Business of Media
The latest twist in Murdoch’s billion-dollar succession tale
When asked about succession planning, Rupert Murdoch once famously quipped that he planned to “live forever”, reports Nine Publishing’s Camilla Tominey.
And his announcement that he asked his new girlfriend, Ann-Lesley Smith, 66, to become his fifth wife suggests he still believes age is just a number – even at 92.
In an interview with one of his own publications – the New York Post – Murdoch revealed he popped the question to Smith, 66, with an Asscher-cut diamond solitaire ring, which he ‘personally selected’ in a St Patrick’s Day proposal in New York City. He joked, “I’m one-fourth Irish.”
The romance has certainly been a whirlwind. They met just six months ago and it’s less than a year since his divorce from his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, was finalised.
A former dental hygienist, model and radio presenter, Ann-Lesley Smith is the widow of US country music star Chester Smith, while Murdoch is a father of six and grandfather of 13 who still appears young at heart.
Earlier this year, in January, pictures were released of the couple in Barbados, while it was revealed that a controversial $US27 billion plan ($40 billion) was under way to reunite the two halves of Murdoch’s empire – Fox and News Corp – and planning for the future of the company was amped up. What exactly is the message he is trying to send?
TikTok now has more than 150M U.S. users
As its CEO prepares to face Congress this week, TikTok on Tuesday disclosed that it now has more than 150 million monthly active users in the U.S., up from 100 million a year ago, reports the Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin.
Its explosive growth for the social video platform (Snapchat, with a years-long head start, says it has about 150 million users in North America) comes as it faces an existential threat, with Congress and the Biden administration appearing open to an outright ban of TikTok in the U.S., or perhaps a forced sale.
To that end, TikTok’s newsroom post on Tuesday focused on the people and businesses that use the platform, in an effort to shoe up some grassroots support, and to emphasize that a ban would impact regular people.
The company notes that it now reaches nearly half the population, and that 5 million businesses rely on it as a partner. And of course there’s the 7,000 TikTok employees in the U.S.
Google begins opening access to its ChatGPT competitor Bard
Alphabet Inc’s Google on Tuesday began the public release of its chatbot Bard, seeking users and feedback to gain ground on Microsoft Corp in a fast-moving race on artificial intelligence technology, reports Reuters’ Jeffrey Dastin.
Starting in the U.S. and UK, consumers can join a waiting list for English-language access to Bard, a program previously open to approved testers only. Google describes Bard as an experiment allowing collaboration with generative AI, technology that relies on past data to create rather than identify content.
The release last year of ChatGPT, a chatbot from the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, has caused a sprint in the technology sector to put AI into more users’ hands. The hope is to reshape how people work and win business in the process.
Just last week, Google and Microsoft made a flurry of announcements on AI, two days apart. The companies are putting draft-writing technology into their word processors and other collaboration software, as well as marketing related tools for web developers to build their own AI-based applications.
News Brands
ABC staff cancel strike after winning pay rise, but some rankled by ‘disrespect’
More than 1000 ABC staff have cancelled plans to strike on Wednesday after reaching an agreement with management over workplace conditions, but hundreds of employees will still walk off the job to express their anger at the national broadcaster’s tumultuous negotiating process, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
Members of the two unions representing ABC staff – the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) – had filed notice to walk off the job for two hours on Wednesday in an attempt to pressure management into improving the career progression of junior journalists and to resolve longstanding issues with pay.
The MEAA on Tuesday said it had decided to cancel the plans to strike after receiving a commitment from ABC’s management that they will be involved in the legal drafting of a new workplace agreement.
However, CPSU members will proceed with the action, with Sinddy Ealy, the CPSU’s ABC section secretary, saying ABC’s management needed to be shown how angry its members were with the negotiation process.
See Also: ABC employees Tweet #DontDiscountABC as protest plans are postponed
Fox News v Dominion: $1.6bn defamation fight heads to court
Lawyers for Fox News and the voting equipment company Dominion faced off in a Delaware courtroom on Tuesday in the latest phase of Dominion’s closely watched $1.6bn defamation suit against the media company for spreading election lies, reports the Guardian’s Sam Levine.
The case has attracted much attention because it represents one of the most aggressive efforts to hold any party accountable for spreading election misinformation in the United States, when Donald Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. His lies included baseless conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines.
Court filings leading up to the hearing have produced stunning internal messages showing that prominent Fox hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, privately doubted the far-fetched allegations about Dominion even as the network continued to air them.
Both sides will be making their case to Eric Davis, a Delaware superior court judge overseeing the case, to rule in their favor ahead of a trial. Whatever Davis rules after Tuesday’s hearing, in what is called a summary judgment, will set the scope of a trial scheduled in mid-April, though the parties could reach a settlement before then.
Television
Stephen Fry to host Jeopardy for Nine
TV Tonight can reveal Stephen Fry is set to host a new version of Jeopardy for the Nine network -but with a twist.
The quiz will be filmed in the UK with Australian expat contestants.
Nine is planning 6 specials -not a full series- with Fry as host, to screen in 2023 or possibly 2024.
Filming will take place in Manchester in May produced by Whisper North Limited.
Aussie applicants must be aged at least 18 years of age, and a current legal resident in the United Kingdom. Entries close May 12th 2023.
The former QI host is also to fronting a daytime edition of the show for ITV, but Nine will screen a specially-produced version for Australian viewers.
It saved lives 10 years ago and now RPA is back on TV
UK-born actor James Flynn, 71, is no stranger to hospitals and cameras. During the 1980s, he played a doctor in the BBC soap opera Angels. Now, he’s making a return to medical drama, but this time as a real-life patient in Channel Nine’s reboot of its hospital observational series RPA, reports Nine Publishing’s Bridget McManus.
Having undergone surgery to clamp three aneurysms in his brain, Flynn is looking forward to watching the operation on television.
“I can’t bring myself to be fearful of it,” says Flynn. “I’m more amazed at the technology. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a shame they have to knock me out,’ because there are some brain operations where you can watch on a monitor while they do it, but unfortunately, mine’s not one of them. Now I will have the opportunity to see inside my own head.”
Filmed at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and narrated by Rodger Corser, the series, which originally ran from 1995-2012, enters a new era of medicine, in which surgeons can operate via robots, perform minimally invasive heart surgery and conduct 24/7 clot retrieval procedures for stroke sufferers.
Along with Flynn, the first episode features a 43-year-old mother of three from regional NSW with recurring bone cancer in her thigh; and a 17-year-old rugby player presenting to the emergency department with a broken elbow.
Sports Media
Navratilova says she is cancer-free, returns to her TV work
Martina Navratilova returned to TV work at Tennis Channel for its coverage of the Miami Open on Tuesday, less than three months after saying she had throat cancer and breast cancer, reports AP.
“It’s great to be back … Thrilled to be here,” said the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. “So happy to be working. How many people can say that?”
The 66-year-old Navratilova said her sense of taste disappeared during the treatment for cancer and she lost 15 pounds. She did not appear on television during the Australian Open in January or the BNP Paribas Open this month.
“It puts you face-to-face with your mortality, No.1, because at the beginning, I wasn’t sure if it was treatable, so that was hard,” she said. “But once I got into the program, it was a little easier emotionally, but more difficult physically… But I’m still standing.”