Business of Media
Labor throws more than $1m at metro TV ads
Labor has spent more than $1 million on TV advertising in metropolitan markets since the federal election was called, compared with barely half a million by the Liberal Party, reports AFR’s Miranda Ward.
Between April 10 and April 23, Labor outlaid $1.86 million on advertising, made up of $1.3 million on metro TV ads, $174,983 on regional television and $302,459 on social media, according to Nielsen Ad Intel.
The Liberal Party spent $683,832 in the same period, comprising $484,454 on metro TV, $74,551 on regional television and $42,881 on social media. The National Party spent $11,733 on regional TV ads.
Record 28 countries rated ‘very bad’ in press freedom index
A record 28 countries are rated “very bad” places for journalism in the World Press Freedom Index, which warns that autocratic regimes are increasingly willing to crack down on independent media outlets, reports The Guardian’s Jim Waterson.
Billions of people in countries including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan struggle to access journalism produced without intervention from politicians, with reporters in these places often facing threats to their wellbeing.
The annual press freedom list, produced by the campaign group Reporters Without Borders, surveys the state of the media in 180 countries and territories. It blames “globalised and unregulated online information space that encourages fake news and propaganda” for the worsening situation in many countries.
‘New peak in culture wars’: global media react to Roe v Wade leak
The prospect of the US supreme court overturning Roe v Wade has dominated front pages across the world, with the global media reporting in detail on one of the most polarising issues in American politics, reports The Guardian’s Amelia Hill.
The Washington Post leads on concerns that overthrowing the legislation represents a threat to abortion rights for women everywhere. The newspaper quotes leaders from across the world in support of the 1973 ruling, including comments from the French senator Julien Bargeton that it would be “a terrible regression for American women” and that “progressives around the world must mobilise”.
Le Monde reports that the 98-page draft decision is “very striking in its unreserved and nuanced condemnation, never before formulated in these terms, of the entire legal architecture that has contributed to making abortion a constitutional right”.
TV host Andrew O’Keefe warned by magistrate after explosion in court
One-time Australian TV game show king Andrew O’Keefe screamed at a magistrate, claiming he had “no interest in justice” and was threatened with contempt of court after he was again denied bail, reports News Corp’s Lauren Ferri.
The 50-year-old appeared visibly distressed and frustrated as he faced Sydney’s Central Local Court on Wednesday afternoon via AVL from Dawn de Loas Correctional Centre.
O’Keefe was hit with six charges in January after police alleged that he grabbed a woman by the throat, punched her and pushed her to the ground.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, including intentionally choking a person without consent, three counts of common assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Agencies
Verve appoints Rikki Pearce as managing director
Verve has appointed Rikki Pearce as managing director of Verve Australia and lead of new ‘Global Advanced Quant & Analytics’ practice.
Pearce will work alongside Dan Alexander-Head, head of global innovation, and Jason Buchanan, managing director – Verve Collaborations, to form the core management team.
Pearce’s consulting background and recent experience at Qantas and News Corp, combined with advanced degrees in statistics, uniquely positions her to also lead the Australian business and develop a new Global Advanced Quantitative and Analytics practice for Verve.
Part of her new role is bringing Advanced Quant and Analytics to the proposition to create truly integrative insight.
News Brands
New York Times reaches 9.1 million subscribers
Aided by the recent addition of the sports website The Athletic, The New York Times Company said on Wednesday that it had added 387,000 net digital subscribers in the first quarter, reports the New York Times’ Katie Robertson.
The company now has 9.1 million subscribers, it said, when including those from The Athletic, which the Times Company bought on Feb. 1.
While the jump gets The Times closer to its stated goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027, The Athletic is eating into the company’s profits. The website, which The Times bought for $550 million in cash, lost $6.8 million over February and March.
Radio
Triple M radio management respond to Anthony Maroon’s on-air blow up
Triple M management said it is dealing with the issue internally after an explosive walk out on one of its top weekend radio shows, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
Parent company Southern Cross Austereo took nearly 24 hours to respond after being contacted by The Daily Telegraph over the incident, which took place on Sunday as veteran broadcaster Anthony Maroon stormed out of the studio.
