Business of Media
Meta soars by most in decade, adding $100 billion in value
Meta’s stock surged on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected earnings, said it would buy back billions of dollars in its stock, and overcame a court challenge to its ambitions in the so-called metaverse, report The New York Times’ Isabella Simonetti and Mike Isaac.
Shares of the tech giant, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, climbed more than 24 percent, which would be its biggest daily gain in nearly 10 years. And it is a huge move for a company its size, adding some $100 billion in market value in a single day, or about as much as Citigroup’s entire market capitalization.
After ending last year with a loss of more than 60 percent, Meta’s stock is up more than 50 percent this year, as the mood among tech investors has brightened. The Nasdaq Composite, an index that includes many tech companies, including Meta, has risen nearly 20 percent this year.
Netflix accidentally posts guidelines for cracking down on password sharing
Netflix has mistakenly launched a set of guidelines for cracking down on password sharing to global users, reports The Guardian’s Dan Milmo.
The streaming service said the guidelines being trialled in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica had been posted accidentally across its help centre pages including in the US on Wednesday, but had since been taken down.
“For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries. We have since updated it.”
Since last year Netflix has been trialling “paid sharing” in the three countries where an account holder pays for an extra person, located outside the account holder’s home, to access the service. In Costa Rica the fee is $2.99 a month.
To ensure that a Netflix account is not being shared outside of the household where it is registered, the trial requires users to connect their viewing device – such as a TV, mobile phone or tablet – to the wifi in their home, open the Netflix app and watch something on the streaming service at least once every 31 days.
News Brands
More than 1000 ABC staff file for ‘circuit breaker’ strike action
More than 1000 employees at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have taken a step towards a national strike, with their unions asking the Fair Work Commission to petition members after negotiations with management stalled, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Union members gathered on Wednesday in Sydney’s Ultimo headquarters, as well as in offices in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and the ABC’s regional bureaus, and agreed it would be necessary to file with the FWC. The ABC has offered a 3.5 per cent pay rise in 2022, 3 per cent in 2023 and 2.5 per cent in 2024, with employees paid back pay if agreed.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) have asked for a 6 per cent annual pay rise, 15.4 per cent in superannuation, as well as more flexible work arrangements.
The CPSU and MEAA both filed their claims with the FWC on Thursday.
Guardian Australia staff details compromised in cyberattack
Personal information including addresses and salary information on 140 current and former Australian staff of multinational media outlet The Guardian may have been accessed by hackers in the crippling cyberattack that hit the company late last year, reports Nine Publishing’s Nick Bonyhady.
Its local leaders had told employees in a mid-January internal email that “we don’t currently believe there is a risk to Australian staff” but cautioned that its technical teams were continuing to investigate the breach.
On Thursday The Guardian’s Australian managing director Dan Stinton and editor Lenore Taylor emailed local staff to say 140 people employed between February 2017 and May 2019 had their details affected. Tax file numbers, bank account details, superannuation information, salaries and addresses were among the staff details potentially compromised.
Stinton and Taylor told staff in an email seen by this masthead that key Guardian servers were corrupted in the hack, preventing access to information that showed what the hackers had accessed until they were rebuilt.
Radio
2GB’s Ray Hadley comments on Nine airing interviews with cop killers’ daughter Madelyn Train
Nine Entertainment’s most high-profile radio broadcaster has taken aim at his employer over airing multiple interviews with the daughter of the cop killers who murdered two officers and their neighbour in Queensland’s worst police shooting, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
2GB’s mornings radio host, Ray Hadley, hit out at the media company for airing several interviews with Madelyn Train, whose parents Stacey and Nathaniel Train and stepfather/uncle Gary Train gunned down two police officers, Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, and neighbour Alan Dare at their Wieambilla property in Queensland’s western downs region on December 12.
Hadley pleaded with Nine’s director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, to stop the airing of the content which he said was offensive to the officers and neighbour killed in the shooting.
On Thursday Hadley said he had been contacted by Queensland Police who were “furious” the network had allowed the woman to be interviewed.
“I’ve been contacted by Queensland Police, they tell me they are stunned and perplexed as to why Channel Nine keeps giving a platform to people associated with the killers of two police officers and an innocent man, a neighbour,” he said.
“Why is this young woman, obviously grieving the loss of her mother, her father and stepfather/uncle, why has she appeared on Nine News twice and on A Current Affair last night?”
Television
Erin Molan will return to Sky News show on Friday after dad’s death
Erin Molan has spoken for the first time since farewelling her beloved father, the late senator and army general, Jim Molan, reports News Corp.
The broadcaster, who returns to present her Sky News program on Friday, said the past few weeks had been hard for her and her family.
Senator Molan’s funeral was held at Duntroon on January 25.
“(We’ve had) many incredible messages and emails and so much support,” she told Sky colleague Paul Murray on his show on Thursday.
“I haven’t read an article, I haven’t really been able to look at anything.”
Amanda Keller reveals why Chris Brown is leaving Channel 10
Amanda Keller has revealed why she thinks Dr. Chris Brown quit Channel 10, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
The Australian vet turned TV presenter was poached by rival network Seven, with news breaking overnight he’s set to finish up at 10 after the next season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
News.com.au understands Brown will be on a two-year contract with Seven, believed to be worth more than $1 million a year.
And now Keller, who co-starred with Brown on 10’s The Living Room before the award-winning program was “rested” for 2023, said the network’s unwillingness to renew the lifestyle show for this year was a “risk”.
In October, Keller had revealed the cast was “sad” to be taking a break from the show, and that it was a network decision to temporarily halt filming.
“I said at the time, this is the risk you take as a network. None of us are on contracts, they haven’t rested the show and retained us on contract,” Keller said today on WSFM’s Jonesy & Amanda.
Keller said Brown was “looking for” more opportunities because his co-hosting role on 10’s I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! only kept him busy for a few short weeks a year.
“So as Chris said, ‘I’m working one month a year on television’,” Keller said.
“In terms of television, he’s doing I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, which pretty much goes for a month, and then he has 11 months where he’s looking for a TV project.
“Why would Chris not jump somewhere where he’s offered a variety of work for a year?”
See Also: Dr Chris Brown jumps ship from 10 to Seven in TV shakeup