Business of Media
Rowland hints junk food may follow gambling in Labor’s ad sights
A crackdown on junk food advertising could be next on the Albanese government’s list of industry reforms, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has suggested, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
It comes as the media and entertainment industry reels from a parliamentary inquiry looking at online gambling advertising, as well as a proposal to require streaming platforms make more Australian shows, which would push up costs for local broadcasters.
“We are constantly being made aware of the various changes in community expectations that occur around products and services that can have the capacity to cause harm,” Rowland told The Australian Financial Review.
“We are looking right now at the issue of gambling advertising. It does not negate the importance of these other areas of advertising, which are largely informed and should rightly be informed from a health perspective as well.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton last week sparked concern among TV and betting executives after proposing a ban on betting ads an hour either side of sports games. “Footy time is family time,” he said in his budget reply speech, calling on the government to legislate a ban immediately.
Automotive tech billionaire Austin Russell to acquire majority stake in Forbes
The CEO of an automotive-technology company said he is buying a majority stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values the business media outlet at nearly $800 million, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell.
Austin Russell—the 28-year-old founder of Luminar Technologies, which makes sensors and software used for safety and autonomous-driving features—said he has agreed to buy an 82% stake in Forbes. His purchase includes the remaining portion of the company owned by its namesake family and brings to a close a lengthy sale process.
Russell joins the list of wealthy startup founders who have acquired news-publishing businesses in the last decade, as the media industry faces disruption from large tech platforms and grapples with the transition from print to online publishing.
Forbes’s parent company, Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media Investments, will retain a minority stake in the more than 100-year-old publisher, Russell said in a statement. The company is profitable, according to people familiar with the matter.
Seven’s ‘Stokesfest’ scored late fee waiver from City of Perth
The City of Perth went against its own policy and waived more than $60,000 in fees for Seven West Media to run a major mining conference despite already granting $60,000 to the Kerry Stokes-controlled media business, report Nine Publishing’s Mark Di Stefano and Max Mason.
Seven made a late request asking the council to waive or reduce venue hire fees for parts of its Resources Technology Showcase in inner-city Perth. The waiver was for the WesTrac activation at the event, known colloquially by Perth locals as “Stokesfest”, between March 31 and April 4. It was opened by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
As The Australian Financial Review reported last month, Stokes has unparalleled influence in WA, controlling much of the state’s media and developing a close relationship with WA Premier Mark McGowan. Stokes backed his own Seven employee Basil Zempilas to become Perth Lord Mayor, giving him a powerful ally in local government.
Zempilas is a long-time Seven employee, who still writes columns for The West Australian. Zempilas scaled back his full-time role at the media company in February 2022, but remains on the Seven payroll.
Zempilas left the room for the fee waiver proposal and its approval after disclosing a financial interest in the vote.
News Brands
AI ‘cannot stand for ambiguity, ignorance’, News Corp boss Robert Thomson tells analysts
Generative AI will have profound impacts on the future of journalism but cannot be allowed to become “degenerative AI”, according to News Corp global chief executive Robert Thomson, who has warned of the pitfalls of the nascent technology but says media companies should contribute to its formation, reports The Australian’s David Swan.
Speaking on an analyst and investor call on Friday morning AEST, Thomson said News Corp, publisher of The Australian, should be compensated for its intellectual property that is already being used to train generative AI engines.
“There has been much discussion, some of it enlightened, some not so, about the potential impact of generative AI and there is no doubt that it will profoundly affect the media business – candidly, generative AI may pose a challenge to our intellectual property and to the future of journalism,” Thomson told analysts.
“As those who have experimented with ChatGPT will be aware, the answers are only as insightful and factual as the source material and are more retrospective than contemporary.”
‘He doesn’t understand journalism’: ex-producer’s verdict on BBC director general Tim Davie
The producer who was, until recently, at the heart of the BBC’s political coverage has criticised director general Tim Davie’s failure to “really understand journalism” and lamented fresh threats to the standard of the broadcaster’s current affairs analysis, reports The Guardian’s Vanessa Thorpe.
Rob Burley claims that an element of the BBC’s core purpose, the interrogation of politicians and scrutiny of policy, is now being “pretty much thrown away”.
Speaking to the Observer this weekend Burley, who previously produced the BBC’s live politics output, including The Andrew Marr Show, has attacked the corporation for losing many of its seasoned, heavyweight interviewers and for recent “arrogance” displayed in the public conflict with football presenter Gary Lineker.
