Business of Media
Seven’s Boral acquisition shines light on truth in takeovers
Seven Group’s share in its $6bn-plus takeover target Boral has moved to 91.19 per cent, as revealed by an Australian Securities Exchange filing on Tuesday, reports The Australian’s Bridget Carter.
The Kerry and Ryan Stokes-controlled Seven can now move to compulsory ownership of the entire business, with a holding of 90 per cent giving it the right to automatically require the remaining shares under takeover law in a deal that values the target at up to $6.95bn.
But while the deal sees the country’s largest building materials provider disappear from the ASX as a stand-alone company, it leaves behind an interesting legal precedent for laws surrounding truth in takeovers.
ABC’s audience reach tipped to fall despite overhaul of its operations
The ABC’s audience is expected to fall as the taxpayer-funded broadcaster transitions its broadcast and digital services into one integrated operation, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
The budget papers say the ABC’s combined weekly audience reach – which has a target of 67 per cent this financial year – is expected to fall to 63 per cent. It is expected to drop again in the 2024-25 financial year to 62 per cent, a result blamed on “softer news web services”.
In the ABC’s five-year plan it states that the broadcaster’s goal “is to be an essential part of everyday life for all Australians through news and entertainment that appears to different ages and audiences”.
US firm Comcast to offer Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ streaming bundle
Comcast is set to launch a streaming bundle combining its Peacock service with Netflix and Apple TV+, as the media and broadband company looks to retain subscribers in the face of stiff competition, reports Reuters.
The new bundle, StreamSaver, will be available to all its broadband, TV and mobile subscribers and at a “vastly reduced price to anything in the market today”, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference on Tuesday.
The tie-up follows a similar one announced last week between Warner Bros Discovery and Walt Disney – to offer a bundle of the Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming services.
Supreme Court throws out WAtoday-Andrew Hastie conspiracy claim
Three years after opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie was dragged into a legal stoush between WAtoday’s owner Nine Entertainment and Perth property developer Greg Poland, a Supreme Court Justice has thrown out the case against him, reports Nine Publishing’s Hamish Hastie.
Poland is suing WAtoday over two articles published in 2019 about his involvement in a plan to dump toxic soil from the Perth Airport Link rail project in Perth’s Peel region and a failed WA Labor bid to nationalise a portion of the rock lobster industry.
Jacqui Lambie sides with networks over anti-siphoning stance
Free to Air networks won an unexpected ally in Senator Jacqui Lambie in their fight over anti-siphoning, reports TV Tonight.
Lambie told the Senate on Tuesday the government’s proposed changes posed a “big problem” and that all Australians had a right to “see what’s free”.
“We’re already seeing this with Amazon buying exclusive rights to the ICC Cricket tournaments including the next Cricket World Cup,” she said.
Television
Shaun Micallef is on the Eve of Destruction
Shaun Micallef’s next television project for ABC is Eve of Destruction. The original format is produced by ITV Studios Australia and Giant Baby, under the same production team as Mad as Hell – but charts a much different path, reports TV Tonight.
“Your house is about to be destroyed, what two things would you save?” Micallef asks.
The format is expected to see Micallef test a celebrity on their prized possessions, one of which will be destroyed, by fire, explosives, or other madcap methods.
The Block NZ axed amid dismal auction profits
The New Zealand version of The Block has been cancelled ahead of its scheduled 11th season, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
The renovation show’s dumping is part of a restructure at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which owns the Three network – broadcast home to The Block.
Four properties had already been bought by the local free-to-air network, with teams also locked in to start filming in Browns Bay, north of Auckland, in coming weeks.
Zendaya for $200? Jeopardy! plans to stream a pop culture spinoff
Jeopardy! has long been ruled primarily by broadcast TV. As a staid, reliable quiz show that had the same host for 36 years, viewers have grown to depend on it at a certain time, on a certain channel, reports The New York Times’ Julia Jacobs.
But on Tuesday, Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, announced a new spinoff — a pop culture edition — that will be streamed only on Prime Video. The spinoff, called Pop Culture Jeopardy!, is part of a yearslong expansion of what the show’s producers have called the Jeopardy!-verse, as they have pushed new spinoffs and tournaments to shake up the brand, while also avoiding any major changes to the main show that might rankle its most devoted fans.
What’s on TV? For many Americans, it’s now YouTube
In the competition for U.S. TV time, YouTube is ascendant, report The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Krouse and David Marcelis.
Nearly 10% of the time Americans spent in front of TV screens last month was on YouTube’s flagship smart-TV app, Nielsen data show, a sign of continued transformation of the platform. Once a repository of amateur videos, the service owned by Alphabet’s Google has grown into a streaming behemoth with full-length films, highly produced series, sports highlights and live events.