Media suspend regular Fridays for coverage of Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022
Coverage of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has dominated media coverage across the world since news broke overnight of her death.
Concerns about her health were being reported late Thursday Australian time ahead of an official statement from Buckingham Palace around 3.30am AEST Friday.
Major Australian media outlets hastily rolled out their plans for coverage of the monarch’s reign with obituaries, tributes and reaction filling TV, radio and website home pages.
The major Australian TV networks all went to air with live coverage from early today.
Advertising was suspended as Sunrise and Today both broadcast wall-to-wall coverage with correspondents and contributors live from London.
The hosts of the major breakfast shows – Natalie Barr and David Koch plus Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Miler and Michael Rowland – were dressed in black as a mark of respect.
Guests across the breakfast shows included former British Prime Minister John Major who spoke to the ABC on TV just after 7am.
Sunrise reported the longest-serving British monarch “died peacefully” at the age of 96, with the Crown now passing to her eldest son and heir, Charles, formerly Prince of Wales. He will now be known as King Charles III.
The 73-year-old new King and Camilla, Queen Consort were at his mother’s bedside, on her Balmoral Estate, along with his siblings Anne, Princess Royal; Andrew, Duke of York; and Edward, Earl of Wessex.
Sunrise added Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Cornwall joined his brother Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex as the Royal Family rushed to farewell their beloved ‘Granny’; while their respective wives, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, kept vigil from the Royal Windsor Estate, near London.
Emblematic of her pledge to devote her life to serving the people of the British empire and Commonwealth, the Queen – while looking frail – carried out her final duty as sovereign two days ago – farewelling outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and greeting his successor, the 15the Prime Minister under Her Majesty’s reign, Liz Truss.
Sunrise hosts Natalie Barr and David Koch hosted live crosses to UK and European correspondents Hugh Whitfeld and Sarah Greenhalgh; and an expert guest list included royal editor Robert Jobson, royal commentator Victoria Arbiter, royal correspondent, Emily Andrews, ITV News royal editor, Chris Ship and Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers.
The news missed the print editions of Friday newspapers, but expect bumper coverage in the weekend editions of all newspapers.
Australia’s major magazines will also be triggering plans for special tribute editions which should start going on sale in the next few days.
Business of Media
Google’s ‘News Showcase’ stalls in US as media outlets balk at terms
A Google product that pays publishers to feature their content is almost a year behind its intended launch schedule in the US, as negotiations with some media outlets have bogged down, people familiar with the situation said, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Google News Showcase allows publishers to curate panels of related stories that appear on Google News and some other Google platforms. Links bring readers to news organisations’ websites and, in some cases, allow users free access to normally paywalled content.
Google in February 2021 announced a multiyear deal with News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal, that included Showcase and other elements. The media company said the deal and other tech tie-ups would generate a combined annual revenue of more than $US100m.
Other news organisations entertained deals with Google but couldn’t come to terms. Gannett Co. which owns USA Today and hundreds of local newspapers, in early negotiations with Google rebuffed an offer of more than $US6m a year as part of a multiyear deal, according to people close to the discussions. Instead, the company asked for payments of around $US300m annually.
Queensland secures major new movie production worth $7.7m and 270 jobs
Queensland will host Australian acting A-listers Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth with war epic Land of the Bad to film on the Gold Coast this month, reports The Courier-Mail’s Amy Price.
The latest filming coup for the state will unite Hemsworth on screen with his actor brother Luke and comes after the homegrown stars encouraged American producers to look to Australia as a location.
Also starring Daniel MacPherson and Milo Ventimiglia, the production was secured for Queensland through a $3.9 million cash injection from the Federal Government’s Location Incentive. Screen Queensland added further support through its Production Attraction Strategy.
It will inject $7.7 million into the local economy and create 270 jobs for local cast, crew and extras.
Television
Succession’s Brian Cox on the Murdochs, Logan Roy and playing evil men
From Logan Roy to Hannibal Lecter to Hermann Goering, actor Brian Cox has spent much of his six-decade career inside the skin of evil men. The cruel patriarch. The murderer. The war criminal, reports The Age’s Meg Watson.
“I’m an optimist,” Cox, softly spoken and slightly jet-lagged, tells The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “I mean, there’s a part of me that is rather disappointed with the human experiment. But there’s also a part of me that believes it will get better. I believe in the common good. I actually believe that people are fundamentally good.”
Though Logan Roy is a fictional creation, the Succession writers have taken inspiration for the character from men like Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch.
“I don’t know enough about [Rupert] Murdoch’s personal background, but I suspect that there’s something in that which made him who he is,” Cox says. “You can see there is something quite sad about him, there’s something quite locked within him.
“He’s driven. And he’s driven because, as a young man, he obviously wanted to prove something in relationship to his family. I think it always comes down to family.”
[Read more]
Brian Cox was a guest on ABC’s Q+A last night. Watch the episode on iview.
How was the Paramount+ hit series The Bridge produced?
On Friday viewers of The Bridge will learn if one of the reality contestants in the new Paramount+ series will cross a 330m of water to claim what is remaining of a $250,000 cash prize, reports TV Tonight.
And if they do, will they keep it for themselves or share it with their fellow cast?
Filming for the Endemol Shine series took place at Lake Pieman near Strahan in western Tasmania.
Paramount ANZ Executive Producer Sarah Thornton said, “It’s a privately owned property. It is a reservoir that goes up and down, based on what Tasmania’s water board are doing. So it really changes the way it feels to be honest with you.
“It’s full of Tasmanian timber. All those logs that are sticking out of the water…
“All there was the reservoir and some logs. Endemol Shine built that incredible cabin, the sleeping quarters and those really difficult pulleys that take you across to the build area. Obviously the beacon was brought in to put on the island. It was a pretty difficult task to find the right geography and also a place that genuinely had that sense of isolation.”