“Clearly things have been very badly handled,” said Burley. “They’ve lost a lot of good political presenters. I don’t know if there is much BBC expertise along those lines left in the building. The funding cuts are real and hard decisions have to be made, but Tim Davie doesn’t really understand journalism, in my view, and so has waved through lots of these cuts.
“At the same time, many of those politicians who are crying about the loss of local radio journalists are the same people who pushed for the original BBC funding cuts in parliament.”
Radio
Radio was the ABC’s crown jewel, but new data shows how it has fallen
The ABC has a problem: people aren’t listening to radio, at least not as much as they used to, reports the ABC’s Nick Bonyhady.
Founded as a radio broadcaster and long a dominant force on airwaves across the country, with talent such as Fran Kelly, Red Symons, Adam Spencer, Wendy Harmer and Jon Faine, the ABC’s most popular radio stations have had a generational shift. Now they face an existential crisis.
Like the rest of the industry, the ABC knows it has a problem; working out a solution is another matter altogether. But the national broadcaster, which will get $6 billion in government funding over the next five years to entertain and communicate with Australians on issues they care about, has to try.
Five years of ratings data from the industry’s official measurement provider GfK, obtained by this masthead, shows the scale of the challenge. The most popular radio stations are suffering from historic audience lows, with the flagship breakfast shows in Sydney and Melbourne delivering some of the worst ratings figures in more than five years. The problems aren’t confined to ABC’s metro and regional stations either, with national brands Triple J and Radio National also experiencing steady decline.
Television
Channel Nine axes Snackmasters after just two seasons
Channel Nine has pulled the pin on its family-friendly cooking show Snackmasters after just two seasons and ten episodes, reports The Daily Mail’s Jo Scrimshire.
Snackmasters, based on a British format of the same name, tasked skilled chefs with recreating the taste of Australia’s most-loved snacks.
The chefs went head-to-head to replicate the famous Hungry Jack’s Whopper, Cadbury Cherry Ripe, Cheese Twisties, Tim Tams and more.
The series was co-hosted by restaurateur Scott Pickett and MasterChef alum Poh Ling Yeow, with Gogglebox star Yvie Jones presenting segments from food factories explaining how the nation’s favourite snacks are made.
‘Snackmasters isn’t in the schedule for 2023,’ Nine said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
John Cleese makes surprising admission about the rebooted series of Fawlty Towers
John Cleese has admitted the new series of Fawlty Towers “won’t be as good as the original” in a surprising confession on Aussie TV, reports News Corp’s Tammy Hughes.
The legendary actor is rebooting the much-loved TV show with his daughter Camilla Cleese.
The plot will focus on his relationship with his daughter as the pair manage a boutique hotel.
But speaking on The Project on Friday, Cleese made a stark confession about the new show.
“I resisted (making a new Fawlty Towers) for 40 years and suddenly I saw how you could do it, which is to get away completely from the old series,” he said.
“I was setting it perhaps the Caribbean, a sort of holiday hotel, a rather exclusive one.
“I mean it won’t be as funny as the original because that’s the best I could do.
“But (it will) still be funnier than a lot of stuff out there.”
Sports Media
Fox Sports presenter Paul Kent arrested, charged with assault
Police have charged rugby league journalist Paul Kent with assault after he was allegedly involved in an altercation with a woman at his home in Sydney’s inner west, reports Nine Publishing’s Angus Dalton.
See Also: Foxtel reportedly pulls NRL 360 back catalogue after Paul Kent arrest
Kent, 53, is a rugby league journalist for The Daily Telegraph and a presenter at Fox Sports.
Police were called to Kent’s Lilyfield residence about 10.30am on Friday following reports of a domestic dispute.
Police allege Kent and the 33-year-old woman had an argument before he assaulted her.
Officers from Leichhardt Police Area Command spoke to Kent and the woman, who are known to each other, about the incident and arrested both of them.
Kent was taken to Surry Hills Police Station and charged with common assault and choking a person without consent.
The woman was taken to Newtown Police Station and released without charge.
Kent is a senior writer for The Daily Telegraph and is the co-host of the Fox Sports show NRL 360.
News Corp said in a statement that Kent will temporarily cease writing for The Daily Telegraph and won’t appear on air for Fox in the coming weeks.