“On Sunday 1 May, during Triple M’s NRL broadcast, the on air team Anthony Maroon, Gordon Tallis, Paul Kent, and James Hooper had a disagreement which led to Maroon leaving the broadcast,” a brief response read.
“SCA is managing the issue internally.”
Television
Nine Entertainment CEO Mike Sneesby expects growth in streaming service Stan to slow
Nine Entertainment chief executive Mike Sneesby has conceded its streaming service Stan faces challenging times ahead and it’s likely to see “a flattening off post Covid” to its subscriber numbers, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
Speaking at the annual Macquarie conference on Wednesday, Sneesby said the TV ad market remained strong but streaming would likely experience slower growth, noting that this follows on from the recent fall of 200,000 Netflix subscribers in the first quarter of this year.
“A flattening off post Covid is certainly something that we’ve had a great run up and certainly something that we are expecting,” he said. “I expect to see us continue to grow, probably a bit more subdued than the earlier growth phases of the business.”
Election 2022: Leaders forced to wait their debate turn behind Lego
For all the recent argy-bargy about the hosting duties of the final two televised debates between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese, neither of the successful media bidders – Nine and Seven – are expecting the political sparring sessions to deliver ratings gold, reports News Corp’s James Madden.
Both debates have been ruthlessly shunted to later-than-usual timeslots, with the leaders’ face-off on Nine to air from 8.45pm on Sunday, while the Seven event will screen at 9.10pm next Wednesday.
Clearly, the ratings number crunchers at the Nine and Seven networks have deemed Morrison and Albanese to be no match in the popularity stakes for LEGO Masters and Big Brother, which will be the 7.30pm lead-in shows to the respective debates.
Piers Morgan ratings dive as talkTV struggles to attract viewers
Rupert Murdoch’s talkTV television channel has been rated as having “zero viewers” during primetime broadcasts, as the new UK television channel struggles to attract an audience despite signing up Piers Morgan as a presenter, reports The Guardian’s Jim Waterson.
The News Desk, the channel’s hour-long political show hosted by Tom Newton Dunn, did not register a single viewer for half of its Tuesday evening broadcast. Although this does not rule out the possibility that some people were watching somewhere in the UK, it means the television audience was so small that it was not picked up by official rating agency, the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board.
The audience for Morgan’s flagship 8pm evening show also collapsed from an average of 317,000 viewers on its launch night to 62,000 viewers a week later – a fall of 80%.
Bluey will not be cancelled despite reports
Award-winning children’s show Bluey will not be cancelled after three seasons despite reports from an inside source at the show’s Brisbane production studio that claimed otherwise, reports news.com.au.
Launched in 2018 on the ABC in Australia, Bluey captured the hearts of millions, cleaning up a number of overseas accolades and attracting A-lister talents like Natalie Portman for speaking roles.
According to a report, the young actor, whose identity has been kept anonymous, has had her voice mature, leaving producers with the uneasy decision to either re-cast the role or end the show.
This year, networks put forward their own Gold Logie nominees
Major changes to Logie Award nominations are proceeding this year, after a 2 year break, reports TV Tonight.
TV Week originally flagged changes prior to the pandemic following feedback from the industry and media articles that questioned whether some nominees were worthy.
Since that time events company Rizer has taken charge of managing the event and fine-tuned those plans.
Sports Media
Seven West Media CEO James Warburton eyes extension of AFL TV rights
Seven West Media chief executive James Warburton says the network is well-placed to extend its lucrative TV rights deal with the AFL, after announcing a further upgrade in trading expectations on Wednesday, report News Corp’s James Madden and Sophie Elsworth.
In a presentation at the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney, Warburton said Seven’s improved earnings outlook was the result of a strong post-Covid bounce-back in TV advertising, the acquisition of the Prime Media Group earlier this year, and the record growth of its broadcast and digital assets, especially BVOD (broadcast video on demand) streaming service 7plus.
Seven has owned free-to-air rights for AFL matches since 2010.
After Wednesday’s conference, Warburton told The Australian: “We have a great relationship with the AFL. We’ve been talking to them for a while.
“We’ve been growing the AFL’s market, particularly in Brisbane and Sydney, and we’re participating in the negotiating process.”