Business of Media
Call to ban Chinese Communist Party from press club
NSW Liberal senator Jim Molan has written to the National Press Club to ask it “revoke all future speaking invitations to representatives of the Chinese Communist regime” and lashed out at Beijing’s “evil, immoral and illegal expansionist agenda,” reports News Corp’s Joe Kelly and Jess Malcolm.
Senator Molan published the letter on social media on Thursday, with National Press Club chief executive Maurice Reilly telling The Australian a speaking invitation had also been extended to a representative of Taiwan as well as the new US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy.
“We have invited the American ambassador and we have invited the Taiwanese representative,” Reilly said. “I have seen Jim Molan’s letter and I welcome his right to free speech.
“I would probably note that a similar opportunity won’t be given to our ambassador in China and that’s what highlights one of the virtues of a liberal democracy. And the press gallery and the board of the National Press Club are committed to press freedom.”
Twitter reintroduces election misinformation rules ahead of U.S. midterms
Twitter will revive features on the social media site to promote accurate information about the November U.S. midterm election and clamp down on false and misleading posts, the company said in a blog post on Thursday, reports Reuters’ Sheila Dang.
Civil rights and online misinformation experts have accused social media and tech platforms of not doing enough to prevent the spread of misinformation, including the idea that President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.
Twitter will apply its civic integrity policy, introduced in 2018, to the Nov. 8 midterms when all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are at stake and about a third of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate.
The policy prohibits users from posting misleading content intended to dissuade people from voting and claims intended to undermine public confidence in an election, including false information about the outcome of an election.
Paramount+ unveils Italian launch date, European rollout plans
Paramount+ will land in Italy on Sept. 15, Paramount Global confirmed Thursday, as it unveiled details of its new Italian service, one that could prove a major test of the studio’s streaming platform, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Roxborough.
The Italian version of Paramount+ will feature a library of more than 8,000 hours of programming, including original series such as video game adaptation Halo, Sylvester Stallone crime drama Tulsa King and Taylor Sheridan’s highly anticipated Yellowstone prequel. The platform will also have third-party local originals, including new Brit series Sexy Beast, French thriller Mask: Marie Antoinette Serial Killer and German drama Simon Beckett’s Chemistry of Death.
From Italy, Paramount+’s titles will include Cicero, a true-crime drama set in 1970s Italy, from Gomorrah producers Cattleya, made in collaboration with VIS, Paramount+ and RAI Fiction; erotic drama 14 Days, a Paramount+ original from writer-director Ivan Cotroneo; and the thriller Corpo Libero, a co-production between Indigo Film and Network Movie, in co-production with ZDFneo, and in collaboration with Rai Fiction and Paramount+, in association with All3Media International Limited.
Paramount is pricing the Italian service at $8.25 (€7.99) a month or $82.50 (€79.99) annually.
News Brands
ValueAct takes stake in New York Times
Activist investor ValueAct Capital Partners LP has taken a 6.7% stake in New York Times Co. and intends to push the media company to more aggressively market subscriber-only content, report the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Nakrosis and Patience Haggin.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, ValueAct said it has had and expects to have future conversations with executives and directors of New York Times about various issues, including “whether it makes sense for a ValueAct Capital employee to be on the issuer’s board of directors.”
Among ValueAct’s plans for New York Times is convincing more readers to pay for content from new acquisitions such as sports-media company the Athletic, as well as subscriber favorites such as crosswords, games and recipes, a person familiar with the matter said.
Shares of New York Times rose nearly 11% to $35.11. They are down around 27% this year.
Radio
Kyle Sandilands rushes off air mid-show to welcome his son Otto with fiancée Tegan Kynaston
Kyle Sandilands has welcomed his newborn son, Otto, with his fiancée Tegan Kynaston.
The breakfast radio shock jock was on-air broadcasting from home yesterday and about to introduce co-host Jackie O’s news segment when he abruptly announced that he had to leave the show.
“I am broadcasting from home for a reason, and that reason seems to have raised its head now. I think I might have to leave the show and go to the hospital,” he said.
“Oh it’s time,” Jackie gleefully declared as the studio burst into cheers and applause.
Later in the show, Jackie – who is god mother to the newborn – was overcome with emotion as she announced to listeners that Otto had been born.
She said: “Tegan’s really healthy, the baby’s healthy. I’ll read the text, I got this from Kyle’s manager Bruno, ‘little Otto born this morning mum and bub both doing well. Kyle’s beyond excited and he will jump on tomorrow’s show to chat all things Otto’.”
Television
2021 Content Quotas: Soaps deliver, but Kids TV in freefall
Free to Air networks Seven, Nine and 10 have exceeded minimum quotas in local content for 2021 -but Children’s Television has taken a hit after it was removed as a requirement, reports TV Tonight.
During the pandemic the Morrison Government overhauled content requirements introducing ‘flexibility’ for networks to meet 250 annual points through drama (adult and/ or children’s) and documentary -the latter capped at 50 points to prevent Reality TV dominating.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s Commercial Television Compliance report marks the first year under the new system.
Good news – all networks reported transmiting the required 55% Australian programming between 6am and midnight on their primary channels.
More good news – overall Drama is up on the pandemic devastation of 2020. But the bad news – it’s still down on pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
In Children’s Television it’s baaaad news.
How networks decide to overhaul their schedule for tribute
When a name as big as Olivia Newton John, Shane Warne, or Bert Newton passes, how do networks weigh up whether to toss out their schedule and program primetime tributes, asks TV Tonight?
It was early on Tuesday morning when both Nine and Seven faced such decisions following the sad passing of Olivia, adding Grease and a local miniseries, respectively.
That meant holding off previously announced shows such as The Hundred with Andy Lee for Nine, and The Ipcress File for Seven.
On Tuesday, Nine Programming Director Hamish Turner told TV Tonight, “We debated it but I think we kind of got back to the point of, ‘Why is a Free to Air broadcaster there? What does it deliver?’