Business of Media
Second person in claims against BBC presenter
A young person in their 20s has claimed they received “threatening messages” from a BBC presenter accused of paying a teen thousands for sexually explicit images, reports the AFP.
The individual has told BBC News they were first contacted anonymously by the high-profile male presenter via a dating app. They claim that they were pressured to meet up but declined and were threatened with a number of abusive, expletive-filled messages when they hinted that they might expose the star online.
The BBC said it has seen the messages and confirmed that they came from a phone number belonging to the presenter.
It has also emerged that a second police force was contacted three months ago about claims involving a BBC presenter but concluded there was no criminality, The London Times reports.
BBC chief Tim Davie on Tuesday insisted on allowing the presenter to remain anonymous, despite mounting calls for his identity to be revealed.
The accusations fuelled a fifth straight day of fevered front-page headlines in the British media, with the publicly funded BBC also leading its own news bulletins with the story.
Australia’s first weatherman Alan Wilkie dies aged 94
Distinguished Australian meteorologist and television presenter Alan Wilkie has died at the age of 94, less than two months after his fellow former weatherman brother Ray Wilkie, reports News Corp’s Chantelle Francis.
Wilkie “passed away peacefully” on Monday night surrounded by his three children, Andrew, Katrina and Michelle, according to Nine News.
He presented the weather on that network for more than 25 years.
Wilkie became Australia’s first weather presenter on the ABC in the 1950s.
He reflected on his first appearance on television in an interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly in 1977, where he explained he only went for the job because his current employer, the Bureau of Meteorology, insisted.
“It was in the very first week of television and I nearly died. I was so frightened. I don’t remember a single thing I said, but it must have been all right,” he said.
Disney explores strategic options for India business
Disney is exploring strategic options for its Star India business, including a joint venture or a sale, a sign of strain at one of the premier properties it acquired from Fox, report The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel, Joe Flint, and Lauren Thomas.
The company has talked to at least one bank about ways to help the India business grow, while sharing some of the costs, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are in the early stages and it is unclear which options, if any, Disney might pursue.
Disney and many of its rivals are in the throes of a costly pivot toward streaming and away from traditional TV businesses. Toward that effort, they spent heavily on deals, content and technology at home and abroad, with mixed success.
Disney paid $71.3 billion in 2019 for entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox. At the time, Star India was considered one of Fox’s crown jewels, and it was an important part of Disney’s plan to build out its fledgling streaming business globally.
The deal gave Disney the broadcast and streaming rights for increasingly popular Indian Premier League cricket matches as well as dozens of TV channels in several languages and a stake in a production company that makes Bollywood movies. Star’s Hotstar mobile-first streaming service, which at the time offered most of its content free, had 150 million monthly active users and was growing rapidly, largely because of the popular cricket rights.
Social Media
Suspended from Twitter, the account tracking Elon Musk’s jet has landed on Threads
The account suspended from Twitter last year for tracking the movements of Elon Musk‘s private jet has landed on a rival social media app: Threads, reports NPR’s Joe Hernandez.
“Elon Musk’s Jet” made its first post to the new site last week, with owner Jack Sweeney writing: “ElonJet has arrived to Threads!”
An offshoot of Instagram, Threads debuted on Wednesday and allows users to post text. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Friday that the app already had 70 million new sign-ups.
Sweeney, a Florida college student, gained notoriety for the Twitter account that posted public transponder information from Musk’s private plane, showing where it took off and landed.
After Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last year, the billionaire CEO said he would allow the account to remain on the site in the spirit of free speech but later backtracked and suspended it.
Why the early success of Threads may crash into reality
A big tech company with billions of users introduces a new social network. Leveraging the popularity and scale of its existing products, the company intends to make the new social platform a success. In doing so, it also plans to squash a leading competitor’s app, reports The New York Times’ Mike Isaac.
If this sounds like Instagram’s new Threads app and its push against its rival Twitter, think again. The year was 2011 and Google had just rolled out a social network called Google+, which was aimed as its “Facebook killer.” Google thrust the new site in front of many of its users who relied on its search and other products, expanding Google+ to more than 90 million users within the first year.
But by 2018, Google+ was relegated to the ash heap of history. Despite the internet search giant’s enormous audience, its social network failed to catch on as people continued flocking to Facebook — and later to Instagram and other social apps.
In the history of Silicon Valley, big tech companies have often become even bigger tech companies by using their scale as a built-in advantage. But as Google+ shows, bigness alone is no guarantee of winning the fickle and faddish social media market.
See Also: Inside Threads: How media companies have latched on to Meta’s Twitter competitor
See Also: With 10 million sign-ups in seven hours, what does Threads mean for advertisers and creators?
Radio
Cost of Kyle Sandilands’ honeymoon revealed on-air
Kyle Sandilands copped a grilling from co-host Jackie O about the eye-watering cost of his recent European honeymoon, reports News Corp’s Nick Bond.
Sandilands and new wife Tegan Kynaston recently enjoyed a lavish three-week honeymoon in the south of France and Spain – but they weren’t alone for the trip, bringing everyone from their baby son Otto, to his nanny, to multiple employees of The Kyle and Jackie O Show along for the ride.
As Jackie O revealed today as she went through the final itemised spending list for the holiday, the costs were astronomical. As it turns out, recent media reports that it had been a “$100,000 honeymoon” were way off.
Costs included $35,000 for first class return flights to Europe for he and Tegan, $12,000 for car rental and an astronomical $25,000 for “ground transfers”.
“You know why? We had a driver on standby for the entire (holiday) in case someone wanted to go somewhere,” Sandilands revealed. “That’s annoyed me now, I didn’t realise it was going to be so much.”
Jackie finished by revealing the total cost of this three-week honeymoon: a staggering $513,430.
Television
Peter Overton addresses rumours Tom Cruise banned him from Mission Impossible premiere after controversial interview
Nine Network journalist Peter Overton has come out in defence of Tom Cruise, hailing both his skills as an actor and his role in reviving cinema, reports Variety Australia’s Vivienne Kelly.
The endorsement of the Hollywood icon comes after rumours that Cruise and his team banned Overton from attending the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premiere in Sydney last week and from interviewing Cruise on the red carpet.
The feud reportedly stems from a 2005 60 Minutes interview between the two, in which tensions flare over Overton’s line of questioning about Cruise’s split from Nicole Kidman and how the two will continue to communicate and care for their children.
During the interview, which occasionally resurfaces in the tabloids and social media, Cruise told Overton he was “stepping over the line” and implored him to “take responsibility” for his line of questioning. He also told Overton to “put your manners back in”.
Overton was absent from the film’s premiere this year, which was attended by many other news anchors, entertainment reporters and media identities. His absense has given rise to a rumour that he was ‘banned’ from attending due to his conduct in 2005.
Overton has now spoken about the rumours and conceded that he was not invited.