in the Farmer Wants A Wife pregnancy scandal, has been scolded by another contestant from the show for his comments following Hayley Love’s statement, reports News Corp’s Bella Fowler.
Nickia, who is close friends with Hayley, 25, slammed the sheep and cattle farmer for his Instagram post on Monday in which he questioned whether the child “is in fact” his.
As reported by Kidspot, Nickia hit back on her Instagram story saying the 39-year-old should have stepped up when Hayley first revealed she was pregnant.
Nickia also accused him of “vile” private correspondence with the pregnant star.
Radio
Kyle Sandilands busted lying about pashing Isla Fisher
Kyle Sandilands was “mortified” when he was busted lying about hooking up with an Aussie actress, reports News Corp’s Andrew Bucklow.
He said that when he first met Jackie O back in the day, he made up a story about kissing Isla Fisher when she was in Queensland to promote Home And Away.
“She [Isla Fisher] got sent up to Mackay where I was working at the radio station. I had to drive her around from thing to thing,” Kyle said. “We got a Paddle Pop and ate it at the beach.
“I made up this big lie when I first met Jackie that I’d made out with her on the beach … did the full deal.”
Sports Media
Broadcast talks break down over T20 in Bangladesh
A standoff between the Bangladesh rights holders and Australian broadcasters led to the opening match of the five-game T20 series being unavailable to watch in Australia, reports TV Tonight.
It marks the first time since 1994 the senior Australian men’s team played a series that was not broadcast in Australia.
A report at Cricket Australia claims the Bangladesh Cricket Board sold its broadcast rights to BanTech, a marketing agency, in May this year in a two-year deal reported in local media to be worth about $US19m. BanTech then sub-licenses those rights to broadcasters, both in Bangladesh and abroad.
But negotiations with Australian broadcasters – including Foxtel and free-to-air broadcasters – broke down and a deal could not be struck ahead of the first match.